It’s always good when folks outside of Pittsburgh recognize just how great we have it here.
Thrillist acknowledges our fortune by including Swissvale’s Triangle Bar & Grill on its list of the 33 Best Sandwich Shops in America.
“Western PA loves their sandwiches — this is the land of Primanti’s after all,” says Thrillist food writer Wil Fulton. “And perhaps no destination this side of the Strip combines two of Pennsylvania’s most prized treasures (the dive bar and the giant sub) better than Triangle Bar.”
The website — a resource for food, drink, travel & entertainment news — pins the accolade around Triangle’s 27-inch Battleship sub, calling it “a military-grade assault of provolone, ham, salami, lettuce, tomato and onion — topped with a heavy pour of oil and vinegar, with more than a few pinches of oregano, salt and pepper.”
The building of it is a beautiful process.
Want a fuller explainer? Watch how the hoagie is built.
The famous sub was the brainchild of the Catanzano brothers, Joseph and John, whose family owned the bar. They came up with the Battleship one night while making something for a bowling league friend. A customer happened to catch the pair creating the sub and showed up the next day asking them to re-create it.
It’s been feeding hungry patrons ever since.
John died decades ago, while his brother Joe died in February at the age of 93.
In his summation, Fulton writes, “the (Battleship) — and the 70-year-old Triangle Bar — remains a Pittsburgh legend on par with Fred Rogers, Jerome Bettis, and copious amounts of potholes on every street. Here’s to another seven decades of sandwich decadence.”
We couldn’t agree more.
