Rocco's Pizza Closes After 18 Years

East

Big food news, everyone: The iconic Rocco's Pizza on 10th andWest Burnside parlor has shut its doors after 18 years.

"Closed forever," confirms Danny Belrose, who was a bartender at Rocco's new bar, which the owners opened next door to the pizza place last year. Rocco's website doesn't bear the news and no one is answering their phone. "Last night was the last night. They just kind of closed silently, boarded it up." Belrose says he just found out two days ago that he would be out of a job come Monday. "But they've been talking about it for months, the bills piling up. They said they didn't know where the money was going."

What a bummer. I mean, Rocco's pizza sucked. But, still, 18 is like 100 in Portland years. I'm sure I'm not the only one with fond memories of wandering into Rocco's as a teenager, getting a $3 slice, and watching all the crazy downtown people pass by. It was the very first place I ever ate in Portland. And also the first place I ever read the Mercury! Rocco's has been a reliably greasy-food standby in a neighborhood that's gone through a lot of changes—its own real market property value has about tripled.