By Kady Cramer
With offices and a prep kitchen below The Martin Event Space located at 135th & Holmes, Dispatch Pizza’s mobile catering company opened for business in June.
Not just any mobile catering truck, Dispatch Pizza delivers pizza in a restored antique 1949 Harvester KB7 truck, complete with a wood burning oven.
Seven varieties of pizzas, salad choices and dessert are prepared onsite and served buffet style. Pizza combinations include a BBQ bacon explosion and a truffle oil/prosciutto combo as well as the well-known classics.
“While we may look like a food truck, what we really are is an event catering company–but on wheels,” says owner Jeremy Long. “Our offering is unique; we bring a world class restaurant experience to your location and make pizzas fresh to order.”
Born and raised in Kansas City, Long got his start in the restaurant industry at the age of 12 working for local restaurants such as Jess & Jim’s Steakhouse and RC’s Restaurant & Lounge. In college he worked as a cook, server and bartender before earning a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.
Shortly after a run-in with a close friend whose father owned a restaurant in Tuscany, Long was offered a job in Italy and took off for a tiny mountainside village called Barga. His experience there would lay the foundation for Dispatch Pizza.
While in Italy, another chance encounter led Long to meet and fall in love with a beautiful American girl named Kelly, from his hometown no less. When Kelly had to leave for the states, Jeremy wasn’t too far behind her – becoming a waiter in Los Angeles and daydreaming of opening his own restaurant.
Following the birth of their three children, they were ready for their next adventure to begin back home and moved to Kansas City in 2020. Having fallen in love while sharing meals in Italy, they wanted to build something unique by bringing a piece of Italy to their hometown.
With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to affect businesses, they decided to adapt their lifelong dream of opening a restaurant to instead launch a mobile event catering company, but with a spin that would be sure to turn heads.
Long created a dough recipe that he says accentuates the best qualities of a true Neapolitan-style pizza but also stands up to the rigors of a catering service. His menu changes throughout the year as toppings fall in and out of season.
“We let our dough ferment for three days for maximum gluten development,” says Long. “This creates an aromatic and bubbly crust that has just the right ratio of crispy-and-chewy texture.”
While pizza is the star of the show, Dispatch’s antique 1949 Harvester KB7 truck attracts quite a bit of attention itself. Manufactured in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the truck was originally owned by an oil company in Wyoming and used for jobs in the Grand Tetons Range and Yellowstone National Park for the next 70 years.
In 2021 the Longs bought and restored this American classic, integrating a Ford E-450 chassis to the original truck body. Affectionately dubbed the “Franken-truck,” it became a rolling piece of art that now serves as a functioning business.
Dispatch Pizza requires a 40-person minimum. For more information visit dispatchpizza.com.