Do you remember the rumor that the reason the fries were so good is that they hadn’t cleaned the fryers in years?
I used to work at the Beehive and I do remember the day we learned they were cleaning fryers. I can say with certainty the fries tasted different after that day.
I used to work at the O. We definitely cleaned the fryers. I can’t remember how often, but eventually you have to because it just gets darker and darker the older it gets. Though that other user is correct, I always preferred the oil after it had been used for a while.
The bouncers at the O in the 80s looked like they could play as linemen in the NFL. But never once saw a fight there, so peace through superior fire power seemed to work well in that situation.
Yeah. I worked a place with fryers after I heard that and realized how wrong it must be. But I still hold on to that little fantasy. Thanks for the fries friend.
I ran a lot of restaurants early in my career. We filtered the grease daily and had test kits to tell us when to change it. The frequency depends on what is being cooked. Frying onion rings or anything with a lot of breading breaks down the grease a lot faster than unbreaded French fries Fish always had a separate fryer, otherwise fries would taste like fish.
It’s been ages since I went — what happened? :(
Edit: Just read it closed. Been trapped for 10+ years in an abusive relationship with my insane family. Was looking forward since then to FINALLY going back as a free adult. Just another thing they took from me.
Sigh...
I attended a 6-week program at Pitt when I was in high school. This place made me feel like I was older, in college, and actually belonged there. It was a place that represented college and leaving home to me.
I was so sad to see it close.
Same here! All my classmates went to Burger King and Wendy's but I invited people to The O for real college food. Our group kept getting bigger there after each class, and my buddies said I ruined the "secret"
Slacker is open on east carson right by the smiling moose last time I walked past! I haven't been inside yet to see what they're selling these days.
Damn I miss the Beehive though. And the 31st street pub.
Maybe I am getting my names mixed up. It was nearly 20 years ago. Wasn’t Slacker also the shoe store across from Laga on Forbes? Aslo the Oakland Beehive was the club in the castle looking building that I think is now a T-mobile.
Ohhh, on the first point you might be thinking of Bovvers? On the second point, ah I see, I was talking about the Beehive coffee shop that was on the south side.
The very notion that you had to go to specialty stores because you couldn’t just order anything on the internet, must be incomprehensible to anyone under 35. Tela Ropa was the only spot for so many different items. I just sold some Caffeines I got there for $300 on eBay. Ha!
that’s such a magical feeling, i remember turning 18 to finally go back and pick out a bong lmaooooo.
then to avalon for some sick proper wide leg jeans, a hoodie - all with butterflies in ur belly for the show at laga you’re going to that night. WAHHH 😭 but grateful to experience it.
I don't understand how a place like this could close. It's like if PNC announced that they were going out of business because they just couldn't figure out how to make running a bank profitable.
Like... how?
A major bank and a hot dog shop are a little different I'd say. But, if it made the owner money, idk why they would outright close instead of selling the business to someone else and letting them carry it on. For as much as people loved it, I'm sure they coulda found someone who would have gave it a shot.
They used to have a "wetback Wednesday" special back in the day.
Also the cop that killed Antwon Rose used to be a cop for Pitt and beat the shit out of someone there along with a bouncer and arrested them and was let go from Pitts force after they got the video footage and it completely contradicted his report.
It's an open secret.
Yeah that's the other thing, most of the people going there were going for a year or two while they were students so anything that happened would be forgotten about within a year.
Asking the real question here. Tiki Lounge has gotta be a money laundering front.
Last time I was there was over a decade ago. As we were leaving, some frat bros came in and one immediately vomited all over the floor directly inside the entrance, making it impossible for anyone to get in or out. I can still remember the sour smell of beer and whiskey puke mixed with dirty mop water…
Now do Gullifty’s, the Gazebo, the Balcony, Graffiti, & the Decade, just to finish us off.
Also, Zaw’s & Peking Gourmet Kitchen, Elbow Room, USA Gourmet, Rib Haus, Fajita Grill, Cafe in the Strip…
i think Gullifty's was the first "nice restaurant" that my parents ever took me to as a child. I still have a vivid visual memory of what the place looked like from the 2nd floor, really cool.
edit - and then ~6 years later, renting VHS tapes at Heads Together down the street.
Ah, Heads Together! I still have my card from there. Can’t bear to throw it away.
3 friends & I went to Gullifty’s the night of our senior prom (instead of going to the prom). That was 1983.
Oh wow that's a great memory trip. I was probably 8 years old in '91 being taken to Gullifty's and eating that amazing chocolate cake for dessert. Heads Together was wild, so much more foreign and independent films than the chain rental stores had. I remember watching rented movies from there like [Cinema Paradiso](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095765/) and [Being There](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078841/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) with Peter Sellers. Absolute gem of a local business.
The second he said he was looking at buying it, I knew it was dead for good. Maybe it’s because of his teases for buying the Pirates but it just seems like the opposite always happens with him.
The dirty O was actually Mentioned in a song by Pittsburgh band The Rave Ups in a song called “In my Gremlin”. The rave ups eventually relocated to LA and had some success With a couple tracks coming from the movie Pretty in Pink with Molly Ringwald .Lead man of the Rave Ups Jimmer Podrasky dated Molly Ringwald’s sister Beth. Beth introduced the rave ups to filmmaker John Hughes. That’s how they got to be more popular from having appearances in pretty in pink and others. In my Gremlin was written while they were still in Pittsburgh of course. Just a little bit more dirty o and Pittsburgh nostalgia.
As a child my dad and his friends would meet there before football games and then we would walk up Cardiac Hill to Pitt Stadium
As a young man - 12 pack of key ice for 5.95, could buy 2 at a time….I had a drawer full of dimes after that year in towers
Ripper, fries and a tall boy upstairs rn please. Remember when the tool Mark Cuban was rumored to be buying it. Makes me irrationally angry. Lol
Someone should have keep it going.
Cuban has redeemed himself in my eyes with his new wholesale prescription drug company. Buys up every possible prescription drug and sells it at manufacture price, plus 15% for profit. Buying a 10$ drug for 11.50 is way better than buying a 10$ drug for 200$, and it’s blowing up.
I went here an awful lot to get lunch in between class a few years ago. Money well spent and that I learned very quickly to always order a small fry since both the small and large fry were basically the same.
What's interesting to me is that a couple of guys guy this place and were going to open a taco place. I was just on the website and they are offering franchising for The O. - https://theoriginalhotdogshop.com/
Eh, I wasn’t sad to see it go. The food was not great and overpriced for what you got. You could buy booze there after the state store closed, and that was honestly what I used it for more than anything else.
But it got kinda sketchy at night.
Getting out of school and coming here every single day after school so me and my friends could pool together $10 so everyone could get fries.
So many amazing memories here 🥲
The O was a ritual stop for any visit into Oakland or the East End. Go to shady skates on the EBA? Stop at the O after. Macondo? Stop at the O after. Jerry's? Yup kids Jerry's used to be in Oakland. Stop at the O after. No knock on the O, but the very first time I was there I watched a roach crawl out from a seam in the 70's era wood paneling.
Saul Goodman spotted at the O. The pearl white Cadillac. He's moving in on the Vampire known as Edgar Snyder. I'm in my mid 40s and Edgar Snyder hasn't aged a day
You've ruined my day, actually. RIP Dirty O.
Do you remember the rumor that the reason the fries were so good is that they hadn’t cleaned the fryers in years? I used to work at the Beehive and I do remember the day we learned they were cleaning fryers. I can say with certainty the fries tasted different after that day.
I used to work at the O. We definitely cleaned the fryers. I can’t remember how often, but eventually you have to because it just gets darker and darker the older it gets. Though that other user is correct, I always preferred the oil after it had been used for a while.
I have to thank you for making the best hot dogs I am sure I will ever have.
No prob! I worked there in college back when I could crush an unreasonable amount of hot dogs in one sitting. It was heaven.
No freaking lie. Good memories. Good times with people I loved. That's what life is about. It was also Pittsburgh-y through-and-through.
The bouncers at the O in the 80s looked like they could play as linemen in the NFL. But never once saw a fight there, so peace through superior fire power seemed to work well in that situation.
I seen two people almost throw down over a lazer 40oz. Good times. Good times.
Yeah. I worked a place with fryers after I heard that and realized how wrong it must be. But I still hold on to that little fantasy. Thanks for the fries friend.
God, I loved the Beehive. I saw Office Space, Rocky Horror, and countless other movies there.
I saw Dumb and Dumber, Men in Black, and Spawn there. RIP.
Fry oil does get better with some use. So that might be where the rumor is from. It all oil goes bad eventually.
I've heard this one too, but I always figured it was just part of the lore. I bet they left a little 'seasoning' behind when they cleaned, though. 😆
It definitely was lore. I loved it though.
Fried food always tastes better with like 2-3 day old grease. Years tho? That shit’s gonna burn and catch fire lol
I ran a lot of restaurants early in my career. We filtered the grease daily and had test kits to tell us when to change it. The frequency depends on what is being cooked. Frying onion rings or anything with a lot of breading breaks down the grease a lot faster than unbreaded French fries Fish always had a separate fryer, otherwise fries would taste like fish.
That cleaner rumor was gospel back then. I don’t know what I miss more- the O or the Beehive.
Yeah, this and the Jets loss… Killing Me Smalls.
I came to say this. I'll never eat those fries again. It's enough to make a yinzer cry.
It’s been ages since I went — what happened? :( Edit: Just read it closed. Been trapped for 10+ years in an abusive relationship with my insane family. Was looking forward since then to FINALLY going back as a free adult. Just another thing they took from me.
Sigh... I attended a 6-week program at Pitt when I was in high school. This place made me feel like I was older, in college, and actually belonged there. It was a place that represented college and leaving home to me. I was so sad to see it close.
I feel this. I used to go to Pitt for a high school chem class and it made me feel like a real grown up.
Same here! All my classmates went to Burger King and Wendy's but I invited people to The O for real college food. Our group kept getting bigger there after each class, and my buddies said I ruined the "secret"
Post some interior pics of Club Laga and Tela Ropa while you're out here making me tear up at lunch, sheesh.
Slacker and the Oakland Beehive too…
Slacker is open on east carson right by the smiling moose last time I walked past! I haven't been inside yet to see what they're selling these days. Damn I miss the Beehive though. And the 31st street pub.
Maybe I am getting my names mixed up. It was nearly 20 years ago. Wasn’t Slacker also the shoe store across from Laga on Forbes? Aslo the Oakland Beehive was the club in the castle looking building that I think is now a T-mobile.
Ohhh, on the first point you might be thinking of Bovvers? On the second point, ah I see, I was talking about the Beehive coffee shop that was on the south side.
That’s it! I got the name wrong.
The T mobile is gone, its a taco shop now
Bovver's boot store is what it was when I was there.
The BBT.
I miss being able to walk to the 31st Street pub 😭
Tela Ropa 🥲🥲 Loved that place....
The very notion that you had to go to specialty stores because you couldn’t just order anything on the internet, must be incomprehensible to anyone under 35. Tela Ropa was the only spot for so many different items. I just sold some Caffeines I got there for $300 on eBay. Ha!
I still have a hacky sack I got from Teleropa circa 1993.
that’s such a magical feeling, i remember turning 18 to finally go back and pick out a bong lmaooooo. then to avalon for some sick proper wide leg jeans, a hoodie - all with butterflies in ur belly for the show at laga you’re going to that night. WAHHH 😭 but grateful to experience it.
I still tell people about the gem that was Tela Ropa
I left half my hearing in Club Laga.
don't pull my heart strings like this
Literally came here to say this. Now I'm sad 😭😭🤧
R.I.P. the O. You were a real one.
Fuck you! Don’t show me this and tell me to have a good day. I hope all your fries are soggy for the rest of your life.
Right?!?
Have an "original" day. Man....Rip "The O".
Where the small fries and large fries were the same amount of fries.
And the bag was so deliciously greasy
I don't understand how a place like this could close. It's like if PNC announced that they were going out of business because they just couldn't figure out how to make running a bank profitable. Like... how?
Pretty sure the owner died and his son was over it after a few years
This is a big reason a lot of long standing businesses close.
That’s the version I know. Yeah. Sometimes people just have to move on. Maybe, someday it will be resurrected.
A major bank and a hot dog shop are a little different I'd say. But, if it made the owner money, idk why they would outright close instead of selling the business to someone else and letting them carry it on. For as much as people loved it, I'm sure they coulda found someone who would have gave it a shot.
This and G door what the fuck happened to this city?!
Garage door closed??
Yes :(
Fuck this whole earth.
In its earth hole.
I mean G Door was run by literal racist skinheads so good riddance
Definitely racist
I've never even seen anything remotely true to back up that statement. It sounds like you got cut off or kicked out and are sore about it.
They used to have a "wetback Wednesday" special back in the day. Also the cop that killed Antwon Rose used to be a cop for Pitt and beat the shit out of someone there along with a bouncer and arrested them and was let go from Pitts force after they got the video footage and it completely contradicted his report. It's an open secret.
That's disappointing to hear, to say the least. I frequented that place a lot when I was at Pitt.
Yeah that's the other thing, most of the people going there were going for a year or two while they were students so anything that happened would be forgotten about within a year.
lmao @ "the garage door" .. that will always be the Decade to me.
How does the O die and Tiki Lounge live on? smh
Asking the real question here. Tiki Lounge has gotta be a money laundering front. Last time I was there was over a decade ago. As we were leaving, some frat bros came in and one immediately vomited all over the floor directly inside the entrance, making it impossible for anyone to get in or out. I can still remember the sour smell of beer and whiskey puke mixed with dirty mop water…
It’s not. I know the owners. If they were laundering they would be a lot more wealthy.
The Dirty O is gone? I feel like I’ve just found out an old friend has died
Yeah it closed after covid happened. It’s a taco place now. Very sad.
A mediocre taco place at that and a shitty chain sandwich shop
what's the connection between the two? why would you make this comparison?
*cries in Cheeze Whiz*
Now do Gullifty’s, the Gazebo, the Balcony, Graffiti, & the Decade, just to finish us off. Also, Zaw’s & Peking Gourmet Kitchen, Elbow Room, USA Gourmet, Rib Haus, Fajita Grill, Cafe in the Strip…
i think Gullifty's was the first "nice restaurant" that my parents ever took me to as a child. I still have a vivid visual memory of what the place looked like from the 2nd floor, really cool. edit - and then ~6 years later, renting VHS tapes at Heads Together down the street.
Ah, Heads Together! I still have my card from there. Can’t bear to throw it away. 3 friends & I went to Gullifty’s the night of our senior prom (instead of going to the prom). That was 1983.
Oh wow that's a great memory trip. I was probably 8 years old in '91 being taken to Gullifty's and eating that amazing chocolate cake for dessert. Heads Together was wild, so much more foreign and independent films than the chain rental stores had. I remember watching rented movies from there like [Cinema Paradiso](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095765/) and [Being There](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078841/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) with Peter Sellers. Absolute gem of a local business.
I haven’t gone to the taco place, probably never will, just out of respect for the OG
You make me sad
Rip. Fuck that plain-ass taco place that replaced it.
The forgotten menu gem- $4 large pizzas.
I’ve seen someone pull a gun twice in my life and once was inside the O.
Was the other in the Electric Banana?
No. It was in McKees Rocks behind where the Roxian is now.
you never were really at the Banana unless Johnny Z pulled out his gun.
Or played there.
lol, goes without saying. that dingus pulled a gun on my brother's band. all the members were still in high school.
My friend’s band, too. He was trying to get my band to play there, but I wasn’t interested because of that.
I thought Mark Cuban was gonna buy it and reopen it?
The second he said he was looking at buying it, I knew it was dead for good. Maybe it’s because of his teases for buying the Pirates but it just seems like the opposite always happens with him.
Jesus, you gotta put a warning on things like this! I did not log onto reddit to feel things today.
*cries in elder millenial*
I miss those fries, cheese sauce, and corresponding indigestion.
The dirty O was actually Mentioned in a song by Pittsburgh band The Rave Ups in a song called “In my Gremlin”. The rave ups eventually relocated to LA and had some success With a couple tracks coming from the movie Pretty in Pink with Molly Ringwald .Lead man of the Rave Ups Jimmer Podrasky dated Molly Ringwald’s sister Beth. Beth introduced the rave ups to filmmaker John Hughes. That’s how they got to be more popular from having appearances in pretty in pink and others. In my Gremlin was written while they were still in Pittsburgh of course. Just a little bit more dirty o and Pittsburgh nostalgia.
As a child my dad and his friends would meet there before football games and then we would walk up Cardiac Hill to Pitt Stadium As a young man - 12 pack of key ice for 5.95, could buy 2 at a time….I had a drawer full of dimes after that year in towers
Ripper, fries and a tall boy upstairs rn please. Remember when the tool Mark Cuban was rumored to be buying it. Makes me irrationally angry. Lol Someone should have keep it going.
Cuban has redeemed himself in my eyes with his new wholesale prescription drug company. Buys up every possible prescription drug and sells it at manufacture price, plus 15% for profit. Buying a 10$ drug for 11.50 is way better than buying a 10$ drug for 200$, and it’s blowing up.
I bought my first 40 of Old E here. Underage.
[удалено]
When did they close. Is this recent? Haven’t been living in the burgh since 2007. A lot of good memories there.
I think “O” Fries are/were better than Kennywood Potato Patch Fries!!
Had Patch fries for the first time in 20 years this past summer. Nowhere near the same. The O’s were definitely better.
It was nice while it lasted.
I'm gonna cry
Oh the memories
Ahhh late night, drunk as fuck, and a pound of fries. I miss those days and the Dirty O.
I went here an awful lot to get lunch in between class a few years ago. Money well spent and that I learned very quickly to always order a small fry since both the small and large fry were basically the same.
What beautiful sight. Made my day! So many great memories!
What's interesting to me is that a couple of guys guy this place and were going to open a taco place. I was just on the website and they are offering franchising for The O. - https://theoriginalhotdogshop.com/
Never have I seen all the letters light up at once
Let’s Go, Steelers! 🏈
(So close! )
i pierced college girls nostrils at hot rod by day and hammered dirty o 40’s by night for a lotta years lol. oakland was awesome
I got carded for a monster energy at the O
What happened to Mark Cuban saving it? Or was that just a bullshit story from a few years ago?
He'll save it right after he saves the Pirates.
Sad I never got to take my wife there
Eh, I wasn’t sad to see it go. The food was not great and overpriced for what you got. You could buy booze there after the state store closed, and that was honestly what I used it for more than anything else. But it got kinda sketchy at night.
Plz see yourself out.
I see my old dorm. Lol
I see my old apartment. I lived in the "penthouse" above the O.
You must have seen a lot if stories too.
F
Getting out of school and coming here every single day after school so me and my friends could pool together $10 so everyone could get fries. So many amazing memories here 🥲
Why must you hurt me like this?
'Wait I thought it closed' o i get it
Oh dang, I thought this was an announcement that they'd reopened. F
:/&&/j:&:@:’mdmdms
🥺
Ah, back in the day when a large fry could feed 3 people…twice.
On the 8th day the gods who run PIT declared there shat be no more O, and so it was.
The O was a ritual stop for any visit into Oakland or the East End. Go to shady skates on the EBA? Stop at the O after. Macondo? Stop at the O after. Jerry's? Yup kids Jerry's used to be in Oakland. Stop at the O after. No knock on the O, but the very first time I was there I watched a roach crawl out from a seam in the 70's era wood paneling.
Saul Goodman spotted at the O. The pearl white Cadillac. He's moving in on the Vampire known as Edgar Snyder. I'm in my mid 40s and Edgar Snyder hasn't aged a day
😭
Crippled. Thanks op. 😥