Personal Space: Primanti Bros.
After nearly four decades, Toni Haggerty continues to perfect and serve sandwiches at Primanti’s in the Strip.
With 37 years—and counting—at the grill of Primanti Brothers’ flagship location in the Strip District, Toni Haggerty probably knows the classic meat/slaw/fry sandwich better than the people who invented it. She started at this location when current owner Jimmy Patrinos bought it from the Primanti family in 1974. Since then, she’s trained scores of others to make the iconic sandwich.
“They say this is the best of the Primanti’s [locations],” she says. “I think what it is—it’s how much [of each ingredient] I put on the sandwich. Too much fry, too much slaw and you don’t taste the meat. You have to judge it well.”
Haggerty is at home in the kitchen, spending her off-days cooking large Italian meals for her family. But whether it’s homemade pizza and pasta for her loved ones or the perfect ham and cheese for an out-of-towner, Haggerty offers service with a smile. “It’s the people,” she says. “It’s the people who I meet here. That’s what I like best.”
This article appears in the December 2011 issue of Pittsburgh Magazine
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