MUSKEGON, Mich. — Come and spa-ghet it Muskegon, Teddy Spaghetti's is coming back!
The popular Italian restaurant closed a year and a half ago when its founder, Ted Cerniglia, decided to retire and his daughter, Francesca Giddings, took over. Giddings was running both Teddy's and the family's other location, Bella Maria's.
However, as it often does, life happened. Giddings had a baby boy, Gino, and wanted to focus on her family.
"She came to me a little while after having Gino and said, 'You know dad, I think I want to have more babies,'" said Ted. "I said, 'That's okay honey, I want more grandbabies.'"
So Giddings chose to close one of the locations so she could have more time to focus on her family, and they sold Teddy's.
While Teddy's was closed though, they kept its spirit alive. Over the last year and a half, they've hosted "Teddy Spaghetti's nights" at Bella Maria's, which Ted said were very successful.
As they hosted those special nights, the nostalgia for the old restaurant came back through old customers telling their stories.
"That's one of the reasons that things kind of started stirring me again," said Ted. "I'm listening to the old stories, I hear people come in, I get reacquainted with them, and it was just very very cool."
So he went to his daughter with an idea.
"The longer we went it just seemed like, man, we could do this right here," he said. "We can have the best of both."
And so that's what the family has set out to do. Bella Maria's will be renovated to also host Teddy Spaghetti's.
The old Teddy Spaghetti's only had nine tables while Bella Maria's has about 29. They said they hope to bring in booth seating to Bella Maria's, similar to what they had at Teddy's, to bring that cozy family atmosphere into a much bigger space.
The space will also maintain the same things it had as Bella Maria's.
"We are going to continue doing banquets as well," said Giddings. "We have a wonderful ballroom, so it'll be really cool. We're going to kind of merge both businesses. We're going to keep the banquets, but we're going to reopen what we loved so much in Teddy's."
Also new, Ted's son and Gidding's brother, Nico Cerniglia will be joining the family business again after taking about six years off.
"I'm so excited to partner with my sister and my dad," Nico said. "The recipes are not the only thing that has been passed down through generations. We've had a family that's been filled with faith and has kept God at the center of all of this for a very long time. And that, coupled with an entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic as well as the culinary side of things, and the recipes go back a long way."
They'll be bringing back the same menus and the same food that customers have always loved. Including recipes Ted said are over a century old, traveling to the Americas by boat with his grandmother. Recipes that the community will once again be able to taste all the time.
"People have stopped us on the street, people have called, people have come in and said 'Oh my gosh I can't wait!'" said Ted. "I think our roots go pretty deep in this community."
Along with his two children, Ted said he also plans to stick around and help with the business.
"I'll always have an office here," he said. "I'll do some things, some bookkeeping and banking during the day, and then at night I'm just gonna come in and say hi to everybody and sip a little wine."
So Teddy Spaghetti's will always remain a family affair, continuing to pass along those recipes for generations.
"Hopefully my boys will enjoy it," laughed Giddings. "If you see two blonde boys running around, those will be mine."
The new and improved Teddy's is currently slated to open up in February. If you're hoping to get your fix to hold you over until then, Ted said the last "Teddy Spaghetti's night" will be Oct. 24. After that they plan to spend Nov. through Jan. renovating.
To keep up with all the progress you can keep an eye on their Facebook page.
