- This program is part of - WQED's Pittsburgh History - Series.

Hey, I'm Rick Sebak and I just wanna say that it's been a joy to put together these three stories for this episode of Lucky to Live in Pittsburgh.

We feature some fine folks fixing fried fish in Hazelwood.

We visit a vibrant venue in Allentown, but we start in West Virginia, just 30 miles west of Pittsburgh in the panhandle.

Pre-dawn.

It's an early Wednesday in Weirton, West Virginia.

Summertime before sunrise, folks start arriving at the Holy Resurrection, Serbian Orthodox Church picnic grounds to get things ready to cook some chickens beside an open fire.

- They're down here early at 4, 4:30 in the morning.

They're prepping things, getting everything cleaned and ready, getting the pole sanitized.

- It's often called the Serbian chicken blast.

- We start the last Wednesday in May till the last Wednesday in August and that's it.

Those guys are tired by then.

You know - That's Ted Zatezalo, president of the men's club at the Serbian Church, which is across the river in Steubenville.

- When you get into end to August, these guys are tired.

You know, we're no spring chickens anymore, but - The men who volunteer here every week know how to prep and cook a lot of poultry.

- We start the fires and fires have to burn so long drop down.

Chickens come in the day before, you know they're in the cooler.

We're getting everything ready.

- That's Chris Kotur..

He and his family have the Ville restaurant in Steubenville.

- About six o'clock we started breaking the chickens open, cleaning them, taking the fat out, just salting the birds my man, uh Steve.

He was salting, seasoning them 'em up for us, stick 'em on a pole.

And - We got about a dozen guys who are here every week.

I've been here 11 years, some of these guys have been here 30 years.

- Somebody asked me to come down and give em a hand and I've been here for six years.

So - They know how to tuck in the wings, line up the chickens and tie the legs so they don't flop around on the poles over the fire.

Crazy Ed Klovanish is always meticulous with the spacing.

- They have to be exact the same size, the same distance, so the chickens drip on each other five a rows of chickens.

They drip on each other as they cook.

So - They start going on, depends on how many you have, but they start going on perhaps about 7:00 AM and they cook for anywhere from three to four hours.

- That's Jon Greiner, who for many years was a TV news reporter for WTAE and KDKA TV in Pittsburgh.

- 24 chickens on a pole.

And today I think there are 20 poles, 480 total chickens.

- It's a nice little assembly line and they've been doing it since the seventies and they got a system down pack and it works.

- Coming at you Ed, - Right there.

Ready, set, go.

- Ready, set, go.

- The guy in the orange T-shirt is David Zatezalo.

Who knows some history.

- Well, I was born and raised across the creek and my uncle Nick started at that time he was president of the men's club and he wanted to start a chicken barbecue.

And me and his son and Johnny Martich were in high school at that time.

It was 1971, 72, and we came over and started cooking chickens and we'd be lucky to get, you know, 75 to a hundred - A week.

Then it just got, it just developed into a big thing.

- It was a huge thing back in the eighties when steelworkers at the now defunct Weirton Steel got paid on Wednesdays and came here.

But even today, if you want to get any of these beautiful birds, you have to order them in advance.

You can set up a standing order or call at 6:00 AM on Wednesday mornings when Molly Jackson takes phone orders.

She's been a crucial part of all this for 20 years.

Now.

- We try to get here like five 50, between five 50 and six and I hang out in the clubhouse in the back room, kind of give the guys their morning time and I have my own space.

I answer the phone at six o'clock 'cause we've been selling out really quickly this year.

- What's happening now is after the chickens are done and they measure the temperature and all that kind of stuff, then you have to get 'em off of the spits.

And these spits have four skewers on 'em.

- It is the best chicken it, it just is - These chickens dripping on each other, the juices.

It's juicy, it's delicious.

- It's the best barbecued chicken around 'cause it's real barbecued chicken, you know, I mean, and by real barbecued, - I mean on wood it tastes good to me.

That's all I know.

- Yes sir.

- I'd put this chicken up against any chicken in the world.

- And people start coming around lunchtime to get their foil wrapped.

Chickens, there are some sides available at the clubhouse, including cabbage and noodles or halushki.

There's strudel and some Serbian bread.

It's called a pogacha.

It's, it's a flat, it's almost, - I guess, I guess the thing would be compared to be focaccia, pogacha focaccia.

One side of the Adriatic, you know, pogacha, P-O-G-A-C-H-A po-ga-cha - And this day some chickens were cut in half because the local senior center brought folks by for a special lunch.

Gary Stanich works all morning and often stays around, - But around three o'clock people come and they sit at the picnic tables.

We have people that are here every Wednesday.

We have other people that are from out of town.

- If you live in Weirton, if you live in the surrounding area, this is the place to be on Wednesdays.

You don't wanna turn your oven on, come here, let us cook your chicken for you.

Pick up your noodles, pick up your corn and your bread.

Hang out if you want to.

There's a creek, there's a playground for the kids.

There's beer for the grownups.

It's a great time.

It's helping the church, it's helping your local community and it tastes really good.

Of course, I, - I come back here to recharge my batteries as I say.

How are you?

- I mean, everybody's smiling, everybody's like so friendly, so good.

I mean it's, it's like one big family working.

So - That's John Martich on the left and Father Rajko Kosic originally from Serbia who's now the parish priest.

- Usually I try to come every Wednesday and I was pretty quite honest.

Like even the, from the first day I was surprised how many people come every Wednesday and once I of course ordered the chicken and ate it.

So I knew why they, they come because it is delicious.

- The drumsticks are the best.

- I'm - On a standing - Order every week for 14.

- We've been coming for 26 years I think every Wednesday.

Every Wednesday we get the chicken.

- It works because barbecuing stuff is not a bad thing to do.

People - Bring their best meal and they get together and they have the bar and friends, family and everybody get a chance to share that.

- I'm not Serbian but I love pogacha.

It's just a flatbread that goes great with everything.

- My wife makes fun of me because my plate has nothing left but bones on it.

Is that true?

It's very true.

The people are wonderful.

Everybody treats you like family here.

Well this is my family now.

I guess I'm honorary Serb now, you know, - So everybody keeps meeting people.

A lot of people are interrelated.

It's a wonderful like big Serbian family.

- You can't replace this doesn't matter like what nationality you are, what faith you, you are actually still, we can get together and have a fun, have a good time.

- You wanna bite?

It's, it's just love.

It's a lot of love in it.

That's what's in it, it's a lot of love.

- People do this because they enjoy the people they're with and it's for a good cause, you know?

And that's, I think that's the story of most good deeds to get done in the world.

People enjoy it and it's for a good cause.

- Well we're all lucky that good people do good deeds for good causes.

And this next story is about a good place Community Kitchen where good people help others cooking and teaching about good food.

And we made this in the weeks before Easter.

So it also features a beloved Pittsburgh tradition.

Every spring in the Pittsburgh area you will start to see signs for fish fries.

Most of these seasonal eateries follow the Roman Catholic calendar for Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter.

But the availability of fried fish sandwiches has expanded beyond churches to fire halls, community gathering spots and even restaurants.

- Well we like to go every Friday during Lent to try all the fish fries in the area - Braddock Fire Hall, Wolf Avenue.

Ooh, turtle Creek.

Oh I love fish.

And they, they have shrimp too, - Saint Maurice.

Yeah, we got a couple of 'em.

Yeah, in our area people have a plan.

They go to fish fry to fish fry.

They've got maps, they, there's brackets - And then St. Joan of Arc in Library - And the Swissvalle fire hall always gets a good review as well.

Yeah, - It's, it's a uniquely Western PA thing and I've learned to love them.

It's such a community event.

- Most places in the greater Pittsburgh area, you know, you go to that are doing fish fries, you go to someplace and you get a a slab of fish that's as big as your arm.

- Oh it's a wonderful thing.

It's a wonderful thing.

Whether it's a church, an organization, it is a time that you see people from different walks of lives, different faiths.

Even if you're not Catholic, everybody loves a good fish sandwich in Pittsburgh.

- And in 2025, if you were on Second Avenue near Flowers Avenue in Hazelwood, you might have noticed the signs for Community Kitchen Pittsburgh's fish fry.

- Oh my gosh.

We have the best fish in the city.

I mean I'm biased however it's it's hand battered haddock.

We - Still travel to the churches and the fire hall, but we like this haddock.

They got haddock here.

So - All of our components at our fish fry are homemade and made in-house by our students and staff.

- 96.

I love that there's fish on Fridays during Lent.

That's great 'cause I love fried fish and I hear theirs is great.

So I'm super excited.

- I get roughly seven in each fryer.

- Our cocktail sauce is made in house and we do use Heinz ketchup as the base to that cocktail sauce.

We are a Pittsburgh organization through and through - And the City Kitchen.

The people just are very, you know, warm, welcoming, you know, along with the good crispy crunchy fish.

- Alright, so as a side I got some halushki which is a combination of noodles and cabbage and butter.

It's usually standard at most fish fries in the the greater Pittsburgh area.

- Our tartar sauce is comprised of a few ingredients which I will not give but I think you'll see some capers, you may see some onion.

And then I'm stopping there because I want to keep my job.

- I also got a fish sandwich, which is a whopper that is quite large.

I'll put my arm in there for for scale.

- Oh my, that's delicious - Fish.

Oh this is excellent.

This is very, very good and I love fresh cut fries and it's made very well.

I love, love the batter.

The batter's are very good.

I would give it five stars for this one.

- And when you come to our fish fry, we have music playing.

The Girl Scouts are here.

We have a neighborhood brewery.

So it really is a good community party every Friday.

- This could only happen in Pittsburgh.

People do love the food and the atmosphere.

- So you did the food truck - And Executive Chef Bruce W. Harris Jr. Makes it work.

- This particular enterprise is done once a year obviously during Lent.

It is an opportunity for us to fundraise for our organization and it's a chance for us to come together with the community.

It's a very unique opportunity so we look forward to it all year.

We start planning very early and once it's fish fry season we're off to the races.

- This whole organization in all of its aspects was founded around 2013 by Jennifer Flanagan who's now executive director here.

- We are a nonprofit workforce development.

So we focus on working with folks that are overcoming barriers to employment and adversity in their lives and getting them back into the workforce.

We focus on culinary - Is a place of second chances and opportunities for people who may not have those opportunities.

- We do workforce training in the culinary field.

We work with everyone from refugees to high school dropouts to you know, people just trying to change a career and they don't have the the money to to go back to school and change careers.

- We serve the entire city of Pittsburgh, all age groups.

We serve daycares in the area - And we also do a community meals program.

So we serve about 2,500 meals a day to shelters, school after school programs.

We do summer feeding programs, other nonprofits with community, you know, congregate feeding.

We do some meals on wheels type programs and our training is embedded in those meals - So they help a lot of people in many different ways.

- I had stopped working, retired and was a little bored and wanted something to do and I came down, signed up for a class - That's Lethia Morton whom everyone here calls "Miss Queen" a graduate, she comes back every spring.

- Well I come down for the fish fries 'cause I do the breading and they like my help and I like to do it.

- We make sure we "fariner", which is a chef term but that's just lightly coating the fish in flour because if you just dip the fish in batter, batter will slide right off when you put it into the fryer so that flour holds that batter on, which is why our fish is able to hold up - Usually for most fish fries I do a thousand pieces but I like doing this.

This is fun to me.

Some people be like, "Oh you're crazy" but breading is fun.

- Breading is obviously an important part of the preparations which start Thursday morning.

This is pierogis and onions and there are lots of side dishes.

- I tried his macaroni and cheese and that's death by cheese.

That's some good macaroni and cheese.

- including potatoes that can get cut and steamed before they get fried on Friday.

Coming over hot!

Sometimes you'll find Leon Bond with the fish at the head of the line.

- Right now I'm just getting into the batter and coating it and it is going straight into the fryer.

I just dip it in, I'll get the excess off that way I don't have a lot of this in there - When it's cooking.

That makes me hungry.

You know when you see it come up out of the grease.

- I love it.

I love the move fast.

I love the fast pace.

You know, I didn't really know much about it until I came here, but I love it.

- There's an amazing amount of work involved in making this fish fry a success.

But the loyalty of students and workers like Yugonda Moore is an indication of how well this works.

- I was called this year for two other fish fries to help but I got to come back to my school first.

I got to come back to my school because of what they offered me.

So now I'm trying to offer that.

It's so exciting just playing in the batter and then swaying the fish, you know, in the grease and everything and let it cook and to hear people say, oh "That fish was good", I'd be like yeah!.

- And you may see Pamela Luu with her camera.

She stays busy documenting for social media and marketing - all the community kitchen activities and the happy customers, including those who help celebrate milestones like when the count of fish sold reaches a big number.

- Attention Please.

We have now sold 6,000 pieces of fish since we - Started this fish fry.

Woo.

People are just happy even when they're waiting, they're still happy.

We feed off of them, they feed off of us and it just keeps us going.

Especially the kitchen staff, like the people on the line they're, they're as Chef Missy likes to say, they're frying their tails off and it helps when you have like a great vibe in the building and we're all moving and making it work.

I don't even know how we do it half the time by the end of the night we're all exhausted and we're ready to do it again the next Friday.

One-fourteen!

- And this lovable 2025 fish fry helps fund all the ongoing work of Community Kitchen Pittsburgh.

It's delicious - but changes are ahead.

- We're sort of sad and excited about our next, our next chapter, but we are leaving Hazelwood and moving into the Uptown neighborhood of of the Hill District.

- Jumonville Street.

And that will be happening this summer.

So this one is our last one in Hazelwood.

So we are celebrating that fact because Hazelwood has been so kind to us and we will miss it.

But we're just down the road, another five minutes down the road and you can find us.

- Well the timing of that next chapter may be changing.

We'll all be watching.

In the meantime.

We can head up to Allentown to the bar and unpredictable showcase that's been booming and growing like crazy even since we were there in May of 2025.

Okay, it's sometimes confusing.

There's a city in eastern Pennsylvania called Allentown, but there's also a neighborhood in Pittsburgh called Allentown.

It's sort of above the Liberty Tubes up Arlington Avenue and in 2025 the T or Streetcar was sent through Allentown while the transit tunnel under Mount Washington was being worked on.

But the neighborhood of Allentown seems to be thriving right now with a variety of restaurants and businesses and right on Arlington Avenue between two police station parking lots.

There's an old red brick rectangular building - From outside.

It looks like nothing.

It looks like a place you wouldn't want to go or a place that you're not even allowed to go.

- It houses a business called Bottlerocket Social Hall that's not easily defined.

- Some days it's a comedy club, some days it's a music venue.

Some nights it's a movie theater.

Some nights it's a bar.

You know, it kind of whatever we think is interesting we do - in love.

- That's Chris Copen, he's an owner and the boss around here often helped by his partner Gracie Dickinson.

- I feel like the best way to describe it's if Disney World did a Pittsburgh themed bar.

- Yeah, I always say it's like if we took a dive bar and you, I don't know, you give it to the Muppets and the Muppets get to run a dive bar for a little bit.

- So the building is almost a hundred, I think it is a hundred years old and it was a social hall social club.

So members only, it was attached to the church, St. George's Church across the street here.

- It was called St. George Lyceum - And it was just a, a neighborhood social club.

The old incline used to be right here.

So people would get off the incline here from the J&L Steel Mill and this was just a neighborhood bar.

- There were changes over the years and various possibilities often interspersed with years When the bar sat empty - After the pandemic, I came in and I got the bar in 2022 and here we are three years later to the day.

Yeah, now, now here we are still alive.

- They somehow figured out how to attract folks with a zany variety of entertaining evening events.

- We have a schedule that we put out every month and the schedule always just looks like chaos.

- We, we talk a lot about casting as wide of a net as possible.

- I don't know what the exact secret sauce is to Bottlerocket, but just kind of a melding of different things and our staff as well.

Like I think people definitely come back for our staff because they form like such a connection with them.

And I think we have the best staff in Pittsburgh, so our general - Manager leading the staff is general manager Hannah Confer, - Who knows they attract - A lot of folks.

- "We Love you Hannah".

We have such an eclectic group of people that come in here that honestly makes it the most interesting job in the entire world.

This, I mean the events alone, I mean when you're doing an event every single night that you're at work, it's it's own brand of like chaos and like it's fun and cool and you're getting to see all these shows but you're also getting to meet all of these different people who live in this city and or coming into the city for the shows that we're doing.

Happy Birthday.

- And there are regulars like Dustin Bones and his girlfriend Brandy Breisch - It's Bottlerocket's birthday, it's Bottle Rocket's third birthday today.

The very first day we came down and we sat in these seats right here and fell in love as soon as we walked in the door.

'cause like, well it's not the love, you know, it's like the, it reminds me of like the cool bar your uncle might've hung out at after, you know, working in the mills or something, you know, come down and have a shot and a beer.

So, - But many nights when you walk in the front door, Brandy is there.

- I worked the door, I sell tickets, everybody kept calling me the bouncer.

So I guess I'm the bouncer.

- And in 2024 the City Paper named her "Best Bouncer" in Pittsburgh.

- I don't even know what to say about it.

I was so flattered that I won.

The people that come here, the people that work for us.

Like there's definitely a youthful energy but still mixed with that, you know, nostalgic aspect.

We have people that used to come to the social hall still coming today, like they come sit at the bar and tell us stories.

- First time I came here the bar was over along that side of the wall and I think I was 19 years old.

I think - They had bowling always downstairs.

- My father-in-law's family was a member here at St. George's Lyceum and I brought my father-in-law here for a couple Steelers games and he got to relive it when he was brought here as a youngster.

Some nights you come in, it's 56 years, bunch of 56 year olds.

Some nights you - Come in and it's 22 year olds.

- I watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles in here for the first time - it was magical.

- Could be a punk band.

One night, country band, Elvis Bingo, prom night.

It's just amazing.

It's just so there's something for everybody here.

- It's literally unlike any other place in the city in my - opinion.

Every time I come in here I feel like home.

It's definitely dripping in Pittsburgh, which is, I'm a Pittsburgh guy so that, that speaks to me.

- There's some of this stuff that we just can't even place.

1984 Turkey Bowl Champ Two, but it looks like it's on a toilet seat.

What?

What does that mean?

No idea.

- It's a time - capsule - Everything's outside a lot of the posters n'at, but all the paneling, the bar, all some of the signs and everything, it's all the same.

We're all original.

- Most of the stuff in here was in here when we walked in the door, you know, the posters, the beer signs, the, the Sick List on the wall behind me.

That's all stuff that was here on day one.

- The, the Sick List.

It doesn't scare me.

I have a healthy respect for the Sick List - In the St. George Lyceum days members, if were in the hospital they would put your name up there or you know, if you made it home and everyone you know was happy they put you in the home side.

And unfortunately, you know, if you didn't make it, you got onto the bottom.

So everybody tried, tried to stay away from there, but - Anybody got sick was in the hospital.

Hospital and then anybody died.

Their name went up on a board.

- I think that Sick List is such a good representation of what this bar meant to people as a community space.

- You know, I think the sick list may be a little haunted.

We've had, we've tried to move it once or twice and there's been some catastrophic results with that.

So at this point we just leave it be and it lets us be, - She can stay right there for as long as this building exists.

- They started a membership club and I am the first member, member number one.

So I got that and I have a drink named after me on the menu too.

So maybe a lot.

I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but - They always know what I like to drink here.

But the drinks are great and I, the hot dog cart is the coolest new addition.

- Hot dogs are the only food because we do not have a kitchen but we have to serve some sort of food.

- I'm a hotdog fan so I love the hot dogs drinks.

I'm very simple.

I love a Miller Lite.

It's very easy.

- After I got past the initial annoyance of having to make hot dogs, I was happy that we had them and of course that has taken on a whole life of its own with the hotdog cart.

- You know, there's a lot of good hot dog options here in Pittsburgh.

Bottlerocket's one of them.

- We have a lot of fun.

Trying to think of different flavors like the pierogi dog or right now we have the Herman's Frank, which is kind of like a sauerkraut and spicy brown mustard.

- I got the plain 'cause it's two for two, that's the deal.

But you also got the Cowboy Killer, the Kennywood Memories - Huh?

In the summer we do the picnic dog with coleslaw and bake potato salad.

It's really good.

You - Put a little mustard, a little ketchup on those bad boys.

Mama Mia.

- I can't be too mad at the hot dogs or the hot dog cart.

- I do have a permanent allegiance to this place.

I got it on my leg and the funny part was getting it here in the bar up on the stage.

In fact, they set up the tattoo tables and everything.

I had waited all that time just to get a tattoo in the bar.

- The, the, the, my favorite part about this place is it's this community that has been built here.

You know, I've made friends here that I wouldn't have met any other place who have become like family to me now.

You know, this was supposed to be part of a parking - Lot.

It's been cool to like witness the amount of different people who've enjoyed the bar and loved it - And keep coming back.

It's hard sometimes to really like get people to understand fully what it is until they get here and then once they experience it, I feel like they get it.

- It seems like, you know, they do a lot of good business.

- I really come here 'cause of the people, not only the employees but all the, all the customers.

It's just, it's a great inclusive, welcoming place and it's, I love it now.

It's like huge.

It's exploded.

- It's constantly evolving just like we are.

- I think it's the authenticity - Of it all.

I don't know if surprise is the right word, but I feel very grateful.

- I didn't really know what I was signing up for when I was 23 years old and I signed the lease.

But it's been, you know, an incredible, incredible ride and I can't imagine doing anything else.

So it's been really rewarding.

Thank you everybody for coming out tonight.

I really appreciate it.

And yeah, I think that's it.

Thank you.

- Do you feel lucky at all to live in Pittsburgh?

I feel very lucky to live in Pittsburgh.

It's nice.

I love the environment, I love the people.

It's good city.

I feel lucky, man.

- Do I feel lucky?

- It feels like a place where a lot of stuff is possible.

The neighborhoods, the people.

- It's very unlike any place I've ever lived.

There's no place back home.

Every neighborhood is unique and yet the entire city feels like a neighborhood.

- The - Food scene has - Just become incredible here.

Pittsburgh is growing and developing.

I go to other cities and I wish that I was in - Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh has fish fries.

I - Always wanted to be on WQED.