Long-Bell Pizza Co.

Long-Bell Pizza Co. is a chef-owned pizzeria and craft-beer bar in the New Longview district of Lee’s Summit, opened in November 2015 by Jayson Eggers and Aaron Mulder — two cooks who met at Blanc Burgers + Bottles and the Westport Ale House — in the space that had been Next Door Pizza. It is the restaurant that coined “Kansas City-style pizza”: hand-tossed dough mixed the night before, a crispy bottom that passes the one-hand “pizza test,” an herb-butter-brushed crust, and the sauce ladled on top of the cheese and toppings. The name honors Robert A. Long’s Long-Bell Lumber Company, whose Longview Farm surrounds the neighborhood; the sign is cut from cypress that once fenced the farm. Rotating taps, arcade games, wings, tacos, a birria dip sandwich and a signature capicola-pepperoni dip round it out.

Description

Long-Bell’s own statement of purpose: “Founded in 2015 by Jayson Eggers, our mission from the beginning was to make quality pizza with quality ingredients. We spent a lot of time perfecting our recipes and our crust, and ended up with our delicious K.C. Style Pizza. Crispy on the bottom, giving it a nice fold, still fluffy, top notch ingredients, and sauce on top for the win!”¹ KCUR’s Celisa Calacal watched the method in 2019: dough made to order and mixed the night before; cheese and toppings down first, then the sauce “like in a Chicago-style pizza”; a five-minute bake at 575–600 degrees; a brush of olive oil, garlic and herbs on the crust; and the test — Eggers “places his hand on the bottom and picks it up. If the whole pie stays put and doesn’t fold, then it passes.”² Mulder had named the standard at opening: “The pizza needs to be crispy on the bottom and foldable. We don’t call it New York-style. We call it Kansas City-style because nobody has done that yet.”³ The Takeout’s Kate Bernot, reviewing the claim from Chicago, allowed that it “looks to be a delicious pizza pie” but declined to certify a new regional style “until further evidence is collected.”⁴

Feast, visiting in the first week, found “barrel-topped tables that each can seat six, a large island that can seat 12, and a large L-shaped bar that features 15 craft beers on tap,” a side room with a pool table and four pinball machines, and very high ceilings; the opening menu was deliberately small — wings, spinach-artichoke dip, an antipasto plate, four salads, four sandwiches (a pork-belly Reuben among them) and ten pizzas in a single large size, five red and five white, including a Spicy Mango of capicola, prosciutto, mango and Diablo sauce that grew out of the partners’ disagreement over Hawaiian pizza.⁵³ The current Toast menu keeps the shape and adds the neighborhood’s requests: Chips With Benefits with house dips, a Lb Signature Dip of capicola, pepperoni, basil and mozzarella with fresh-baked dough, L.B.P. Nachos with smoked brisket, buffalo tots, cheese curds, a pound of wings, a chop salad and a Pad Thai salad, tacos (carnitas, smoked chicken, “gringos,” birria, banh mi), a Birria Dip sandwich on fresh-baked bolillo, a garlic crust, large build-your-own pizzas from $23 and a Margherita at $30, plus sauces, a kids’ menu and dessert.⁶ The site notes a full bar “specializing in craft cocktails” and rotating craft drafts.¹

Ownership and history

Jayson Eggers grew up in northern California, went to culinary school and cooked wood-fired pizza at a California restaurant before moving from Sacramento to Kansas City in 2010 to work at Blanc Burgers + Bottles: “I love this city … The food scene is over the top in Kansas City.”²³ Aaron Mulder, a KC cook without culinary school whose interest in pizza dated to a post-college stint at Papa John’s, was hired at Blanc’s Leawood store; the two later cooked together at the Westport Ale House under MarSprings Hospitality Group, and spent 18 months writing business plans — a deli, a breakfast place, a caterer — before pizza found them.³²⁷ Mulder had moved to Lee’s Summit with his wife Samantha and made Next Door Pizza, a short walk from home, his nightly stop; one night owner Patrick Cuezze, a lawyer turned restaurateur, said he was thinking of selling.⁷³ The partners managed Next Door through its last day, September 30, 2015, learned “which employees were the most valuable and what things were clearly not working,” stripped most of Cuezze’s 89 antique doors, dropped the buffet and salad bar, and reopened in mid-November as Long-Bell Pizza Co., with Eggers (35) running the kitchen and Mulder (34) the front of the house.⁷³

The name came from Eggers’s research: the Long-Bell Lumber Company, founded by Robert A. Long and Victor Bell, was a major Kansas City business from 1887 to 1956, and its trademark had lapsed in 1985; Long built Longview Farm — whose gates are now the entrance arches to New Longview — and Corinthian Hall, today’s Kansas City Museum.⁷³ The sign is cypress that once fenced the farm.³ “We know we’re breaking some ground in Lee’s Summit,” Mulder said. “There’s not many locally owned restaurants in Lee’s Summit that are doing scratch cooking.”³ By 2019 KCUR still described the two as co-owners; the restaurant’s current site names only Eggers as founder, and Mulder’s present role is not documented.

Links

• Website: https://www.eatbeerdrinkpizza.com/ · Menu page: https://www.eatbeerdrinkpizza.com/menu
• Order (Toast): https://order.toasttab.com/online/long-bellpizzaco · Rewards: https://www.toasttab.com/long-bellpizzaco/rewardsSignup
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/longbellrestaurant/ · Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/long_bellpizzaco/

Menu

Last verified: 2026-08-28 · Source: the restaurant’s own Toast ordering page · Confidence: Medium — starters, salads, tacos and the first sandwich were captured in full; the pizza, sauces, kids’ and dessert sections were only partly rendered.⁶

• Starters: Chips With Benefits $4 · Garlic Crust (16”) $18.50 · L.B.P. Nachos (smoked brisket) $14 · Wings (1 lb) $16 · Basket of Boneless $12 · Lb Signature Dip $14 · Side Pane Bread $4.50 · Buffalo Tots $10.50 · Cheese Curds $10 · Fries basket $8.50 / side $4.50 (garlic parmesan, Fire or plain) · Tots basket $8.50 / side $4.50 · Dough To Go $3 · Smoked Bar Mix $4
• Salads: Chop $13 · Caesar $10 / small $5 · House $5 · Pad Thai Salad $13
• Tacos (3): Carnitas $10 · Smoked Chicken $10 · Gringos $10 · Birria $13 · Banh Mi $10 · Smoked Chicken/Elotes $10
• Sandwiches: Birria Dip Sand $15 (others not captured)
• Pizza: LG BYO Pizza $23 · LG Margherita Pie $30 (remaining pies not captured)

Sources

Footnotes

1. Long-Bell Pizza Co. — official website, home page. Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “Founded in 2015 by Jayson Eggers”; K.C. Style Pizza description; burgers, wings, salads, sandwiches, desserts; full bar with craft cocktails and rotating drafts; Lee’s Summit; Toast ordering and rewards; no call-ahead orders, 15–20 minute pickup; Facebook, Instagram and X links. ↩ ↩²

2. Celisa Calacal, “These Two Chefs Are Trying To Put Kansas City-Style Pizza On The Map,” KCUR, 2019-02-24 — Confirms: “co-owners Jayson Eggers and Aaron Mulder” as of 2019; three years of development; method (dough mixed the night before, sauce on top, 575–600°F bake, herb-oil brush, pizza test); Eggers’s northern California upbringing and culinary school; Mulder’s Papa John’s stint; met at Westport Ale House; space found in 2015; “under three months” from decision to opening. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Jonathan Bender, “Making Pie, Kansas City-style,” Flatland, 2015-11-20 — Confirms: 3385 SW Fascination Drive; “three-week-old”; pizza test; Eggers from Sacramento, moved 2010 for Blanc Burgers + Bottles; Mulder hired at Blanc Leawood; MarSprings Hospitality (Coal Vines, Westport Ale House); 18 months of business planning; Mulder living in Lee’s Summit with his wife; Cuezze’s approach; one month managing Next Door; crust recipe; Spicy Mango origin; sign of Longview Farm cypress; Eggers runs the kitchen, Mulder the front; quotes. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

4. Kate Bernot, “Pizzeria Claims It’s Created Kansas City-Style Pizza,” The Takeout, 2019-02-25 — Confirms: national pickup of the KCUR story; defining characteristics as stated by the restaurant (crispy bottom, herb-butter crust, sauce on top); skeptical verdict. ↩

5. April Fleming, “Long-Bell Pizza Co. Now Open in Lee’s Summit, Serving Creative Pies With a Focus on Freshness,” Feast Magazine, November 2015 — Confirms: opened “last week”; dining-room description (barrel tables, 12-seat island, L-shaped bar, 15 taps, pool table, four pinball machines); chef-owners Eggers and Mulder; Longview Farm homage; opening menu (appetizers, four salads, four sandwiches, ten pizzas, Spicy Mango, Steak Balsamic); phone 816.599.2234. ↩

6. Long-Bell Pizza Co. — Toast online-ordering page. Retrieved 2026-08-29 (early morning) — Confirms: “Long-Bell Restaurant”; 3385 SW Fascination Dr., Lee’s Summit; menu sections and every item/price in the Menu section; “Currently not accepting online orders … Opens Tuesday at 4PM”; loyalty points. ↩ ↩²

7. Charles Ferruzza, “Two young chefs remake a Lee’s Summit staple as Long-Bell Pizza Co.,” The Pitch, 2015-10-20 — Confirms: Mulder and Eggers, both most recently of Westport Ale House; Next Door Pizza owner Patrick Cuezze; last day September 30; interim management; name from the Long-Bell lumber company (1887–1956; Robert A. Long and Victor Bell; trademark expired 1985); 89 antique doors removed; no buffet or salad bar; opening menu plan; ages 35 and 33; seating for 130; vintage arcade games. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴