The Midwest wasn’t so quick to adopt the trend; through the 50s local teens preferred a hamburger and shake. The first Council Bluffs establishment to devote itself primarily to the new food was Pizza Pantry at 3107 West Broadway in 1959. Cookies Pizza Palace popped up a short time later at 2915 West Broadway. Pizza King brought the dish downtown in the mid 1960s. Pizza King was started by Thomas Zissos and George Kallimanis, but has been owned by the Poulos family since 1965. Pizza King was originally at 142 West Broadway, relocated a block west in 1965, then moved to the new wing of the old St. Pat’s school in 1973 after the downtown location had to make way for Midlands Mall.
Pizza was beginning to catch on but was still a niche market until the late 1960s when the national chains came to the metro area complete with expensive marketing campaigns. Shakey’s, which originated in Sacramento and in what would be considered rather insensitive today was named for the tremor of co-owner Sherwood Johnson, advertised heavily on television. Pizza Hut arrived in Council Bluffs in late 1967 with a restaurant on West Broadway and one on East Pierce the next year. Pizza Hut promoted itself to kids via radio and print ad campaigns. By the time Clinton, Iowa native William Theisen founded Godfathers in Omaha in 1973 and Council Bluffs opened its branch in 1976 pizza was a mainstream food, well on its way to becoming as American as hamburger and fries.
Lincoln based Valentino’s has made several ventures into Council Bluffs, with a restaurant in the Hy-Vee complex on Madison Avenue, 28th and West Broadway, a take-out operation on Bennett Avenue, and a couple of attempts on Madison Avenue at the city limits.
Despite the arrival of the pizza chain restaurants, Pizza King continued to grow in stature as a local icon. Indeed a photo of the restaurant on the Historical Society’s Facebook page "Council Bluffs Revealed" has drawn some of the most passionate positive comments of any post ever, many saying how it was their very first pizza and remains yet today a delicacy and a tradition.
Pizza King isn’t alone as a linger home town favorite, however. Pizza Counter opened on the South Omaha Bridge Road in 1988 with the plan of attracting picnickers and boaters that would buy a pizza on the way than pack up lunch or dinner from home. The opened a second store on East Broadway in 1993, relocating to Ogden Place in 2015. Pizza Counter remains a favorite today, and has been known to edge out the iconic Pizza King in the “best of” awards.