Farewell, Dear O

original.jpgOne of my friends told me about the closing of a restaurant in Pittsburgh affectionately known as The O. I meant to blog about it at the time, but put it off because I didn’t quite know what to say. There’s never a good time to say these things, or an easy way to say them, so I’ll just go ahead and speak my mind.

I don’t know if anybody who reads this blog has ever been to The O. I only went once, over a year ago. It was a hot dog place to end all hot dog places. They served hot dogs, hamburgers, assorted sausages, pizza… The list went on and on. It was a operating monument to greasy food. And the fries. Oh, the fries. Plentiful doesn’t begin to describe it. You all probably remember the old McDonald’s Super-Size. Maybe you think it’s pretty big, possibly even too big. But believe me when I tell you that the regular large, not even the X-tra large, dwarfed the Super Size. I hesitate to even compare them. The scale of The O’s large defies description. You really had to see it to believe it. Imagine a regular restaurant’s big basket of fries. Got that in your head? Good. Now take that, and pile fries in it until you’ve got a good six inches. That’s the ballpark I’m talking about here. I sorely doubt any single person could have comfortably eaten it, and isn’t that how much a "large" size should really supply?

Unfortunately, I don’t live anywhere near Pittsburgh. I always knew that my chances of ever getting the chance to go back to The O were slim to nil. But you know, that was okay. I felt better just knowing that it was out there, that bastion of grease and boiling oil holding steady against the salad-mongers who invade our grocery stores by the day.

Alas! I shall miss The O. What could ever replace it?

2 thoughts on “Farewell, Dear O

  1. Sean

    The O-fries were good… at least I thought so back in the early 80’s when I was at CMU. Nowadays, I’d probably find them disgusting. But I still wanted to go back down there one more time and taste them before they close. Are they closed yet? When?

    They have another place in Plum, but its in a strip mall and its just not the same.

    But… the best chili dogs ever were made in the Hot Dog Shop in Butler, PA. Alas, that placed closed earlier this year.

    *sigh*

  2. Jerry Nora

    And Primanti’s still is standing proud, serving sandwiches that were greasy even before they were piled high with fries and coleslaw. 🙂 Dave and Andy’s is also serving their very-tasty and quite fattening ice cream as well, so we still have plenty of unhealthy foods in Oakland!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *