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| - Spak Brothers recently opened on Penn Ave and brought a shining beacon of hope to the garfield/east lib/friendship area, serving up sexy slices in the flavors of omnivore, vegetarian, and even *vegan* pizza, hoagies, and wings. Hell, I even travel there all the way from lower Lawrenceville.
First of all, the decor is sparse - I mean, wicked sparse, with a pinball machine, a tabletop arcade machine, and a couple of stools lining the walls. If you require more than that to pick up pizza, you might be in the wrong place. Lacking a tip jar, I heard that the pinball machine IS the tip jar. Stock up on credits for the staff before you leave. Really, though, you should eat on the sidewalk outside with the rest of the bike punx, or take the pizza & wings to a friend's house for a pizza party! The service is friendly and swift. Every time I have been there, the counter staff have all smiled, cracked jokes, and proved to be remarkably efficient at handling my special orders and inane lines of questions. There's a pretty good chance of a Spak Brother taking your order himself. That's charming.
The menu itself is an inspiration and a delight in Pittsburgh's pizza scene. Homemade delicious seitan can be served up in the form of wings or delicious hoagies, in something like 4 flavors (3 of which are vegan). You can order pizzas with a variety of veggie meats - ask what they have in stock to avoid getting your heart broken. OH AND you can order pizza with vegan cheese! Like all vegan cheeses, it falls short of the real deal, but honestly, if you are a hungry vegan in need of a giant cheap pizza to get you through band practice - well, I've heard that Spak is your Lord & Saviour. Note: vegan cheese pizza is best consumed hot. The vegan cheese turns to some kind of alien form after it gets cold. Tastes the same, weird mouthfeel, no fault of the Spaks.
Be prepared to wait a few minutes for your food - the wait is reasonable, but they are actually cooking your food in their gigantic ovens, not just re-heating some frozen pizza back there. Watch a Spak toss some pizza dough. Play some pinball. It's good for your soul.
412-362-SPAK (7725)
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