Eight years after seemingly going down for the count, the family-owned Rocky’s Pizza is back for another round in Birmingham, Alabama, proving the resilience of a well-known pizza concept with a solid following.

Setbacks caused delays in the reopening, originally scheduled for Summer 2023, but the children of the late founder Dennis Dunlap stuck with it, even as fans of the brand became impatient, according to AL.com.

Dennis launched the boxing-themed Rocky’s Pizza in 1986 but passed away from cancer in 2017, while the restaurant itself closed the previous year. Now his son and daughter, Joshua and Cynthia, have revived their dad’s pizza-making legacy, opening a new iteration of Rocky’s Pizza on Monday, September 2. “I am ecstatic to have my sister on board with this partnership,” Joshua told Bham Now. “I have always been the happiest when we are united as a family operation. I know this is how my father envisioned the business to continue.”

Chef René Mercado Angeles has also come on board as a co-owner. She worked 16-plus years at Gianmarco’s Restaurant, which offers Italian fine-dining in Birmingham.

Bham Now said Rocky’s Pizza was “one of Birmingham’s most beloved pizza joints.” During its heyday, it relocated around the city twice. In its later years, Joshua ran the kitchen while his dad took care of the front-of-house and Cynthia filled in as her schedule allowed.

Dubbed in honor of boxer Rocky Marciano, Rocky’s was known for its slogan, “Round After Round, Best Pizza in Town,” and its pies were named for various famous boxers. That will be the case for the new restaurant, which will offer pies like the Muhammad Ali (Alfredo sauce, chicken breast strips, button mushrooms, yellow onions, black olives and Parmesan); the George Forman (red sauce, spiced beef, bacon crumbles, yellow onions, fresh diced tomatoes, shredded cheddar and the option of shredded lettuce); and the Prince Naseed Hamed (housemade sauce, ground lamb, red onions, yellow onions, cilantro, feta cheese and a hot honey drizzle).

Cynthia told AL.com that she filled in on some shifts at the original Rocky’s Pizza whenever she could. “I would come in before opening and did food prep work before my college classes at [the University of Alabama-Birmingham] started. I ran the phones on evenings and weekends. I filled in as delivery driver when needed and set up catering jobs. I was a runner for short errands needed to keep daily operations flowing.”

When the restaurant moved to its last location, she oversaw renovations and continued filling in on shifts as needed. “I stayed involved with marketing projects and new product introductions to the business. I was honored to be involved in the family business and watch it flourish.”

The Dunlap family and Mercado Angeles first announced Rocky’s would reopen last summer, then rescheduled the launch for Spring 2024. As often happens in these situations, the pizza-loving public, oblivious to the challenges a new restaurant faces, started griping and speculating.  “It was hard,” Mercado Angeles said in the AL.com interview. “We would see the posts online, with people asking when we would open and the conspiracies of why it hadn’t happened yet. We just didn’t want to respond until we were 100% confident that the date would be correct this time.”

“In hindsight, we regret announcing when we did,” Mercado Angeles added. “At the time we originally announced that we were coming back, we genuinely believed that we would be open within a few months. Obviously, we were wrong.”

Rocky’s Pizzeria held its soft opening on September 2 and expects to go “full steam ahead” by Monday, September 9. “Longtime fans will appreciate the décor,” Mercado Angeles told Bham Now.com. “We took all of the old photos that decorated the walls of our past location and put them up here. We added a bunch of other photos as well, so I think longtime fans will love the old school vibe.”

She added, “Being able to reopen Rocky’s means the world to all of us. There have been some ups and downs, but we never gave up. In the end, what means the most is keeping the legacy of Dennis Dunlap alive. He will always be the face of Rocky’s.”