Porked in East Liberty is now open, and it may be the only place in town that serves a BLT layered with 2 pounds of bacon.
The giant sandwich is $22, or $23.50 with a side like baked beans or garlic-mashed potatoes. On Wednesdays only, the big bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich costs $18.
The restaurant at 220 N. Highland Ave. is the second location from Natalie Bobak and her partner, Tony Molnar, following the flagship in Lincoln Place. Open for lunch and dinner, Porked offers a reasonably priced, family-friendly menu that’s dominated by sandwiches.
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Basic sandwiches like ham and cheese or ham and egg run from $7 to $11.50 with a side. Signature sandwiches cost from $10 to $13.50 with a side, and include a smaller BLT with a half-pound of bacon, or a pork chop sandwich with sauteed onions and peppers. Specialty sandwiches are marketed as “huge,” for $12-$23.50, like that 2-pounder BLT, or a bacon, ham and sausage sandwich with slaw.
All sandwiches are served on Mancini’s bread; kid-sized sandwiches are smaller and half the price of the menu listing.
Outside of sandwiches, entrees range from pork chops and mashed potatoes to angel hair pasta and sausage from $9 to $48 -— the latter of which includes ham, sausage, chops and sides to feed two to three people.
The menu is close to identical to the original Lincoln Place location and it’s open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day except Sunday.
The restaurant is is in the former Union Pig and Chicken location that resided here from 2012 to 2016, having changed hands from chef owner Kevin Sousa to Jessicarobyn Kayser.
Porked joins a handful of barbecue places in the area, such as Walter’s Barbecue that just debuted in Lawrenceville and Spork Pit, a sibling of Spork, that opened this past summer in Garfield.
Porked will soon have a new neighbor across from Hotel Indigo at 216 N. Highland Ave., Two Sisters Vietnamese Kitchen, a BYOB Vietnamese restaurant serving pho, rice bowls and Vietnamese-style vermicelli dishes.
Porked East Liberty by Melissa McCart on Scribd
Melissa McCart: mmccart@post-gazette.com
First Published: October 8, 2018, 5:50 p.m.
