Bamie's Pizza House returns to Des Moines for the first two weeks in November. Find out where.

Anyone who grew up in the Des Moines area from 1963 to 1986 made the trek to a nondescript green building at the southeast corner of Army Post Road and Fleur Drive. Pizza just arrived in Des Moines in the late ’40s and started making a name for itself by the ’50s. Places like Chuck’s in Highland Park and Babe’s in downtown Des Moines were making pizza a staple for nights out. On the southside, everyone drove to this spot south of the airport for two reasons — the pizza and shenanigans

A man wearing a fireman’s hat and jacket might run in the building and ask, “Where’s the fire?” Then he’d run around the building spraying customers with a CO2 cannister. Introverts knew not to sit in the corners; he’d find you. Alarms and sirens blared to add to the chaos.

Or he might run around the dining room in a matted woman’s wig while playing a trombone with a red boxing glove attached to the tuning slide. He couldn’t play the trombone; but he could bop you in the face with the mitt.

Or he might ask you to pose for his camera. He’d move you around, ask you to smile, and just as it seemed like he was ready to snap a photo, he’d spray you in the face with water.

“He” is Frank “Bamie” Bonanno, the head of Bamie’s Pizza House, who ran the restaurant with his wife, Coleen “Coke” Bonanno, and the five Bonanno children, for 23 years.

Now the pizza Bamie made famous is making a comeback of sorts. Through Nov. 15, Bamie’s pizza makes a guest appearance on the menu at Gusto Pizza Bar on Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines. For two weeks, diners can order from one of four variations of the thin-crust pizza with a high, thin lip.

Ron, Bamie's son, and Ann Bonanno received the family’s recipes and decided to give Des Moines a slice of nostalgia. They’ll be making all of the ingredients from dough to the way they shred their mozzarella cheese to keep the recipes in the family. Gusto lends its staff, ovens and space to bring Bamie’s back.

“It’s just a beautiful family story,” said Tony Lemmo, one of the co-owners of Gusto who approached the Bonannos about bringing Bamie’s pizzas to the restaurant.

“What Tony is undertaking at Gusto might just be the most significant development in Des Moines’ pizza scene,” said George Formaro, the chef behind restaurants such as Centro as well as a culinary historian who loves to delve into foods from Iowa’s rich culinary history.

“Bamie’s was more than a south side staple for many years; it was a lively, controlled chaos where, in my experience, it was almost impossible to leave without a smile, regardless of how you felt walking in,” he said. “This wasn’t just because of Bamie’s charismatic personality but also due to what many consider some of the best pizza and Stromboli sandwiches in the state. Des Moines’ pizza culture owes a massive debt to Bamie, thanks to years of dedication and exceptional service by his family.”

At Gusto, the Bonannos developed a list of four pizzas to give Des Moines a taste of pizza nostalgia.

There’s the Southside Leroy Brown, named in part for the Frank Sinatra version of the Jim Croce song “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” Bamie played on the jukebox. That comes with red sauce, made by hand with the Bonanno’s recipe; mozzarella cheese; Bamie’s sausage, also made by the Bonannos; pepperoni; mushrooms; and roasted red peppers.

The Bonannos even found the old pizza tins that look like a pie tin they use to bake the pizzas.

The Jackson Street is named for the street Bamie was born on in 1926. His parents, Frank and Grace Bonanno, immigrated from Sicily and Calabria, to Iowa, and settled into the house on the south side of Des Moines. That pizza features red sauce, mozzarella, Bamie’s sausage and mushrooms.

The All Shook Up, named for another Bamie favorite song from Elvis Presley, features red sauce, mozzarella, yellow onions, mushrooms and roasted red peppers.

And Colleen’s “Coke’s” Favorite combines red sauce, mozzarella and yellow onion. The matriarch of the Bonanno family believed a simple pizza gave diners a true taste of the pizza.

Prices range from $18 to $20 for the 12-inch pies.

A pizza steeped in history

Ron and Ann Bonanno look over two tables at Gusto filled with photos, newspaper clippings and props, all memories of Bamie’s Pizza House on a recent Tuesday. The collection finds a temporary home at Gusto while the restaurant serves Bamie’s pizza in November. Black-and-white photos of the family and of Bamie in his costumes mingle with laminated restaurant reviews and articles. A collection of props including the fire extinguisher and hat, a horn, a serving tray, a camera with a water bottle, and the beloved trombone with the boxing glove take over another table.

All will be part of the display at Gusto.

Who is Frank ‘Bamie’ Bonanno?

While looking through the memorabilia, the Bonannos start to share stories of the restaurant, Bamie, and Coke, Bamie's nickname for his wife, Colleen.

After Bamie’s dad immigrated to the United States, he lived above Graziano Bros. in south Des Moines. He later moved down Jackson Avenue to raise his family.

All of the Bonanno kids went to Dowling Catholic High School. Bamie got his nickname from his brother, Armand, who played football at the University of Alabama. Frank played football at Dowling. So when friends started calling Armand “Big Bama,” Frank became “Little Bama,” shortened to “Bamie.”

Armand returned to Des Moines and opened Armand’s Lounge at Meredith Drive and Merle Hay Road. There, Bamie learned how to make pizza. His older sister Sadie taught him how to make the dough after his first attempts brought a crust so brittle it would break if you threw it against the wall, Ron said.

By 1961, he started working at Johnny & Kay’s, the legendary Des Moines fine dining restaurant that lays claim as the home of steak de Burgo, and continued working there while Bamie’s Pizza House got started.

“My dad worked brutal hours,” Ron said. The restaurant was closed on Sundays and Tuesdays, when they would do all of their prep work. Bamie and Coke stuffed their own sausages, made their own dough, cooked their own red sauce. Even the way they grate their cheese is a family secret.

Who was Colleen ‘Coke’ Bonanno?

“She's kind of the backroom girl,” Ann said of Colleen Bonanno, the matriarch of the family who did most of the cooking for Bamie’s. “She didn't really want to be in any of the limelight.” Instead, she kept the food rolling out while Bamie entertained the customers.

“My mom, she was the heart and soul of the restaurant,” Ron said. The only people who worked at Bamie’s were the three Bonanno sons and two daughters, he said. “We all had our part to play in the restaurant. There was nobody other than just the five of us.”

The pizzas did take a while to bake. “So he kind of came up with the antics to keep people entertained while they were waiting for their pizzas,” Ann said.

Why did Bamie’s Pizza House close?

Bamie’s closed because the Des Moines International Airport claimed eminent domain in 1986 and the Federal Aviation Administration declared the space a “clear zone” beyond the airport's footprint in case a plane ever crashed, according to reporting in the Des Moines Register on Feb. 12, 1986. Smitty’s also sat next to Bamie’s and opted to move six blocks down Army Post Road with its breaded pork tenderloins. In all, 20 businesses were disrupted by the move.

“Bamie’s Pizza House, our pride and joy, will be gone after August 2, 1986. A day that broke our hearts,” a handwritten note on the door told customers as the restaurant was about to close.

How popular was Bamie’s?

At times, stacks of white pizza boxes sat warming on top of the ovens, just waiting for customers to come in to pick them up, Ron said. Bamie’s did close for vacations during the year. Usually the family took two weeks off in August during the Iowa State Fair and another two weeks off around Christmas. “Ron was saying when they got back (from vacation), pent up demand was just so insane that they were like, ‘Was it really worth it?’” Ann said.

Some nights would get that busy as well, with the family making 150 to 200 pizzas. “We used to have to take the phone off the hook,” Ron said. “The orders were coming in so fast, we would take it off for 15 to 20 minutes and then we’d hang that phone back up and it literally would ring by the time we put it back.”

Even when they would go on vacation, Bamie and Coke always ran into people who knew their pizza. When Ron lived in Laguna Beach, California, and Tucson, Arizona, he said his parents would visit and run into people there who knew them.

How are Ron and Ann Bonanno keeping the Bamie’s Pizza House legacy alive?

Bamie’s son Ron Bonanno worked at Joseph’s Jewelers for 30 years, and his wife Ann Bonanno at Campbell’s Nutrition. In 1990, after the couple moved back from Arizona, Ann wanted to find a way to be a stay-at-home mom. Her kids kept getting sick at day care so she’d have to leave work to pick them up.

Bamie and Coke taught Ann how to make the sausage, the sauce, the dough.

Two opportunities came up to bring back Bamie’s pizzas. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Bamie’s served its pizzas, Strombolis, sandwiches and salads at the Waveland Cafe on Wednesday nights.

Around the same time, Pat Oswald from Iowa Public Television was looking for a way to showcase more live music in Des Moines. He put together a fundraising music series at the Basilica of St. John’s once or twice a month from 1990 to 2002. Later it moved to the Temple in downtown Des Moines.

St. John’s Coffee House brought in the likes of bassist Ray Brown, jazz musician Leon Redbone, acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke, and Nils Lofgren from the E Street Band.

The Bonannos did consider opening a new restaurant. Ann said that in 1995, they worked with a group of investors to open a location on Ingersoll Avenue. On Bamie’s birthday, the deal fell through. “We felt like that's his message saying, ‘Don't do it. Your kids are little.’ That's one reason Ron and I didn't ever did a restaurant because of his family growing up in it. It was hard.”

What are some of the stories about Bamie’s antics?

Bamie liked to use duct tape to put together his contraptions, like the water bottle attached to a camera. “My dad was crafty,” Ron said.

“He used duct tape so much that at his funeral, Ron took duct tape and sealed his casket with it,” Ann said. Bamie died in 1993.

Most of the crazy hats he wore were given to him by customers, and the fire department gave him fire extinguishers and hats.

“My dad was really pretty bold sometimes,” Ron said. “He was pretty ballsy. What he did he probably in jail today.”

Ron told a story of a woman coming in with a lot of makeup on. Bamie was trying to get her to pose for a photo, asking her to move this way and that. Then he squirted her with water from the camera. “All of a sudden, her makeup started rolling down her face,” he said.

On the advice of friends from Drake University’s law school, Bamie put up a sign above the door that notified customers that they entered at their own risk.

“That's how he was able to continue to always do what he was doing,” Ron said.

Of course, the flip side of that was that customers wanted to bring in newbies to get a dose of Bamie’s antics. Many would tell Bamie that they brought a newbie in so he could make them the center of his attention, all meant in good fun.

Even celebrities liked Bamie’s. Composer Henry Mancini said it was his favorite pizza in the country.

The boxing glove at the end of the trombone was a tribute to Bamie’s brother Jimmy, a prize fighter who scored 14 knockouts and 23 wins in his 43 bouts as a professional boxer during World War II.

The way he moved around the dining room with his trombone was a testament to his athleticism.

“He was very athletic. He would have played baseball if his mom and dad would have let him. He was drafted by the Chicago Cubs,” Ron said. “Because he was 18 years old, he had to stay home and work.”

In 1968, Bamie had a heart attack, one of three he suffered in his lifetime. Coke, Ron and another brother ran the restaurant while he was in the hospital. Around 10 p.m., Coke turned up the dimmers. “We’re closing,” she told customers. Under Bamie, the restaurant stayed up late, sometimes until 2 a.m.

“For dad 10 o'clock, that's when the party started. You know, that's when everybody was revved up,” Ron said.

What’s happening at Gusto with Bamie’s Pizza?

Gusto will serve four of Bamie’s recipes through Nov. 15. “They're gonna come mix the dough. They're gonna make the sauce here. They're gonna make the sausage here,” Lemmo said. Everything is weighed to the gram, he said. “These recipes are sacred. They're entrusting us to execute it.”

For Formaro, restaurants like Bamie’s and their storied histories drive him to learn as a chef. "I’m drawn to cooking because I’m driven by a servant’s mentality, an insatiable quest to resurrect old recipes, and a desire to keep the spirit of such proprietors alive," he told the Des Moines Register. "But more crucially, it’s about keeping the memories of those who remember alive with nostalgia and precious recollections of days gone by. There’ve been countless times I’ve been moved to tears upon tasting something I believed was lost forever, and Bamie’s pizza is no exception. It’s truly a gift to many to experience the flavors from one of Des Moines’ most treasured bygone establishments.”

Said Ron: “When they do eat the pizza and the memories are coming back... The taste, to me, you never forget.”

Where to find Gusto Pizza Bar

Location: 2301 Ingersoll Ave., Des Moines

Contact: gustopizzaco.com or 515-244-8786

Hours: Open from 3 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursdays, 3 to 11 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor and dining reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Where to find Bamie's pizza in Des Moines in November