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Like the guy who orders pizza once a week with three orders of French bread. Or the one customer who orders a cheese pizza with extra, extra, extra sauce (yes, three extras). For that one, the Rocco’s staff has to bake the crust for a few minutes just to make it hold the weight of all the sauce.
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Bob Barth, owner of Rocco's Pizza, which turns 50 today, makes a sausage and pepperoni pizza last Wednesday at the Goodview restaurant location. Barth, son of Rocco's founder Tom "Rocco" Barth, doesn't often get into the kitchen to make pizzas like he did when he was just an employee, but he still remembered all the tricks to a classic Rocco's pizza. (photo by Katie Derus/Winona Daily News) |
The Hamm’s beer lights that hang by the cash register still shine bright, although the beer has nearly gone the way of Stroh’s, another formerly famous Midwest brew. Heileman’s Old Style lamp fixtures hang over the booths; soda is still sold by the can; and paper plates are the only things thinner than the handmade crust.
None of those things matter, though.
What keeps customers coming back to the two locations is literally no different than what Tom “Rocco” Barth started with 50 years ago today — fresh ingredients and a good recipe. Heck, back then, even the idea of pizza was fresh and new.
“If there is a real secret, it’s the ingredients, not the employees,” said longtime pizza maker Dale Duran. “I probably shouldn’t say that, but it’s true. There are seven or eight of us who make the pizzas, and if it’s done right, it should all come out the same.”
The same pizza — the same homemade “simple dough” and sauce recipe — have been keeping Robert and Jo Ann Franzen of rural Winona County coming to Rocco’s since they moved to the area in 1961. They used to order the supreme pizza with everything, now they’ve cut back a little to just sausage and pepperoni.
“I don’t think I could eat any other kind,” Robert said.
For their 50th wedding anniversary, they had a big meal with all the family and grandkids. Later that night, as dinner approached, Robert couldn’t resist his family’s pleas for the pizza. Ten large pizzas later, the party continued around the dinner table.
Bob Barth, Rocco’s owner and son of the founder, started in what would become the family business when he was small, folding pizza boxes for $1 and “staying out of his father’s way.”
As the business passed from father to son, there were no secrets, no tricks, just doing business the same way. That meant mixing the 600 to 750 pounds of dough Rocco’s goes through weekly. It means dabbing the sausage in the sauce before breaking it up so that it doesn’t stick to your hand. It means swirling the sauce in a circular fashion so it doesn’t clump up. It means making a pizza from dough to box in 12 minutes.
“Skimpy doesn’t get customers coming back, and too much means it’s greasy and that won’t work either,” Barth said.
You can’t get teriyaki chicken or asparagus on your pizza here. No sauerkraut or shrimp. The last time the menu changed was about 15 years ago when Barth created a taco pizza. Before that, it was the addition of pineapple.
It’s not that Rocco’s is trying to be kitschy or trendy by having vintage beer signs or offering pizza in any choice of crust as long as it’s thin. They haven’t changed the pizza. They haven’t changed the ingredients. And, they haven’t had to change customers, either.
