Who is the “US” in ABOUT US? Of course there’s me, Brenda McDonnell, whose name is on our sign and whose goal is to serve the best pizza and food I can. Then there is the staff of young people who have learned not only what I can pass on but who introduce fresh ideas and energy to our enterprise. And finally - most important of all - there is the multitude of friends and customers who appreciate our efforts and who have become part of the extended family of BRENDA’S PIZZERIA.

My arrival in Garrett County was late one night after what seemed to me a long drive from my home in the Bronx in New York City. I thought a trip to Maryland meant I was visiting Baltimore. My friend Dominick and I seemed to drive forever, and the landscape was certainly different from what I was used to. We finally arrived - tired and ravenous - in Bittinger. We were surprised to learn that there were only two places selling pizzas in the area, they were twenty miles away and they served pre-made products. We wanted the special treat we had grown up with in New York. An idea was born. We thought that there must be an untapped market in this county. Surely everyone would love eating the kind of pizza we had grown up with in New York: quality, authentic ingredients used with such skill by the pizza shops that abounded in our neighborhoods.

We started a pizza shop in McHenry, and it was there that I learned, over the course of 8 years, how to produce consistently good pizza. I learned to make dough from scratch using durum (hard) flour and to adjust the temperature so it would rise consistently in every kind of weather, how to stretch it by feel and to turn the pizzas in our big brick ovens so the crust would emerge crisp, firm and flavorful. We insisted on buying plum tomatoes from the San Marzano district in Italy because the soil there gave the product just the right hint of acidity and liveliness. We used the highest grade of mozzarella and imported Pecorina romano cheeses.

We were gratified to see that people here appreciated our efforts to share what we had experienced in our former home. I made many new friends, great people who followed me to The Wisp when I left Dominick’s in 1995 to manage Pizzazz Pizzeria. It was different working for a larger corporation, but the whole business had a family feel to it, owned as it was by the Heises, founders of the Wisp Ski Resort. I learned more about the science of food service, and it was fun to be at the center of such exciting activities.

Still, all in all, I felt that when the Heise family sold the Wisp, it was time for me to try to recreate the neighborhood place I had grown up with and dreamed about ever since Dominick’s closed in 1995. It was then or never!

Brenda’s Pizzeria opened in June of 2001. We prided ourselves then (and still do!) on our friendliness and skill in cooking good food for friends. There were some drawbacks, such as having a staff and kitchen that was limited in size. We dreamed of a new building – and after the Labor Day weekend in 2003, we closed our doors to allow for the dream to become a reality. The building was torn down to the ground, and a new one soon appeared, thanks to the hard work of a lot of people. In May 2004, we opened up again in our beautiful new building and have been going like gangbusters ever since. It is so great to be back!

Some tastes won’t change. There will always be a market for fresh ingredients and skillful preparation of authentic New York style pizza, calzones, pasta, stromboli, salads, heros and desserts. And, as long as there is a market, all of us at BRENDA’S PIZZERIA will try our best to cater to that market and to YOU!

Please come visit us by boat or car, or call at 301-387-1007. Let me know how we can provide you with the best possible customer service! Thank you.

Brenda