Guido's Pizza Place

Guido’s Pizza Place is a family-owned pizzeria on Highway 7 in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, founded by Guido and Phyllis Vescovi in 1971 and run today by Lisa Vescovi. It is one of the longest-operating restaurants in Cass County.

Description

Guido’s Pizza Place occupies a freestanding building at 600 N State Route 7, on the commercial highway strip at the north edge of Pleasant Hill, roughly a mile from the town’s historic downtown district.¹ The restaurant serves pizza, pasta, strombolis, sandwiches and salads, and offers dine-in, carryout and delivery.²³

The business describes itself as a family-owned pizzeria that “has been serving up tradition, flavor, and heart for generations,” making its dough fresh daily and its sauce from a family recipe.² It holds two current Missouri alcohol licences at the Highway 7 address — a Retail by Drink licence and a Microbrewery licence — both listed to Guido’s Pizza Place Inc. with Lisa Vescovi as the contact.⁴

Within Pleasant Hill the restaurant functions as a landmark as much as an eatery. A veterinarian across the street told Fox4 in 2021 that “it’s an iconic part of our town. If people don’t know Pleasant Hill very well, you can be talking to them and they’ll know Guido’s.”⁵

Ownership and history

Guido’s was founded by Guido Vescovi and his wife Phyllis Vescovi. Phyllis Vescovi, who was born in 1944 and married Guido Vescovi in 1969, moved with him to Harrisonville, Missouri, where the couple first owned and operated Guido’s Pizza; her obituary states that “in 1971 they built the restaurant in Pleasant Hill.” She worked in the restaurant until retiring in 2018 and died on June 8, 2025.⁶ Fox4 KC gives a slightly different sequence, reporting that the restaurant “first opened in Cass County in 1971 and moved to Pleasant Hill in 1977.”⁵ Both sources agree on 1971 as the founding year; the date the business arrived at its present Pleasant Hill location is unresolved between them. “ — a primary source reconciling the 1971 and 1977 dates.

The founders’ son, Ryan Vescovi, ran the restaurant as an adult. A lifelong Pleasant Hill resident and 1991 graduate of Pleasant Hill High School, he served on the Pleasant Hill R-III school board from 2014 and, with his wife Lisa, also owned the childcare business Kidz Inc. He died of COVID-19 on September 17, 2021, at the age of 48; residents built a memorial of flowers and shirts outside the restaurant, and the school board held a moment of silence at its next meeting.⁷⁵

Lisa Vescovi is listed as the owner of Guido’s Pizza Place, Inc. in the Pleasant Hill Chamber of Commerce 2026 membership directory and is the named contact on the restaurant’s current Missouri alcohol licences.¹⁴

Links

• Website: https://www.guidospizzaplace.com/
• Online ordering (first-party): https://www.guidospizzaplace.com/order

Menu

Menu sections confirmed on the restaurant’s own ordering site: Wednesday Night Pizza Specials, Appetizers, Specialty Pizzas, “Pizza Any Way,” Lunch Specials, Strombolis, Sandwiches, Salads, and a Kids Menu.³

Cuisine categories listed first-party: dessert, Italian, pasta, pizza, salads and sandwiches. The restaurant advertises vegetarian options, outdoor seating, and military and senior discounts.²

“ — individual menu items and prices. The first-party ordering system requires interactive navigation per category; no first-party price list was captured. Aggregator prices were deliberately not used.

Sources

Footnotes

1. “Pleasant Hill 2026 Membership Directory,” Pleasant Hill Missouri Chamber of Commerce (published via ChamberVu / Town Square Publications). Accessed 2026-08-26. URL ↩ ↩²

2. “Home — Guido’s Pizza,” Guido’s Pizza Place official website. Accessed 2026-08-26. URL ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. “Guido’s Pizza, Pleasant Hill, MO 64080 (Menu & Order Online),” Guido’s Pizza Place official ordering site. Accessed 2026-08-26. URL ↩ ↩²

4. “Missouri Primary Alcohol Licenses,” Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, data.mo.gov dataset d9fr-pncw; rows updated 2026-08-26. Records: licence 308266 (Retail by Drink) and licence 308267 (Microbrewery), GUIDO’S PIZZA PLACE INC., 600 N Highway 7, Pleasant Hill, Cass County; contact Lisa Vescovi. URL ↩ ↩²

5. Dave D’Marko, “Kansas City area school board member dies from COVID-19,” Fox4 KC (WDAF-TV), September 21, 2021 (updated September 22, 2021). URL ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. “Phyllis Vescovi,” obituary, Stanley-Edenburn Funeral Home, Pleasant Hill, Missouri, June 2025. URL ↩

7. “Missouri school board member, businessman dies of COVID,” The Kansas City Star, September 2021. URL ↩