American Eats: Pennsylvania. Primanti Bros.
Unlike most Baltimoreans, I like Pittsburgh. Sure, I hate the football team, but Pittsburgh and Baltimore share a lot of the same characteristics. Both are working-class towns that are smaller than they used to be. Both are trying to find their way in the new economy and deal with the issues that face rust belt cities looking toward the future.
Baltimore though doesn’t have this monstrosity.
When talking about Pittsburgh and about Pennsylvania there is only one place that we can actually talk about.
Look, everybody has heard of Primanti’s. You’ve seen it on TV. You’ve read about it in blogs or magazines. And everybody knows the unusual nature of their sandwiches:
The story might be half hazy memory, half lore - but it's all true. According to Joe's nephew John DiPriter: "One winter someone drove up with a load of potatoes. He brought them over to the restaurant to see if they were frozen. I fried the potatoes on our grill and they looked pretty good. A few customers asked for them - so I tossed them on the sandwich." The sandwich was an instant hit - allowing all of the drivers working near the restaurant to eat with one hand - and drive their truck with the other.
I’ve eaten several Primanti sandwiches in my time and I can assure you that it is impossible to eat a Primanti sandwich with one hand unless you intend on wearing half of the sandwich in your lap.
My go-to sandwich is the Capicola & Cheese, with the spicy ham pairing perfectly with Primanti’s coleslaw. Which is amazing for me to say because I don’t even really like coleslaw. But Primanti’s coleslaw makes the entire sandwich; without the coleslaw, it just becomes a mass of carbohydrates and protein that doesn’t work.
Primanti’s has an entire menu of other stuff too that I would be hard-pressed to tell you about because I only go for the sandwiches.
Primanti’s has expanded to 30-odd some locations in the Mid-Atlantic (and one in Florida), so there is likely a Primanti Bros. somewhere near you. But to truly get the experience, you have no better option than to go to the original in Pittsburgh and see what it is all about for yourself.