Sure Primanti's in Pittsburgh is legendary but downtown Pittsburgh has many great places to eat iconic food such as:
The Pittsburgh Salad
Wholey's Fish Sandwich
S&D Polish Deli
Prantl Burnt Almond Cake
Mancini's Cinnamon bread
Jimmy and Nino's Pepperoni Roll
Enrico's Biscotti
Isaly's Chipped Ham

It is impossible to speak about food in Pittsburgh without mentioning Primanti’s.

However, I found that most visitors don’t understand why Primanti’s is so important to Pittsburgh.

The Strip District was once primarily an industrial area of warehouses and a produce terminal.

During the great depression, Joe Primanti opened a sandwich cart and sold hearty sandwiches to the truck drivers who were delivering food.

Eventually his brothers Dick and Stanley joined Joe and opened a deli. But the sandwich didn’t always have fries.

But legend has it that a driver delivering potatoes came over thinking the potatoes were frozen so Joe grilled them. Discovering they were okay the driver asked for them in is sandwich.

Today the location is 24 hours and is popular with Yinzers (slang for Pittsburger) as a late night eat before going home from the bar or local workers wanting a big lunch.

There is no ONE Primanti sandwich. You order your deli meat, and they all come with tomato, sweet and sour coleslaw, cheese and fries on Italian bread.

I was advised the capicola was great so I went with it.

Pittsburgh is a multicultural city with early immigrants coming from Europe (Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Italy) and African Americans coming from the South.

With a booming steel industry, newcomers flocked to Pittsburgh and it created food that was unique to the city.

Made for blue collar workers, it was cheap and plentiful, with influences from many cultures.


Much thanks to Visit Pittsburgh for hosting me on this gluttonous journey.