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WYOMING — The doors at Victory Pig Pizza opened at 4:30 last Wednesday afternoon, as usual, and the place filled up fast.
“It’s the best pizza in the valley,” said “Joe“ from Luzerne, one of the first customers to arrive, who was clutching a newspaper coupon that entitled him to buy seven cuts and get two free.
“The place is a landmark and Rich, he’s awesome,” Joe said with a smile for owner Rich Ceccoli, who was working the cash register.
For Ceccoli, making pizza with that special Victory Pig flavor is a family tradition that dates back 75 years, to a time shortly after his grandfather, Louis Ceccoli, took over the Victory Pig sandwich shop.
Louis was selling pork barbecue there one day and preparing to eat his own lunch of four slices of pizza that his wife, Lee, had packed at home, when a customer asked about the Old World-style, tomato and cheese concoction.
That customer, who had been completely unfamiliar with this dish called “pizza,” tried it and liked it; Lee quickly made more pizza and brought it to the restaurant. Word spread; the homemade treat grew in popularity and soon the Ceccolis were baking pizza on the premises at Victory Pig.
Their son, Robert, and his wife, Mary, followed them into the business as the second generation. Robert and Mary’s son Rich is the third generation, and his three sons, Robert, Richard and Randon, are the fourth.
A fifth generation hasn’t been born yet, Robert, 33, said with a laugh, admitting his grandmother, Mary, is impatient to see one arrive and perhaps grow up in the business as so many other Ceccolis have.
“My first memories are of sitting on my father’s lap, making change. This was our day care,” said Randon Ceccoli, 31. “I was always a counter guy.”
“I did curb service, starting when I was 11,” said Richard Ceccoli, 36. “The (uniform) jacket I wore went down to my ankles.”
“My heart’s always been in the kitchen,” said Robert Ceccoli. “I learned a lot, growing up, from the sauce ladies who had been with us 40 years at the time.”
Some longtime Victory Pig employees eventually retired, but Paul Pearson is still going strong after close to 50 years.
“I’m here seven days a week,” said Pearson, who started as a part-timer after high school and hosted the Ceccoli family at his home when they were displaced by the 1972 Agnes flood.
During the busy dinner hour last Wednesday, Pearson was cutting slices of pizza and tending barbecue on the side while Laurie Blake stretched pizza dough in pans and spread tomatoes and onions on top of it.
RJ Salvo, meanwhile, loaded trays into the ovens and pulled them out seven minutes later, when the pizzas were finished baking, and Mark Jankovick filled orders, passing them through a window to the front end of the restaurant.
While the restaurant is open only Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 4:30 to 11 p.m., Victory Pig workers are busy other days of the week filling orders that are sent across the country (orders can be placed at victorypigpizza.com) and preparing pizza that is sold in local markets.
When the restaurant is open for business, people come for take-out, or they eat in, or they can honk for curb service.
“Every Friday, we’d park outside and blow the horn,” said Susan Lorntzen of Dover, Del., reminiscing about how she and her husband, Richard, used to come for pizza when they were dating.
Now, whenever they visit relatives in the Wyoming Valley area, they make sure to stop in at Victory Pig, where they ate indoors at a table last week.
“You can’t find it anywhere else,” Susan Lorntzen said of the pizza. “It has a unique taste and texture.”
“What we didn’t eat’s going home for sure,” Richard Lorntzen said, eyeing the leftovers.
“I love the pizza,” said Diane Gigantelli, of the Georgetown section of Wilkes-Barre Township, who was waiting for a take-out order. Testifying to its popularity, she added, “One day I was in here and there was a man from Washington, D.C. I can’t tell you how many boxes he had.”
Wednesdays happen to be Car Cruise Night at Victory Pig, and though it was a bit chilly last week, Willie Martinez, of Scranton, brought his 1981 station wagon; Mark Rosiecki, of Scranton, brought his Camaro SS; and Jack Jones, of Fleetville, brought his 1988 Mustang.
As Car Cruise participants, they get free pizza. The three of them have had Victory Pig Pizza before, and, as they stood by their cars. they described it, respectively, as “good,” “very good” and “excellent.”
Coming out to greet them, Victory Pig staffer Bill Layaou promised, “Gentlemen, it’ll be out shortly.”
