Pittsburgh
@partsunknown
on 2022.01.208 Places
Bourdain travels to Pittsburgh and environs to witness the site of the East Coast’s newest tech hub, built on the ruins of traditional American industries like steel. Community stalwarts tell him how policy has worked to level their homes in favor of entertainment for community outsiders. Here in the ’Burgh, a town where communities are physically divided by the bodies of water intersecting them, racial disparities are astounding. Black households take home half the income of their white counterparts and, as in much of the nation, are several times more likely to be arrested by police. Outside Pittsburgh, Bourdain witnesses towns grappling with the fall of America’s production sector. Some of these towns, unlike Pittsburgh, are dealing with the opposite of gentrification: the flight of former industrial workers and, with them, a tax base.
Jozsa Corner
Permanently Closed
Bourdain ate: chicken paprikas, lángos (Hungarian fried bread), kolbasz (Hungarian sausage), cucumber salad. Dinner dates: Jamilka Borges, chef at Spoon.
PARTS UNKNOWN
Hidy's Cafe
Permanently Closed
Bourdain had: drinks. Drink date: Tony Buba, documentarian on the fate of Braddock’s working class.
PARTS UNKNOWN
Superior Motors
Permanently Closed
Bourdain ate: Lake Eerie walleye pike, potatoes, fish cracklin, herbs; beef short ribs on milkweed buds and overwintered sunchoke chips; wine. Dates: John Fetterman, mayor of Braddock, PA; Gisele Fetterman, runs Free Store 15104, a nonprofit to help those in need in their community; Franco Harris, four-time Super Bowl champion; Chef Kevin Sousa, restaurateur behind Superior Motors.
PARTS UNKNOWN
