Known for serving coffee from his bike, Michael Baroni is now diving into the world of pizza.

Pizza and delivery. The two go together, one followed by the other.

But La Pizza Piccolo is flipping that order. Michael Baroni brings the saucy pies to businesses and events in a 1982 Mazda Porter Cab kei-truck. But this isn’t an ordinary pizza delivery – included on his vehicle is an oven and all the ingredients to customize pies as much as he’s customized his own vehicles.

Baroni also has a pedal-powered coffee cart and a 1970 Volkswagen bay-window mobile espresso station that he calls the “brew bus.” Instead of thinking bigger to expand his operation and menu, he went in the opposite direction. The right-hand drive flatbed truck where Baroni mounted a ceramic pizza oven to is no more than five feet tall and about as wide as a golf cart before he sets up a table for ingredients. And since Baroni is himself a tinkerer, everything on the truck is custom-built.

He began his foray into food service in 2009 with a bike that blended smoothies through pedal-power. As tiring as that may sound, he loved it, but eventually the role evolved into serving nitro-brew coffee and espresso. But there is something few people knew.

Weekly: You hated coffee?

Baroni: I hated coffee. My wife, Natasha, got me into coffee eight years ago, though. My first step into the realm was at the Sea Otter Classic. We started there because my first business was delivering posters to them through a bicycle messenger company called Green Pedal Couriers. That lasted all the way up until the end of the pandemic – we used to deliver for Ad Astra, Alta Bakery, Other Brother Beer Company, Heirloom Pizza, all by bike.

When did you build your espresso machine to fit on a bike?

Natasha Baroni: It was in 2016 because we were at the apartment [reminding Michael].

Michael Baroni: The bike held around 600 pounds. We had a full sink system and electrical equipment. We were one of less than 20 on the planet that were completely on a bicycle and electric. I built it from square tubes and steel. We bought a second one eventually, but it broke in half.

Why do this on a bike?

I love bikes. I never had a driver’s license. The only reason I did was because I got hit by a car on my coffee bike and was paralyzed from the waist down for a couple weeks. I had to do physical therapy, but I didn’t want to do a sob story or a GoFundMe or anything like that. I learned how to walk again and got my license for the first time at age 36, and bought the Vanagon.

Why did you want to work with food in a mobile form?

I can fit in a spot that a big food truck can’t fit into. Or if another business doesn’t want a tent setup – if they want something a little more unique or more contained – I think it’s easier on businesses. Being mobile and small and fitting into spaces that others couldn’t didn’t cause a lot of competition.

What about the sustainability aspect of having a self-contained cooking system on a small vehicle?

[The truck] I have is all-electric. We’re off the grid. We’re not plugged in. I have my own plumbing, a propane water heater and an electric generator that gets charged by solar panels at home. Even the brew bus is completely electric. I even had a smoothie business way back when called, “Off The Grid Smoothies.”

Sustainability is key for me. I like my planet and I’m trying not to fuck it up as much as I can. I use as many local ingredients as I can. I get all my meat from The Meatery in Seaside. My mushrooms are from Watsonville. I also make my own sauce and hand-knead my own dough that I then cold-ferment for four days at a time. I learned everything I know from a combination of YouTube and people who have taught me along the way. It’s been a blast to be a part of the community.

How did you find a little truck like this?

It’s really cool because you probably won’t see another one like this because of how old it is. It’s a kei truck from Japan – short for keijidōsha. A gentleman imported this and had it for sale online. At the time I was restoring and rebuilding a 1963 Dodge A108 – basically the “Mystery Machine” from Scooby-Doo. He accepted a trade from me, which is how I ended up with this little truck.

How does this work with health codes?

[Laughs] I mean, it’s a bitch. The whole thing is. But it is up to code.