At Teddy’s, It’s All About the Dough

At Teddy’s, It’s All About the Dough

Photo by Leslie VanSant

Photo by Leslie VanSant

By Leslie VanSant

For nearly 30 years, the dough has

been rising at Teddy’s Pizza. “We watch the weather, you have to know if it is going to be cold or hot,” explained owner Teddy Vicidomini. “If it’s cold, you need to use warmer water and more yeast to make the dough rise. If it’s warmer, less yeast and cooler water. We don’t put eggs or sugar in our dough like some places. The dough is perfect, why mess with perfection.”

To say that Teddy knows pizza is an understatement. He and his brother, Anthony, grew up in Brooklyn, working at their parents’ place, “Lenny’s Pizza.” Their father, Michele “Mike” Vicidomini had started working in the shop when he emigrated from Naples, Italy to the United States.

“He started as a dishwasher, then he was the manager, then he was the owner,” Teddy said. “He did that in one year, he worked hard.”

Lenny’s was a family business and the brothers worked in all aspects of the operation. “Our mother, Louise, would say, ‘go help your father’ and we would prep, mop the floor and then we started making the dough,” said Anthony.

The idea to move to Virginia came in 1993. Teddy heard about a newly opened pizza shop in Middleburg, “Susan, my wife, and I love Middleburg,” said Teddy.

Michele and Louise soon followed and the family business of making great pizza continued. Anthony came down from Philadelphia, where he had his own pizza shop, a few years before their father passed away in 2016. Louise still comes in the shop.

The family takes great pride in their pizza and other specialties, including cheesesteaks, baked ziti, and the lasagna is “really good.”

“It’s all about the ingredients, we use quality ingredients, that’s the difference,” said Teddy. And their best seller—cheese or pepperoni? It’s the cheese pizza by far said Teddy, although his personal favorite is white pizza.

Recently, Teddy’s Pizza was crowned the winner in the “Pizza-palooza Corona Madness,” an informal pizza-tasting contest held by residents in Stone Ridge. Like March Madness, a bracket of 34 family-owned pizzerias was put together, and the cheese pizzas were compared over a 17-week period.

“We didn’t even know it was happening,” explained Teddy. “But we are really excited. We rely upon word-of-mouth advertising and this was great.”

COVID didn’t really change Teddy’s business model. The Federal Street shop has been primarily a take-out and delivery operation. Business actually picked up during the pandemic. There are a few tables in the restaurant, but there is no eating inside until after it’s over.

“We miss having the customers sit at the tables, the interaction with people,” said Anthony.

The Brooklyn-ese banter between the brothers is fun and funny. The jokes fly quickly. And while they like to laugh, they are serious about their work. They have a passion for making quality pizza.

“It’s rare to find a pizza shop that’s been owned by one family for more than 25 years now, it is hard work, you have to love it,” said Anthony. “The mom and pop shops, you know it’s going to be good, they are disappearing.”

Still, it seems the passion for pizza has skipped a generation. While neither Teddy or Anthony’s adult children work in the pizza business, Teddy’s grandson, Declan, likes making dough with his grandfather. Middleburg’s future pizza lovers can only hope it lasts.