Wedgewood Pizza celebrates 50 years
Wedgewood Pizza almost didn’t last a year.
Pasquale “Patsy” Acconcia started the company in 1967 with his friend Gerry Bianco, a local baker. A few months later, Bianco unexpectedly died and Acconcia was considering closing up shop.
That’s when Fernando Riccioni stepped in.
When he arrived in the United States from Italy in 1961, he found work painting houses and working as a janitor in a steel mill. Six years later, he decided to leave that behind to help Acconcia with the pizza shop – a choice that was met with some criticism.
“I decided to quit the other stuff, and everybody was against me,” Riccioni said. “All of my family thought I was crazy.”
Fifty years later, it would seem that Riccioni made the right choice.
Wedgewood Pizza is a Mahoning Valley staple. When Hillary Clinton visited Youngstown during her 2016 presidential campaign, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, made sure there was Wedgewood Pizza on the bus when she left town.
50 Years of Growth
The success was apparent to Riccioni from the start.
“From Day One until now, it was always more, more, more,” he said.
Customers began driving in from as far away as New Castle, Pa. By 1995, Riccioni decided he needed to take some of the pressure off the Raccoon Road location in Austintown.
“I decided to open a franchise in Boardman because I couldn’t handle the business over here,” he said. “It was too hard to make enough pizza to take care of all the customers.”
In addition to Austintown and Boardman, Wedgewood has franchises in Howland and Salem. Riccioni said the franchises resulted from people begging him to open locations closer to them.
“It’s not because I wanted to make money,” he said. “But to help the people. I want to help everyone eat the way they want to eat.”
He opened a franchise in Cookesville, Tenn., in 2007 because a friend kept asking him to – the company’s first foray outside of the Mahoning Valley. It closed a few years later, but Wedgewood Pizza still finds its way to the volunteer state. Riccioni’s friend had eight pizzas shipped down for the Super Bowl this year.
Quality and Consistency
Riccioni credits the success of Wedgewood Pizza to consistency.
“From the first day when I started until now, I never changed a thing,” he said. “Because it was good, I stick with that and still do it the same way today.”
They make the dough fresh every day starting at 6 a.m. He’s been working with Youngstown Wholesale and DeNiro Cheese since he started in 1967. The pepperoni used to come in sticks and now it comes pre-sliced, but it’s the same pepperoni. Riccioni used to grind 150 pounds of sausage a week, but now he has a supplier in Chicago that makes it for him using the Wedgewood recipe.
His customers also seem to value the consistency. Alicia Mylott has been coming to Wedgewood Pizza since it opened. It’s the quality that keeps her coming back.
“It never changes,” she said. “No matter if you come when they do 3,000 pizzas in one day or 300, it’s always outstanding.”
Riccioni’s daughter Filomena works at the Austintown location, and she intends to make sure nothing changes in the future,
either.
“I have [the recipes] tucked away like the Coca-Cola recipe,” she said.
A lot of companies will make changes because they can find something cheaper somewhere else, she said, but that often results in a lesser product.
An Enduring Personality
In addition to the consistency, Filomena said it’s personality that keeps people coming back.
“People come in here now, they want to see [my father],” she said. “That’s part of the charm. It might be innocent. It might be naive, but I think it’s wonderful.”
Mylott said Riccioni is incredibly generous, and he’s been a tremendous asset to the Austintown community.
The people who work at Wedgewood are dedicated as well. With a grin, Riccioni jokes that one employee is 37, but she’s been working there for 38 years. How? Her mother worked for Riccioni while she was pregnant, and she often came to work with her as a child.
Filomena stuck with the family business because it came naturally to her.
“It was never work. It was always fun,” she said.
“I have my aggravating days, but all in all, it’s fun.”
At 86, Riccioni still enjoys coming to work every day. He said he can’t do everything he did when he started, but he doesn’t have plans to retire anytime soon.
“I want to work 14 more years,” he said. “I want to reach 100 years old; that’s my goal.”
On that day, Riccioni said he will treat all of Mahoning County to free pizza and free drinks for his birthday. He was born on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, which will make it easier for people to come celebrate.
“Nobody works,” he said. “Everyone can come and eat the pizza. Free pizza for everybody!”