It has been years since I was last in Scornovacca's in Des Moines for pizza. It has been in business for over 40 years and it's probably been close to 25 years since I was last in the place. I had been to another family member's restaurant - Sonny's Pizza Bistro (click here to see the entry on Sonny's) - a couple years ago and made a pact with myself that I needed to get back to Scornovacca's at some point. On a recent trip to Des Moines on a cool and damp fall evening, I had the chance to stop in.
The Vacco family has been in the Des Moines area for nearly 100 years. The patriarch of the family, Martino Scornovacca, emigrated to the U.S. in 1914. As he was being processed for entry into the country at Ellis Island his name was shortened to Vacca. Later, a clerical error changed the family name to Vacco.
The Vacco family eventually landed in Des Moines and Martino's grandson Roscoe Vacco and his wife Anne Marie had a business opportunity to open a pizza place on the south side of Des Moines in 1973. Roscoe had a full time job, so he turned to his eldest son Mike to run the business. They were trying to come up with names for the place and the next oldest son, Marty, came up with the Scornovacca's name for the restaurant to pay tribute to his great-grandfather. Many of the Vacco family members worked in the place for a number of years.
(As an aside, I dated a girl from Des Moines who knew two of the Vacco siblings, Vic and Rocco. I met them a couple times and they seemed to be pretty nice guys. Vic was a big football star at Dowling High School in the mid-70's.)
Tragically, Mike Vacco - whose nickname was "Scorno" - died tragically in August of 2010 at the age of 48. His sister Amy runs the family business these days, but mother Anne Marie and some of the other siblings still help out from time to time.
There's a Scornovacca's North on N.E. 14th St. in Des Moines - it's been open since 1976 and is run by Marty Vacco - but I went to the original spot on S.E. 14th St. (see map) I pulled in around 8 p.m. and found that I had the place to myself. I took a seat in a booth in the bar area and got a menu from the young lady who was also the bartender that evening.
Next to the bar area is a larger dining room for overflow. It features a number of booths and tables, but it's nothing fancy. There is a party room at Scornovacco's that people can rent out for celebrations or receptions.
The pizza at Scornovacca's is a thin crust, but I seem to remember that they had deep-dish pizza at one point. (I don't know if my memory is quite as good as it was - I could be thinking of someplace else.) They have four different sauces that you can choose to go on the pizza - sweet marinara, alfredo sauce, a pesto sauce and a garlic butter. They have over 24 different toppings that one can choose to put on a pizza.
I went with my old stand-by - sausage, mushroom and pepperoni, a small (9") one. It didn't take long for the pizza to make it to the table and it was loaded with mozzarella, marinara and ample amounts of toppings. The crust, even though it is thin, is not cracker-crust thin and had a little bit of pliability to it.
The first bite immediately took me back about 25 years. The sweet and tangy marinara sauce along with the caramelized cheese helped offset the slightly spicy taste from the Italian fennel sausage. The pepperoni also had a nice little spicy and salty bite. The mushrooms tasted fresh and earthy. It easily passed my "does it taste good with a beer?" test. I sat there shaking my head thinking that I have been an idiot for not coming back to Scornovacca's for so long.
I'll guarantee you, it won't be long before I do make it back to Scornovacca's for another pizza. There's a lot of excellent pizza choices in Des Moines and Scornovacca's has been one of the better ones for over 40 years. The pizza was exactly the same as I remember years ago. And there's something to be said for that kind of consistency.
My friends and I went to Scornovacca's on 14th Street and it was delicious. I tried to get some of the staff to tell me where the original place was. I just wanted to know because we used to go there when we were younger. The pizza is still as delicious as I remembered.
Posted by: Bev Brown | August 10, 2023 at 12:06 AM