First-time dad Chris Daniels with his daughter, Phoebe, in Peng’s Pizza Pies in Biddeford. Daniels named the restaurant after his late father. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer Many fathers and sons bond over life’s fun stuff: movies, music, sports, outdoor adventures.
And of course, food. We talked with restaurant and bar owners, food cart operators and chefs about how they honor their fathers through their businesses. Some of the sons work with their fathers, while others whose dads are no longer alive use work to help keep their memories alive.
Chris Daniels with his father, Bill “Peng” Daniels in YEAR TK Courtesy of Chris Daniels Chris Daniels, Peng’s Pizza Pies, Biddeford Peng’s Pizza Pies chef-owner Chris Daniels considered other names before opening his pizzeria in downtown Biddeford last fall. When Daniels conceived the restaurant in 2019, he thought about naming it Pizza Cornicione, or Pauli’s Pizza, after his mémé Pauline. “When my dad passed away, that’s when the name hit,” he said.
“It was like, ‘Okay, it’s going to be Peng’s.’ ” Bill “Peng” Daniels, a former butcher at Shaw’s in Waterville, died in 2020 at 61. “He was short, about 5-4, and he walked kind of with a waddle, so kids in middle school would call him ‘Penguin,’ or ‘Peng,’ and he just ran with it.
All his friends called him Peng or Pengy. He had it on his license plate for years, as long as I can remember,” Daniels said, pointing up to a Maine “Peng�.