OAKMONT, Pa. — The food situation is always is important at sports events, regardless of the sport you’re actually watching. It can make or break an event, so you’ll be glad to hear that from a food perspective, the 2016 U.S. Open is in good shape.
According to a deep and sophisticated network of sources on the ground (also known as Twitter), the legendary Pittsburgh sandwich chain “Primanti Bros.” had set up a stall at the U.S. Open, so I went to check it out.
The journey to get there was long and arduous, made worse by the more than two inches rain in the last 24 hours. The stall was all the way on the other side of property, so to get there, I had to battle the mud.
But thanks to a combination of wit, cunning, and an inside the ropes media pass, I got there in the end.
I went with one of the company’s signatures, “The Pitts-burger,” which is essentially the Primanti’s Bro’s take on a Philly Cheesesteak. It’s a meat patty, coleslaw, tomato, cheese and french fries all on two slices white bread, wrapped in white butcher paper.
Before we continue: Yes, I conferred with For The Win‘s resident sandwich expert Ted Berg (who has also eaten a Primanti Bros. sandwich) and we both came to the same conclusion. This is, indeed, a good sandwich.
The french fries are obviously the headline-grabber, but quite frankly, they weren’t as game-changing an addition to the sandwich as you might expect.
They were tasty, sure, but they weren’t very crispy so they didn’t provide much of a crunch, and the added starch made it all feel unnecessarily heavy. Rather it’s the sweet flavor of the coleslaw that makes this sandwich. Its moist and crunchy texture prevents the bread-on-fries combination from feeling too dry and succeeds in pulling it all together.
My final recommendation is to eat this sandwich with some Dijon mustard, which is usually provided at the company’s counter. I enjoyed eating it before, but the kick of the mustard alongside the sweet crunchiness of the coleslaw and the thickness of the fries makes this a thoroughly enjoyable meal.
