Pittsburgh Salad (with french fries)
“Pittsburgh salad” (also called “steak salad”) is a specialty of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but has also been served in other places. The salad usually consists of chopped steak on a bed of lettuce, and topped with french fries.
“Pittsburgh Salads” was cited in print in 1993. “Steak salad, a garden salad topped with french fries and char-grilled sirloin steak” was also cited in print in 1993.
4 February 1993, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) Oxmoor Center advertising sec., pg. 8, col. 1:
STEAK ESCAPE
Oxmoor is our only Kentucky location, serving Louisville’s best subs, fresh cut fries and “Pittsburgh Salads”
16 May 1993, News Record (North Hills, PA), “Quick Bites: Papa Guido’s of North Hills,” pg. E3, col. 4:
Steak salad, a garden salad topped with french fries and char-grilled sirloin steak for $5.95.
19 August 1994, Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette, “Shadyside back yard” review by Woodene Merriman, pg. 23:
Biggest sellers on the menu, according to restaurant management, are the steak salad, a Pittsburgh-style salad with fries inside, and the hot chicken salad, with more fries. Both are $6. Maybe next time.
THE ELBOW ROOM
5744 1/2 Ellsworth Ave.
Shadyside
5 February 1996, Indiana (PA) Gazette, “Western Pennsylvania known for idiosyncrasies” by Alyssa Gabbay (AP), pg. 3, cols. 5-6:
Mixing french fries with steak and other meats is another common practice. To make steak salad, a popular dish, chefs pile chopped steak on a bed of lettuce and top the whole thing with french fries.
Google News Archive
23 May 1997, Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette, “Dining,” Weekend sec., pg. 22, col. 2:
... or a steak salad topped with french fries, it’s also well worth a trip to Turtle Creek.
Google News Archive
28 October 2001, Beaver County (PA) Times, “Dining Guide: The Meadows” by Scott Tady, pg. C3, col. 4:
... to the $8.50 Pittsburgh Salad with crisp greens, cherry tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, french fries, grilled steak and cheddar cheese.
Google News Archive
2 January 2002, Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette, Woodene Merriman’s “Dining South,” pg. S-13, col. 3:
... a Pittsburgh salad with chicken, cheese, and, of course, fries, is $7.95.
Google Books
Comeback Season:
How I Learned to Play the Game of Love
By Cathy Day
New York, NY: Free Press
2008
Pg. 192:
Max has a veggie wrap, and I dig into my Pittsburgh salad: a heart attack nestled on a bed of greens. Seriously. I’m not kidding. A salad topped with french fries, sautéed onions and mushrooms, grilled chicken, and melted cheddar. God, I love Pittsburgh.
Serious Eats
Jan 26, 2009 5:59PM
Fries with That Salad?
HUNGRYGRL7
I’m from the land where we seem to put fries on everything: Pittsburgh. I know the whole fries-on-the-sandwich thing is kind of what we’re known for, but I didn’t know that it’s unusual on salads also!?
(...)
COMMENTS
ChelleyD01
9:39PM on 01/26/09
Im in Youngstown Ohio, which is 45 minutes from Pittsburgh. Every restaurant around here has either the Chicken or Steak Salad on the menu which consists of an epic portion of salad mix, cucumbers, tomato wedges, green pepper strips, carrots, olives, hard boiled egg, bermuda onion rings, banana pepper rings and topped with marinated grilled chicken or steak, fresh cut fries, an insane amount of cheddar/jack and 2 slices of garlic toast. Buckets of ranch dressing and/or homemade italian.
Urban Dictionary
Pittsburgh Salad
A Pittsburgh Salad is explicitly defined as taking french fries and Pierogis and taking the aforementioned contents and placing them into a blender. Setting the blender to chop (as strictly placing the blender on puree will not accomplish the chunk effect necessary for the Pittsburgh Salad), and then using a turkey baster to then insert them into another individual’s asshole (be them male or female), and lastly having the counter-party (the person performing the Pittsburgh Salad) sucking out the contents.
(...)
by PittsburghSaladMan October 19, 2010
Google Books
Food Lovers’ Guide to Pittsburgh:
The Best Restaurants, Markets & Local Culinary Offerings
By Sarah Sudar, Julia Gongaware, Amanda Mcfadden and Laura Zorch
Morris Book Publishing LLC
2012
Pg. 31:
A Pittsburgh Salad, which can be found at tons of our city’s eating establishments. Now, what makes a salad Pittsburgh is that it has french fries on top of it, usually with cheese and either chicken or steak (or both) and all the traditional salad fixings.
Johnny and Hons (Robesonia, PA)
Pittsburgh Steak Salad
22 December, 2013 admin
Fire grilled sirloin steak tossed with bell peppers, onions and tomatoes. Garnished with our famous waffle fries, shredded cheddar jack cheese and Cajun Vinaigrette dressing.
Google Groups: rec.food.cooking
Pittsburgh salad
tert in seattle
9/12/15
Steve - and anyone else from Pburg -
is this salad with fries on top for real?
Eater
Highly Recommended: The Pittsburgh Salad
Because every salad should have French fries on top
by Shannon Reed, July 28, 2016
(...)
You can tell a lot about a person by their first reaction to a Pittsburgh salad — a layered bowl of cool lettuce, some veggies, grilled chicken (or steak), and a sprinkling of shredded cheese, all served with French fries.
(...)
The Pittsburgh salad’s habitat is mostly confined to its origin and the surrounding western Pennsylvania environs (although I’m told you can find something similar in Chicago and Cincinnati, and the occasional “Pittsburgh-style salad” special pops up on menus as far away as Florida).