Central City Cafe--Simplicity, Simplicity

As fun as Pittsburgh is to wander around in, finding the different little areas, and their classic restaurants, Ben and I decided we needed a little vacation. I'd been working my tail off all summer, so it was time to take off and get out of the city for a few days. Now usually West Virginia wouldn't be our top choice, but we decided it was close enough to make a good weekend, and we could finish off the entire gamut of Triple D West Virginia in one weekend--since there are only two places! A lot of people thought that we were crazy for driving 4 hours just to go to a couple restaurants, but if we're serious about this thing we've gotta be willing to travel a little bit, and this was the first chance to really do a road trip like Guy--unfortunately we rolled out in a Ford Fusion not a '67 red Camero. We took off on a Friday afternoon and headed straight for Old Central City, Huntington, WV to discover the comfort food of the Central City Cafe.

Old Central City is the old downtown of Huntington, home to the old factories, 100 year old buildings, and tons of antique shops. Right in the heart of this cozy district, right across from a revamped, white gazebo is a brick building, highlighted by its green bunting, with old English lettering declaring you've reached the Central City Cafe. Open since 1993, Dave and Sherry Louther opened up the cafe after Dave retired from working on the railroad for 17 years. He was in charge of the railcar, cranking out 11 meals a week for 85 men--so now he cranks out just as many meals for all the Huntington locals looking for some heart-warming, just like Mom made food. This was probably one of the biggest places we've been in. Triple D has made us get used to cramped quarters, but at the Central City you've got plenty of room from the bar area in front to the full dining room attached to it. A shrine to Marshall University's Thundering Herd dominates the bar area, and you know that everyone in the place is devoted to the Herd and can't wait for football season. Inside the dining area, the walls are covered with old newspapers, antiques, Frank Sinatra's mug shot, and if you're a fan of the show Chuck like we are, a huge plastic marlin. They're famous for their homemade food, and our waiter--possibly the owner's son--gave us the low down on all the food Guy tried. Oddly enough we mentioned that we were checking out the other places in the area, and it turns out our waiter's sister is dating the son of the couple who own Hillbilly Hot Dogs--our other place to visit (check back in for their post 'cuz it'll be crazy). Guy didn't try a ton here--at least not that was aired, but the menu isn't huge, so we didn't have too tough of a choice. In pure cafe style they have about 9 hot dinners, 8 homemade soups, and tons of sandwiches...we opted for soup and some dinner.

Like I mentioned with LoBello's we had to try the soup that Guy tried even though we aren't really soup people--plus the soup came with their famous, brick sized cornbread, so we really couldn't say no. We went with the White Chili, which was spicy and warm, the type of thing you'd love to have a huge bowl of in the middle of December. The cornbread is literally the size of a small brick, super dense, and super moist. It isn't necessarily a sweet cornbread, but the texture was perfect and it was a good start to the meal. Now in terms of dinner, Ben and I had different opinons. He wasn't a huge fan of his dinner, and it's true the portions are kinda small, but it's a cafe so it comes with the territory a bit. He had the hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and cottage cheese. I opted for the meatloaf with mashed potatoes, peas, and cornbread. Now unfortunately they forgot my peas, but the mashed potatoes were absolutely insane. Hands down some of the best that I've ever had, very creamy, awesome seasoning, a great side to the meatloaf. The meatloaf had a very interesting seasoning, what we think was sage, which isn't usually how meatloaf tastes, but it was really really good--plus it was topped with ketchup so you can't go wrong. Overall, I liked my meal, but like Ben, I would say it was a one time stop--it was worth the visit, but there isn't anything that screams at me that we had that would made me itch to go back, but hey this was the first place that was a little rough for us, and that ratio isn't that bad, and we'd still recommend it to anyone who wants to do the Triple D rounds. Oh and try to get there early before they run out of the homemade desserts which we missed out on.

No website, but if you Google "Old Central City" you'll get a little information on the cafe.

LoBello's Spaghetti House--Picture it Sicily...

So if you ever find yourself cruising up 79 around Pittsburgh you'll eventually find yourself driving past the ghosts of steel mills and a city that was once the central hub of the steel industry...Coraopolis, PA. It can now be easy to breeze past the now small suburb and ignore it while heading onto bigger and better things, however if you persuade your car to pull off at the State Street exit you'll find in the heart of 5th avenue a little Italian restaurant that's been around for 65 years, a favorite of locals and used-to-be locals alike, and may just be the most talked about Triple D place we've encountered yet.

Of all the places we've visited no other has had so many accompanying stories from outside the confines of Food Network. It seems like everyone I know who has grown up or gone to school in Pittsburgh has a LoBello's story...Ben's parents used to eat there with some of their college friends, one of my friends from Seminary used to go there with his wife once a week, even at the hospital I worked at all summer I had veterans telling me that if I'm ever in Coraopolis I have to check out LoBello's. It wasn't just Guy telling us to discover the wonders of their real deal Italian but apparently everyone we came into contact with. Italian isn't how this place started out though...it all started with...hot dogs...yes hot dogs. 65 years ago when Rose LoBello's parents immigrated to the US from Italy they decided to open up a 24/7 hot dog stand, and by the time she was 14 Rose was waitressing and helping out her parents, but eventually the hot dogs lost their luster and they decided to go back to their roots and recreate their restaurant with the recipes they'd brought with them from Italy. Now years later Rose is still wandering around the tables chatting up regulars with plenty of hugs to go around, and the food is still as Italian as you can get. It's a small place, cozy, perfectly romantic Italian, with 8 booths and 3 tables as close together as you can get. Their history is literally written on the walls since the thing that you first notice when you walk in is that every wooden surface is covered with the carved names of past and present patrons (including the blonde haired Food Network star himself). Pictures of Rose's parents are still on the walls and the machinery they used 65 years ago are still hand-cranking out dozens of ravioli one order at a time, but believe me they're worth the wait.

All their pasta is cooked to order after each dozen is rolled out individually once the order rolls in. This is probably one of the few places where Ben and I haven't tried to cover as much of the menu as possible, but stuck to the classics...ravioli all the way. Before we got to the ravioli though we took a trip down the soup aisle, which is something we owe to Triple D. Soup is usually something we skip at restaurants, when the option is soup or salad we always go salad, never soup, but Guy loves trying restaurant's soups and LoBello's is no exception. Their specialty is Pasta Fagoli, made with homemade noodles creating a kind of Italian chili, thick, hearty, and heart-warming. The secret apparently lies in browning the garlic powder and gives it the kick it's become known for, and trust me it packs a punch for soup, but the next time I need something to warm me up during a Pittsburgh winter, this soup would be the number one choice. But if we thought the soup was good, dinner only got better. We got an order of meat ravioli and an order of cheese then split, but the edge would probably go to the meat, which tasted like there was a homemade mini-meatball inside. The dough was light and fluffy, yet dense enough to fill you up. The sauce is really the kicker though--don't expect a thick meat sauce at LoBello's--no no--their homemade sauce is thin with a depth of flavor I haven't found anywhere else...there's a kick to the spices and it's the perfect texture to be sopped up with the bread you get with your meal. While we weren't able to engrave our names on a booth, we will definately get another chance soon because they deserve a second (and third and fourth) visit to check out more of the menu and more real deal Italian.

MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUT THEIR HOURS!!! They're very different everyday so check out the schedule and of course the menu (same for lunch and dinner just different prices)

http://lobellosspaghettihouse.com/

Dor-Stop--Welcome to the Pancake Jungle

Here's the cool thing about doing this Triple D thing...it isn't just Ben and I who are makin' the rounds. My sisters were really the ones who got us into Food Network, and we all love Guy, it was just Ben and I who decided to really crank these trips into a legit goal, but occasionally our schedule works out that we're able to get everybody to some stops. It's actually fun 'cuz my sisters have started keeping track of how many places they've been to too. So around mid-June, my family were swinging into Pittsburgh for my brother-in-law's birthday, and my oldest sister had seen "this place with amazing breakfast food" on an episode she was watching, so we decided that we'd head to the Dor-Stop while she was in town. Dormont is another one of those weird suburbs of Pittsburgh that is still technically in the Pittsburgh zip code, but is really it's own little area. It's kind of like this little town that refuses to become part of the city, and still has the small town feel from the small antique shops right down to the local diner that everyone flocks to every weekend...the Dor-Stop.

The Dor-Stop has been the go-to breakfast joint for Dormont locals for 23 years, and what put them on the map were their pancakes--or hotcakes as Vicki Lawhorne calls them. The Lawhorne's decided in the mid-80's that they really wanted a diner of their own, because as Vicki says she's a diner person, she cooks like she's in a diner, talks like she's in a diner, she is 100% diner. According to Vicki what really defines her as a diner owner is that the recipe they're most famous for isn't really a recipe at all...their hotcakes are different with every order because she just eyeballs the batter, but trust me she doesn't make mistakes, none of us had a bad pancake. Now the most popular question they get at the Dor-Stop is why that name?? They've gotten asked so many times that they've put the answer on the menu and on the tables. To make a long story short they took the beginning of the town=DOR and combined it with the fact that they are in close proximity to the Dormont Transit STOP, put the two together and you've got the Dor-Stop. Regardless of how they got the name though, the food they're cranking out is enough to put a line out the door anyday of the week. We got there around 10am on a Saturday morning and there was a line out the door! There wasn't even enough room inside to wait, because trust this place is tiny, but they pack in as many people as the fire marshall will allow. Now you can choose to sit outside, but when you've got a party of 9 to cram in an outside table isn't really possible. What's really cool about the people at the Dor-Stop though is they take care of you even before you've sat down. A waitress came out and brought everyone coffee while they waited and made sure they had a menu to keep them busy. Despite the number of people there though we only waited 20 minutes and then we were in for the best pancakes I've ever had.

Inside there are tons of tiny tables as close together as possible, and the walls are covered with pictures from when the town was being built and the railroads came in, plus tons of black and white pictures of old little league teams, so there's plenty to look at. The kitchen is right in the dining room and you can see the cooks going crazy on the line trying to make as many hotcakes as possible to keep everyone happy. Now most of us got hotcakes, but that didn't mean we all ate the same thing...there are at leat 10 different options for pancakes (so many choices Guy called this place the Pancake Jungle) on the menu so we all got something a little different. My sister got the Banana Oatmeal, which had this awesome texture that you really can't describe. My brother-in-law and I both got the Pumpkin, and let me tell you these things tasted like cake, no joke. They were crisp but soft and kinda dense, but so good, trust me I think about these things on a weekly basis. Now the pancakes aren't the only famous thing here. After they were open for a few years, people started to want something a little different from pancakes, so one of the managers whipped up one of the best things on their menu, the Raspberry Stuffed French Toast. My other sister and Ben got this, and then we all split out meals. The french toast is coated with corn flakes so they're really crunchy, then covered with a raspberry cream cheese and sauce, it's practically like eating dessert for breakfast. But if a sweet breakfast isn't what you're looking for don't worry...just try the jumbot. Now on Triple D this meal goes by a couple names, garbage plates, schultzy's mess, but at the Dor-Stop it's the jumbot. A crazy combination of eggs, potatoes, tomato, peppers, cheese, ham, and sausage, pretty much everything you can imagine, and when you put it together it's insane. We got one as an appetizer so everyone could try it, cuz that's what we try to do when we have enough people--sample a little bit of everything Guy tried, and with 9 people that's what we were able to do. This place is going to be a regular stop whenever we're in Pittsburgh, in fact I'll probably be there this weekend, now I just have to decide between the pancakes and the french toast...how does one Food Network fan make that kind of decision???

Check out all the hotcake flavors and the clip of the Jumbot..

http://www.dor-stoprestaurant.com/