Pittsburgh Salad Is One Niche Meal You'll Want To Try

We're just going to address this immediately: a Pittsburgh salad has French fries on it. It also has regular salad things: lettuce, vegetables, salad dressing, cheese, and grilled meat. In a world where Snickers bars and whipped topping can be called a salad, why can't French fries stand in for croutons? If San Diego can put fries in burritos, Athens can put them in gyros, Istanbul can put them in doners, and Mumbai can put them in shawarma, Yinzers can put them on salads.

The biggest appeal of the traditional Pittsburgh salad is the contrast of tastes and textures. The cool, crisp (usually iceberg) lettuce and cucumbers contrast with the hot, crunchy saltiness of the fries. The savory grilled chicken or steak contrasts with the creamy shredded cheese, which contrasts with the juicy, tangy tomatoes and the slightly sweet acidity of Italian or Thousand Island dressing. The one thing you want to be sure to do is to eat it quickly, before the hot fries and grilled meat wilt the lettuce and before the dressing and veggies make the fries soggy.

Much like the origins of the Minneapolis Jucie Lucy, the history of the Pittsburgh salad is not necessarily super clear. The prevailing story is that a diner called Jerry's Curb Service — which used to be an Ohio establishment before relocating over the border to Beaver, PA just about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh — created the salad. 

Timesonline reported in 2017 that the invention of the hearty salad came from a customer who ordered the steak sandwich minus the bun. "He wanted basically everything that could be on a steak sandwich, but without the bread," according to Dave Guido, a restauranteur involved with Jerry's curbside service. Jerry's wife, Donna, served up a version of that, and "Voila. The steak salad was born," Guido said. 

Jerry's Pittsburgh salad evolved to include simple veggies, olives, and, for a time, eggs, though those were cut after proving unpopular. The salad dressing was the diner's sweet and sour or "Jerry's Dressing," described as Thousand Island without the relish.

The former food editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Bob Batz Jr., said, "I don't know how many locals know or would believe the story, but hey, who can dispute it?" The other claim to the salad comes from the Hilltop restaurant, now the Fairport, in Rochester, PA, though it doesn't have as succinct a story. Regardless of which story wins out, one thing is for sure: the Pittsburgh salad is a Beaver County, PA delicacy.

The fry-topped salad is undoubtedly a hyper-local favorite dish of the western Pennsylvania region. Jerry's Curb Service makes its salad with tomatoes, carrots, olives, shredded cheddar cheese, steak, Idaho fries, and its creamy Thousand Island-esque house dressing. Sirloin or chopped steak are the classic meats, but it also offers breaded and grilled chicken. The Fairport, which didn't touch the steak salad in its rebranding from the Hilltop, uses a bed of romaine and spring mix, grated carrot and sliced grape tomatoes, shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, sliced hard-boiled eggs, top round steak grilled with Montreal steak seasoning, fresh cut fries, and any number of house dressings.

Departing from the classic, other Yinzer restaurants put different spins on the salad. The Urban Tap used mixed greens topped with peppered filet tips, cherry tomatoes, Danish bleu cheese, and herbed ranch dressing. Instead of fries on the salad, they serve house-made tots from grated potatoes. Sunny Jim's Tavern uses greens, grape tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers, green peppers, radishes, grated provolone, and cheddar melting under fries, and a choice of salmon, shrimp, steak, or chicken, any of which can be blackened, fried, or hardwood grilled. Shady Grove sweetens the whole deal, serving mixed greens with sliced turkey breast, bleu cheese, sweet potato tots, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and maple cider vinaigrette. With a formula as iterative as potatoes and meat on a salad, there are likely as many types of Pittsburgh salads as there are places that make them.