Lunch crowd slowly finding its way back to challenged Downtown restaurants
When Wiener World opened on Smithfield Street in Downtown Pittsburgh in 1965, the disc jockeys in KQV radio’s storefront studio a block away were only in their second year of playing Beatles records, Lyndon Johnson was president and the U.S. was still four years away from landing a man on the moon.
Nearly 60 years later, Wiener World has become an iconic Pittsburgh eatery with a business model based on selling top-quality hot dogs exclusively for lunch — that’s why owner Dennis Scott bought the place in 2017.
It worked very well until the pandemic.
“The summer before covid, the town was just booming and it seemed like we were on such an upward trajectory,” Scott said while standing behind the counter of his restaurant amid the off-white tiled walls on an unusually warm Thursday in January. “Office space was full, people were buying housing in droves — they couldn’t build condos fast enough. It was crazy busy Monday through Friday. From 11:30 to 1:30 every day, (there was) a line out the door.”
The formula was simple: tasty all-beef hot dogs and natural casing wieners filling a grill, crust up, amid old-school counter service and people standing because there are no seats. The place had been a fixture for decades.
“The best hot dogs in Pittsburgh without a doubt,” said Dennis Unkovic, 74, of McCandless. Unkovic works Downtown for the law firm of Meyer, Unkovic & Scott and is a regular customer at Wiener World. “You either like a beef dog or you like a casing dog. I like the casing dogs, and you don’t get those in a lot of places.”
Now though, times have changed dramatically, as they have for a lot of businesses. But places like Wiener World that depend on the Downtown lunch crowd to make a profit have been hit especially hard.
“It’s created challenges for us that are probably not new to anyone else who has a business Downtown. We’re still down 25% (in sales) from where we were (before the pandemic). There’s a lack of critical mass, so that the worst elements that are around are more evident,” Scott said. “The open air drug use, drug dealing, vagrancy are more pronounced. It’s kind of like the Wild West Downtown. Who wants to come Downtown? Would you want to come Downtown if you just heard there was a shooting? But I’m here.
“We have a reputation for doing this, so people know us. I think that helps. But there are a lot of places that aren’t doing lunch anymore.”
Actual statistics weren’t available: The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership said it did not have restaurant specific data readily available, and the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association Western Chapter did not respond to a request for specific information about lunch business among restaurants in Downtown Pittsburgh.
One of the places trying to make a go of it at lunchtime Downtown is Eddie Merlot’s, an upscale steak and seafood restaurant on Liberty Avenue. Sales manager Kim Radinick, who has been with Eddie Merlot’s since it opened nine years ago, said the restaurant has been trying to come up with creative ways to increase lunch traffic.
“We have a variety of price points, a variety of salads, soup and burgers and chicken. We’ve got rib eyes and salmon, so there is a variety to select from and everything is fresh,” Radinick said. “And we understand that everyone (has to eat) quicker during lunch so they can get back to the office. So, we have quicker service.”
Radinick would like to say the approach is working, but admits some days are better than others. However, she remains optimistic.
“Lunch is going to continue on an upward tick,” she said. “A lot of people aren’t even aware that we’re open. A lot of (businesses) are starting to require that people come back (to the office) during the week, so lunch is promising.”
Like Wiener World, Sally Ann’s on Sixth Street is a daytime restaurant — it serves breakfast as well as lunch and has only been open since last June. General manager Andrew McLaren seems to believe their timing was right.
“Just talking with people, they’ve expressed concerns that there is less foot traffic Downtown than there used to be, (but) it does seem like the weekday traffic has been picking up. We’ve noticed an increase in the number of people coming Downtown,” McLaren said. “Talking with customers, we’re hearing things like, ‘Our office is coming back from completely remote to we’re doing three days a week.’ Or, ‘We’re back in the office full time.’ It’s slowly coming back.
“Talking with people in the industry, we’re not where we were pre-pandemic during the weekdays Downtown, but it’s not as bad as it was a year ago.”
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On a recent Friday afternoon, Karl Jarek, 58, of Mt. Lebanon was sitting at Sally Ann’s counter having a late lunch. He works as an accountant at Gateway Center and already had been there for breakfast and liked the bacon and eggs enough to come back the same day.
“It’s a different type of menu,” Jarek said. “The food is good. The bakery stuff is really good. I had the avocado toast. I like the fact that you can come in and have a cocktail with your late lunch (laughs). A lot of places are only open for dinner. At least now places are starting to reopen again (for lunch).”
In Market Square, Pizzaiolo Primo general manager Steve Sontheimer agrees business is much better than it was at this time last year.
“We run the same menu from open to close seven days a week. So, people can expect very consistent high-quality homemade ingredients. Our sales are much higher and our volume is much higher than this time last year, and I think that’s a combination of factors,” Sontheimer said.
“(Last) January, a lot of people were still very sick, in the throes of the pandemic. Now, given our location in Market Square, we’re doing a pretty robust lunch business during the week. There are people who have returned to their offices Downtown who have also returned here. So, we’re probably on the more fortunate end of things.”
Sontheimer said the greater challenge for restaurants like his has been with staffing and having enough employees.
“In many ways, we’re fortunate largely because of our Downtown location. We’re walking distance from so many different offices. So, in the grand scheme of things, we’re more inclined to count our blessings,” he said.
Ironically, the ability of people to work remotely actually has benefited lunchtime business at The Yard in Market Square.
“We get a lot of people at the bar who work remotely, so they’ll come in and do their work and eat lunch there, which has been nice because they wouldn’t be able to sit there for a few hours while they’re at the office,” said manager Kaila Jackson, who has worked there for six years.
“But then, because some people are working remotely, they’re not coming into the city as much so there aren’t those big groups coming in to do a quick 30-minute lunch break and leave. Lunch has slowed down a little bit more. When I first started here, there were more people.”
As for the restaurants that are only open during the day, such as Wiener World, those running them believe business will pick up.
“Our whole business model is lunch,” Scott said. “This is paying all our bills. This is employing our staff. I think the worst is behind us. It was challenging through the pandemic, but I see positive signs moving forward. I think there are less people than we had expected back to work now. The estimates from the Downtown Partnership last year were that 70% (of the pre-pandemic work force) would be back by August. But we’re only at about 40%. Thank God we have construction workers and people who are willing to come in without seating.
“Moving forward, we just need more people back to work Downtown. That’s all.”
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