PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

(This is the first story in a series about neighborhood dining scenes.)

My favorite local haunt is the Ambridge Do It Best Home Center.

Yeah, you might see chainsaws, but it’s not a spooky attraction in the traditional sense; there aren’t creepy monsters lurking in the shadows (unless you, of course, count me). Each fall, this humble hardware store becomes a retail wonderland of Halloween whimsy. With food trucks.

The inflatable monsters start popping up in the parking lot in August. As you drive up Ohio River Boulevard, you can see them waving in the breeze, welcoming you to the borough. When it comes to grand entryways, you can’t do it better.

That’s why I’m featuring Do It Best Home Center as the inaugural story in a series about Ambridge and its various sights, bites and sips. If my appetite allows, I’d like to do deep dives into other area dining scenes.

I first visited the hardware store several years ago on a quest to find a limited-edition jar of Tom Savini’s Extra Bloody Mary Mix. Folks in an online horror geek forum tipped me off to the fact that this quirky Do It Best carried local products, promoted mobile eateries, hosted grilling demos and cooking classes, and went hard with the Halloween decor.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

It’s not often I feel inspired to go shopping, but there I was in Ambridge, loading up on boozy brunch ingredients and grim reapers while ordering lunch from a pig-shaped food truck.

“We want to be a destination,” says David Strano, the second-generation owner.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

In 1982, his father, Frank Strano, who’s still on the job, opened the shop on Main Street. A dozen years later, he moved the growing business to its current location. It’s been part of Do It Best, a member-owned hardware, lumber and building materials cooperative based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, since 2008. It’s one of 15 privately owned Do It Bests in the ‘Burgh.

You’ll see a lot of Strano family members around the store as employees and in old photographs that have been enlarged and placed throughout the facility to designate different sections.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

It adds a nice, personal touch when you’re buying furnace filters. A mundane errand run turns into an epic adventure when you can feed Koi fish, buy Steelers swag, see skeletons displayed amongst patio furniture and rent carnival games such as Pop-A-Shot and Flip-A-Frog. You can also borrow dunk tanks, bounce houses, foosball tables, hot dog rollers, sno-cone machines and a model replica of the Duquesne Incline.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

Aside from the black-and-gold aisle, David’s pride and joy is the store’s abundance of local goods. Yinz’ll find everything from coffee, candy and hot sauce to pickles and pasta, along with former Steeler Brett Keisel’s Mighty Oak Hot Dogs.

“We’re not a big box store,” David says. “We don’t have that kind of advertising power, but we have a social media presence and niche items you can’t find online.”

Hope Depot has giant skeletons. Ambridge Do It Best Home Center has heart.

Next up in the Ambridge series: popular spots for beer, wine and pizza.