Des Moines, Iowa has a lot of great Italian restaurants – so many that people often call the area where they’re most commonly found the Hawkeye State’s Little Italy. You can find all the classics – chicken parmesan, lasagna, and of course pizza. But to find the best pizza in Iowa, you’ll want to go to a place that’s been dishing them out since 1945.
Chuck Celsi’s Tavern Restaurant, often just called The Tavern, is the oldest still-operating Italian restaurant in Des Moines, beating out Noah’s Ark by only a year. It’s undergone a lot of changes in those almost eighty years, but what hasn’t changed is that the food is still the best around.
