The old Trocadero building now houses DiModa Pizza & Hot Spot (1758 N. Water St.), maintaining the old restaurant’s expansive nature—seriously, the place just keeps going—and offering some truly excellent Roman-style pizza.
At 13 inches, the wood-fired pizzas are ideally split between two hungryish people.
A standout is the Spicy Pep ($16), which features Ghost Pepperoni (dry-cured with ghost peppers) from Madison’s Underground Meats, carmelized cipollini onions, mozzarella and an arrabbiata-type tomato sauce. While ghost peppers may conjure up images of red-faced folks gasping for air and begging for milk, the spice is pleasantly manageable—just enough to have kick, but quelled by the salty mozzarella and the sweet onions.
The crust is awesome: thick but not overly chewy. If you’re not in the mood for pizza, DiModa’s wings ($10) are listed as an appetizer but will easily fill you up.
Oven roasted and marinated in a chili-lemon sauce, they’re pleasantly different from your run-of-the-mill wings, especially when they’re dipped in their house-made caper Parmesan ranch.
