With 390 followers and averaging maybe a dozen tweets a month, Susan Lee is hardly what one would characterize as a prolific user of Twitter.
But while lying in bed one evening in September, the Highland Park foreign language middle school teacher was reminiscing and fired off a 179-character post that garnered hundreds of responses:
“If you could bring back one closed Pittsburgh restaurant, what would it be? I’ll go first. Abruzzi’s in Southside. The original one behind the CoGos. And Gypsy Café if I get two.”
If you could bring back one closed Pittsburgh restaurant, what would it be? I’ll go first. Abruzzi’s in Southside. The original one behind the CoGos. And Gypsy Café if I get two.
— sleepgh (@sleepgh) September 10, 2021
Immediately after, Ms. Lee’s timeline blew up. Friends, total strangers, media types, business owners, bartenders, brewers and even a local politician weighed in offering up over 120 different suggestions.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most commonly mentioned was Essie’s Original Hot Dog Shop, AKA “The O,” which, after 60 years as an absolute icon in Oakland, unceremoniously closed at the pandemic’s outset.
Other strong finishers included classic’s like Del’s in Bloomfield, Gullifty’s and Poli in Squirrel Hill, and Tambellini’s (although respondents didn’t specify exactly which one, there were several unique ones around the city named for members of the family, but Louis Tambellini’s on Route 51 location was the best-known).
Opened by Sydney Simon in 1960 in the shadow of Forbes Field just in time for Bill Mazeroski’s immortal home run, “The O” will forever be a part of Pittsburgh lore. Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction and University of Pittsburgh alumnus Michael Chabon — among the most celebrated American writers of the last 30 years — delivered a pitch-perfect reminiscence of a unique yet ubiquitous Pittsburgh experience during a 2001 visit to his alma mater.
“The holy grail of sitting at a table at ‘the O’ next to a brutally loud video game at 3 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,” he recounted during a 2001 talk at the Carnegie Institute.
In a 2009 piece, then-Post-Gazette reporter Tim McNulty wrote, “The best days of my life have been at the O. The day I was married I had lunch there, then narrowly avoided getting hit by a Fifth Avenue bus. Hours after my daughter was born I walked down to the O from Magee-Womens Hospital while she and my wife slept, and then put a chili dog in her crib. Officially, this was to give some baby-to-hot-dog proportion to my first snapshot of the girl, but let's be honest — I also wanted her to join the cult.”
The aforementioned Gypsy Cafe, the Beehive on the South Side, Abay in East Liberty and Quiet Storm in Garfield were among the more “modern” favorites, along with Avenue B in Shadyside and Tamari in Lawrenceville.
“The answers are really fun. If you look back through them,” Ms. Lee said.
Indeed, reading those listed is akin to a gustatory hall of fame and memory lane for different eras of Pittsburgh, from special-occasion spots like Klein’s Downtown, Primadonna in McKees Rocks, the Balcony in Shadyside and Le Pommier on the South Side to fun spots such as Station Street Hot Dogs and Pizza Taglio in East Liberty and Hotlicks in Shadyside.
Klein’s giant neon sign boasting “Fine Liquors Steaks Chops” with a lobster is displayed prominently in the Heinz History Center. In a 2003 piece about it, now-retired Post-Gazette staff writer Marlene Parrish wrote:
“Klein's history is as rich as its homemade Hungarian apple strudel. … Anybody who was anybody showed up. Klein's had become a rendezvous for Pittsburghers, travelers and celebrities. When Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor came to town to perform, they ate at Klein's so often that they became close friends of Hannah and Joseph” Klein, the proprietors.
As ever, Italian food holds a special place in the stomach’s eye, with Pasta Piatto and Minutello’s in Shadyside and Ms. Lee’s favorite, Abruzzi’s, getting multiple mentions, among others.
In a 2003 Post-Gazette article about Pasta Piatto’s closing, Linda Jeannette, who opened the restaurant in 1981, said, "We had risotto before people knew what it was. We served polenta, and at first we couldn't give it away, and then all of a sudden it was fashionable and everyone wanted it.”
So what was it about Abruzzi’s, which made an indelible mark on Ms. Lee and her husband, Jason?
“I think it was a wonderful atmosphere and we made good friends,” she said. “We always hung out with all the other regulars that would go. And we knew we would get a good meal no matter what. “
Her choice was the penne chicken pesto; his, the pork chops.
“That was our spot.”
The Lees dine out frequently, but Abruzzi’s is still their all-time favorite.
“I missed that. And I was wondering if anybody else was missing special places.”
If the pandemic, which has caused the demise of many restaurants and hastened the early retirement of those running others, has taught customers anything, it’s to support local independent establishments — because when they’re gone, they’re gone.
Dan Gigler: gdgigler@post-gazette.com; @gigs412 on Instagram and Twitter.
First Published: November 2, 2021, 10:45 a.m.
Updated: November 2, 2021, 2:09 p.m.
