Vesbar Mobile Pizza Bar
By Tom Boyles | PMQ Staff

Back in September I had a chance to visit with Stephen Millar and Brandon Farrell in their hometown of Perth. I had received an email from David Infirri asking that come out and see his mobile pizza bar if I was going to be in the Perth area. A few weeks before I arrived Stephen Millar had been out to see David and his mobile operations and strongly suggested I check it out while in Perth. I rang David up and arranged to meet up with him at a catering job.

Stephen and I arrived at this business but no sight of a mobile pizza oven or David. I thought to myself, “If he has a big catering job to do here, then he’s going to be running late as the event is supposed to be starting in about 20 to 30 minutes.” About that time I see the unmistakable Vesbar Ute pulling up. We walk over and speak with David. As we do, he begins to start setting up his mobile pizza shop…it only took about 20 minutes and pizzas were already being pulled from the already heated wood fired oven.

“I have been fascinated by the wood-fired oven for as long as I can remember,” David explained.

“As a child, I loved the family gatherings where we would have pizza for starters, then some meat, usually home grown like goat or lamb and then if it was a winters night we would finish with some hot chestnuts, all cooked in the wood-fire. To me, there was nothing better!

“When I moved into my own place 8 years ago, the first thing I bought for the house was a woodfire oven - even before the couch and dinning table arrived I was cooking pizzas! Two years ago I decided I had cooked for everyone in my family and friends (including the friends you inherit when you buy a pizza oven) so I took the oven from my backyard and had it fitted to a trailer. Never did I imagine that this ‘hobby business’ was soon to become my fulltime job.”

Indeed it has. After he placed the oven on the trailer, he searched for an Italian icon that would also imply on the go. What better Italian icon than the Vespa scooter? Since he was driving one everyday to and from work, the idea stuck. “It needed a name and I wanted something that went with the fact that we are mobile and can fit in just about anywhere like the alley way behind the office or next to the surf cats on the river or along side the playground when catering for kids birthdays,” David explained.

”I would really like to thank Darrel South for help in building the mobile pizza trailer,” David said “ He is a very good friend of the family who was a retired sheet metal worker. I took the idea to him and HE made it happen, which I am so grateful for as every other tradesman in Perth didn’t want to know about it! He even came out to one of my first parties and watched me work and saw little things, like I needed somewhere to hang my pizza shovel, the cutting boards needed to be mounted to the bench and extra supports for the trailer so it was exactly level when I was working. I was so lucky to find such a old school perfectionist!”

Now David is doing quite well catering to outdoor events and corporate functions as well as smaller pool parties and backyard parties. One this day he is cooking for about 60 or 70 people. For this he brought an assortment of about 90 pizzas. “I can cook about 10 at a time,” he said. “If people are talking more about the oven and eating slow, them I bring them out slow to keep the pizzas coming out fresh. I start with lighter entrée pizzas like Margherita or Pizza Romana with the anchovies and then move into the prawn pizzas and meat lovers. At the end when everyone is full I clean up a bit and serve some dessert pizzas.”

For an event like this David charges a booking fee of $900 (including waitress) for all you can eat pizzas and $15 per person after 50 guests, and is doing quite well. For a party like the one we attended, there were about 8 hours of prepping involved, such as rolling the dough, chopping ingredients such as garlic, veggies and stuff. Then David lights the oven at his house and off he goes.

David says his marketing comes from word of mouth at parties. He did some advertising in newspapers in the beginning but says nothing works as good as giving out cards at the functions. “It may be nine or 12 months out, but you get the call,” he said. David’s background is in gourmet delis. Over the past 10 years, he has worked for and part-owned a gourmet deli. The experience and knowledge he gained means he only uses the freshest and best quality small goods and cheeses on his pizza. “Now we all promote the freshest and best but with Vesbar I feel it is the little things that sets us apart,” David says. “For instance, we are a family business, only I, my partner Marlena and my father Elio are involved. I know how hard it can be to find good staff. That’s what attracted me to this business…we can run it with just the three of us, and everyone having an interest in the business makes such a difference.”

Because of the fact it is so hard to find good staff these days the Wood-Oven is rapidly being replaced with gas conveyor ovens. Conveyors are more consistent and require a lot less skill in operating. “But you can’t beat the smokiness and the crispy base from cooking directly on the bricks,” David explained. This is a unique flavor that only comes from the wood-fire oven. All our fresh herbs, and we use a lot, comes from Dad’s garden. For the veggies I buy WA first. I like to support local growers and then go Australian before I buy anything imported.” When he first started two years ago he was offering only the traditional pizzas, the ones we would have at home on pizza nights like the Margerhita, Italian Sausage, Pizza Bianca and Romana with black olives and anchovy, keeping the toppings very simple and authentic.

As he began doing more and more parties, the request for dessert pizzas was growing, so he decided to give the customers what they wanted. “Now I love mixing up the pizzas,” David said. “We offer a three course dinner of pizzas: entrée, main and dessert. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of work, there is many hours spent prepping for each party. Mixing in the gourmet and dessert pizzas keeps it interesting. When we leave the party it’s the gourmet pizzas they remember but it’s the traditional ones that have filled them up. I am still trying to get my Sicilian father to try one of the dessert pizzas but he won’t have a part of it! In his opinion it’s too wrong!”

David said that if you are thinking of a mobile pizza bar then there are things to remember. “You think you have it to a T then you run into situations where the driveway is on a 45 degree angle, or you’re in the rain or wind or you have seagulls on the beach bothering you. At the parties people ask if we are going to franchise the business, but at the moment I am happy to keep it as my little baby!”