By next spring or summer, the Original Hot Dog Shop in Oakland is expected to be transformed into two new restaurants developed by Mero Restaurant Group.
The Original, known to students and other denizens as “The O,” had been a storied landmark since 1960, known especially for its huge servings of fries. It closed in April and donated seven tons of potatoes to charity.
Mero will lease the space from the owner, Seneca Partners, said Maury Mendelovich, a principal of Mero.
Mero plans to sublet 1,200 square feet of the building to Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop and to operate two levels of the remaining space as Viva Los Tacos, a Mexicali street food-themed restaurant with a full bar.
Mr. Mendelovich said he and his business partner, Jamie Rodgers, ate at the Original when they were students at the University of Pittsburgh.
“So this is not just another location,” he said. “We always looked at the O as one of the premier locations in the city. We will revamp the building but we’re looking for architects and designers to pay homage to the O. We hope it will live up to that legacy.
“We don’t want to disappoint anyone who had fond memories of the place, but we’re hoping to create new memories.”
He said that Viva Los Tacos will feature the birria taco, with meat slow-cooked in Mexican spices.
“We want to keep developing new concepts for the Pittsburgh market.”
Mero operates two other restaurants, Stack’d Burgers and Beer and CHiKN nearby in Oakland. It has three other locations of Stack’d — in Shadyside, Wexford and Hampton -- and is in the process of finishing a second location of CHiKN in Cranberry, he said.
Mr. Mendelovich said he is hopeful that the restaurant scene will eventually return to normal. “We’re looking at a bumpy ride in the short term, and we definitely have to make adjustments to all our businesses” including spaced seating, take-out orders and other pandemic-enforced conditions. “But that is not the overriding game plan for the future.”
He said the group will make “a significant investment” in the building but declined to discuss specifics.
The “O” was founded by brothers Sydney and Morris “Moe” Simon at the corner of South Bouquet Street and Forbes Avenue.
Documentarian Rick Sebak featured The Original in his PBS special, “A Hot Dog Program,” which aired nationally in the late 1990s.
According to Mr. Sebak, the brothers rushed to open in 1960 in time for the opening of the World Series at Forbes Field, which was several blocks away.
The Post-Gazette reported in April, shortly after the Original announced its closing, that Michael Chabon, author of “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” and “Wonder Boys,” reminisced about being a patron during a 2001 talk at the Carnegie Institute: “The holy grail of sitting at a table at ‘the O’ next to a brutally loud video game at three o’clock in the morning, drunk out of my mind inhaling a basket of cheese fries so massive that it is a feature of USGS maps of the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area.”
Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com
First Published: October 7, 2020, 6:09 p.m.
