Does MOD Pizza have nugget ice?

What we found

• Aliworld is the customer magazine of Ali Group, which owns ice-machine maker Ice-O-Matic. Its January 2019 issue (Issue 7, pp. 46–48) profiles MOD Pizza and says: "Another key differentiating factor, says Watson, is MOD's chewable ice, produced by an Ice-O-Matic GEM Series Pearl Ice® Machine." It quotes John Watson, then MOD's Director of Facilities: "Our customers have come to expect it, and we get customer feedback on it." (The same magazine's 2017 Captain D's story calls a GEM-series machine a "nugget ice machine.")
• That story comes from the equipment maker's own magazine, not from MOD, and it's from 2019, when the magazine said MOD had more than 390 locations. Since then MOD has shrunk: Nation's Restaurant News (August 2026) says the chain was sold to Elite Restaurant Group in 2024 after closing a significant number of locations and lost another 33 locations in 2025, according to Technomic. MOD's website (home, menu and about pages, checked October 8, 2026) doesn't say what kind of ice it uses, and we found no current company statement. Not every store is individually confirmed.
• Pins are OpenStreetMap restaurants tagged as MOD Pizza in the 26 states MOD's own restaurant directory lists, not a copy of the store locator; MOD's terms forbid scrapers and other automated access. Stores tagged as closed in OpenStreetMap are left out, as is one still mapped in New Jersey, a state MOD no longer lists, and objects mapped twice within 150 meters count once. OpenStreetMap may still have some stores that closed recently. On October 8, 2026 this snapshot has 422 OpenStreetMap pins in 25 states (Texas 77, Washington 71, California 42, Oregon 30, Arizona 28, Colorado 22, Illinois 21, Virginia 18, Pennsylvania 17, Maryland 14, and fewer in 15 other states; none in Nevada yet). Three hundred ninety pins have a street that starts with a house number, 2 have a street with no house number, and 30 have no street in OpenStreetMap; no house number was guessed. RestaurantData's MOD profile (reviewed September 2026) puts MOD at about 440 restaurants in the US and Canada. If a pinned store has closed or doesn't have nugget ice, vote "no longer has it."

422 MOD Pizza locations on the map

Locations from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL). They're widely reported listings, not individually confirmed — the only source is a January 2019 story in Aliworld, the magazine of ice-machine maker Ice-O-Matic's parent Ali Group, which says MOD's chewable ice comes from an Ice-O-Matic Pearl Ice machine. MOD's own website doesn't say what ice it uses, MOD has closed many stores since 2019, and these pins are not every location. MOD's terms forbid scrapers, so pins are OpenStreetMap only and some may be stores that have since closed; if one has, vote “no longer has it”. If one is closed or its machine is out, vote “no longer has it.”

Cities with the most MOD Pizza locations

By state

Sources

1. MOD Pizza Does Well by Doing Good (Aliworld, Issue 7, January 2019, pp. 46–48)

   Ali Group (Aliworld magazine) / Ice-O-Matic · 2019-01 · Equipment-maker case study

   Another key differentiating factor, says Watson, is MOD's chewable ice, produced by an Ice-O-Matic GEM Series Pearl Ice® Machine. "Our customers have come to expect it, and we get customer feedback on it."

2. Starbucks, Mod Pizza, and the potential for a SaaSpocalypse (background: closures; not about ice)

   Nation's Restaurant News · 2026-08-24 · Press

   In 2024, the chain sold to Elite Restaurant Group after closing a significant number of locations. In 2025, it shed nearly 11% of sales and another 33 locations, according to Technomic.

3. MOD Pizza company profile (background: store count; not about ice)

   RestaurantData · 2026-09 · Secondary source

   ~440 Restaurant locations

Menus and equipment change, so call ahead if you're making a special trip.