15222: Come Hungry ("PRIMAAANNI'S" MAKES NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC!)

National Geographic Magazine ^ | July, 2003 | Raphael Kadushin

[martin_fierro]

The Strip: 24 hours in Pittsburgh's revitalized warehouse district means 24 hours of feasting and fun.

Get a taste of what awaits you in print from this compelling excerpt.

Early one morning at Primanti Brothers, in the middle of Pittsburgh's Strip District, Antonia Corradetti is constructing a sandwich so big it would make Dagwood blanch. A fixture behind the long diner counter, she flips a wad of just grilled corned beef onto a thick slice of Italian bread. Then, yanking a basket of oil-dripping french fries directly from the deep fryer, she plunges her bare hand into the heap, extracts a fistful of steaming potatoes, and smashes them on top of the beef, so you can hear the sizzle when the smoking spuds greet the meat. Surprised there is no echoing sizzle coming from Corradetti's hand, I'm ready to dial 911, but she seems indifferent to her five-finger fire walk.

"I've only been doing this for 28 years," she says with a shrug, in a strong Italian accent.

"I can do a thousand of these an hour." But the pain? "Well the first time I did it, it was kinda hot, but the grill is a good conditioner." Corradetti laughs, holding out beautifully manicured hands as soft as a baby's cheek.

Locals call Corradetti's literal handiwork the official Strip sandwich—not just because others have copied it but because it mirrors the district's own history. Dating back to 1933, when the Strip was still the exclusive turf of wholesalers delivering produce out of mammoth brick warehouses, the sandwich was aimed at a fail-proof market. For the truckers, who were Strip royalty, nothing tasted better than the meat-and-potatoes meal they could hold in one big hand, while they steered with the other.

Now the sandwich is consumed mostly by late-night clubbers, but it still signifies the way the Strip guards its traditions, starting with its own defining look. Forget designer makeovers. You can see Pittsburgh's high-rises in the near distance, just to the south, but the restless development largely stops at the Strip's border, where the hulking brick buildings still throw long shadows like something out of a Hopper painting.

The district's survival, though, was never a sure thing. It underwent a slow decline that began in the Depression, when the warehouses first started to lose business. But by the 1970s the wholesalers were opening retail shops, and by the '90s a fresh generation of style setters had moved in, launching the boutiques, galleries, and dance clubs now lining Penn Avenue, the Strip's version of Main Street. The inevitable conversion of warehouses into lofts followed, and the Strip morphed from homey to high style.

[martin_fierro]

Just Yum.

[martin_fierro]

	It's a 'Burgh Thing.TM
Send FReepmail if you want on/off BPT list
Learn Pittsburghese!

[martin_fierro]

I must be getting old.

That sandwich photo does more for me than shirtless Ubangi women.

[martin_fierro]

Hey, look! Willie Green made the article, too! <|:)~

[Springman]

Sounds like a place in Birch Run, MI. It's called Tony's. They make giant sandwitchs. They have a 1lb. BLT that is just great!!!

When I go off my diet, that's the place for me to go!!

[xsmommy]

criminal of ya to post this at dinner time, ya jagoff. i almost feel like making the 4.5 hour drive up for it!

[xsmommy]

you are disclosing way more than we needed to know about your adolescence, darling.... ; )

[martin_fierro]

"Adolescence"?

Nonsense.

Why, just last week I ... nevermind.

<|:)~

[xsmommy]

well then, here's to your prostate health... at least according to FR and a thread here last week! ; )

[MadelineZapeezda]

Yum.........been eating those since 1972, #2 best seller. (showing my age here). First time I asked for it to be cut in half, some guy walked over with a hatchet and whacked it right there on the table. I ate in whole ever since.

[Jaxter]

[PA Engineer]

Bump. I loved the show. I remember one night (about the time frame you mentioned) when a scrufty driver came in for coffee and demanded cream and sugar with his coffee. One of the cooks turned, dumped about 20 teaspoons of sugar into the cup, a creamer still in its package and then stirred it with his finger. He looked the driver in the eye and asked him if he was happy before turning back to work on the grill.

[mountaineer]

Several years ago, I worked at a restaurant in Upper St. Clair owned by the fellows who owned Primantis. Even though its "theme" was Southwestern/TexMex, we still had the famous sandwiches on the menu. Mmmmm, love that cole slaw.

MZ - we ate at the Serb Center tonight and had "Serbian" cole slaw with our fish dinners. It bore some resemblance to Primanti's!

[Garth Rockett]

TexMex restaurant in USC? Right near the high school? I loved dining there (the restaurant, not the school) on Tuesday nights (or was it Monday?) for the all-you-can-eat Fajitas. Too bad it went away, but they never seemed to do much business on weekdays when I was there. My wife mentioned that her brother Art used to work there -- and as a result, almost everything he cooks is some kind of stir-fry.

And I did stop at Primanti's in the Strip with my buddies on the way home from a drinking binge a few times...somehow I got away with parking my car in the dark alley that also served as an unsanitary facility without plumbing.

[mountaineer]

Yep, that's the one - now an Outback restaurant!

[Badray]

Tell ya' what... Im here in the North Hills. Send me the money and I'll pick it up for you to save you the drive. I know the Post Office will get your cash here. I just don't know if they'll be as reliable when it comes to getting the sandwich back to you. ;-)