Kansas City pizzeria on wheels brings the restaurant to you: ‘Truly dinner and a show’

This eatery has some of the best pizza in Kansas City. But you can only try it at special events.

Dispatch Pizza is in a converted 1949 International Harvester truck. It books events such as wedding receptions, rehearsal dinners, baby showers, birthday parties, corporate meetings, family reunions and fundraisers.

“We’re bringing a restaurant to your door. We are bringing all of the ingredients — fresh dough balls, throw the pizzas on-site, top them and put them in the oven,” said owner Jeremy Long. “We can bring a real chef’s experience and some of that feel of the Italian experience. We’re truly dinner and a show.”

Long, born and raised in south Kansas City, started washing dishes when he was 12 at his uncles’ RC’s Restaurant & Lounge and Jess & Jim’s Steak House. By the end of high school he had been a busboy, server, prep cook and line cook.

He worked restaurant jobs, including bartender and manager, while earning a business administration degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

After college, he was a “corporate drone” in Vancouver, British Columbia, and in Chicago. A friend in Chicago was a partner in a third-generation Italian restaurant, and Long was lamenting how he missed cooking and the restaurant industry.

His friend called a cousin who operated a restaurant in Barga, on a hilltop in Tuscany, and needed help. The next day Long gave his two weeks’ notice.

“On a wing and a prayer I showed up on their doorstep without knowing any Italian. But I learned pretty quick, things like ‘Don’t touch that, idiot,’” he said. “I worked in the kitchen where they don’t take things too seriously. Here, it is 12 hours with no breaks. There it is come in in the morning, have an espresso, work a few hours, go have wine at someone’s vineyard, go back and work a few hours for dinner service and then back to drinking wine.

“The Italian speed of life. Not a culture shock but a culture revelation.”

He was catering a wedding when he met guest Kelly Ramel. She also was from south Kansas City, but they are four years apart so had never met.

“We just fell in love quick,” he said. “My Italian family said, ‘Jeremy, you found her, what are you doing here?’” he said.

So he followed her back to Los Angeles, where she worked as a model and actress. He worked as a server.

When they had their first child, Levi, they decided to move back to south Kansas City. It was two months into the pandemic, so even the thought of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant was “terrifying,” he said.

They were visiting California when he met a friend’s neighbor who had a 1950s Dodge truck that had been modified into a wood-fired pizza kitchen. It almost exclusively catered weddings, with many held in the area.

“It goes to the location and makes perfect food from scratch. Feeding a lot of people in a cool and quick manner,” he said. “People are always going to have outdoor events.”

After buying a 1949 International Harvester truck, Long spent about $200,000 converting it into an event catering company on wheels.

He lifts up the back passenger side for an awning. Inside there’s a wood-fired pizza oven — 1,000 to 1,200 degrees — and racks for the finished pizzas.

The prep kitchen is on the driver’s side. It takes just one minute to cook a pizza. A small sign on the truck says: Est. 2021 Jeremy. Kelly. Levi. Sunny. Josephine. Their son Levi is now 5 (6 in October), and his sisters are Sunny, 3, and Josephine, 1.

Long’s standard pizzas are the margherita; Cheese, Please; and Pepperoni Perfecto.

Signature pizzas are the KC BBQ; California Love (with pomodoro, mozzarella, cherry tomato Castelvetrano olives, roasted garlic, arugula and pesto); A Walk in the Woods (with roasted garlic spread, mozzarella, smoked mushrooms, fried sage and lemon oil) and La Bella Vita (with brown butter ricotta, burrata, prosciutto, truffle oil and hot honey).

Customers must prebook and prepay — a per person charge for unlimited pizza and salad such as his Grandma’s Garden with fresh organic greens, burrata, cherry tomatoes and a garden vinaigrette. For an additional fee, he can provide charcuterie boards, appetizers and desserts.

Prices range depending on the event and type of service — buffet or seated service. For those interested in a booking, Long also will offer tastings for a small fee. Since his first wedding booking in early July, he is booking slightly more corporate events than weddings as companies get back to the office.