What is street food? Street food is good food that's not fancy. It's a great meal you can order quickly, yet without feeling like you're supposed to leave fast. It's food the locals usually know about--food that you don't feel strange eating by yourself, but are always glad to reveal to a special friend. Street food costs less than $10 per person. You order it at the counter, or at least pay for it there.
The Neighborhood Taste of Sergio's
by Eric MillerApril, 2003--Pittsburgh's older suburbs are dotted with communities that are more like small towns. Each has a main business district and a town hall, most a library, and all a unique character. Most of the stores on the neighborhood streets are still locally owned. Chains like Starbucks and even Subway haven't been interested in some of these busy neighborhood districts.
One of these little towns, Avalon, is decorated with a distinctive clock, and street lights bearing apples that recall the days when the land was used for growing fruit. The number of retail-oriented businesses here isn't as bountiful as those in nearby Bellvue, but a bus stop on a popular route and a nearby school keep the streets active during much of the day.
Sergio's Restaurant is nestled between a town hall, a playground, and neighborhood-oriented businesses that include a nail salon, a barber, a pizza parlor, a drug store, and a print shop. It's not terribly apparent from the outside what kind of food will be found behind the tinted glass windows. Obstacles to the line of sight from outside have been observed as detrimental to business success, but at Sergio's, addition to the tinted windows, the shades are usually drawn, and there's no "Specials" board on the sidewalk to lure patrons.
There's also no way to tell from the outside if this is "street food," an abandoned storefront, or a pricy eaterie. But once you go in you will be pleasantly surprised at both the food and the price.
A menu board inside the door advertised the daily "rainy day" special as complimentary coffee. Since the lunch special of a half hoagie and soup or fries included a drink, I passed on the coffee. "Hoagie" may be a foreign word to those in certain corners of the globe. It will be quite familiar, however. If you've ever eaten a "hero" or a "sub," you've eaten a hoagie.
The soup is what I had remembered from my previous visit, that time on a cold and snowy day. Made with leafy vegetables, meatballs, and pellet-sized noodles, this appropriate treat for bad weather proved to be a perfect break from french fries or chips.
On both visits I chose the meatball hoagie. Each was good enough to justify ordering it a third time.
The first time I tried Sergio's, I was not lured from the street. Without the desire to go out into the cold one winter day, I began browsing the food ads in a local circular. Since it was Lent, an ad for a fish sandwich caught my eye.
I've had pretty bad seafood at locations where common sense says it could be better--Baltimore, Monterey, Fisherman's Wharf, etc. I once heard an economic explanation that contended the reason is shipping costs. It costs just as much to send bad seafood as it does good seafood, so the good stuff goes to Kansas and the tourists on the coast get to pay high prices for second-rate flounder.
This could explain why the fish sandwiches in Pittsburgh are so good, but it doesn't explain why they are so inexpensive (for the best fish sandwhich try Roland's Seafood on Smallman Street in the Strip District). I couldn't hope to get a better piece of fish delivered to my door.
If decor isn't important to you, and if you can make it past the unwelcoming sidewalk presence, Sergio's is a good bet for good street food in Pittsburgh's North Boroughs.
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Sergio's 649 California Ave. Avalon, PA 15202 412-766-8441 |
