Category: Restaurants

The Original Hot Dog Shop

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

Baltimore’s Mee Jun Low

The Baltimore Sun ran an article today about Mee Jun Low, a small cheap Chinese restaurant on Mulberry Street in downtown Baltimore many years ago.

I recall one time I was there with a friend.  He asked the waitress if they had a cigarette machine.  She said no but she would give him one of hers.

The 1978 edition of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA) Bawlamer guide said:

“At the end of your “meal” in the garish den of Mee Jun’s, you’ll wonder why you bothered to try to find the location, climb the narrow stairs, attempt to decipher the faded menu, and figure out what you were really eating.  Not for the faint at heart.  Entrees $2.50-$6.75.”