Waldo's Pizza to return to Rochester as a food truck

Jeff Kiger, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·2 min read

Apr. 11—ROCHESTER — A beloved name from Rochester's past —

the Original Waldo's Pizza Joynt

— will roll back into the Med City this summer ... on a limited basis.

Mike Henning owns Waldo's Pizza in St. Cloud, Minnesota, which was a sibling to the Rochester restaurants. He sees groups of Rochester fans often trucking north for the nostalgic taste of the pizza that they remember from their youth. Now Henning plans to truck Waldo's Pizza back to Rochester.

After 15 years of trying to bring Waldo's back to Rochester, Henning and his sons are gearing up a special food truck to bring the Barnstormer pizza and other specialty pizzas back to the city that once had three Waldo's restaurants.

If things go as planned, the Waldo's truck should hit Rochester's streets in July. They hope to partner with Rochester breweries and Big Box stores during the Rochester stops.

"Some people will be excited. Some will probably be a little disappointed that it is not something more permanent. But this is the first step of getting back in the communities where we're known and build that excitement," said Henning. "The goal is for us to get a brick-and-mortar Waldo's back in Rochester. This is the first way for us to test the waters."

The trick was to literally find the right vehicle

"We needed a bigger truck with a better suspension and support system to house our equipment. When we take our pizza out on the road, we want it to be exactly like what we would make in our brick-and-mortar kitchen," he said.

The Waldo's truck, which is expected to be ready to roll at the end of May, is 35 feet long and stands about two feet higher than typical food trucks, according to Henning.

"It dwarfs most other trucks," he said.

Waldo's has a long and flavorful history in Rochester.

Henning says that Paul Bankers and Denn Evans launched Waldo's in 1977 on North Broadway in the

Northbrook Shopping Center,

which is now called River Center Plaza. About a year after it opened, Rochester brothers Mike and Tim Sitzer bought Waldo's. The founders moved to St. Cloud and opened the Waldo's there.

The Sitzers made Waldo's a Rochester hot spot. In 1984, they opened a second Waldo's in the Apache Mall. A third Waldo's launched in 1987 on 37th Street. By the late 1990s, all three had closed.