They believed it was their magic number, so they tried to figure it out.
How many pizzas would it take? Per day? Every day? Seven days per week. And every week, too.
That’s what Denny and Colleen Lee tried to figure out one evening a little more than a quarter of a century ago because they were only a “Yes” decision away from becoming the new owners of a DeFelice Bros. Pizza shop along East Bethlehem Boulevard.
“We decided to go out one night to Cheers Bar in Moundsville (because) one of our best friends was bartending there,” recalled Colleen Lee. “So, on a bar napkin, we tried to figure out how many we would have to make to open a business and to stay in business. It was a hell of a lot more than we anticipated, I can tell you that. But we were confident.
“And these days the shops average 130 to 140 pies a day along with our other items,” Colleen said. “But that’s an average and it depends on a lot of things, like the day of the week and the time of year, but we’ve been lucky because the valley enjoys our pizza.”
The couple is now celebrating the 25th anniversary of the opening of their Bethlehem location – December 17th, 2000 – and they’ve also owned and operated the Wheeling location at 1000 National Road for since 2014.
“It’s taken a lot of hard work. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Literally. A lot,” Colleen explained. “We’ve made so many friends through the years, too. I have several good friends today because they were customers first.
“And we have former employees who have gone off to be very successful in the military, as doctors and PAs, and there are so many others. We’ve watched them grow up,” she said with a broad smile. “It really has been a big family and that’s been one of the best parts of owning the shops.”
“I don’t know how to describe it,” said Denny Lee, who is known to many as “Digger”. “I honestly don’t know what to say. It was the biggest decision she and I ever made, and we’ve worked hard to get where we are today.
“It is nice to be in the position where we can help people in our community,” he said. “We do what we can because that’s important to us.”
‘The Pizza Worth Going After’
They knew food.
Denny was employed at a number of restaurants for several years before and after his graduation from West Liberty State College, and Colleen, a Shadyside native who was no stranger to the pizza at DeFelice Bros., had worked in the catering industry for several years before the two eyed up the entrepreneurial opportunity.
DeFelice Bros. Pizza was founded in 1982 by Dom and T.J. DeFelice, and the business quickly started expanding to other communities in the Upper Ohio Valley. Today, there are 10 locations, including Moundsville, Martins Ferry, Newark, Shadyside, St. Clairsville, Wintersville, Follansbee, Weirton, Wheeling, and Bethlehem.
These days, Digger operates the Wheeling shop full-time and Colleen assists her son, Mark Miller, with the management of the Bethlehem location.
“I remember that we were anxious to sign for the loan for the Bethlehem shop because we knew we were hard workers, and we knew we could make it work. And Denny’s dad (Dick Lee) had a lot of confidence in us, too,” Colleen said. “He had faith in us, and he invested in us, too.
“And then just over 10 years after we opened in Bethlehem, we bought the Wheeling store and Denny runs it,” he said. “The loan for the Wheeling store was approved on the 13th anniversary of the opening of the Bethlehem store.”
And it all happened for a reason.
“The restaurant we were working at closed, and we didn’t know what we were going to do next,” Colleen remembered. “He went to work for the Denny’s corporation in Pittsburgh, and I got a job as a teller at United Bank in downtown Wheeling, but we knew we wanted to own our own business. But when we tried to buy a catering company, it didn’t work out so we just kept doing what we were doing.
“But then we went on a vacation to Denny’s brother’s house (in Florida) and talked more about it, and that’s when I told him about Dom and that Dom thought I should open a DeFelice pizza shop,” she explained. “The funny part is that Denny never had DeFelice pizza until he met me, and here we are 25 years later with two shops.”
