01 March 2011  Lost City: Pittsburgh Edition: Max's Allegheny
Tavern  I visited Pittsburgh for the first time recently. I had
a suspicion that I'd like this city, with its interesting
topography (bridges, hills and rives aplenty) and rough and
tumble history. And I was right. The post-industrial town has
retained a lot of its hardscrabble character and blue collar
individuality. Longstanding neighborhoods such as the South Side
and Polish Hill are still sharply drawn and teeming with local
flavor. The Pittsburghers have even held onto their local
linguistic peculiarities, such as eschewing the verb "to be"
(i.e. "My car needs washed."), calling Downtown "Dahn Tahn,"
saying "slippy" instead of "slippery" and condemning folks they
don't approve of as "jagoffs" and "yohos."  My first night
there, I went to Max's Allegheny Tavern in the North Side ("Nah'
Si'") neighborhood. The area was once it's own entity, Allegheny
City, and filled with Scotch, Irish, English and Germans. Max's
is a remnant of the German segme