Oak Ridge — At Big Ed's Pizza in Oak Ridge, you won't find a pizza cutter or even a pizza box.
The old-school pizzeria still uses scissors and puts to-go pizzas in paper bags, something that typically hasn't been done in decades. It's that tradition, that's made the restaurant a tradition for so many families in Oak Ridge.
Ed Neusel opened the restaurant in 1970 after selling his original location in Huntsville, Alabama. To most of his customers, he was known simply as 'Big Ed.'
"He would sit in the back booth looking really mean and sour. Little kids would come up, and he'd growl at them, and they would just laugh and laugh. Kids loved him," said Melissa Neusel, Ed's daughter-in-law and the current owner of Big Ed's Pizza.
Neusel says she took over the restaurant after her husband, David Neusel, Ed's son, passed away five years ago.
"Big Ed's has always been part of my world even before I became part of the family. I grew up down the street and worked right next door, so it's always been part of my life," Neusel said.