With locations in cities like Los Angeles, Nashville, and Austin, the Desano Pizzeria Napoletana brand has already established a foothold here in South Florida with its outpost at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Desano is now planning to expand with a brick-and-mortar location in North Palm Beach this fall, and owner Scott Desano says it may only be the beginning.
“I’d like to a number of them down here,” Desano told What Now on Friday. “I living in Palm Beach Gardens, and I’d like to do one or two here, and may three to five further south.”
Desano has been getting rave reviews with its emphasis on fresh ingredients, many of which are imported regularly from Italy. Its pizzas come in traditional flavor profiles like Margherita, along with Pizza Specialitá varieties like the San Gennaro (San Marzano tomato sauce, sausage, peppadews, garlic, caramelized onions, scamorza, mozzarella di bufala, and pecorino romano) and the Diavola (San Marzano tomato sauce, soppressata, pepperoni, calabrian peppers, scamorza, mozzarella di bufala, garlic, and pecorino romano).
“I get my cheeses, my tomatoes, olive oil, flour, all from the Campania region of Italy. It’s the absolute best ingredients in the world,” says Desano. “We started about 12 years ago and we haven’t changed a thing.”
Desano says the pizza chain has shown true from-the-ground-up growth; forgoing advertising, Desano Pizza has grown strictly by word of mouth. And it’s in more and more mouths: Desano told What Now about a recent Instagram story from football superstar Tom Brady, in which the football player is holding up a Desano Pizza box.
“With word of mouth, you really have to earn that,” Desano said. “We’re excited to bring it down here.”
