“Roethlisberger” Showdown: Peppi’s

So, since we’re superstitious people, and we ate our first Roethlisburger on the day of the first Bengals game, and then pulled off the win by some act of majesty, we decided it would be bad luck if we didn’t have our second Roethlisburger before the second Bengals game.

Unfortunately, Peppi’s is closed on Sundays, so we went on a Friday afternoon the weekend of the game (but not in our Steeler gear, because we were coming from and going to other places, so I am a little concerned about that).

Peppi’s has several locations in the city, but we decided to go to the one in the Strip District which loudly advertises the #7 sandwich in its window. (There’s a big sign. You will see it soon.) They were pretty empty when we went in, so we put in our order and sat down at a table to wait for the deliciousness to arrive.

Here is the majestic Peppi’s #7 Roethlisburger. As you can tell, it is a lot bigger than the one that G n M serves (but it also costs a lot more – the sandwich is $7 plus tax). It’s made up of a ground beef and sausage mix (a signature Peppi’s thing), coated with grilled onions, melted American cheese, lettuce, and tomato slices, topped with egg and served on a buttered hoagie roll. We got the mayo on the side, for health’s sake, although we did try a few bites with-mayo just to see the flavor.

The more I read about this thing while doing my research for this blog, the more I realized it’s kind of a Pittsburgh legend. I guess everyone who comes from out of town tries these after their first Primanti’s sandwich. Who knew??

Peppi’s also serves other named sandwiches, like the Joey Porterbella hoagie (which I think I’ve actually had before, but from the shop in Wilkinsburg), and the Phantom, which is named after our famous Steel Phantom rollercoaster at Kennywood.

Apparently, if you eat the whole #7 yourself, you can get a t-shirt. The nice yinzer sitting behind us commented as I was taking this picture, ‘Yeah, get a picture of him before his nose was all busted!’ (Last week, Ben got hit in the face by one of the Ravens, which shattered his nose and left him looking like a hockey player who’d gotten into a good fight the rest of the game. Naturally, we were wearing our white jerseys on the day he has blood running down his face. But at least this will shut up the TOs of the world who claim Ben is ‘soft’.)

And here is the aforementioned sign. And yes, Pittsburgh, it’s good.

So what’s the verdict, after eating both burgers? It’s hard to say, because they are such vastly different sandwiches. Michael says he is acting more enthusiastic in the ‘it’s good’ picture for Peppi’s because he liked it better, but I feel like we have to evaluate each separately in their own way. If you want something really cheap and delicious and manageable to eat, go to G n M. If you want to blow out your arteries all at once, but thoroughly enjoy doing it, go to Peppi’s. Either way, you are getting an awesome, exclusively-Pittsburgh work of sandwich art!