The Original Hot Dog Shop in Pittsburgh was one of the places that closed for good in 2020. I have very fond memories from my time at Pitt from 1971-1975. It was open into the early hours of the morning if you had the munchies.
My favorite memory was from two days before my 21st birthday in 1975. The Original would be lax on carding people so you could get beer. Then they would get busted and couldn’t serve beer for a month. After that, they would card strictly for a while before going back to their lax ways. They had cheap carryout six packs. Miller and Bud were $2.10. If you didn’t have $2.10, you could get Iron City, Stroh’s, Schmidt’s or Koehler’s (a foul beer from PA).
I had been served there about 50 times but got carded on my 21st birthday. I said “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll be able to handle it better on Tuesday!” When I told someone this story decades later, I wondered did I remember it so well that my 21st birthday was really on a Tuesday? It was.
An elegy to the ‘O’: A beloved hot dog shop closes after 60 years
Sad! 