After the early wake and natural stimulant that was getting caught in a lighting storm, we were all jolted into pressing onward west, although where we weren't quite sure. During a breakfast of gas station sandwiches and coffee, we had a quick meeting in the parking lot as our trusty steed was filled with more gas. After some strategizing, it was decided that Pittsburgh would be the next destination of our trip. It lay two hours away, a gateway into Ohio on the edge of the great state of Pennsylvania, and Katherine needed to get her iPad fixed anyway, so it seemed to be an understandable next step.
Nonetheless, I was skeptical. Pittsburgh? The decaying steel city? A symbol of the decline of US industry and home of the steelers, a team I have been trained to despise as a Patriots fan my whole life? What could possibly be worth seeing there?
Surprisingly, quite a bit. After winding our way through the hills of Pennsylvania on fog covered roads, we finally descended down to urban center. Immediately we were all taken aback. Pittsburgh... was nice... In fact, it was gorgeous. I imagine it to be the exact opposite sensation that was felt by poor suckers who sailed to greenland just to find a frozen barren tundra. Upscale shops lined clean streets filled with friendly people, who at one point banded together to helpfully remind us that we had pulled into traffic with our faithful Thule completely open.
and they had an apple store!After a quick and easy fix at the apple store, we drove further into the heart of the city, to an area called the strip district. Not Pittsburgh's strip club center as one of our members immediately assumed, and another hoped, but home of the old markets, where fish and produce were traded daily. A bit like dumbo in brooklyn today, the strip, as it's known, was filled with aging brick warehouses, that were being reused for a stunning array of shops restaurants and cultural centers. On the main strip, one side of the street was lined with the loading docks of bygone markets, while on the other side were delis, contemporary dance studios and homemade clothing stores. In addition, the strip is home to a Pitttsburg institution, known far and wide as the "almost famous" Pramantie Brothers sandwich shop.
For a place that calls themselves almost famous, the reverence they attract from all over seems a whole lot like straight up fame to me. They're regularly featured on the myriad of food shows on the travel channel and the guidebooks write about the place wistfully as if it was a long lost lover. Weeks before I left an old friend told me it was worth the stop in the city alone. At a MacDonald's far from the city, Molly was urged to stop in as well by some friendly truck drivers. It's as if that little shop on eighteenth was inexplicably luring us towards it.
We found it tucked into a side street off the main strip and entered. It was charming and comfortable, and filled with Pittsburgh sports memorabilia as well as a giant mural of the city's sports greats complete with the signatures of those who had dined in the shadow of their likeness. I saw Bill Cowher's signature. He has nice handwriting, I thought. Oh shit, this city was growing on me.
As expected, the Pittsburger, a Philly cheese steak loaded with god only knows what and fries, was life changingly delicious. I have a habit of buying teeshirts from establishments whose food is off the charts. If I had the cash, I would have bought two shirts from pramanties. It was that good.
Very.
Happy.
Campers.We met with our friend Jonny Lev, a Pittsburgh native and college chum who filled us in on the various facets of Pitt culture. He asserted what we had seen already, that Pittsburgh is a young town. Filled with college kids from several schools across the city, Pittsburgh had a vibrant nightlife and cheap rent, the perfect storm for eighteen to twenty five year olds. And yes, out of college he was employed, and he was not living with his parents.
Also, Jonny reasserted the centrality of sports for the city. Penguins and Steelers memorabilia was on every street corner, while the Pittsburgh Pirates, the long troubled baseball franchise, was seen as a redheaded step child, poking out every now and again from windowsills.
After lunch we drove through the downtown on our way out of the city. We had heard through various guidebooks that Pittsburgh had an almost European feel. This seemed like hyperbole courtesy of a check from the Pittsburgh tourism department, but again, we stood corrected. The Financial District featured towering buildings of stone and marble, along brick paved streets and among beautiful sculptures. As we turned onto a narrow street lined with a church on one side and a stone archway over the road, we finally conceded that it did indeed feel like we were in some wacky alternate Euro-American reality.
Before we left Jonny, we asked if he had had any other old friends as visitors before us. He laughed.
"I go to New York to see friends, nobody comes to Pittsburgh."
Perhaps we will be the start of a change we offered, perhaps people will realize the vibrancy, the energy of the city we had witnessed that day.
He nodded stoically. "Tell everyone what you saw here today."
We will jonny. We will.
-O'K
Location:Pittsburgh, PA
