Strip District

On late afternoons during the weekdays, the streets in Pittsburgh’s Strip District are… On late afternoons during the weekdays, the streets in Pittsburgh’s Strip District are nearly deserted. The partially dirty, graffiti-covered brick buildings loom over the cracked sidewalks, giving the area an ominous, foreboding feeling.

But on the weekends, Penn Avenue – the main street of the Strip District – transforms into a thriving outdoor marketplace, where crowds swarm in and out of stores, between vendor stands and around colorful tents stationed on the sidewalks.

The Strip District is a thriving tourist location that attracts both out-of-towners and locals. It boasts everything from the ultra-trendy DejaVu Lounge – a popular restaurant and bar – to the Sunseri Sunrise Bakery. Here, students can find everything from trinkets to ethnic foods at a variety of prices.

Dozens of live lobsters, crabs and bass crowd into large tanks at Wholey’s fish market before being selected by customers. Scattered throughout the store, the freezers hold shrimp, crab legs and other seafood products.

Across the street, the chocolate store Fudgie Wudgie sells chocolate-covered pretzels and Oreo cookies as well as more than 25 types of fudge, including Cookies ‘ Cream and Pecan Turtle.

A little farther down the street, vendors outside Sam-Bok Oriental Food cook chicken on an outdoor stove top, while the stands outside the Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. display Italian deserts like cannolis, biscotti and pizzelles.

One short trip from Oakland to the Strip District on the 54C will bring you to one of the most diverse, fun shopping districts in Pittsburgh.

But it wasn’t always like this.

Nino Sunseri, 54, has worked in the Strip District since he was 13 years old. He started working in the family-owned Pennsylvania Macaroni Co., but after he married and became a father of three, he opened up a retail grocery and wholesale store called Jimmy and Nino’s on Penn Avenue with his brother Jimmy in 1985.

“I started working here when I was born,” Sunseri said, “and when I die, I’ll quit.”

When Sunseri worked in the Strip District as a teenager, he remembers the area as strictly a wholesale distribution center; the large warehouses primarily shipped their products to restaurants only.

Although Sunseri’s business is partially made up of wholesale distribution, the reason why his business is able to flourish is because it is also a retail business.

Around the mid-1990s, Sunseri saw the Strip District turn into the shopping Mecca that it is now. By 2001, the 16th Street Bridge and the Fort Pitt Tunnel had been constructed, changing the flow of traffic. This, combined with the revitalization of the Waterfront and Southside, changed the environment of the Strip District and brought in a number of specialty retail shops and eateries.

At Bella Notte, a pizzeria also owned by Sunseri, customers can eat slices of pizza twice as large as a normal slice on the outdoor patios or inside at the wooden booths.

Between his three other businesses, Sunseri serves around 400-500 customers during the weekday and around 1,500 customers on a weekend. On a sunny day, the number of customers can be even higher, because the businesses utilize the sidewalks by selling their products outdoors as people walk by.

And Sunseri is just one of the many lively entrepreneurs whose establishments make the Strip District such an enjoyable neighborhood for Pittburghers.

“It is easier to reach into your pocket when you are having fun,” Sunseri said.