#7: The Sprinkles Cupcake ATM

After living in Los Angeles for five years, I'm sure I've used the phrase "only in LA" more than once, as the only way to possibly justify all of the ridiculous things this city has to offer.

"Only in LA can you take a 70s themed fitness class from Richard Simmons."

"Only in LA will you see Leonardo Dicaprio in an Anthropologie." (this made my life)

And truly, only in LA is there an after-hours ATM for cupcakes.

Yes, CUPCAKES.  Because Angeleos have such tough lives that sometimes the only cure is a cupcake fix at any and all hours of the night.

And the cupcake ATM doesn't dispense just any old cupcake... it dispenses LA's boutique cupcake  du'jour, Sprinkles Cupcakes.  One could argue that Sprinkles is single-handedly responsible for the country-wide cupcake craze, and for good reason.  They are really amazingly delicious cupcakes.

Now don't get me wrong, I love me a good cupcake, but I have never quite found myself NEEDING a cupcake after 8pm (especially when there is ample fro-yo available, hello!)  But I am apparently in the minority with that thinking, as there is a line for the Cupcake ATM every single night.  I quickly learned this when my friend Kaio and I popped by the ATM at around 9pm on a Thursday in December to buy myself a novelty cupcake and check this final LA oddity off my bucket list.

I could hardly believe that there was a line, but as we waited ever so patiently while two guys five people ahead of us bought literally a dozen cupcakes (made 12 times worse by the fact that you can only purchase one cupcake at a time), we started conversations with the people in line with us.  Two young girls behind us, the must have been high-school aged, were particularly enlightening.  They both said that they were "like totally addicted" to Sprinkles cupcakes, and they come to the ATM - and wait in line - almost every single night.  They also told us that this long line we were complaining about was actually "like totally short in comparison to most nights."  A dad in front of us with his tween-age daughter told us that they waited in line, in the rain, on the ATM's opening night... FOR THREE HOURS.  I have never felt so out of place in my beloved Los Angeles, except for maybe the time I accidentally stumbled upon Skid Row during dinner time.

So anyway, after about 30 minutes of waiting, Kaio and I finally made it to the front of the line and it was time for me to order my cupcake.  Of course they didn't have the flavor I wanted (lemon, the best cake flavor ever to exist... though it is worth noting that they DO sell doggy cupcakes for your furry friends) so I settled on vanilla, knowing I would be giving it to my mom as an early "thanks for feeding me for a week over the Christmas holiday" gift.  Of course when I swiped my credit card it didn't work, and after four attempts, as I'm breaking out in a sweat knowing there is a huge line of people behind me waiting on the bozo who can't get her credit card to swipe, the in-the-know girls behind me told me to swipe down to up, and it worked.  They obviously had this down.  I selected my vanilla cupcake, and waited with anticipation as I saw the robot ATM arm reach up and grab the box, then ever so gently place it in the recepticle, which then spun around and TA-DA my cupcake was in front of me.  Not to mention that it was (naturally) about half the size of an in-store Sprinkles cupcake, but whatever, here I had a $4 cupcake in a cute little box delivered to me via an Automated Teller.

When I gave it to my mom the next day, I insisted that after ALL the work I put into it, she had to share it with me (I'm a great daughter, I know).  She said it was the best cupcake she'd ever had, and I thought it was pretty delicious too. 

You can see all the boxes of cupcakes behind the cute pink mesh

Who waits in line for a cupcake machine?! I do.

My excitement is barely contained after waiting in line for 30 minutes!

My cupcake is on its way!!