Rocky Rococo

Rocky Rococo is a pizza chain established in Madison in 1974. It is known for its unique pan-style pizza, sauce, the flamboyant and comical figurehead bearing its namesake, and sells pizza both by the slice and whole pies.

Origin

The original Rocky Rococo was located in downtown Madison, at 411 W. Gilman St., just off State Street. It opened on April 4, 1974.

The founders, Wayne Mosley and Roger Brown, were both from the Chicago area and met at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Brown had worked there at Garcia's Pizza in a Pan, which sold pizza by the slice; Mosley was a law student and a customer. They thought there was a market for pan-style pizza, which was popular in Chicago but little known elsewhere, and that a university town was the place to start. In 1973 they visited each city with a Big Ten university and settled on Madison, because it was close to home and had many students from Chicago.

The building on Gilman Street had been Brown's Restaurant, which closed on March 16, 1974, after 36 years. The newspaper noted the coincidence that one of the new proprietors was named Brown. The Daily Cardinal announced the change in February: Rocky's would serve "deep pan pizza deluxe, by the slice", with a white or whole-wheat "pastry style" crust, self-service and slices at 50 to 75 cents, and Brown's old owners would keep a financial stake. "Possibly the last thing Madison needs is another pizza place," Roger Brown said. Mosley and Brown bought it with a bank loan; a later account has them starting "with $15,000 and a beat-up pickup truck". Within weeks a large slice with sausage cost 80¢ at lunch. Mosley remembered sitting outside that first summer asking passersby to come in. Business picked up when university classes began in the fall.

The name came from a song on a record album popular at the time.

History

Growth

In October 1974 "newcomer Rocky Rococo" won the Daily Cardinal's fourth annual pizza contest, and in 1975 it won again for pan pizza; see Daily Cardinal pizza contests. That fall it delivered, at 256-0600, and sponsored the Daily Cardinal's crossword puzzle ("Rocky Rococo Delivers the Crossword Puzzle"). In April 1975 the workers at 411 W. Gilman were to vote on a union on May 1.

A second restaurant opened in the summer of 1975 at State and Lake streets (651 State St.), and two more within the next six months. In August 1975 the two stores divided the work: 411 W. Gilman sold whole pies, sandwiches and salads with Schlitz on tap and delivered, and 651 State sold slices and sandwiches; the City Council granted the State Street license on September 2. An advertisement in August 1978 listed five restaurants in the Madison area. The first restaurant outside Madison, in La Crosse, followed by about 1979.

By April 1982 there were 11 restaurants (six in Madison, two in La Crosse and three in Minneapolis) with 350 employees, and the company expected sales of about $6 million that year. Its headquarters was at 333 W. Mifflin St. It was about to start selling franchises, beginning with Milwaukee. The company sold franchises for whole television markets rather than single restaurants, so that advertising would pay. By February 1985 there were 43 restaurants in four states. That June Roger Brown told the Capital Times that the company planned to open 86 more that year, mostly franchises: "We were lucky to start in Madison." Pizza by the slice, the paper said, had been "pioneered locally by Rocky Rococo and still marketed here almost exclusively by that firm", and Rocky's did about 45 percent of its business before 5 p.m. In its "Cheese-off" that month the paper's tasters gave a slight preference to Rocky's pan pizza, which came in white or whole-wheat crust, over Pizza Hut's. The State Journal's fall dining guides listed nine Madison-area stores in 1985 and 1986 — 411 W. Gilman, 651 State (no delivery), 4556 Monona Dr., 1618 N. Beltline, 694 S. Whitney Way, 4002 E. Washington Ave., 3730 University Ave., West Towne Mall and 3001 N. Sherman Ave. — and ten in 1987: "R.R. is the king of pan style pizza (slice or whole pie)". The 1986 license list shows the Madison stores held by five companies: Rocky Rococo Corporation (Gilman and State streets), R & W of Wisconsin (Monona Drive and the Beltline), W & R of Wisconsin (Whitney Way and East Washington Avenue), Wayne & Roger Corporation (West Towne) and R & R Pan Style Pizza (North Sherman Avenue).

Sale of the company

Public Storage Inc., a real estate company in Glendale, California, took a stake in 1986. In January 1988 Mosley and Brown sold their 70 percent of Rocky Rococo Corp. to senior executives of Public Storage. In exchange they were given control of the 10 restaurants in Madison, which had about 500 employees, and three in La Crosse. The corporation's headquarters, with about 45 employees, was then at 340 W. Washington Ave., and its president was Thomas Hester. A later account describes the buyers as the founders' minority partners, Hester and his family. The corporation later moved to Oconomowoc.

The chain had grown to 120 restaurants by 1988. Brown later put the peak at 125, "from Spokane, Washington, to Puerto Rico".

The founders' restaurants

Mosley and Brown continued as franchisees of the company they had founded, under the name First Madco. They had 17 restaurants, 400 employees and more than $12 million in annual sales in February 1992, when the State Journal profiled Brown, then 45 and president of "FMI, doing business as Rocky Rococo Restaurants". That June the partners took over the Cinema Plus movie theater at 7952 Tree Lane in the Oakbridge Center, which had closed after three years, and converted it into a 145-seat restaurant with two of its three theaters kept as party rooms: "Rocky Rococo Plus" was the working name, "Rocky Rococo Master Pizza Theater" the hope, and it was First Madco's eighteenth restaurant and its first new one in Madison since the 1988 sale. It opened in August 1992 as "Rocky Rococo's Party Pizzeria", and in November it showed the Holyfield–Bowe title fight on closed-circuit television. Sandra Kallio reviewed it in April 1993: pizza from $1.89 a slice, pasta from $3.59, the Cartoon Network on the big screen from 4 to 7 p.m., and the advice to "stick to what you do best — pizza and parades", since the pasta "tasted like boiled-from-a-box" but "we loved the pepperoni pizza". The theaters showed the Foreman–Morrison and Bowe–Holyfield fights that year and hosted a Christian concert and the Ahana all-city prom. In February 1994 they became a Friday-night comedy club: "Just as Oscar Mayer gave us a theater in the Madison Civic Center, Rocky Rococo has given us a west-side comedy club," Jay Rath wrote. Jim Pedersen, the marketing vice president who played Rocky, usually hosted the 9 p.m. shows, at $4 a head, and the first night was standing room only. That June the company's office was at 5712 Odana Rd. In 1995 the office, under director of operations Steve Guyette and later area supervisor Dan Ironmonger, was recruiting managers for Madison, Rockford, Illinois, and the Wisconsin Dells, and that October advertised "over 20 years of quality in our hometown of Madison". The Party Pizzeria showed the McCall–Holmes heavyweight fight on closed circuit in April 1995, took on banquet and catering staff that August, and from September was listed as the home of ComedySportz's Friday and Saturday improv shows. It showed the Tyson–Bruno fight on March 16, 1996, at $17.50 a seat, and the ComedySportz listing ran on through 1996. They had 15 in 1997, 12 "mostly in the Madison area" in 2006, and 11 in 2009, of which eight were in Madison. The city's license list of May 2000 carried seven First Madco stores (1618 W. Beltline Hwy., 4556 Monona Dr., 3001 N. Sherman Ave., 7952 Tree Lane, 206 Westgate Mall, 1753 Thierer Rd. and 1301 Regent St.), and the company's own web list of December 2000 added 2620 Allen Blvd. in Middleton. In August 2001 First Madco was hiring for "our new restaurant in the Hilldale Mall", 702 N. Midvale Blvd., "in the back by Quizno's Subs"; Hilldale was on the license list by May 2002, when the Madison stores numbered eight, and the Allen Boulevard store was gone from the web list by that December. In 2002 the Tree Lane and Thierer Road restaurants were advertised as "Party Pizzeria West" and "Party Pizzeria East", each with a 35-game Pizza & Play family fun center. The city's license lists of 2005 to 2007 carried First Madco's eight Madison stores: 1618 W. Beltline Hwy., 4556 Monona Dr., 3001 N. Sherman Ave., 7952 Tree Ln., 206 Westgate Mall, 1301 Regent St., 1753 Thierer Rd. and 702 N. Midvale Blvd. In January 2009, in what Brown called a tough year, the 11 restaurants had 300 employees and about $10 million in revenue; the founders had sold the corporation in 1988 to their partner Wayne Hughes, who "closed 40 restaurants in one day", and the party pizzerias on the Far West Side (1992) and Far East Side (2000) were the biggest stores. The 2008 State Journal history of Madison pizza said the franchise had more than 50 stores, including the founders' 12. The Tyson–Seldon fight (September 7, 1996) and the Tyson–Holyfield title fight (November 9) followed on pay-per-view, $17.50 a seat, and ComedySportz played the Party Pizzeria every Friday and Saturday night through 1996.

In 1997 First Madco reshuffled its west side. On July 9 it opened a 100-seat restaurant with its own entrance in Westgate Mall, in the space B. Dalton Bookseller had left, and a week later a 110-seat restaurant in Baraboo, at Highways 12 and 136; each had about 45 employees and the full menu. The restaurants at 694 S. Whitney Way, across the street from Westgate and smaller than the new one, and at 3730 University Ave. closed: the University Avenue lease had run out, and Shorewood Hills had endorsed a new Kohl's Food Store, apartments and a new street for that shopping center. The new restaurants were First Madco's 14th and 15th, in Madison, Baraboo, La Crosse and Wisconsin Dells. "We're in the process of updating with remodeling our new locations that'll keep us in business at least another 25 years or so," Mosley said. The Party Pizzeria on Tree Lane showed the Holyfield–Tyson rematch of June 28, 1997 on its big screen for $20 and that October was hiring dough makers, counter and banquet staff at "up to $8.00/hour". Readers of the two Madison dailies ranked Rocky Rococo's fourth for pizza in the 1997 Readers' Choice Awards, behind Pizza Hut, Pizzeria Uno and Pizza Extreme.

The city's May 1998 renewals carried eight First Madco restaurants under Wayne Mosley — beer licenses at 1618 W. Beltline Hwy., 4556 Monona Dr., 4002 E. Washington Ave., 3001 N. Sherman Ave., 4 West Towne Mall, 206 Westgate Mall and 651 State St., and the liquor license at 7952 Tree Lane. On Friday, July 31, 1998, after 23 years, the State Street store "lined its windows with newspaper and called it quits". Roger Brown said delivery had become a bigger share of downtown business and the State Street spot had parking and delivery problems: "We needed a facility that makes delivery a little easier on us." He added: "Now we don't have a presence on State, but that's not forever." The original Gilman Street store had closed in 1995 to make room for the partners' first non-pizza venture, the short-lived Blue Cow; Brown and Mosley still owned 15 other Rocky Rococos, eight of them in Madison. That September a classified announced a "NEW LOCATION!! Now hiring all positions" at 1301 Regent St., "apply in person daily from 9AM–5PM, ask for Dan", with starting wages to $8 an hour and drivers' earnings of "$12+". The Regent Street store opened about September or October 1998; the October restaurant guide listed the Monona Drive store with "8 other locations". On August 6, 1998, about 225 Rocky Rococo pizzas were pieced together into the "World's Largest Wisconsin Cheese Pizza", a 1,000-pound pie in the shape of the state, at the Wisconsin State Fair, pictured on the State Journal's front page the next day beside a story on record cheese prices.

For the 30th anniversary, on April 4, 2004, Doug Moe retold the founding with Mosley: the partners had met at the University of Illinois, Brown had worked at Garcia's, a Champaign pan-pizza place, and had taken notes on his boss's time; they chose Madison over East Lansing, bought Brown's Diner on Gilman Street from Orv Erickson and Darrell Cook, and nearly called the place The Pizza Factory before settling on the name of a Firesign Theatre character. "Madison hadn't had pizza by the slice before." After the Oscar Mayer partnership and territory franchising the company had "anticipated 700 stores by 1990"; a Chicago ad agency even suggested dropping the Rocky character. In 2004 there were 45 Rockys, of which Mosley and Brown had eight in Madison, three in La Crosse and one in Wisconsin Dells. That July Rocky Rococo Corp. of Oconomowoc, with Tom Hester as president, had 38 pizzerias and was adding four, experimenting with sandwich and taco franchises inside them.

On March 25, 2010, Rocky Rococo Corp. sued First Madco in Waukesha County for a declaration on whether the renewed franchise agreements still carried First Madco's exclusive territory of Dane, Columbia, Iowa, Lafayette, Marquette, Richland, Sauk and Juneau counties. First Madco had been spun off in 1987 with nine franchised restaurants in return for stock in the corporation. "A dispute among friends", Brown called it; the chain then had 38 Wisconsin restaurants and one each in Minnesota, Washington and Kentucky. First Madco's advertisements of the time said "Only at Rocky's in Madison" and offered a free Sunday State Journal with any whole pizza on football Sundays.

In 2017 Brown closed the restaurant at Westgate Mall and the food court counters at West Towne Mall and in La Crosse, saying mall traffic was "way down". The large Party Pizzeria East at 1753 Thierer Rd. closed on May 13, 2018, after 18 years there; Rocky's had then been on East Washington for 38 years. The chain as a whole had 39 locations, with headquarters in Oconomowoc and Trey Hester as president.

Wayne Mosley died on November 28, 2017, at 70. His obituary retold the founding: he had started at Garcia's Pizza in a Pan in Champaign, the partners chose Madison over East Lansing, and they almost called the chain "The Pizza Factory".

From about 2022 Brown sold his remaining restaurants to longtime managers. The last, on the Beltline, was sold on December 20, 2024. There were then 30 Rocky Rococo restaurants in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota, four of them in the Madison area.

Sauce

Rocky Rococo’s pizza sauce seems to be of the cooked variety, has an intense tomato flavor but also strong herb notes. It’s also a pizza sauce that is less sweet than others. The sauce is featured as the main condiment for the popular bread sticks.

The pizza sauce has become popular enough that it is retailed in grocery stores, sold in 15 oz jars.

Special Pizzas

• The "Super Summer World Tour" of 1999 offered a different World Tour pizza each few days — the CheesyBaconBurger ("the Wisconsin Cheesehead's dream pizza"), the Meatworks, BBQ Chicken, Chicago Deluxe — at $12.99 for a large, with a World Tour slice at lunch and "Now Super Slices!".
• The Mother Lode, a pan pizza with smoky mozzarella stuffed to the edge, was new in May 2000 and promoted on "World Tours" through 2002, when the restaurants also advertised a 32-item salad bar. Other 2000 promotions were the Greatest Hits slices and the Rococo Mexicano World Tour with a Taco Rococo and a Fajita Steak pizza.
• The Cheese Works — Rocky's secret sauce and a combination of Wisconsin cheeses — was what the Regent Street store sent the Daily Cardinal's 2003 pizza poll, with plates, mints and free breadsticks; the tasters found the dough oddly sweet and ranked it fourth of five.

Heart-shaped pizza

One of the busiest days of the year for Rocky Rococo is St. Valentine’s Day, where they feature a heart-shaped pizza for sale.

Trivia

• In October 1976 Wayne Mosley and Roger Brown made Rocky Rococo, at 411 W. Gilman St. and 651 State St., the first place in Madison to sell soft-serve frozen yogurt. It was Dannon's "Danny-Yo," in strawberry, raspberry, boysenberry, vanilla and lemon. "It's the hottest thing since pizza," they said.
• The 1995 Yellow Pages ad listed ten stores — Campus 651 State St., North 3001 N. Sherman Ave., South 1618 W. Beltline Hwy., East 4002 E. Washington Ave. (those three with drive-thru service), Monona 4556 Monona Dr., South West 694 S. Whitney Way, West 4 West Towne Mall, West Side 3730 University Ave., Middleton 2620 Allen Blvd. (delivery and take-out only) and Rocky's Party Pizzeria at 7952 Tree Lane with its "two giant party rooms with 200-inch TV screens" — and offered "Pan Style Pizza or Classic Thin", pasta, lasagna and a salad bar.
• The city's 1999 license renewals carried seven Madison restaurants under First Madco Inc. with Wayne Mosley as agent: beer-only licenses at 1618 W. Beltline Hwy., 4556 Monona Dr., 4002 E. Washington Ave., 3001 N. Sherman Ave., Westgate Mall and 1301 Regent St., and a full liquor license at 7952 Tree Lane. The October 1999 restaurant guide listed the Monona Drive store "(8 other locations)".
• The May 1995 license list carried eight First Madco restaurants under Wayne Mosley: beer licenses at 3001 N. Sherman Ave., 1618 W. Beltline Hwy., 4556 Monona Dr., 4002 E. Washington Ave., 694 S. Whitney Way, 4 West Towne Mall and 651 State St., and a liquor license at 7952 Tree Lane. That autumn the Capital Times calendar called the Beltline store "Rocky Rococo's Party Pizzeria" too and placed ComedySportz there, while the State Journal listed the same shows at Tree Lane.
• In April 1992 the Capital Times counted nine Rocky Rococos among 74 places to get pizza in the Madison area, against 11 Pizza Pits, seven Pizza Huts, six Domino's and two Unos.
• Jim Pedersen, a psychotherapist and former Second City actor, has been the only person to play Rocky Rococo since 1975. The name came from the Firesign Theatre, which licensed it after the chain reached about 16 restaurants. His favorite pizza was the Rococo Chicago, the Thursday slice of the day, and his hangout the Party Pizzeria West.
• In December 2009 the Regent Street store's Super Slice of the Day was Uncle Sal's Spectacular (sausage, pepperoni, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and oregano) at $3.99, and the vegetable slice the Garden of Eatin' at $2.99.
• A kitchen fire in April 2007 damaged Yummy Buffet at 411 W. Gilman St., the first Rocky Rococo.
• Brown said in 2024 that two things set Rocky's apart at the start: "selling pizza by the slice and using unusually good sausage". The sausage is hand-formed, with fennel seed, black pepper and garlic powder. He credits it to his wife, Patricia Charley, who worked at the original restaurant and was the company's quality control director in 1982.
• Jim Pederson was the face of Rocky Rococo on television and its voice on radio for 40 years — many customers assumed he was the founder. He died suddenly on February 4, 2016, at 68, just before the Valentine's Day heart-pizza rush that was his signature event. The Rocky logo was drawn from a Dave Muldowney sketch in the Mad Magazine style, and the name came from a Firesign Theatre character.
• In 2024 Sam Brown, Roger Brown's son and a vice president of the company, bought the Greenbush Bar.
• A 2024 review of Fabiola's says Roger Brown and Pat Charley founded Rocky Rococo; Brown's own account names Wayne Mosley as his co-founder.
• Joe Brusca, who sold pizza supplies and ingredients around Madison for decades, said he sold the first case of cheese to the two men who planned to open Rocky Rococo's.
• Craig Culver, co-founder of Culver's, once ran the Monona Drive restaurant for a year.
• A joint venture with Oscar Mayer opened five restaurants in Minneapolis; it "didn't work out".
• Oscar Mayer first approached Rocky's in 1979 about selling its pizzas in grocery stores. The partners said no, since they could not keep the quality in a frozen pizza; Oscar Mayer then developed restaurants instead.
• Soon after Rocky's opened in 1974, Gargano's started making pan pizza and tried to register the obvious names, such as "pizza in the pan" and "pan pizza". Rocky's settled on "pan style pizza".
• The 1978 menu had thick crust in regular or whole wheat, a meatball sandwich, salad and "Mama's Lasagna".
• The 1980 Yellow Pages ad, "Pan Style Pizza and Pasta", quoted Rocky himself: "my pizza is da most superior throughout da modern world". It offered pizza, lasagna, spaghetti, salads, sandwiches and beer on tap, deliveries and carry-outs, at "5 locations … 5": 4556 Monona Dr., 411 W. Gilman St., 1618 W. Beltline Hwy., S. Whitney Way (misprinted 688 for 694) and 651 State St.
• "The fact is, we were not hippies and we are not billionaires," Brown said in 1988. In 1982 Mosley had said of the two of them in 1974, with shoulder-length hair and patched jeans: "Looking back, I'm surprised any bankers talked to us".
• Asked in 2004 whether there was an actual person named Rocky Rococo, Mosley said "Absolutely": a Madison resident who "once performed at The Second City", though evasive about his identity.
• In the autumn of 2004 the Madison restaurants gave away a Sunday State Journal with a medium or large pizza on football Sundays, a promotion they repeated in later years.
• Party Pizzeria East opened in 2000 in the former Sergio's nightclub after a $900,000 remodeling. It had video games and showed family movies.
• The restaurant at 694 S. Whitney Way was robbed on the night of October 31, 1995, by three masked men who took about $900 and beat three employees. All three were convicted; the jury verdict against the last of them, "the guy with the gun", was front-page news on February 28, 1997.
• In 1999 Brown told a reporter that Madison was one of Pizza Hut's top markets in the country.

Locations

Restaurants in the Madison area, with the latest date each is known to have been open:

• 1618 W. Beltline Hwy. (opened between June 1976 and May 1978; licensed in May 2026).
• 7952 Tree Lane, "Party Pizzeria West" (opened August 1992 in the former Cinema Plus theater; open in 2018).
• Monona Drive (4556 Monona Dr. by August 1978; sold to its new owners in August 2024).
• 2828 Prairie Lakes Dr., Sun Prairie (opened April 2014).

Former Locations

• 411 W. Gilman St. (April 4, 1974, to 1995, when it made way for the Blue Cow). The first restaurant.
• 651 State St. (1975 to July 31, 1998). It moved to Regent Street.
• 694 S. Whitney Way, at Odana Road (by August 1978; closed by July 9, 1997, when it moved across the street).
• Westgate Mall, in the former B. Dalton Bookseller space, about 100 seats with its own entrance (July 9, 1997 to May 2017).
• 3730 University Ave., east of the Kohl's in the Shorewood Hills shopping center (listed in 1995; closed by July 9, 1997, when its lease expired and the center was to be redeveloped).
• 4002 E. Washington Ave. (licensed in May 1980).
• 3001 N. Sherman Ave. (licensed 2000 to 2007).
• 2620 Allen Blvd., Middleton (delivery and take-out only in 1995; on the company's web list from December 2000 to June 2002; gone by December 2002).
• 702 N. Midvale Blvd., Hilldale (hiring for the new restaurant in August 2001; licensed 2002 to 2007).
• Party Pizzeria East, Thierer Road near East Towne (2000 to May 13, 2018). It replaced an earlier restaurant kitty-corner from it on East Washington Avenue.
• West Towne Mall (license applied for in May 1983; the food court counter closed in 2017).
• Regent Street (the State Street store's replacement, in a former Delitalia; a "new location" hiring in September 1998; licensed at 1301 Regent St. from 1999; open in 2018, run by Sam Brown). A directory lists it at 1301 Regent St. and marks it closed. It closed in August 2022, and the Brown family opened Fabiola's, an Italian spaghetti house, in the space in 2023.

External links

• Rocky's Madison website
• Rocky's Wikipedia page

See also

• Rocky Rococo in the Madison Pizza Wiki database