It's no secret the Valley knows good pizza.

There are several pizza shops in almost every neighborhood, but one fan favorite in Austintown is celebrating an impressive milestone: 50 years of business at Wedgewood Pizza.

The phones are constantly ringing with orders of favorite pies at Wedgewood Pizza, from pepperoni, banana peppers to even an unusual potato topping, the 20-plus options are pretty impressive in 2017, but when the shop first opened in 1967, the "original everything" pizza was a little less loaded.

“Green peppers, olives, mushroom, sausage, pepperoni and salami,” said owner Fernando Riccioni.

Still taking a look back at the past 50 years, Wedgewood Pizza was started by two friends from Italy, Pasquale "Patsy" Acconcia and Gerry Bianco, but just three months after they opened their doors, Bianco passed away and Patsy doubted he could keep the business going.

“I said I help you keep going, you think you can do it? I can do anything,” Riccioni said.

Fernando went from being a painter to full time pizza maker, choosing dough as his new canvas and the final product is still a masterpiece.

“From that day to today, I never stop going up, more, more, more, more,” Riccioni said.

And with more and more pizzas being made every day, Fernando Riccioni is 86 years young and can still be found topping pizzas and greeting customers five to six days a week.

“I want to keep help, help. See, I don't come no more and it looks like I'm dead!” Riccioni said. “I can do more, and that's why I come.”

Since 1967 they've tripled their size from a humble shop around 2,200 square feet in a portion of the plaza they're currently in to taking over the entire plaza in the late '80s.

Business has never been a problem, but over the past 50 years Fernando can't help but get emotional thinking about what he's lost.

“You talk what was hard time. Lose the friend, those who worked for me 40 to 50 years,” he said. “Pasquale like family over here. Any worker I consider family.”

Customers often credit the sauce as the key to their delicious pizza, and while Fernando won't give us the exact sauce recipe, he will say the type of tomatoes is key.

“But I was needed Escalon tomatoes to make my sauce, because Escalon tomatoes six to one,” he said.

The secret really is in the sauce. With More Local News, I'm Jess Briganti