high-end restaurant in pittsburgh, who am i employing as porters, dishwashers. sonja: students. justin: honestly, like, our dishwashers are white kids. anthony: no way. justin: pittsburgh, pennsylvania, is a big bright shining star of an example of what blue-collar america was a hundred years ago. sonja: when we are looking at who is applying, we also need to look at neighborhoods. the topography of pittsburgh is such that neighborhoods are separated by bridges and ravines. and this sort of thing means that people stay within their neighborhood. anthony: everybody is talking about a pittsburgh renaissance. there are artists coming, there are hip, new restaurants. somebody is making money.
and that wasn t pittsburgh. when i opened dinette in 2008, you know, i m expecting people like me to be coming in. i m 29, that s who i m building this restaurant for. and everyone was. justin: 56. sonja: yea, my parents age or older. justin: you know, i thought to myself, i m going to this neighborhood that s basically desolate. i m going to take this building that s, it s a restaurant that s been closed for seven years. and i m going to do something nice here. you know i didn t expect the reaction i got from the actual people that lived around me. anthony: right. justin: you know, which was not positive. they liked it the way it was. you know, that was their life. and then i move in and all of a sudden, i open this restaurant and people with nice, fancy cars are taking their parking spaces. and now i m a yuppie gentrifier. you know what i mean? anthony: well, you know, own it. sonja: sometimes it kind of hurts, right?
anthony: justin severivo opened his restaurant, cure, as an ode to flesh, smoke, and animal fat. maggie meskey designs and creates cocktail programs at bars and restaurants across the city. and sonja finn was there from the beginning, planting the flag for farm-to-table cooking back in the early days, with her restaurant, dinette. anthony: the countryside around pittsburgh is beautiful. another world. i join a group of foodie all-stars about 20 miles outside of town for a meal.
worked here and brag about working here. you complain about millennials. you complain about the people in the street harassing you. you don t like anything new, at all. anthony: you re describing me. anthony: the menu is looking good. right in my happy zone. racks of pork rib, grilled hearts of escarole and turnips. a sauce made from the pork drippings. and, four types of sausage. anthony: wow, look at this.. maggie: this is amazing. anthony: that s titanic. i don t want to speak about pittsburgh in a dismissive way, but it was not known for being what it is today. people are talking a lot about the food scene here. twas not always so, what were people eating before? justin: you know, steak and potatoes. sonja: you know, living in san francisco, as a young person in your 20s, you were going out to eat. that was really important. and we all knew about the restaurants, whether you were in the restaurant business or not. and that wasn t pittsburgh. when i opened dinette in
creates cocktail programs at bars and restaurants across the city. and sonja finn was there from the beginning, planting the flag for farm - to - table cooking back in the early days, with her restaurant, dinette. anthony: the countryside around pittsburgh is beautiful. another world. i join a group of foodie all-stars about 20 miles outside of town for a meal. anthony: are there typical, iconic pittsburgher qualities? maggie: i d say you probably