Meat Purveyors Tye

By Virginia Phillips

My pal Barry Samuels and his spouse, Charelle, of Shadyside took their kids to Tessaro's for a long time.

The Harrington clan keeps Tessaro's on it feet: from left, dad Dennis, and his children, town magistrate Moira Harrington, and Kelly and Ena Harrington. Kelly and Ena are part-owners of Tessaro's using their mom, Tee (for Tresa). (Tony Tye, Post-Gazette)

"exactly what would you choose to consume truth be told there, Barry, " I ask.

He grimaces apologetically. "i can not get past the hamburger, " he claims. "What is it about that hamburger?"

The hamburger is feisty. It has swept the city's best burger honors regularly since Kelly Harrington, his sibling Ena Harrington and their particular mother "Tee" (for Tresa) Harrington, took over the Bloomfield hard-wood bar-and-grill from Richie Tessaro in 1984.

An element of the mystique derives from a daily visit by a fireman with a handlebar mustache. At dawn or in the evening, Dominic Piccola, slips through the back door and uses an hour or two inside restaurant cellar.

The reason why he tends to make these stops and exactly how they affect the almost cult curiosity about the Tessaro burger relates to an emergency a couple of years straight back which had Kelly in a "nail-gripping fight with himself."

The butcher shop down the street, long-time provider associated with the restaurant's custom-ground beef, abruptly sealed. Its butcher ended up being Dominic Piccola. Kelly despaired. He tested some 15 purveyors. "absolutely nothing tasted similar."

He determined to work the meat each day in-house. He lined up a number of vendors - not to be influenced by just one once again - to deliver chuck and steaks in bulk toward home.

And, he claims, "as fate and God could have it, " he found Piccola, chances are used as a city fireman, to moonlight as butcher.

The famed half-pound burger had been back on the right track.

Some 400 tend to be grilled on a hectic time, patted into shape one at a time, never pre-formed or frozen.

"The mix is 15 to 20 % fat, " Kelly says, "with steak and filet trimmings mixed in. It is constant, because exact same man is doing everything the time."

The barbecue grill is a factor, too. Created by John Walter of Eden Functions, a wrought-iron design studio on Liberty Avenue perhaps not not even close to the restaurant, the grill's hearth takes these types of punishment its replaced repeatedly a-year. The hardwood arises from a worker's cousin's trees.

Additionally crucial is the grill group. With several many years approximately of practice each, they require only a glimpse to inform as soon as the hamburger is a half-degree of what the client has actually ordered. Their particular arms know when they've grabbed enough additional floor animal meat - about an ounce - to ensure that a well-done patty completes at eight ounces, exactly like the rare, which cooks faster and hotter, losing less moisture and fat.

Qualms about consuming hamburgers red? Share all of them with Tessaro patron Dr. Bruce Dixon, manager of this Allegheny County Board of Health. "He's here maybe once or twice per week, " Kelly says. "And consumes 'em rare."

Over the hamburger

The hamburger could be the news hog not your whole tale.

The truth is 'em on your way in, the truth is 'em along the way away.

The holy trinity, which. There's Kelly, black-bearded and bear-muscled, with an amiable side-of-the-mouth growl and booming laugh, looking the Villanova defenseman that he was. Unflappable mother, a "noir" portrait in black colored pantsuit and pageboy, emeralds and Irish wit gleaming. Sister Ena, shaggy-cropped ex-lawyer, tomboy shirttails traveling, addressing details from workers to make and getting a discussion when she can.

You may be guaranteed in full a minumum of one Harrington at the home to greet both you and seat you whenever things tend to be three-deep at the club.

The tsunami moves over between 7 and 9 whenever everyone really wants to eat and drink simultaneously.

Bookings aren't taken, but a horde of hungry individuals with no immediate location to put them does not bother Tee. She lifted nine kids. She calls it a taffy-pull. Seating is large art for Kelly, too. It requires concentration, says Tee, particularly in inclement weather: "unless you get to all of them before they shed hats and coats, they look all different therefore can't remember who they are."

Behind the club, Jimmy Teitz calls completely, "anything to drink whilst you wait?" catching the 1.5 liter chardonnay by its base, he thrusts the neck deep into an 8-ounce wine glass, glug, glug cup full, yanks it, and plunges it in to the after that.

"Got to get the cyclone going, " he claims gladly. Imperturbable waitresses shimmy through the crush.

If you should be starving, watch out for somewhere for eating at the club. From your own catbird seat, you will see comings and goings additionally the fast-paced choreography behind the counter. The hard-wood barbecue grill features perfumed the area for a block around. Tastebuds tend to be primed.

No tuna tartare on square plates here. Oahu is the legendary half-pound burger with more accessories than a land-rover, meltingly simple Chilean water bass, seared tuna salad with Dijon vinaigrette chicken chops. Ribs on Thursday, Mexican stuff on Monday. A blackboard lists soups and grilled beef and fish specials.

Never seek out swordfish; Ena, the finicky fish purchaser, can also be an environmentalist. This has been prohibited from the selection. The Chilean sea bass, also in dwindling offer, may soon be, too. She informs Benkovitz, their fish and shellfish supplier, "cannot phone me unless the fish tend to be over 20 weight."

Tessaro's is low-key Bloomfield on the exterior - a black-awninged corner bar-and-grill. Indoors, there's the delighted din, pink neon in the old oak bar washing every little thing and everybody in a flattering glow. Local son R. W. Apple, in an innovative new York occasions article a year ago on Pittsburgh's tourist attractions, labeled as Tessaro's "a joint without attitude, Sam Adams on draft, decadently juicy half-pound hamburgers cooked on a hard-wood barbecue grill and a lot of good cheer."

Tables, denim-clad, push both, close adequate for conversation if you prefer. This is certainly bistro theater, with sitting for 80.

Toss Pittsburgh in a will and shake it: all many years, outlooks and complexions unite over a burger. Tattooed kids in backwards baseball caps, East Enders in faded madras, teachers, brokers and guys from the automobile wash, slim and hungry ballet dancers, residential district venturers, firefighters and households.

Several medical practioners level an impromptu Dixie jam session one night right in front window. Going to film crews go out at the club.

Read the walls into the brand-new part, included whenever building next door ended up being annexed, in which murals by Tee depict the Harrington brood and also the restaurant household. At the center is "smiling Dennis, " the Harrington patriarch, today mostly resigned from a busy Ross Street legislation company. It is fun to match within the real and coated men and women. Harrington offspring, besides Kelly and Ena, include Myles, the "baby, " busy establishing an on-line municipal bond-bidding company; Moira, a Pittsburgh traffic courtroom judge; Shawn, in Jakarta, exporting Indonesian luxury furniture and materials; Lisa, a May business exec in Houston; and "Mike, " the globe-trotting girl, organizer of unique safaris.