Chuck Lacona motored around the Drake neighborhood on a three-wheel Cushman cart while clutching a CB radio. As the orders rolled in, the CB buzzed and he rushed large cheese, pepperoni and sausage pizzas to his customers. It was 1963. Mama Lacona's sold pizzas this way for 15 years.
"He had a CB inside his restaurant," said Vanessa Lacona Devine, daughter of Chuck Lacona. "I thought that was a brilliant idea on my father's part." In 1989, Chuck's son, Jim Lacona — who was 26 at the time — took the reins and sold dressings and prepackaged lasagnas in markets across Des Moines.
