Dig in With Graver: Turning up the Heat at Giant Eagle
Binko’s Pymatuning Lake Chili Co. hot sauces and other Pittsburgh-made products won’t disappear from the supermarket chain, which was recently acquired by Ohio-based Kroger.
PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER
I killed half a bottle of hot sauce during the heat wave.
Thursday was a real scorcher, especially when Binko’s Pymatuning Lake Chili Co., a Pittsburgh-based company, hosted a tasting event at Giant Eagle Market District at The Waterworks. One drop of their Coolhand Habanero Pepper Sauce was all it took to get me hooked.
I think my fellow shoppers had the same experience, because there was only one bottle of the stuff left on the shelf. Lucky for you, Binko’s products are available online and in seven Market District locations throughout the region.
PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER
Unless the extreme temperatures have fried your brain, you know that the supermarket chain was sold to Kroger, a corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, for a cool $1.65 billion. Does that mean Pittsburgh-made brands will evaporate from the inventory?
Jannah Drexler, Giant Eagle’s public relations manager, assured me that “everything will carry on business as usual.”
That warms my heart.
I love seeing hometown goods when I go shopping. Pittsburgh Pickle Co., Brunton Dairy, Natrona Bottling Co., Best Ever Granola, Steel City Salt Co., Alla Famiglia, Pitaland, Hammajack Heat Co., Blume Honey Water — every label is like an old friend to this longtime food editor.
Mica Williams, co-owner of Binko’s, is thrilled to see the sauces at Giant Eagle, the company’s first major grocery store partner.
PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER
Beef Graffiti isn’t moo-ving either.
In May, chef Mark Mammone opened his smashburger concept inside the Market District at The Waterworks. Beef Graffiti will rent the Freeport Road site for three years.
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.
PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER
With a belly full of hot sauce samples, I moseyed over to Beef Graffiti and ordered a double-patty Chicago Handshake topped with Calabrian pepper mayo, pepper jack cheese, black pepper bacon and Mammone’s Bridge City Brinery brand of Smokey Hot Metal Pickles.
Thank goodness Giant Eagle’s air conditioning was at full blast.
Some yinzers blew their stack when they heard about Kroger’s acquisition of the Pittsburgh institution. Maybe if the new owners bring back Iggle Video, cooler heads will prevail.
