Mobile pizzeria fires up ‘late-night eats’ street-side by Joe’s Tavern 

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Pizza craftsman Andrew Rogers inspected a 12-inch pesto pie in progress, deciding it needed just a little more time to crisp.

So Rogers, 33, took a moment to prepare his next order on New Year’s Eve — a Margherita pizza — as rainfall pitter-pattered, fell heavy for a moment and suddenly softened again on the roof above him and close by on West Broad Street.

It’s hard to miss the centerpiece of his 24-foot pizzeria-on-wheels — an Italian-made, wood-fired oven tuned to hum at 800 degrees from a steady diet of oak and other hardwoods.

“We’re really going back to its roots,” Rogers said of pizza’s beginnings as a street food, while finessing a long pan to pull his newest creation from the oven.

Each Friday and Saturday since November, Andrew Rogers’ Pizzeria has set up shop outside Joe’s Tavern, 12 W. Broad St., in Center City from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.

The two parties have developed a strong business-to-business relationship, they said.

Something for everybody

“Weekends on Broad Street have been great,” Rogers said. “We’re doing late-night eats for the community.

“We’re making pizza on the street, you know, which is bringing it back to the way it was invented, with respect to tradition, and it’s really cool.”

Customers can place orders in person, through a QR code inside Joe’s Tavern or by searching Andrew Rogers’ Pizzeria on Slice or Doordash.

Here's the menu.

Rogers holds the sausage and broccoli rabe pizza, German pizza and pesto pie all in high regard — but he said you can't go wrong with the simplicity and freshness of Pizza Margherita.

There’s also the marinara pie for vegetarians and lovers of tomatoes.

“So simple, but it’s so good," Rogers said. "People look at it and say, ‘Oh, there’s no cheese on there,’ and then they order it and they’re like, ‘What?’ It doesn’t need cheese; the taste is excellent.

“That’s one of the first [kinds of] pizzas ever invented.”

Always around a pizzeria

Originally from Stroudsburg and now with 15 years of pizza-making experience, Rogers got his start working at Giordano’s Pizza House in Pen Argyl.

He said the restaurant’s owners, who remain with the establishment to this day, hail from Sicily.

Rogers began his journey making wood-fired pizza after moving to Providence, Rhode Island, for college. He also learned from folks there who were taught by a master pizza maker from Naples, Italy.

Rogers went on to get a hospitality degree from Johnson & Wales University, while working at restaurants near the school.

“I’ve worked other jobs, like sales jobs and warehouse jobs, but I always gravitated toward working in a pizzeria,” Rogers said. “Yet, even while I was doing those other jobs, at night I would go and make pizza.”

Making his way back to Pennsylvania, Rogers learned from Vincenzo Spagnuolo, pizza maker with Pocono Brewery Company.

Since Rogers started his mobile pizzeria in East Stroudsburg in 2021, his services have been requested for breweries, private parties, weddings and catering, for example.

He even opened a brick-and-mortar location in Hellertown last year, but closed it after about six months.

He said the mobile pizzeria has helped him to pick up where he left off.

“It’s never let me down,” Rogers said.

He now lives in Bethlehem Township.

'A good win for the area'

Beer and pizza: While some may say it’s a match made in heaven, it's also a match made on West Broad Street.

Joe’s Tavern owner Shelly Salak — vouching for Rogers' food and operation as a whole — said the business relationship has been "a good win for the area," offering quick meals that are centrally located for those out and about later into the evening.

Salak said customers can bring their pizza into Joe’s after the bar kitchen closes, and can order pies from the bar inside, too. Rogers even can deliver right to the bar.

“Being in this business, one of the primary things we’re always concerned with is: Make sure you have something in your stomach when you’re drinking,” Salak said.

“We make sure that if our customers are drinking, that they’re not overly drinking, or they have something to eat.

“So we always have something to provide to them, and this just adds another bit of a gourmet element to it.”

Kitchen hours at Joe’s are 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.

'He's one of one down here'

Ethan Parkinson, bartender and cook at Joe’s, said he introduced Rogers to Salak after he tried the pizza and loved it. Rogers “just fits right into our values as a spot,” he said.

“I think that he’s one of one down here,” Parkinson said. “I don’t think anyone’s doing what he’s doing late-night.

“And it just kind of makes sense when someone’s not doing something — that’s an untapped market. So I love that he’s down here slinging pizza.”

Rogers said, “Shelly and her team are excellent; I can’t say enough great things about them. I can’t thank them enough in cooperating with us on this.”

When not slinging said pizza, Rogers enjoys eating a good steak, visiting new coffee shops and cheering on the New York Yankees.

Deep down, he said he's just a foodie at the end of the day.

“My enjoyment is through my stomach,” Rogers said, chuckling.