Wilson's Pizza & Grill

Wilson’s Pizza & Grill is a counter-service pizzeria and grill at 18th & Quindaro in Kansas City, Kansas, opened in 1993 by Gary Wilson after he noticed the big pizza chains would not deliver to the Quindaro neighborhood. Thirty-odd years on it is still Wilson’s: hand-made dough, a house-blended mozzarella, the eight-topping “18th Street Special,” pizza fries, wings, fried chicken, basa and burgers, with a bilingual English–Spanish menu. It reached No. 100 on The Daily Meal’s 101 Best Pizzas in America in 2020, was a Pitch Best of KC pick in 2021, and since 2025 has shipped take-and-bake pizzas nationwide from a Shopify storefront. Closed Tuesdays and Sundays.

Description

Wilson’s is a neighborhood pizzeria in the old-school sense: a small storefront on Quindaro Boulevard, a counter, young staff from the neighborhood, and a menu that goes well past pizza. The Pitch, naming it a Best of KC 2021 pick, called the crust “thick and just chewy enough” and noted that “you can customize almost anything you order,” with pizza fries, wings and burgers alongside the pies.¹ The Daily Meal’s 2020 entry described “a hidden American gem in Kansas City, Kansas” that is “often very busy, but reviewers find these gourmet pizzas are worth the wait,” and singled out the 18th Street Special — pepperoni, sausage, beef, ham, mushrooms, onions, black olives, green peppers and the house-blend mozzarella.²

The company’s own description of its method: “fresh, never-frozen dough, house-blended mozzarella, and toppings sliced daily.”³ The current ordering menu runs from custom pizzas in four sizes (12” to 18”, regular or stuffed crust) and gourmet pizzas, through personal pans and giant slices, calzones, garlic cheese sticks and five kinds of pizza fries, to a full grill side — hamburgers up to triple, giant pork tenderloins, pork-chop and buffalo-chicken sandwiches, a black-bean burger, fried chicken by the piece, wings in five sauces, and basa fillets fried or grilled over rice with onions and peppers. Every item is listed in English and Spanish.⁴ Named combos nod to the block: “The Hit,” “3320,” and “Hiawatha” (a cheeseburger-fries-and-fish plate named for the nearby bus stop), and the shipped bundles are called the Quindaro Special, Kansas City Special, Union Station Special and Chiefs Special.⁴³

In 2025 Wilson’s added a direct-to-consumer arm: take-and-bake pizzas assembled in the KCK kitchen, packed cold, and shipped nationwide (orders ship Mondays and Tuesdays, free shipping on bundles), sold from a Shopify site that also hosts TikTok reviews and a how-to-bake video.³

Ownership and history

Gary Wilson opened Wilson’s Pizza & Grill on Quindaro Boulevard in 1993. The consistent account in local press is that no major pizza chain would deliver to the Quindaro neighborhood at the time, and Wilson filled the gap — and has employed young adults from the area ever since.¹⁵ The Community Voice, profiling the business for Black Business Month in 2023, credits “his homemade pizza dough, freshly cut toppings, and wide variety” for its staying power and notes the thick, chewy crust, pizza fries, wings, burgers and fish.⁵

Recognition came in a cluster: the Unified Government’s Black History Committee gave Wilson its Business Leadership Award in 2017; The Daily Meal placed the restaurant at No. 100 on its 101 Best Pizzas in America list in September 2020; Wilson’s won a 2020 People’s Choice award for Best Black-Owned Business in KCK; and The Pitch named it a Best of Kansas City pick in November 2021.¹²⁵ The shipping business launched on wilsonspizzaandgrill.net during 2025, with the site’s own copy framing the pies as “America’s #100 Best Pizza, Shipped Fresh to Your Doorstep.”³ Wilson remains the face of the business — customer reviews on the ordering site thank “Mr. Wilson” by name — though no source documents a succession plan or other family in ownership.⁴

The space

1801 Quindaro Blvd, at the corner of 18th Street, a block west of turkey-legg-man and near the Quindaro-at-Hiawatha bus stop the menu references.⁴

Links

• Website / shipping shop: https://wilsonspizzaandgrill.net/
• Local ordering (Menufy): https://www.wilsonspizzaandgrill.com/order
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wilsonspizzaandgrill/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wilsonpizza
• Facebook (owner): https://www.facebook.com/gary.wilson.7796420/

Menu

Last verified: 2026-08-28 · Source: the restaurant’s own Menufy ordering site (wilsonspizzaandgrill.com/order, linked as “Order Pick up (Local)” from the official site) · Confidence: High. Spanish translations that appear on every line are omitted here. ”+” marks items with priced options (size, toppings, crust). Delivery fee $6.24.⁴

Pizza

• Custom Pizza — 12” ($11.43+), 14” ($13.51+), 16” ($15.59+), 18” ($18.71+)
• Gourmet Pizza (regular or stuffed crust) — 12” ($20.99+), 14” ($24.99+), 16” ($29.99+), 18” ($34.99+)
• Personal Pan Pizza ($10.00+) · Giant Slice ($12.99+)
• Calzone — 1 person ($11.43+), 2–3 people ($15.59+)
• Garlic Cheese Sticks — 12” ($11.43), 14” ($15.59), 16” ($17.67)
• Pizza Fries — Pepperoni, Sausage, Beef, Bacon Ranch Jalapeño ($9.99 each); Veggie ($9.31) · Jalapeño Bombers ($4.15+)

Burgers & sandwiches

• Hamburger ($7.80+) · Cheeseburger ($8.75+) · Double ($9.62+) · Double Cheese ($11.50+) · Triple ($10.92+) · Triple Cheese ($15.99+)
• Giant Tenderloin ($10.99+) · Giant Double Tenderloin ($13.99+) · Pork Chop Sandwich ($8.27+; double $11.70+)
• Fried Chicken Breast ($8.06+) · Grilled Chicken Breast ($8.58+) · Buffalo Chicken Sandwich ($10.99+) · Double Cheeseburger Buffalo Chicken ($14.55+) · Chicken Philly ($14.55)
• BLT on wheat ($7.80+) · Black Bean Burger ($10.99+) · Veggie Sandwich ($10.99+) · Eggplant ($6.76+)

Chicken & wings

• Chicken (2) leg & thigh ($5.46) · (3) leg, thigh & wing ($8.84) · Breast (2) ($9.35) · Breast (3) ($13.51) · Mix (10) ($17.67) · Dark (10) ($14.55) · single leg/thigh/wing ($1.30)
• Wings (5) & rolls ($9.35) · Wings (5) dinner ($11.28)
• Buffalo wings — hot, BBQ, garlic parmesan, mango habanero, teriyaki: 6 ($9.35+; w/ fries $11.43+), 10 ($14.99+; $17.99+), 20 ($25.99+; $29.99+), 30 ($34.31+; $39.51+)

Fish

• Basa small ($6.75+) / large ($10.91+) · Basa Sandwich & Fries ($13.51) · Fish Basa 2 lb ($23.91+) · Shrimp & Fries ($14.99)
• Grilled Basa — 2 fillets with onions and green peppers over rice ($16.63) · fillet, shrimp & fries ($17.67) · 2 fillets with onions & peppers over rice ($21.83)

Combos & specials

• The Hit — personal pan 3-topping + 4 party wings ($15.59+) · 3320 — personal 3-meat calzone + 4 party wings ($15.59+) · Hiawatha — cheeseburger fries + 2-piece fish ($15.59+)
• Feed A Crew — two 12” 3-topping pizzas, 6-piece leg & thigh, 2-liter ($37.43) · Family Deal — 16” all-meat, 1 lb hot wings with fries ($31.19) · Samplers Deal — 16” 1-topping, 2 cheeseburger baskets, 6-piece dark, 2-liter ($41.59)
• 16” 1-topping ($16.63+) · 16” 3-topping ($18.71+) · Trio Deal, three 12” 1-topping ($32.23+) · three 16” 1-topping ($38.47+)

Sides, drinks, dessert

• Onion Rings ($5.46) · French Fries ($4.68)
• Drinks 16 oz ($1.97) / 24 oz ($2.86) / 2-liter ($4.50); Mr. Pure ($2.17); Calypso ($2.80); Vess 20 oz ($1.86) / 2-liter ($2.86); Pure Leaf ($1.65); Arizona ($1.03)
• Ice Cream Cone ($1.03+) · Brownie Sundae ($3.73) · Cake Slice ($4.68)

Shipped take-and-bake (wilsonspizzaandgrill.net)

• 3-packs — 18th Street Special, Just Meat, Pepperoni, Sausage Delight, Triple Delight variety ($89.99 each, listed as sale from $99.99); 5-packs and named bundles (Quindaro Special 4-pack, Kansas City Special 4-pack, Union Station Special 5-pack, Chiefs Special 5-pack, Wilson’s Ultimate 5-pack); Build Your Own Bundle.³

Sources

Footnotes

1. The Pitch staff, “Best of Kansas City 2021: Wilson’s Pizza is a Quindaro classic,” The Pitch, 2021-11-10 — Confirms: Gary Wilson opened on Quindaro in 1993; chains would not deliver to the area; employs young adults from the neighborhood; Daily Meal list 2020; UG Black History Committee Business Leadership Award 2017; crust and customization quotes. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Taylor Rock, “The 101 Best Pizzas in America,” The Daily Meal, 2020-09-10, slide 96 (No. 100: Wilson Pizza and Grill, Kansas City, Kansas) — Confirms: ranking; “a hidden American gem in Kansas City, Kansas”; “often very busy, but reviewers find these gourmet pizzas are worth the wait”; 18th Street Special toppings. ↩ ↩²

3. Wilson’s Pizza and Grill — official website and Shopify shop (home, product catalog, contact). Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: “the Quindaro neighborhood’s beloved hidden gem since 1993, where owner Gary Wilson stepped in to deliver crave-worthy pies to a community overlooked by big chains”; “#100 on The Daily Meal’s prestigious ‘101 Best Pizzas in America’ list”; 18th Street Special toppings; “fresh, never-frozen dough, house-blended mozzarella, and toppings sliced daily”; nationwide take-and-bake shipping, ship days and free-shipping note; bundle names and prices; social links; site assets dated 2025–2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Wilson’s Pizza & Grill — official Menufy ordering site (home and menu). Retrieved 2026-08-28 — Confirms: every item and price in the Menu section; address; phone; business, carryout and delivery hours; “near to On Quindaro at Hiawatha Eastbound Bus stop”; customer reviews naming “Mr. Wilson”; © 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. Thomas White, “Celebrating Black Business Month with Wilson’s Pizza & Grill,” The Community Voice, 2023-08-21 (updated 2023-10-31) — Confirms: founder Gary Wilson; 1993; 1801 Quindaro Blvd and phone; Daily Meal 101 Best Pizzas; UG Black History Committee award; 2020 People’s Choice Award for Best Black-Owned Business in KCK; thick chewy crust, pizza fries, wings, burgers, fish. ↩ ↩² ↩³