My Yearly Visit To Primanti Brothers

So what does one do when he finds himself closing out the Dave and Buster's location at 1:00 AM in the Waterfront district of Pittsburgh and craving a late night snack on a Saturday night? A better question might even be, where does one go at 2:00 AM to find the most colorful nighttime characters that Pittsburgh has to offer? The answer is quite simple, Primanti Brothers ... but not just any Primanti Brothers. The Primanti Brothers location of choice is the original storefront down in The Strip district just off of downtown. If this entry seems vaguely familiar to my longtime readers, that's because I was here over a year ago to sample this unique and tasty sandwich. If you take a moment to look at my pictures from last year, you'll realize how bad they were because I only had my cellphone with me which lacks a flash. This time around, however, I was smart enough to bring a camera with a flash.

The original Primanti Brothers location was at 46 18th Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222 and can be reached at 412-263-2142. As they did last year, they still have a website here. While there are now many satellite locations around Pittsburgh to experience this sandwich, the original location seems to have the best vibe and energy to it.

Here was the same tell-tale sign on the side of the building that I saw the last time I stopped in for a sandwich:


This time around, however, I managed to get two shots of the wall menu from which you order:



In case you've never had the opportunity to order a Primanti Brothers sandwich before, here are a few tips for you. At The Strip location, you walk in to the grill side of the restaurant first. On this side you can order a sandwich and a drink, but no sides. This was different from the last visit where we also ordered a side of French fries. This time my friend Ryan had to walk around to the bar side of the restaurant to actually order fries. The second tip is that all the sandwiches come with fries and cole slaw in the actual sandwich. I imagine they might leave one or the other off the sandwich, but I wouldn't tell them to put them on the side. The third tip is that you can actually seat yourself in the bar area without ordering anything from the grill side and the bartender will actually take your order (including a side of fries) and bring it to you when it is ready.

Of course, if you decide to order your food from the bar side, you'll miss out on the grill action:


Last time I went with a corned beef and provolone sandwich, so this time I decided on a pastrami and provolone with an optional fried egg. It was kind of fun to watch the line cook throw down the egg and meat on the grill, add the provolone cheese after the meat had been flipped, place the meat and cheese on top of the fried egg and then finally the entire contents scooped up and placed on the slices of Italian bread before being adorned with the infamous French fries, cole slaw, and fresh tomato. I paid for my sandwich and iced tea before moving over to the bar side to enjoy my spoils.

Here was a shot of my iced tea:


I am mentioning the iced tea not because of its flavor, but because of its sweetness. I like my iced tea barely sweetened or unsweetened and this is what I thought I would be receiving. I took one sip and about choked because it was so sweet. I asked my friend Ryan (who lives in Pittsburgh) if iced tea was normally served sweet unless requested otherwise and he indicated that tea was usually served unsweetened. I know that in certain parts of the country, sweet is always assumed; this sugar ladened liquid definitely caught me by surprise. Unfortunately, I was on the inside of the booth and the bar was quite crowded, so I just decided to live with it rather than try and make my way back to the ordering counter to fix it.

Legend has it that the reason for the French fries and cole slaw being placed between the two slices of bread was so that busy truckers could eat the sandwiches on the go. Anyone who has ever actually tried to EAT a Primanti Brothers sandwich knows that either the sandwich has evolved since they opened in 1933 or there is a bit of historical storytelling going on. Here was a shot of my pastrami, cheese, and fried egg sandwich tonight:


Even employing the "squeeze and shove" method to eat the sandwich, I still had a hard time getting my mouth around each bite without a cascading avalanche of fries and coleslaw falling back down to the waiting parchment paper below. Here was a side shot of my sandwich:


And how was the sandwich? I suppose at 2 AM after a night of drinking and partying, pretty much anything would've tasted good. Fortunately I had sobered up fairly decently on the trip over from Dave and Busters, so my memory and taste buds were firing on all their pistons. This was really, really good. I had thought the egg would be cooked so that the yolk was still runny (and maybe you can order it that way, I didn't ask). The version that I received was cooked through, however I could actually still taste the egg in each bite of the sandwich. The pastrami was warm and savory and while good, didn't seem all that different from the corned beef I had eaten a year prior. The fries were actually a little better for me this time around than last time, but the star of the sandwich was still the coleslaw. A vinegar-based slaw, it was both tart and sweet and really made the flavors of the sandwich sing in my mouth. My other friend Rick also agreed that it was the slaw that made the sandwich really work.

Along with our sandwiches, Ryan ordered a side of French fries for the three of us to split. Here was a shot of the fries:


The fries were better than I remember from my last visit. They were fresh cut fries and while not my favorite version of this fried carb, these weren't too bad. They were hot, not greasy and seasoned properly. For those who like fresh cut fries, these might be the epitome of a excellent French fry.

Having finished nearly all of my sandwich and one third of the fries, I finally had to stop. I seriously wanted to finish my sandwich, but I knew too much of a good thing would make the ensuing indigestion an unwelcome visitor. There were no trash cans, so customers simply left cups, napkins, and other trash on the table and the bartender came around occasionally and cleared away the trash. I should mention that in addition to getting a great sandwich at 2 AM in Pittsburgh, a visit to The Strip location at this time of night will give you a great opportunity to do a little people watching, too. It really was a diverse crowd tonight.

Once again, Primanti Brothers delivered a great sandwich. While the version served at Panini's in the Northeast Ohio area is close, there just isn't any substitute for the real deal. The next time you are in Pittsburgh, I highly suggest you hit up one of their myriad of locations for this classic Pittsburgh treat.

Weekend in Pittsburgh

This weekend I decided to brave the cold and snowy roads and spend some quality time with a good friend from college and his family. As it turned out, it happened to be his birthday, too. Not much discussion was needed to decide how to celebrate, however; it would be a visit to the ever cool Dave & Buster's down in the Waterfront district. My friend's brother also decided to drive in and join us.

After a number of beers and way too many games of Air Raid (holy cow, is that an addictive game -- and expense, too), we left Dave & Buster's only to discover that it had started to snow pretty hard. By this time, we had all pretty much sobered up and were in need of sustenance. I had originally wanted to come early on Saturday so that I could stop and have a local sandwich legend. Unfortunately, I hadn't left early enough and thought I had missed my opportunity. So, with great zeal I suggested we go and get a Primanti Brothers sandwich. Although there are several locations, we choose to go to the original one in The Strip (18th Street). Even though we arrived around 1 am, all the street parking was full up and there were tow trucks sitting waiting to tow anyone who parked illegally. Fortunately, Primanti Brothers has its own parking lot, which was mercifully empty. Here is the sign on the side of the restaurant:


The deal with a Primanti Brothers sandwich is that you can order whatever type of sandwich you want and they will top it with coleslaw and french fries and serve it to you on deli paper. There is nothing formal about this place. An extra order of fries? Served on another piece of deli paper. After paying for and picking up your finished order, you retire to an open table to enjoy your feast. I decided to go with a hot corned beef and provolone cheese sandwich. You'll have to excuse the lighting in the next two photos, the restaurant was dimly lit and since it was 1 am when we went, there wasn't any additional lighting available from the restaurant's front windows. First, a shot of my entire sandwich:


As you can tell from the picture, there is a LOT of bread on top of the sandwich. The bread is hand cut to order and this results in a more unique look. From the bottom up you have the bottom slice of bread, corned beef, cheese, coleslaw, french fries, and then the crown. There are really only two points to make here. First, as you can imagine, this is a challenging sandwich to eat. I had to basically employ the squish and bite method in order to fit it in my mouth. Second, this was a delicious sandwich. The vinegar and sugar that was in the coleslaw really balanced out the unctuous taste from the corned beef. It had that sweet, sour, umami combination that really went well together.

Here is a photo of half of my sandwich. You can see the layering of ingredients a little better.


The only thing I didn't really care for were the fries. I'm kind of picky about my fries and I like them crisp and not overly greasy. These were hot, yes, but a little on the limp and greasy side. They didn't really detract from the sandwich, but they also didn't really add anything either. My two comrades and I split an actual order of fries as well. Overall, this was also a pretty economical meal. Each of us had a sandwich, we split an order of fries, and two cokes totaled just around $20.

By the time we left Primanti Brothers, it was close to 2 am and we were all just itching to get back to my friend's house where we could crash. Unfortunately, the snowfall had been steady and getting progressively worse, so it took us close to an hour and a half just to get home. It was at that point we learned that my friend couldn't even get his car up to his driveway (steep hill) so we had to park at the bottom and walk the last bit. Thankfully the really cold weather had moved out of the area the night before.

Before I left Pittsburgh, I had decided to include another sandwich place in my weekend visit, only this time it would be an ethnic sandwich called banh mi. This is a Vietnamese specialty that uses a French-influenced roll filled with all sorts of meats and condiments. My Ngoc in The Strip (I had to drive right past Primanti Brothers to get here, funny, no?) is well known for their banh mi. I knew this would be the place I would be going to for lunch today.

I arrived around 1:30 pm today to find most of the lunch crowd had already gone. I was seated at a table by the window (my request) and started perusing the menu. I had assumed there would be an entire section just for the banh mi. Nope. There were two types available, chicken and beef, and both were listed in the appetizers section. Unfortunately when I asked about them, my server informed me that they weren't available. I thought about asking why they weren't available, but his English and my Vietnamese are both terrible, so I decided on a different path instead.

For my appetizer, I started out with a rather traditional Vietnamese specialty, the summer roll with shrimp and hoisin dipping sauce.


These had a nice fresh flavor to them but there was nothing really out of the ordinary in the summer rolls themselves. The real surprise was to find just the slightest bit of heat in the hoisin dipping sauce. While I certainly like my other dishes spiced with a generous serving of sriracha, it had never occurred to me to add a little spice to my summer rolls. It really worked well.

Following my summer rolls, I decided to have a version of their Pho with round steak instead of the beef ball (which comes with their standard Pho). It is closer to the Pho that I have gotten used to in Cleveland. Here is the Pho with accompanying plate of extras:


What you can partially see on the plate are bean sprouts, thai basil, and a lime wedge. You add whatever extras you like. Before adding anything to the Pho, I tasted the broth. Sublime. It was full of meaty flavor without being overly salty. I could've just eaten a bowl of this by itself. But after combining everything else with a bit of sriracha, I was in Pho heaven. It was absolutely delicious. I ate all of the broth and most of the other ingredients. I left with a warm belly to face my long drive back home to Ohio.

I look forward to trying the banh mi next time I'm back in Pittsburgh.