Release Date: Tuesday, March 15th 2011

Post-Gazette: Primanti owners plan different restaurant in Market Square

Primanti owners plan different restaurant in Market Square

Friday, March 04, 2011

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The famous Primanti Bros. sandwich will have some competition in Market Square -- from its makers.

Primanti's co-owners Jim Patrinos and Nick Nicholas plan to open a new restaurant in the former Jenny Lee Bakery space at the north end of Market Square early this summer.

But don't expect to find fries on the sandwiches.

Mr. Nicholas said Thursday the new restaurant -- for which the owners have yet to come up with a name -- would serve gourmet burgers, comfort foods like meatloaf and Turkey Devonshire, ham and roast beef carved from the bone, and maybe ribs and boneless wings.

"We're not talking upscale, but we are talking about something that's got some style to it," he said. "It will be a good value."

For those famous sandwiches stuffed with meat, fries, coleslaw and tomatoes, people will have to walk to Primanti's, a fixture at the south end of the square.

Mr. Nicholas said the new eatery will be more like Johnnie Brown's, a restaurant he and Mr. Patrinos own in Delray Beach, Fla., that offers up burgers, wings, ribs and live entertainment, mostly classic rock, each night.

Some elements of the menu and maybe a little of the classic rock will make its way to Pittsburgh.

But overall, the new restaurant, which also will have a bar, will feature more of a 1940s theme with black-and-white photos of Pittsburgh and other memorabilia dating to that period.

There also will be an outdoor dining area with enough seating for 50 people. The city Historic Review Commission approved plans for the seating and the canopy above it this week.

With the emergence of several new restaurants, Mr. Nicholas said he hoped that Market Square would become a dining destination.

NOLA, a New Orleans style bistro, is expected to open soon. Vallozzi's, a popular Italian restaurant in Westmoreland County, will be opening its first Pittsburgh location in Market Square in the spring, and Winghart's, billed as a burger and whiskey bar, recently opened on the south end of the square.

Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is also searching for a tenant for the former Ciao Baby restaurant space on Market Street at the edge of the square.

Mr. Nicholas said he sees Market Square returning to its glory days as a popular dining and night life destination.

"We feel Market Square is ready for some night life," he said.

"We're trying to revive Market Square to the way it was in the 1960s and 1970s."

Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First published on March 4, 2011 at 12:00 am

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11063/1129503-28.stm#ixzz1Gh2Cs8eg