Roca Bar will close original building to open new location. Here’s what we know.

EVANSVILLE − The Roca Bar, Evansville’s first pizza restaurant, has announced it is closing its original building. Here’s what we know, and some history about the Roca Bar.

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You can eat in the old building until April 30

The original restaurant on South Kentucky Avenue will close Sunday, April 30, and the new location in Washington Plaza, near the intresection of Green River Road and Washington Avenue, will open on Monday, May 15, according to a post on the Roca Bar’s Facebook page.

The original Roca Bar building on Kentucky Avenue, which is now over 80 years old, will be closed at the end of April as the business moves to a new home on Green River Road and Washington Avenue. One pressing question that many are asking: will the iconic Roca Bar sign be making the move?

The Roca Bar was the first restaurant in Evansville to serve pizza

It opened in 1943, but it was in 1953 that George Hage of Chicago took over the business and began serving pizza.

He eventually moved down the street to open the House of Como, but the Roca Bar never stopped making pizza with Chicago-style cracker crust, begetting the style to Evansville. The Roca Bar has been locally famous ever since as the home of thin-crust pizza and big bowls of Italian salad with pepperoni, ham, egg and tomato wedges smothered with shredded cheese and green and black olives, served old-school style with a basked of wrapped crackers.

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The menu grew over time. These days, specialty pizzas include the Roca Garden with pesto sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, artichokes and other vegetable; the Roca Fredo with alfredo sauce, chicken, broccoli and more; the Front Page with BBQ and brown sugar sauce, beef and mushrooms; and other unique combinations as well as classic pizzas, sandwiches, pastas, fried appetizers, wings and much more.

There was a second Roca Bar, for a while

The Roca Bar even spawned the Roca Bar North, which operated successfully under separate ownership for 11 years until its closure in 2021.

We haven’t officially heard the reasons for the move, yet

We attempted to contact the owners of the Roca Bar, but they weren’t available for comment.

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The Indiana Secretary of State’s office lists Gina Hermann as the president for “Roca Bar South, Inc.,” the company behind the historic pizza place. Hermann is the wife of former Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nick Hermann.

The reasons for the abandonment of the original building are still officially a mystery, although there is plenty of speculation online. That structure is now more than 80 years old, and the part of South Kentucky Avenue where it sits has gone from a busy, business-packed highway to a mostly residential neighborhood of older buildings.

The upcoming location is a newly renovated commercial space at Washington Plaza, which is taking the place of the former Schnuck’s store on South Green River Road. It boasts plentiful parking in a bustling shopping and dining district and is part of the broader revitalization of South Green River Road that includes the new Schnuck’s Plaza across the street, the new Goodwill Headquarters and other tenants inside Washington Square Mall, and the new apartment complex that recently replaced the old Showplace Cinema South.

Roca Bar of Evansville

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Roca Bar will close original spot to open new location