Residents and long-time customers attended Maria’s Pizza’s third annual Maria’s West Fest in Brantford on Sunday, August 9, 2026.
The parking lot of the local restayrant was transformed into a celebration of food, family and community. The free three-hour event featured busker-style entertainment from Comedy in Motion 2.0, face painting, games, balloon twisting, contests and tasty eats.
Hosted by the family-run Maria’s Pizza, the event was designed to commemorate the business’ long-standing history in Brantford.
“My dad worked at Massey’s and my mom, Maria, wanted to open up a restaurant,” said Angie Risi, who owns Maria’s Pizza alongside her husband, Doug George, and their daughter, Milly George. “She was such a good cook, and she cooked for a lot of the Italian community that was still here in Brantford. She ended up opening in 1968 when I was six-years-old and my sister Rose was 11.”
Despite being young girls, both sisters quickly began helping their mother in the restaurant. Rose made pizza alongside her mother, while Angie answered the phone
“You have to remember, it was 1968, so helping out in the family business wasn’t unheard of back then,” said Risi, with a chuckle.
Having been involved in the restaurant ever since, Risi explained that she doesn’t think of Maria’s Pizza as her own business, but as her mother’s.
“We’re a small family business, and we love that. Milly is working alongside me and my husband, and we still make the dough. We still prep everything every day, and we’re still here every day,” she said. “It’s still my mom’s recipes and everything, and I work to keep my mother’s legacy alive. I don’t even think of it as my own pizza shop. I think of it as my mom’s.”
While running a business is hard work, Risi said she wouldn’t change it.
“There’s nothing like a family business, and I wouldn’t have given it up for anything,” she said. “I love having my staff as my family, and my customers as my friends. I really don’t need anything else,” she said. “Some of my staff have been with me for 28 years. Some of them have cousins, mothers and sons that are here too. All of them have been here for more than ten years and I love it. I love that they love it. They get it, and it’s not just some job to them.”
The event, said Risi, was also created as a way to thank the shop’s loyal customers.
“We just really appreciate all our customers. We’ve had some for 58 years. I still remember being six and asking a pregnant woman if I could touch her belly, and now her son comes with his own grand kids,” she said. “So when we first started this event, we were about to go on vacation and we had all these ingredients left over. I didn’t want to freeze them or anything, so I said, ‘why don’t we just have a day where we can say thank you to everybody and sell everything off?’ Now it’s turned into this event for the community, and it’s just an afternoon to get everyone together and have fun.”
During the event, visitors spent their time shopping from local vendors and getting a free slice of pizza in return. Many enjoyed a refreshing beer alongside their food under the beer tent, music from a live DJ, and watching a pair of jugglers entertain the crowd.
Youngsters in attendance patiently waited to have their faces painted with balloon creations in hand, eager to show off their designs to their loved ones and friends.
Some of the highlights of the day were the many contests taking place. Participants could be seen happily stuffing their faces in the pizza and spaghetti eating contests, duking it out for the fastest time to finish.
Even the dogs on site had a chance to get in on the fun as at least a dozen four-legged friends raced to finish a cup of ice cream.
Risi said it was nice to have everyone together having a good time.
“It’s all just good fun,” she said, with a smile.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
