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

Hey, I'm Rick Sebak from WQED, and this is the first episode of what we hope will be an ongoing celebration of our city and the region all around us.

I mean, you can call it the Tri-State area or Greater Pittsburgh or Southwestern Pennsylvania, or just all around here.

- Remember Isaly's?

- We've been doing this for decades and we know that we're never gonna run out of interesting people, places, things and histories to check out.

We've got three stories, an interesting new hotel on the South Side, a neon sign that I love in Perryopolis on Route 51 and a pizza place that makes some great stuff in Dormont and on the North Side.

We're gonna call this program "Lucky To Live In Pittsburgh" because I think I am lucky to live here.

And although there are plenty of things to criticize and improve -- as there are anywhere -- we think there are enough interesting and unusual and memorable things to make a lot of these programs.

We're gonna start within the city limits.

So over on the south side, at the corner of Bingham and South sixth Street, there were two old connected buildings that have been converted into an unusual new hotel.

- Traveler's.

Rest is a brainchild of Mary Beth and I.

- We are an independent small hotel.

- It's essentially an owner operated independent hotel.

- We're also a bit of a bed and breakfast.

We'll make the bed, but you make the breakfast.

We always joke really - Funny.

This young couple from Upper St. Clair, Paul Clutter and Mary Beth Carabus, I agree, have spent years creating this cool new place for guests in our city.

- We cater to cyclists doing the Gap trail, the great Allegheny passage, and then anyone else who wants to visit sports fans, concert goers, convention goers, all kinds of things.

- We have people from all over the world that are staying with us.

You know when you have a woman from New Zealand that comes and stays with you and we say, what are you talking about New Zealand?

And she says, the gap trail.

You know, we're floored people.

Were traveling from all over.

You know, we just had a, a guest from Japan last week.

It's always interesting to get their perspective.

Why Pittsburgh?

Why did you pick the gap?

You could have gone to all these different places.

- If you enter on sixth Street, you can see that this building was originally the office of the AM Buyer's Company that made wrought iron pipe.

- They were a company that did both the manufacturing of the wrought iron, as well as milling it into pipe.

- They developed a method that was called the Buyer's Method of Casting that actually revolutionized the industry - Doing infrastructure, gas, sewer.

I always say nothing sexy like railroad and steel, but very important.

- They produce more WR iron than anyone else in the world at that time.

- He built this building as the admin building for the flagship mill across the street buyer's pipe.

- So we call this the Great Room.

As you can see, it's pretty, pretty magnificent.

So - Up here on the second floor is the guest hall.

If your room is not on the first floor, then it will be behind this door.

- You see, this was the old executive office for AM Buyers.

If you look up in the ceiling here, you can see how this was partitioned off.

Workers would come from across the street, the mill, and this is where they would pick up their paychecks.

- Originally this was the roof of the first building.

- So this is the original conference room.

It goes by the name of the buyer suite.

We took the name of the founder of the company and applied it to this room.

So this is a two room suite right here.

A lot of the original features taken like a pocket door right here and repurposed it, made it into a standard door.

- Everything on this floor, unlike much of the first floor, is new.

Any wood on the walls or wood floor is obviously the only thing that we didn't put in ourselves.

- And right here was an old coat closet and high flush toilet.

So what we did is made a nice little jack and Jill bathroom.

- All of our rooms are different layouts.

As you saw, there was the full bed, a room with two fulls.

Here we have the two queens - And right in here, this is our second part of the buyer suite.

This is actually the founder's office.

- We divided these up to different guest rooms, added in a bank of five bathrooms.

- This is the most expensive, the the two room suite.

It's the nicest decor as well.

And it's the only room that has a bathroom that is on suite.

- All the bathrooms are private but detached.

Each room gets its own code to keep it all private.

- So here's the bunker.

This, this room is priced on a sliding scale.

So if there's one guest, it starts off at a certain price and then you can add a second and pool cotton here for a third.

- And here is a fun room.

It's the four twins.

This is great for gap travelers.

You know, you might get two or three or four, for example, middle aged guys that they're cool with sharing a room, they don't wanna share a bed.

- All right, so this is our garage.

It's set up for cyclists.

We have a lot of guests that are doing the gap in c and o trip, so we outfitted this spot for them.

Some of our guests will fly their bikes in.

We have everything they need to build them up.

- My favorite part of the job is coffee talk in the morning.

And that seems to be some of the favorite experiences from the guests as well.

- Good morning.

How are you?

Coffee set up if you like.

Coffee - Mornings here can be delicious and truly social.

- We love crafting the perfect day.

You know, I'll get a read, I'll be like, okay, I pin you.

You guys are gonna want to go to the history center.

And I think you're cathedral learning people.

Yeah, so we, I mean, it's got enough that we can craft a day depending on what you're, we are looking for for sure.

Be - Here for, it's definitely a camaraderie.

We're closer, I think, here than we were even when we were camping because you go to your tents and so this has been great - This morning.

Most of these folks are cyclists all here on a special ride put together by this guy named Greg Stockdale.

- I started a bicycle tour company about six, seven years ago, right about the same time Paul and Mary Beth got their hotel opened.

So one day I made a, a field trip up here and I walked in the door and the rest is history.

- Well, we checked in by rolling our bikes into the garage.

We went in through the garage on our bikes.

Yeah, I mean, we're not gonna do that anywhere else.

I've never been, this is my first time ever to Pittsburgh and one of the women on a Facebook page that I started in 2021 decided to put together four, you know, ask four of us if we would like to her included Ride the Gap.

- Our businesses are very complimentary.

So my guests stay here, their guests are my customers.

- Four of us were in room nine, which is four single beds, and it was perfect.

We were in a dormitory.

- I probably spend two or three days a week here during the high season.

And my favorite part of my day is meeting the other cyclists and the other guests from all over the country.

They say, you should hang around with what you want to be.

This is what I want to be.

- And this morning, having breakfast now, we've been biking now for a couple days with these folks, so we know 'em a little bit, but it was that sort of communal get together that just, it's, it's really what travel's all about.

- Yeah, I'll be honest, I don't know that a, a cyclist has ever left unhappy.

I think the four ladies and then I can take, I've heard nothing but solid feedback.

- The reviews and, and sitting and talking with people with guests in the morning.

That's what really reminds me.

Oh yeah, we're doing the right thing.

This is a good idea.

People like this.

As long as we can continue to get the word out.

- A big part of it is - People have - Realistic expectation for Pittsburgh.

You know, they're, they, they don't, they kind of a blank slate and they don't expect a whole lot.

Incredible - First trip to Pittsburgh.

- Yeah.

Fabulous.

I mean, it's just, this is, it's more and we have high expectations and it exceeded, it exceeded, exceeded them.

- And they are very much surprised on what we can deliver on.

- The building does a lot of the work for us.

It's such an amazing space.

- We're a place that, it's this environment that we create and our eagerness to share our home - With them.

So I've never stayed there, but if friends come to town, I know I'm gonna try and book a room.

It's just an interesting place.

And I have pedaled along the Great Allegheny Passage a couple times, never as far as DC, but if you take the Great Allegheny Passage out of Pittsburgh, you're heading south along the Mon to McKeesport and then the Youghiogheny for a while eventually as far as Meyersdale or even Cumberland, Maryland.

And if you do that, if you head south, you're eventually gonna want to come north, back to Pittsburgh.

And you may find yourself on Route 51 coming up through Uniontown.

Or maybe it will just be a beautiful summer evening and you'll be out for a drive along 51.

As you near the town of Perryopolis, you may notice an unusual but familiar light on the hillside on the left side of the road.

There, sitting back a bit off the highway, is a Dairy Queen.

And the light is a beautiful old neon sign.

You might call it a vintage roadside work of art.

So you pull in.

You realize the sign is just one of many good reasons to stop here.

- I got my usual small cookie dough Blizzard.

- Well this is local or this is our town and it's my birthday.

And I wanted a hot fudge sundae.

- She's seen this place and she screamed at me and told me to pull over.

So came and got Dairy Queen.

- I order a sundae with chocolate syrup and marshmallow, - A cookie dough blizzard with cocoa fudge - Instead of hot fudge and then extra cocoa fudge chocolate milkshake.

I - Got a strawberry milkshake.

- Classic peanut butter sundae.

Yep.

- Banana.

I usually get a banana split.

Banana split - With Pecos - Peanut Buster parfait.

That's - What I had earlier today.

- I have to go with a cup of sprinkles.

Coquito is a classic, but sometimes I'll change it up like anything really.

- I like the peanut butter bash.

It has chocolate and peanut butter.

- My favorite is the Reese pieces blizzard.

- Very good, - Very good.

- My favorite would just be a plain old vanilla C cone.

It's the best you have.

It's simple.

The cone, the Dairy Queen, you're, you're good to go.

- That's Jackie tt.

She and her husband Doug keep this place sweet and popular.

- This officer brings people, it's better than Scoop, I think.

Immediate - This place.

Lot of memories.

It's been here a long time.

- I've been coming here since I was four years old.

Probably that's when it was built when I was four years old.

And my family loved it.

- We stop here regularly, - That's the place to get ice cream all the time.

So you just kind of wait for it to open up every summer.

Yep.

My favorite day was the first day that we opened for the season and everybody would come in and be so excited to see all of us and get ice cream.

I actually used to work at Dairy Queen.

- It's a regular stop all the time and it's, it's my once a month thing.

- I mean I just, I, when I was a kid, we came and I was like, I'm gonna work there one day.

That's how it kind played out.

Came all the time.

- We came from Monroeville and we're coming here to buy a dirt bike.

- My first trips were with my uncle.

He used to let us in the back of his truck and we would come down to here and this is where he'd bring us for ice cream.

- We stopped after open house from the school.

And my wife actually works at the school and they have the open house tonight and she told us she needs a blizzard.

- Once it, once it's open for the season, there's always a line, that's for sure.

- It's my second visit today.

- Well, I like, love the old buildings and like the history of like older buildings - And Jackie knows some history of this place.

- Back in 1963, this Dairy Queen was built by my mother's Uncle George would be my great uncle.

George Robes.

- He owned a Dairy Queen in Mason Tile that had this sign on it.

- The road sign that's out there came from a Masontown store whenever they built this one.

They brought it from another store.

- Yeah, it's older than this building.

Building was put up in 63, 19 80.

- My mom and dad purchased it from my uncle and then probably about 2000, my husband and I started running it.

So it's been in the family forever.

I, I do love it.

A little hectic sometimes.

It's hard.

It's getting harder every year.

Yes, we are a dairy queen.

Yes, we are a franchise, but we're more of a mom and pop because it's not as busy as a lot of the other dairy queens.

- But that sign is a draw.

A beautiful reminder of American roadside culture.

- That sign is old school.

It's still the original, like neon.

It's not LED or anything.

- That's, that's one of the coolest things.

It's one of the only dairy queens that has the original neon sign.

So that's, you know, it's almost like a landmark.

- Yeah.

It's nice that they kept it and it still works.

- I, I've noticed it and I've looked up at it and I figured it's probably pretty old.

- Yeah, I mean I grew up in this town, so I've seen that sign since I was little after baseball games, football games, everyone used to come.

- Oh yeah, it's older Dirt.

That sign's been there since I was not even able to see over the counter.

Yeah, - It's been here as long as we can remember.

- I like, I like the aspect of the sign.

- I love the sign too.

It it's old school.

Be honest, I never noticed it until you told me that I'm be, I'm, I'm being honest with you.

- We had people always come here taking pictures, blocking the drive through all the time.

I always get people stopping to take a picture of the sign.

- Yeah.

To pull in in the daytime and take pictures.

I, I tell 'em if I see him doing it, I'll say, come back at night.

It's really nice at night.

I mean, look how well that thing - Stood to test the - Top.

That's right.

- Right.

- The cone that's iconic.

The Dairy Queen swirl.

Yep.

- Well Doug is the one who goes up on the roof regularly to check on the sign.

He keeps a close eye on it.

He knows what makes it work.

- We try to keep it running.

It's a, the sign's made of porcelain.

So that's why it can't really be painted.

'cause you would ruin it by painting it.

So it's made by Leroy signs back in the early sixties and it's, we, it's weathered, but it's still hanging in there.

It's still structurally sound and we try to keep the top of it painted and everything up to par so we can at least light it up at night.

I just, I love the neon, just the nostalgia of it.

It's, it's great.

It, it attracts people at night.

Daytime you don't see it so much, but when it gets dark out, it really brightens up the place.

It's a, it's a chore to keep it going.

Especially over the years.

We have hailstorms and it'll, they'll break the glass, but it, it's worth having it.

- Dairy Queen gave us a little bit of a hard time keeping that sign out there.

- They wanted to get rid of the sign, but because we have the new style sign on our road sign, they allowed us to keep that sign.

- Since we keep in good shape too.

We do get it worked on and make sure it runs.

- If the light's on, we're slur, we're slurping ice cream.

You come underneath the neon sign at night.

Love it.

That's dusk.

We'll turn it on and then - We'll shut it off when we close.

Well, whether the neon is off or on, if you're passing through the neighborhood, you might wanna get off Route 51 onto Independence Street and head into the middle of the town.

The main streets of Peris were designed to all come together like spokes in the center of the town, a - Hub, the center of the circle up there shaped in a wagon wheel.

All the streets that come to the wagon wheel, - It was all mapped out like a wagon wheel and yeah, a town square.

But we all call it the circle.

- Right?

It's the circle, right.

Or if you're a kid, it's going to hang uptown.

Yeah, that's where I was always at Uptown - In 1814.

This town was named for Oliver Hazzard Perry, who won the Battle of Lake Erie in the war of 1812.

He's on the history mural nearby, but so is George Washington who owned more than 1600 acres of land around here, who came up with the street plan and who had a grist mill built that has been faithfully reconstructed on its original site.

Washington liked this area very much and even thought it should be considered a good spot for the new US government.

It was almost the - Capitol almost of the United States.

Of the United States.

- Oh, this was supposed to be the capitol.

You know, United States capitol is all planned out.

You know, that's the rumor and the story.

- It's what they say.

That's what what I was, that's what I've always been telling.

- And we have a nice little town here, - Perryopolis great history and a great neon sign on the Dairy Queen.

That sign just has a beauty that I find hard to resist.

And you know, it's become a tradition.

Every year, on the 4th of July, I drive down to Uniontown to be on Doug Saltzman's radio program on WMBS radio.

And when we're done, I drive back north on 51, through Perryopolis, and I've come to be seduced by that sign.

I think I've posted a photo of it every year on Facebook for the past decade.

But you may have noticed in the story itself, if you know that I drive this Mini Cooper convertible, that I make a cameo driving up to the Dairy Queen as well.

But this car has made me love driving all over this part of the world more than ever before, even in neighborhoods I've known all my life.

I have memories of going up West Liberty Avenue that go way back.

And if you find yourself on Route 19, in Dormont say, and you could go for a slice of pizza, you may wanna find this place called Badamo's Pizza.

It's named for its young founder Anthony Badamo, who makes some beautiful pies.

- Fairly basic in the display case.

Plain pepperoni and the white.

And then we usually throw a little bit of a, some sort of special in there.

Good pizza, as good as it gets.

- I actually stopped here Saturday for the first time and came back Tuesday and again today.

So little crush Red pepper - For some Parmesan cheese.

- Yeah, I mean that's kind of what we're known for.

We're, we're, we're doing pizza by the Slice.

We've been doing that since day - One.

Day one wasn't here in dormant, it was about a mile farther south in Mount Lebanon.

It was called a pizza boda.

- I signed Elise January 1st, 2010.

Went in there, had really kind of no clue what what I was doing at the time.

It was pretty scary.

But it was, it was very, very old school.

A real old school start.

- Well, Mount Lebanon took off, but Ms. Dormant.

But in 2023, Anthony moved the business here to dormant - Thank - You.

Along with loyal helpers like Herbie Greg, who's been around since 2011.

- I have family from Long Island, so I've always known pizza.

As you walk in, there's an angry old guy yelling at you, what do you want?

Gimme your money, get out the door.

And when we were up in Mount Lebanon, it was kind of a similar thing, you know, but we were a lot nicer about it.

I had been, you know, in Mount Lebanon - For 14 years.

The business was very strong and, and you know, I just had an opportunity to purchase the real estate here and it just made sense for me to, you know, move right down the street, still be able to serve my customers, kind of have a new project too.

- My favorite thing about Anthony's pizza is the, the slice aspect.

I'm gonna have two of square.

You play, you know, you come in, you get to see everything.

It's all right in your face.

A lot of people come in thinking they're just gonna get two cuts of cheese and then they see something in the window that they weren't expecting.

And now they're, you know, like this guy, he's never had the Sicilian, but now he comes in two, three times a week getting the Sicilian.

- Thank you.

This is Cole Myers.

He first went to the Mount Lebanon shop as a customer when he was still in middle school.

- So right now I'm doing a pepperoni square for our window.

So cheese, first sauce on top, a little Romano cheese on top of that.

And then a nice portion of pepperoni, - The pies come out, we set 'em up for the display and you know, a lot of our folks like the pies with the reheat.

That's kind of a classic thing.

You throw it back in the oven, get it that, you know, kind of take the edge off, crisp up the bottom and then back out the door with it.

Folks like that extra crisp.

And, and we, we love it too.

- I will say the pepperoni Sicilian might be one of the best slices in Pittsburgh, but I'm a big fan of the margarita.

- I like being able to put a different product out into the case every day.

We have some creative freedoms we can, you know, change it up a little bit, keep some customers intrigued.

Always something new in the case.

And I think that's what keeps it fun, fun and interesting for us.

- And when Anthony moved down here, we had to follow him and I brought Gary, who's from Brooklyn originally here to see it and say, okay, this is pretty good pizza.

You gotta try it out.

- The whole idea is to grab it, go and keep it - Moving.

Well, to keep the business moving.

Anthony, in 2016 found another smaller former pizza shop on Federal Street.

On the north side.

- Yeah.

So we took the space, we renovated it, it took about a year and then we opened up December 28th, 2017.

And it's been a smash ever since.

The north side is an amazing neighborhood.

Completely underserved.

And it's one of those spots that like everybody is welcome the whole neighborhood.

Oh yeah.

Hey electricians.

Keep - Him outta it.

What do, what do you all have - Over here - In the triangle?

- And they got very good pizza.

So I just stopped here.

Get a couple slices on my lunch break.

Come from California Ave and just indulged.

- See my coworker and I worked right down the street and probably about once a week we stop over and just grab a couple slices of pizza for lunch.

- Yeah.

I get usually two square pepperoni.

That's my go-to.

- I like a savory sauce and a nice dough under crust, - Crispy crust.

Good service.

Just delicious.

- Right?

- I heard it was - Good.

Yeah, I, I normally pick up a couple pepperoni rolls as well.

Whenever I'm, whenever I'm in all day long.

It's just folks are in - The sliced game.

There is so strong.

- I'm gonna do two pieces of your tomato bale.

One.

- The team down there is unbelievable.

- Have a good one.

Yes.

- Anthony's north side team there includes Chris Chatter Vedi who was making some dough when we stopped there one day.

- I'm the pizza guy.

My focus has always been like on just making the dough and making the pizza and that's always what I'm most concerned about.

Kind of wanted to start working here 'cause it was my favorite pizza in the city at the time and still is.

So, - So I usually get three pepperoni slices, some garlic, nuts.

It all depends on the day.

- Three cuts and garlic knots.

We had a garlic na grape, the ranch and just two small cups of ranch dressing.

- So I'm coming for work.

I gotta go to work and I need something for lunch.

And pizza's always my go-to.

I love pizza, pepperoni pizza to be exact.

- Some of us look for the cheese, the crust.

Some of us look for the, for the sauce.

And as my son likes to say, how is the undercarriage?

- I'm from this side of town.

So when this place came here, I was happy.

It was real good.

We're gonna get - Pittsburgh, margarita.

- Yes.

Get the large one.

Large Pittsburgh margarita.

There's a corn slice of white please.

Cheese slice.

- If you can't do it, plain pizza.

Right.

You can't do it.

Right.

- We have a couple special things in the case today.

- I do like anchovies too.

I come from Brooklyn though, and even I said these pizza is the best, you know?

Yeah.

- Better than New York.

You was close to my New York pizza.

Made me very happy.

I brought it home to the wife and she loved it too.

- I don't know - Why you're putting it, but it's - Nice right now.

I'm probably more inspired and more excited about doing this than I ever have been.

- Yeah.

I got no complaints.

I'd say I'd like to tell everyone, this is the best job I've ever had.

- The last two years have been really good.

We, you know, I have really good people working for me.

- He's a great boss, great boss, great friend.

And we have a great time doing it.

- The pizza tastes better than ever.

- Mm.

- You know, you try to get better every day.

Right.

So, - And the sauce, - When you work with your friends and you love with what you do, you can't complain about anything in life.

You know.

So I think this, this toxic, to be honest, but whatever I had before, yeah.

Every day is a new chance to better yourself and have fun.

Serve the community.

- The crust is my favorite, best for last.

- People are really receptive to, you know, heart and love and good flavors.

- I feel like there are more, the more love is in it.

Like the family.

Love in it is better.

It is for real when it comes to most restaurants.

- So we're, you know, we're, we're thankful to, to kind of be known around here.

You know, - You know, a really good pizza place may be just one thing that lets you know you're lucky to live around here.

But there are countless things that are overlooked or taken for granted or things we just don't know about, things that deserve to be pointed out.

And that's what we want to do with this program: Celebrate some of the grand, goofy and unusual things that make this part of the world a good place to be.

Who knows?

We may all be lucky to live around here.

- Pittsburgh?

I like the city.

- The people that we worked with from other parts of the country, they're: "Wow!

You guys are really Pittsburgh proud."

- Can't go wrong with the sports teams.

I mean, it's a sports city.

- I think of the hills and the tortuous roads.

- Really amazing food here.

Whether it's, you know, Thai or Middle Eastern... - Down on the South Side, the Cambod-Ican kitchen.

- I love Espresso A Mano.

Why do we love this place so much?

It's the people.

- And if you've really tried, you could probably get to know almost everybody in this city.