What Is “Pittsburgh Blue?”

It’s the way steelworkers used to eat their steak: charred black on the outside, cold and raw on the inside.

Some say the men cooked the steaks themselves, throwing slabs of meat directly onto the steelworks’ soot-blackened furnaces. Others claim that the laborers, fresh off a grueling 12-hour shift, would head to the bars for their favorite food, but were so hungry they didn’t have the patience to wait for the steaks to be cooked through.

(Today, ordering a steak “Pittsburgh Blue” is chiefly a way to stump your server. Or to get them to congratulate you on your courage – then advise you to reconsider your choice.)

Pittsburgh Blue is a steakhouse for people who work hard and want to enjoy the rewards of a superbly flavorful steak, deep booths and a deeper wine list, a bar that makes everything better, and the kind of service everybody deserves but hardly ever receives.