Rocky Rococo (Racine)

• 6631 Washington Avenue
• Racine, WI 53406
• (262) 886-1984
• Website
• Menu

Sorry, ya’ll. I’m about to annoy a bunch of people again.

I’ve explained on this blog many times that this has become more of a journal. I write about my own life through the lens of food. Yes, that means I’m going to blog about places not in Southwest Michigan. I’ve said it a few times. I wish I had named the blog something else, but what’s done is done.

I’ve spent all my money recently on traveling for figure skating competitions so when I am home, I have less money to eat out. That’s why you’re not seeing a ton of Southwest Michigan restaurants. Skating season is slowing down so hopefully I’ll get back on track for those of you that get angry that I’m gonna write about a bunch of restaurants in Wisconsin.

So yeah, we were in Southern Wisconsin for a figure skating competition last week. The event took place in Pleasant Prairie which is right on the Wisconsin/Illinois line. Our hotel was a little further north in the Racine area.

We got to town a little after dinner time on Wednesday night. We actually met my parents at the hotel in Sturtevant. L’s events were really early on Thursday morning and my parents wanted to come and watch but didn’t want to drive before dawn so they came up the night before too.

We didn’t have B this weekend but for a couple of nights, we had another one of the skaters. Her mom was going to meet us in Wisconsin on Friday after she got back from a work trip so the first two nights we had an extra kid with us.

When we got settled in the hotel, we needed to venture out for food. J noticed a sign for a pizza place as we got off the highway. It’s a Wisconsin chain that I was surprised she knew but she and L ate there last year when they went to Wisconsin Rapids for a skating camp. We knew pizza would be quick and easy and we all needed to get some rest.

Rocky Rococo’s is a longtime quick service Wisconsin pizza chain. The store we picked is on Washington Avenue just to the east of Warwick Way in Racine. At one point, there were close to 150 stores in the Midwest but that number is down to 40 now with all but one in Wisconsin.

The thing that makes Rocky Rococo’s unique is that it’s a pizza by the slice place…but the pizza is rectangle. It’s not a Detroit style pizza but it is kind of thicker crust cut pan pizza cut in to squares instead of large triangles like most slice places.

There is an order counter like any other fast food restaurant to put your order in and next to that is a small salad bar. They have slices, pasta and bread sticks ready to go but if you want a whole pizza, you can put in an order or that too.

Keeping with the fast food feel of the place, there is a large dining room that has a kind of 80’s Wendy’s feel to it. We had no reason to rush back to the hotel and it was easier to sit and talk to my parents around the dinner table than to be squeezed in to a hotel room somewhere so we grabbed a large round table in the corner once we all got our food.

It was just the four of us eating. My parents came to town early and did some shopping so they didn’t want for us to eat. They walked to a McDonalds by the hotel. My dad wishes he would of waited because he said the pizza looked good once we got it.

J and L both did pasta instead of pizza. They both ordered the spaghetti with marinara sauce. This is a pretty large bowl of simple pasta with a simple marinara. There are options to add meatballs but neither of them or big meatball people. J also did a one time trip to the salad bar with her meal. You can do either unlimited salad bar or a one trip. Since she also had the pasta, she just did the one trip. Neither of them finished the big bowl of pasta. Some of it came back to the hotel with us but we got busy and forgot about it until we were cleaning out the fridge at check out time.

Our extra kid (just gonna refer to her as EK from now on) and both did the pizza slice meal. I got a pepperoni slice. She got a cheese slice. These slices are ok for what they are. It’s a pretty basic pan pizza cut in to squares. The crust is a little thick and pretty chewy. There’s a thin layer of sauce and cheese on top which didn’t really have a unique taste. It’s a utility slice. It’s good, quick, and cheap.

In addition to the regular slice, I also ordered a Super Slice. They have sausage and pepperoni super slices every day plus a daily special. Wednesday’s slice is Rococo Chicago which has sausage and diced tomatoes. Probably should have tried that but I stuck with sausage and pepperoni.

The Super Slice is a much better slice of pizza. It’s a little bit softer than the regular slice. There’s more crust but there’s also more cheese, sauce, and toppings. The sausages on top of this slice were huge. From a taste standpoint, this is the way to go at Rocky Rococo.

All of our meals came with bread sticks so we had a lot of them on the table. Each of the cups has six soft, buttery bread sticks and marinara to dip them in. It turned out to be a lot of food. EK pretty much only ate the bread sticks. L ate about half. I ate all of mine and I think a couple of the leftovers on the table. They were really taste but could have used a little more of the marinara to dip them in.

The cost for our meal was right around $40.

Rocky Rococo is such a cool chain. This is the first time I’ve been to one but just from looking around, it feels kind of like an 80’s fast food time capsule. The fact you can get a decent slice of pizza, bread sticks, and a pop quickly and cheaply is a draw for me. Like a lot of slice places, the experience is going to depend on how long that box with the pizza has been sitting under the warmers. I really liked the Super Slice and enjoyed the regular slice but my guess is a whole fresh pizza would be better.