Rocky Rococo (Q552)
From Madison Pizza Wiki
pan-style pizza chain founded in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1974
- Rocky Rococo's
- Rocky's
- Rocky Rococo Pan Style Pizza
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Rocky Rococo |
pan-style pizza chain founded in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1974 |
|
Statements
4 April 1974
1 reference
With a loan they bought a restaurant at 411 W. Gilman St. in downtown Madison and on April 4, 1974, opened for business.
1 reference
It all comes down to selling pizza by the slice and using unusually good sausage.
1 reference
Jim Pederson, who was the face of Rocky Rococo on TV and the voice of Rocky's on radio for 40 years
1 reference
credits his wife, Patricia Charley, an employee at his original restaurant on Gilman Street, with creating Rocky's unique sausage
5
August 1978
1 reference
I got five diffrint restaurants
1 reference
Four years later, there were three more Madison stores and one in La Crosse.
11
April 1982
1 reference
Today, there are six restaurants in Madison, two in La Crosse and three in Minneapolis.
6
April 1982
43
February 1985
1 reference
there are 43 Rocky Rococo restaurants in four states
10
January 1988
120
1988
1 reference
the Rocky Rococo Pan Style Pizza chain grew to 120 restaurants nationwide by 1988
1 reference
At its height, there were 125 stores from Spokane, Washington, to Puerto Rico.
41
January 2009
1 reference
Co-owns 11 restaurants with co-founder Roger Brown. Eight are in Madison and three in La Crosse. Another 30 restaurants are part of the Rocky Rococo Corp.
8
January 2009
39
April 2018
1 reference
In all, there are 39 Rocky Rococo locations, all but two in Wisconsin
31
December 2024
1 reference
There are now 30 Rocky's in Wisconsin, including in Milwaukee, Oconomowoc, Wausau and Appleton, plus one in Minnesota. Four remain in the Madison area.
4
December 2024
11
2016
39
2018
1 reference
39 locations; headquarters in Oconomowoc; president Trey Hester
41
April 2010
1 reference
38 Wisconsin locations plus one each in Minnesota, Washington and Kentucky
12
September 2006
1 reference
We own/operate 12 Rocky Rococos mostly in the Madison area
7
May 2000
8
May 2002
45
April 2004
1 reference
Later this spring they expect to enter a new phase of growth when they become licensed to franchise in Wisconsin.
The name came from a song on a record album; the founders met at the University of Illinois and chose Madison after touring Big Ten towns in 1973.
The sauce is sold in grocery shops in 15-ounce jars. A heart-shaped pizza is sold for St. Valentine's Day, one of the busiest days of the year.
1 reference
A 2024 Capital Times review of Fabiola's says Roger Brown and Pat Charley founded Rocky Rococo in 1974; Brown's own account (State Journal, December 2024) names Wayne Mosley as co-founder and Charley as an early employee who created the sausage.
Roger Brown still owned five Madison-area and two La Crosse Rocky Rococo stores in June 2021.
The Westgate store and the mall food-court counters closed in 2017, and Party Pizzeria East in May 2018, leaving the Madison stores at Monona Drive, Prairie Lakes, Regent Street, Tree Lane and the West Beltline.
Joe Brusca, the pizza-supply salesman, sold the first case of cheese to the two men who planned to open Rocky Rococo's.
The founders' 1988 sale: partner Wayne Hughes, brought in to finance fast growth into eight or nine cities, bought the company, 'closed 40 restaurants in one day', and its managers later salvaged it; Mosley and Brown kept their own restaurants. Party pizzerias opened on the Far West Side in 1992 and the Far East Side in 2000.
Jim Pederson, a Second City actor, has been the only Rocky since 1975; The Firesign Theatre licensed the name once the chain reached about 16 stores. His favorite: the Rococo Chicago. 2009 slices: Uncle Sal's Spectacular and the Garden of Eatin'.
30th anniversary April 4, 2004 (Doug Moe): Mosley and Brown nearly named it The Pizza Factory; Brown had worked at Garcia's, a Champaign pan-pizza place; they bought Brown's Diner on Gilman Street from Orv Erickson and Darrell Cook; the name came from a Firesign Theatre character; 'Madison hadn't had pizza by the slice before'; the 1975 State Street store 'rode like Secretariat'.
After a short-lived Oscar Mayer partnership the company franchised by territory and in the 1980s 'anticipated 700 stores by 1990'; a Chicago ad agency suggested dumping the Rocky character; the founders sold to a California company, keeping several restaurants — 'franchisees of the company we founded'. In 2004: 45 Rockys; Mosley and Brown had eight in Madison, three in La Crosse, one in the Dells.
Mosley (2004): Rocky is an actual person, a Madison resident who 'once performed at The Second City'. Promotions 2000–04: the Mother Lode (smoky mozzarella stuffed to the edge, May 2000), Greatest Hits slices, the Rococo Mexicano World Tour (Taco Rococo, Fajita Steak), a 32-item salad bar, Pizza & Play game rooms at the Party Pizzerias (2002), a free Sunday State Journal with a pizza (2004).
5 references
Seven Madison stores in the May 1999 license lists (1618 W. Beltline, 4556 Monona Dr., 4002 E. Washington, 3001 N. Sherman, Westgate Mall, 1301 Regent, 7952 Tree Lane); summer 1999 'Super Summer World Tour' daily specials and 'Super Slices'.
3 references
In Feb. 1992 Roger Brown's FMI ran 17 Rocky Rococos with 400 employees and $12 million in sales; the Capital Times counted nine Madison stores in April 1992 and called the Tree Lane one the city's 11th.
Ten Madison-area stores in the 1995 Yellow Pages, three with drive-thru service and the Middleton one delivery and take-out only; the menu offered 'Pan Style Pizza or Classic Thin', pasta, lasagna and a salad bar.
1980 Yellow Pages ad, 'Pan Style Pizza and Pasta': 'my pizza is da most superior throughout da modern world'; pizza, lasagna, spaghetti, salads, sandwiches, beer on tap, deliveries and carry-outs; five stores (the ad misprints 694 S. Whitney Way as 688). 411 W. Gilman St. was still listed.
2 references
Fourth in the 1997 Readers' Choice pizza poll.
'Best pizza in my book is Rocky Rococo's, but strictly by default' — Brooks Egerton's farewell Cheap Eats, June 1986; a Rocky Rococo character rode in a white limousine in the 1989 holiday parade.
2 references
Nine Madison-area stores in October 1985 (411 W. Gilman, 651 State, 4556 Monona Dr., 1618 N. Beltline, 694 S. Whitney Way, 4002 E. Washington, 3730 University, West Towne Mall, 3001 N. Sherman); 'R.R. is the king of pan style pizza (slice or whole pie). Also sandwiches and salad bar. Regular specials and delivery'.
Pizza by the slice was 'pioneered locally by Rocky Rococo and still marketed here almost exclusively by that firm' (1985); Rocky's did about 45 percent of its business before 5 p.m.; co-owners Roger Brown and Wayne Mosley planned 86 new restaurants in 1985; pan-style only, white or whole-wheat crust, large 14-inch $12.52.
'10 Madison-area locations' in October 1987; 'Pizza by the slice, or whole pie. Delivery and take-out. Most stores have inside seating.'
Daily Cardinal contest winner as a newcomer in October 1974 (pan style, 4.6 of 7, 33-minute delivery) and again in 1975 for pan pizza (55.6% to Gargano's 44.4%). Sold a large slice with sausage for 80¢ at lunch in April 1974.
In October 1976 Rocky Rococo's two stores, 411 W. Gilman St. and 651 State St., were the first in Madison to sell soft-serve frozen yogurt (Dannon's "Danny-Yo", in strawberry, raspberry, boysenberry, vanilla and lemon); "It's the hottest thing since pizza," Mosley and Brown said.
