Record-setting Super Bowl Week for Tony Maronni's

What's the favorite Super Bowl Party food in and around Sussex?

It may well be the pizza at , N63W23951 Main St., given the volume of business the tiny pizza parlor enjoyed during the Packers-Bears championship game.

But those record numbers are now being easily surpassed this week for the Super Bowl.

"This will be the first time we've ever sold a thousand pizzas in one week," said Tony Lippold, aka "Tony Maronni." He got his nickname while executive chef at Silver Spring Country Club.

Lippold earned his degree in culinary arts in 1980 and has been in the restaurant business for 31 years.

He opened Tony Maronni's in 2004 and added a sit-down dining room in 2008. However, his pizza expertise goes back to even before Packers' glory years of the 1960s.

Lippold's secret pizza recipe dates back to 1957, when it was written on a bar napkin by the woman who owned a pizzeria in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward. 

He won't reveal all the ingredients, spices and their proportions, but Tony says this week Sussex area customers will devour at least 180 pounds of sausage, 50 pounds of pepperoni, 50 pounds of mushrooms, 300 pounds of cheese, a case of sliced black olives, 20 pounds of onions and more than 20 gallons of tomato sauce.

His oven has a capacity to make just under 180 pizzas per hour and the staff will be hard at work during a long day Saturday getting all the orders done that have already been phoned-in this week.

"Game day is crazy," said Ken Lippold, Tony's cousin and right-hand man. Ken Lippold said the phone has been "bursting off the wall" ever since two weeks ago, when the Packers beat the Bears in Chicago for the NFC Championship.

"By noon we had 60 pizzas made, where on a normal Sunday we'd make eight or 10," Ken Lippold said.

He said the "phones went silent during the game from 2 to 5 p.m. But that's when we were making deliveries like mad."

"I can tell you that when the Packers are winning, the tips are better, and if you happen to come to the door just after the Packers have scored - well, let's just say I got one huge tip at that particular party," Ken Lippold said. "They say timing is everything, and I certainly found that out first hand."

He was surprised, after an already exhausting day, that the phone started ringing off the hook again after the game was over and the Packers were on their way to the Super Bowl.

"I could've easily gotten drunk by all the beers I was offered by celebrators answering the door," he said, adding: "If I'm driving and making deliveries, there's none of that."

For Super Bowl Sunday, the pizzeria will have a full staff of 13 people on hand to keep up with business for the 5 p.m. game, and "we're not closing until the last order is taken, made and delivered," said Ken.

Though pizzas rule in terms of delivery orders, the entire menu is available for take-out.

Call 262-820-8669 or check the website at tonymaronni.com. The delivery area is limited.