A couple of years back, we spent a wonderful day visiting with friends who live in a suburb of Pittsburgh. Part of the fun included a guided tour of some of the city's sights, like Point State Park at the confluence of the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, the Duquesne Incline and the Strip District on 18th Street. The latter, a mile-long stretch between the Allegheny River and a huge hill, provided us lots of fun searching for goodies in the many shops that sell everything from fresh produce to cookware.
The area also is home to the original Primanti Bros. restaurant, and we were delighted to have lunch at this notable eatery. Since then, our thoughts have returned there but we haven't. Imagine our thrill, then, when our son-in-law told us he'd seen a Primanti Bros. restaurant right across from the outlet mall at Grove City, Pa. Needless to say, we wasted little time getting there.
The original restaurant got its start in the 1930s, when Joe Primanti opened a cart in the Strip District to sell sandwiches to truckers (or so the website tells me). Since that venture was successful, he opened a small restaurant on 18th Street. When a man brought in a bunch of potatoes to see if they were frozen, the cook - John DePriter, Primanti's nephew - fried them. When customers asked for them, he put them on the sandwiches - marking the birth of the famous Primanti sandwich (more on that later). Along the way several other restaurants were opened, and the company now has 17, mostly around Pittsburgh, and three in Florida.
Most of the locations, including the one in Grove City, sport the rust exterior with hunter green trim. That famous Primanti sandwich, for the record, is an all-inclusive deal: Meat topped with fries, cole slaw and usually a tomato. Back in Pittsburgh, I tried the corned beef and cheese, and it was fabulous.
Here in Grove City, we arrived for lunch and found the place large enough that we could choose a seat either on the restaurant or bar side - as is our custom, we picked the bar. Good thing; it was fairly crowded, and if I recall correctly, ours was the last available table. The walls are covered in Pittsburgh Steelers memorabilia (Cleveland Browns fans that we are, we sucked it up, kept our mouths shut and didn't look up very often). The tables and chairs are wood, there are plenty of TV sets and it was clear this is a fun place - all the other diners seemed to be having a great time.
The menu basically is casual food - lots of sandwiches plus pizza, wings (regular and boneless with 12 sauce choices) and "really big" salads. The latter are a bit on the unique side, such as the Caribbean Chopped Salad, which includes marinated flat-iron grilled chicken breast tossed with roasted peppers, sweet corn, crisp cucumbers, croutons, applewood smoked bacon and farmhouse cheddar cheese with mango vinaigrette dressing for $8.29. There are a few Italian entrees as well - chicken spinach Alfredo and hot sausage al forno, for instance -
Whatever else I decided on, I knew I'd have to try the Almost Famous Hot Chili Bowl, Pittsburgh style ($3.29). Add cheddar cheese and chopped onion for 49 cents each? Of course! I hesitated before deciding not to get one of those fabulous whole dill pickles for $1.99, but I figured the chili plus a sandwich would be too filling to allow for anything else.
Jack stuck with his favorite sandwich, Sicilian cheesesteak (from the Crostini list, which pretty much means it's served on a hoagie roll). Inside is sliced beef mixed with mushrooms, onion and green pepper, and it's topped with mozzarella cheese, lettuce, tomato and parmesan-horseradish mayonnaise ($7.99) He added a side of cole slaw to top off his meal.
Once again, I hit the "everything is on it" list, but this time I opted for hot sausage and cheese ($6.29 for the original, but for $7.79 you can get double meat). All these sandwiches are served on fresh Italian bread with the slaw, fries, tomatoes and provolone. Onions are added by request, so I asked for them as well.
The chili was excellent, though it had a few too many beans to suit me. There was lots of melted, gooey shredded cheddar on top, so even though it's not a large bowl, it's extremely filling; that and a small salad would be quite sufficient for me as a whole meal.
To be honest, Jack wasn't too fond of the vinegar-based slaw (he much prefers the kind made with mayo). It's shredded but not chopped, so it comes in long strings - no doubt making it stay on the top of a sandwich much more easily. They did not, however, skimp on the quantity - too bad he didn't like it all that well because it almost could have made a meal in and of itself. The sandwich itself, though, he absolutely loved, especially the horseradish sauce.
I'm not a big fan of that slaw either, so I ended up taking much of it off my sandwich. Besides that, I've got a really small mouth (just ask my dentist), so trying to get my teeth around a nearly 7-inch-high sandwich was virtually impossible until I removed a few things. Once some of the slaw was gone and I pulled out some fries to eat the regular way with ketchup, I was able, though barely, to get what was left in my mouth.
It was quite good, although I probably will choose double meat next time. The sausage patty was great, but all that other stuff on top was so overwhelming that I hardly could taste it. Both sandwiches were large enough to be cut in half, making it easy for both of us to bring half home (they're way too big for us to polish off in one meal, especially lunch). Next time, though, I'm planning to try that Caribbean salad - if I can get them to leave out those nasty cucumbers, that is.
If you go:
Primanti Bros. Restaurant & Bar
Leesburg-Grove City Road (PA 208 at I-79)
Grove City, PA 16127
(724) 748-9955
http://www.primantibros.com
Open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday; Sunday from 11 a.m. to midnight.
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