By Dan Majors
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com
Saturday, July 19, 2008
John Heller/Post-GazetteErika Yucius and her husband, Peter, chow down on Primanti Brothers sandwiches on the eve of the Strip District restaurant's 75th anniversary. The Yuciuses, lifelong Pittsburghers who moved to Wilmington, N.C., three years ago, made the landmark eatery their first stop on their way home to attend a wedding.
Eighteenth Street in the Strip District: a blocklong slab of hot, patchy asphalt, slathered over a bumpy bed of cobblestone, sprinkled with oil and leafy litter, sandwiched between two busy slices of Smallman Street and Penn Avenue.
Today, 18th Street, the home of Primanti Bros. restaurant, will receive the name "Primanti Way," an honorary designation bestowed by city officials as part of the sandwich shop's 75th anniversary celebration. The street festival, featuring live music, food and drink, begins at noon and runs until 9 p.m.
"We thought [the festival] would be a nice way to say thanks to our customers," said owner Jim Patrinos, who bought Primanti's in 1974, when he was 24. "I don't know if MapQuest will change the name, but it really is kind of a neat honor."
When Joe Primanti and his brothers started the business in 1933, it wasn't a sandwich shop so much as a small wooden lunch stand serving produce workers and truck drivers in the Strip District. The menu was simple enough: grilled meat, fried potatoes, sliced tomato, coleslaw and provolone cheese between two thick pieces of Italian bread.
It hasn't changed since.
Oh, sure, customers can tinker, adding fried egg or onion. But, for the most part, Pittsburgh's signature sandwich remains essentially the same since our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers were getting them during the Great Depression.
"I used to eat there when I was young," Mr. Patrinos said. "Then one day I saw that it was closed. It had been closed for a year when I bought it."
It's been open ever since, 24 hours a day, surviving the downturn of the Strip's produce business by serving through suppertime and satisfying the late-night munchies of the city's after-hours crowd.
Through the years, Primanti's has built a nationwide reputation, attracting publicity from celebrities and politicians eager to sample Pittsburgh. The Primanti's sandwich has gone toe-to-toe with Philly's cheesesteak in a governor's race and last year was recognized as "an American classic" by the James Beard Foundation, the food industry equivalent of winning a Grammy.
And the business has grown. Mr. Patrinos and his partner, Nick Nicholas, have opened 16 other shops, including suburban restaurants that cater more to families and sports fans. They own two restaurants in Broward County, Fla., and are planning a third.
But as much as the other restaurants live up to the Primanti's name, there's still only one original. It's the one with Toni Haggerty behind the counter.
Ms. Haggerty, 63, has been serving up thick sandwiches for 34 years, ever since Mr. Patrinos took over. She makes sure that customers get everything they expect, including a sprinkling of personality.
She calls it "pizazz."
"We don't have no rye bread, no wheat bread," she hollered over her shoulder as she threw another handful of fries onto the grill. "And the cheese is provolone. Any other cheese, and it's not a Primanti's sandwich."
Cecil resident Buggy Abruzzi, 56, owner of an auto repair shop, has been a regular at the restaurant for 40 years. Whenever he comes into town for parts, he stops into Primanti's for a pastrami and cheese.
"I come here for the food and to see Toni," he said.
Ms. Haggerty dishes out her good-hearted gruffness to regulars and newcomers alike.
"In the summertime, we have more tourists," she said. "You can tell they're tourists when they ask questions like 'What do you get on the sandwich?'"
Jeffrey and Amy Smith, pastors from Orlando, Fla., flew into Pittsburgh International Airport Thursday and rented a car for a vacation in Ohio. But, as long as they were in Pittsburgh, they decided to visit that sandwich shop they'd seen on The Food Network.
The sandwiches they ordered -- he had a sausage and she had a cheesesteak -- did not disappoint.
"Honestly, the anticipation was as much fun as having it," said Mr. Smith, 35. "We loved them. I'd have to say it was the most unique sandwich I've ever had."
Dan Majors can be reached at dmajors@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1456.
First published on July 19, 2008 at 12:00 am
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