Oakland abuzz for Super Bowl Sunday

By Harrison Kaminsky / News Editor
February 1, 2015

Faced with an incoming wave of midterm exams, projects and papers, students put schoolwork on hold to relax for an evening of American football. 

Football fans, Pitt coaches and Oakland restaurants chirped away on Twitter about Sunday’s game as well as the the accompanying nosh and Super Bowl commercials. With students’ larger-than-average appetites for fast food and football, area restaurants had to hustle to reach the red zone on Super Bowl Sunday. 

According to George Nadour, general manager of Larry and Carol’s Pizza on Semple Street, the restaurant receives roughly 160 orders a day.

Yesterday, however, Larry and Carol’s had 275 orders by 8:15 p.m.

The restaurant had nine people on staff for Super Bowl Sunday, while it only requires four people on quieter days.

Nadour said because of the influx of orders, deliveries took up to 45 minutes on Super Bowl Sunday.

Nadour couldn’t comment on how busy the restaurant was in previous years, because of Larry and Carol’s Pizza recently experiencing new ownership.

Jason Collins, a manager at Quaker Steak & Lube’s Oakland restaurant, said if students wanted wings for game day, they would have had to order days ahead. 

“We only accepted a certain number of orders every 15 minutes,” Collins said. 

According to Collins, the restaurant received roughly the same amount of orders as it did for last year’s Super Bowl, but service was more manageable because it did not accept online orders this year. 

“It was too overwhelming for online orders last year, so we only did call-ahead and walk-in [orders].”

Jovohn Gavins, assistant manager and supervisor at Quaker Steak and Lube, said sales numbers from last year’s Super Bowl were unavailable and he wouldn’t be able to comment on Sunday’s numbers until closing time, which was after press time.

“It has been a little quieter this year, though,” Gavins said.

The staff at Oakland’s Primanti Bros. location got to work earlier than usual on Sunday to begin preparations for the day.

“We made more chicken wings than we normally do, but we expect it to be pretty quiet tonight actually,” Victoria Petrovych, a staff member in middle management, said.

Primanti Brothers also previewed a new commercial on Twitter prior to game day.  

Pitt fans and new head football coach Pat Narduzzi expressed their excitement in seeing former Pitt cornerback Darrelle Revis star in the big game for the New England Patriots. 

Mixed praise and criticisms for commercials flooded Twitter feeds around Pittsburgh.