[PRCo] Re: Interesting PATransit PCC Photos

[Fred Schneider]

Are all the Tambillini restaurants run by the same family?   I see an F Tambillini on 7th St. dawntawn.  I think I may have eaten in the one in Bridgeville.   Joe runs one in the Highland / Morningside area (Bryant St. between Negley and Craig).
One of the things I concluded working in labor statistics for a lifetime is that the life of typical business is one generation.   The second generation either doesn't understand the sacrifices that were required to make it work or do not recognize how trends change.  Restaurants seldom last more than a year or two.   Those that have been in business for 50 years or more can be counted on one hand in most small cities.   

Some of you may have read a book titled "Blue Highways" written by a man with the nom-de-plume William Least Heat Moon.  It was all about driving and enjoying the secondary roads, i.e. those blue roads back when road maps were printed in two colors, red and blue.   (Remember road maps?   That was before we had those inane female GPS voices screeching, "turn around, you missed your turn.")   Well, one of Moon's methods for finding a good restaurant was, "it will have five consecutive years worth of calendars hanging in the kitchen."   In other words, it's a good place to eat if it has managed to stay in business for five years.   (McDonalds and their ilk excepted.)  

And how often do we find the restaurant that mom and dad ran for 30 or 40 years and now the kids have it and they don't quite understand the formula that made it so special.   The Stock Yards Inn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania has been around under the same family since the early 1940s but it isn't the same today .... the kids redecorated, added credit cards (mom and dad understood cash), got themselves deeply in debt, cut the menu deeply to save money ... it's still there but the food isn't as good and there are no waiting lines today and many nights 3 out of 4 tables are empty.   Down in Washington, Pennsylvania, there used to be great Italian restaurant named Angelos.   Rather cramped but tremendous food.   The kids decided to expand ... probably three times the size ... and in a shopping center instead of the old economical digs on West Chestnut Street.  I don't go nearly as often because it needs a accoustical treatment ... the ceiling is dome shaped ... I guess they were trying for their own version of a Renaissance structure ... you know, like Flippo Brunelleschi's dome on the cathedral in Florence.   Well, it's like eating inside a base drum.  All the noises are amplified and aimed at the center of the restaurant!   



On Feb 28, 2012, at 5:28 PM, Bob Iannucci wrote:

> Tom,
> Thank you so much for the pictures and the memories.   I especially
> appreciated "Southern Avenue at Tambellini's Restaurant" - that was my
> father's favorite restaurant and as kids we got to go there on special
> occasions.  To compare then-and-now, I've added a more recent photo (thanks
> to Google) as an inset.  The restaurant has moved on from Southern Ave.
> 
> For the few on this list who don't know, the Tambellini name was and is
> very well known in Pittsburgh and beyond, being associated with many
> restaurants in and around Pittsburgh (operated by various members of the
> family) in addition to a frozen-food business some time ago.  This
> particular restaurant was established by Louis Tambellini in 1946.  It
> moved to a much larger space on Route 51 in 1981.  Louis passed away in
> 1996.
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
> 
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