Holy Cow! Beef Graffiti Opening Inside of Giant Eagle Market District at Waterworks Mall

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEEF GRAFFITI

Beef Graffiti at Giant Eagle Market District sounds like vandalism in the meat department, but it’s actually a new culinary collaboration.

On May 16, chef Mark Mammone will start smashing burgers and deep-frying bites inside the O’Hara location at Waterworks Mall. Beef Graffiti, which recently exited Federal Galley on the North Side after a one-year residency, will occupy the cafe space adjacent to the bar. There is a separate entrance from the main store.

With creative input from employees Emma Gruska and Devon Keeliher, Mammone’s menu is a masterclass in comfort food. The burgers are pure, bad-for-you bliss.

The French-trained chef’s Double Beef Smash is stacked with beef bourguignon, rivoire comté cheese, soft egg and pickled shallot on a tarragon garlic croissant. Another double-decker, the Seoul of Pittsburgh, includes bulgogi, chili garlic mayo and slaw made from bok choy, carrots and ramen.

Yinz need to try the croissant-wrapped Chipped Chopped Smash: two patties topped with chipped ham BBQ, Swiss cheese and Mammone’s Bridge City Bringery-brand of sweet pickles. Last summer, Giant Eagle Market District began stocking the company’s three varieties of pickles made from fermented Kirby cucumbers.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEEF GRAFFITI

Beef Graffiti will rent the Freeport Road site for three years and Mammone plans to wrangle more Market District kitchens soon.

Introduced in June 2006 to offer an array of specialty and prepared foods never before available to Giant Eagle shoppers, Markets Districts now have 25 locations across Western Pennsylvania and Ohio, with eight in Pittsburgh. While not every store has a kitchen, all locations sell beer and wine.

“Beef Graffiti is an amazing local restaurant,” says Angie Ferguson, senior director of prepared foods at Giant Eagle. “In addition to the delicious, high-quality meals Mark’s team makes, we also share a strong passion for local sourcing. Mark uses local farmers for produce and has his meat processed in the Strip District.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEEF GRAFFITI

While the grocery store chain doesn’t have plans to rent space to other restaurant partners, it does carry products from hometown purveyors including Sausalido, Pitaland and Alta Via, a partnership that is particularly unique, Ferguson says, as it marks the first time anywhere that a customer can purchase an Alta Via meal to prepare at home.

Speaking of being at home, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Mammone and fellow chef Joe Bardakos fermented pickles for fun. That pastime launched Bridge City Brinery, which led to a pair of food trucks.

Two years ago, the business partners went their separate ways, with Bardakos and his family opening The Brinery in Sharpsburg and Mammone stampeding into Federal Galley with Beef Graffiti.

There are two concepts — Triple S Cafe and Mijo — and a central bar operating at the Nova Place food hall. Long-time tenants Troy Beck and Katie Peric, who ran a chicken sandwich eatery called Given To Fly, recently flew the coop to prepare for the relaunch of Nothingman.

Later this year, Lilith owners Jamilka Borges and Dianne DeStefano will open an Italian coastal restaurant called Guilia in Nothingman’s former Bloomfield space at 4744 Liberty Ave.