MARION (WSIL) -- There's a fairly new restaurant serving up pizza in an old building that's played a significant role in the city's past.
Tower Square pizza, which is located on the square in Marion, opened up in November.
Carrie Whitmer, the manager, says it's received a warm reception from the community.
"It's been positive, we have a lot of people backing the restaurant," she explains. "We have a lot of loyal customers, a lot of returning customers."
The outside of the building tells some of its past with "bank" and "city hall' etched into its brick exterior, but it's been much more than that.
Whitmer details that the building has been around since 1903 and has also served as a barbershop, fire station, and police station.
There's still evidence of the police station in the basement where an original jail cell door has been kept.
"Kevin Tondini (owner) did not want to mess with that part of history,"
Whitmer explains. "We don't use it for much but it's nice having it here still intact."
But, our News 3's Brooke Schlyer stopped by to try the food and Chef Steve Witt made plenty for her try including some appetizers she's never had before.
First up, breaded spicy risotto bites. Ground sausage with jalapeno is rolled up with risotto, which is similar to rice, and then deep-fried until golden brown.
Then another appetizer that was new to Brooke, breaded meat Cannelloni bites.
It's a rolled pasta that's stuffed with sausage and lots of fresh herbs. Then, it's deep-fried and served with homemade marinara sauce.
Before trying the deep dish pizza, Brooke got to see how it's made.
Fresh pizza dough that's made daily is lined in a deep dish pan and filled nearly to the brim with cheese.
Customers can pick from an array of pizza toppings, for this segment Brooke went with traditional pepperoni.
The pizza is put in the oven for 45 minutes and is only taken out to add the sauce.
BROOKE'S PICK: I love that I had the opportunity to try a few appetizers that I never had before but my favorite had to be the risotto bites because the spicy sausage that had a nice kick to it. I also really enjoyed the garlic bread with cheese. It's made with garlic butter and I'm a firm believer that you can never have too much garlic. But the star of the show was the deep dish pizza. The pizza had tons of cheese and a robust sauce.
You can order Tower Square Pizza for take-out, curbside or through the Door Dash app.
