| rev:text
| - Aw heck, I'm really in a funk over the poor reviews Tic-Toc restaurant is getting. Like many other fixtures in Pittsburgh's dining scene, The Tic-Toc was another one of those places I hadn't been to since I began writing reviews for Yelp over 5 years ago, their luncheon hours (11am-3pm) proving unfavorable to my schedule. In the past, the majority of my visits to The Tic-Toc were during breakfast, which back then began around 9 or 10am.
Located in the first floor of Macy's Department Store, The Tic-Toc has been shoveling out simple, quick, hearty cuisine to the hustle-bustle workday crowd of Downtown Pittsburgh for roughly 8 decades, surviving the 2006 merger with Kaufmann's. Tic-Toc's brief menu consists of typical homey diner fare, with sandwiches, soups, salads, and daily specials comprising the bulk of it. Recently remodeled, the restaurant's decor is fairly sparse aside from the grandfather and cuckoo clocks that stand against or hang on the beige walls along with various framed, monochromatic photographs, making one feel as if he or she is checking in on a quirky widowed neighbor that just moved into a new apartment. Be they shoppers or employees, a counter lined with bolted-in seats exists for singletons who are in a hurry while tables and chairs await larger parties with more time on their hands. Elderly servers dote on regular customers as men in white and black coats prepare the food with speed, agility, and a rigid approach.
The Tic-Toc harbors two signature menu items: The Original Tic-Toc Burger and The Pecan Ball. Such was my mid-day meal.
Modifying mine with bacon, I found this back-to-basics, canteen burger refreshing in an age when dry-aged, premium-cut blend patties topped with gouda, lobster, truffle aioli, and heirloom tomatoes are the norm. Plated in open-faced fashion, and smashed on a flat-top grill to create a caramelized bark on the exterior, I requested that mine be medium-rare, and the fellow manning the kitchen delivered it spot-on and in a timely manner. Rustic, flamingo-pink on the inside, and juicier than office gossip, the ideally fatty bacon strips adorned the neon, yellow, smelted American cheese coat, the fluffy sesame seed bun also holding lettuce, tomato, oily, mildly charred naked onion rings, and whatever savory tears were shed by that cookie of minced chuck.
Comfort food, when done expertly, has a way of making me shake my head with every bite as if I'm hearing a cover tune done flawlessly. I know what to expect, and when a cook nails it, I can't help but feel impressed with his or her prowess and relieved that the staples are still with us and are thriving without having lost their original luster.
The Pecan Ball is an everlasting classic of a sundae, sort of the '57 Chevy of ice cream, and Tic-Toc's rendition cruises down the boulevard with its crispy, nutty shell, its cape of ridiculously gooey hot fudge that sticks to spoon and tongue like chocolate tar, its heat and the ice cream, creating that archetypal, gastronomic warm vs. cool sensation that makes so many things that taste fine on their own taste even better together.
Presented in a tin dish with whipped cream and a fork to break the frozen dairy globe's armor, The Tic-Toc's Pecan Ball is a treat that surely brings a moment of leisure and pleasure to many who pass through the center of our metropolis.
The service provided by Susan was more than acceptable and anything but gruff. I wound up having a nice conversation with both her and the manager who came by to ask how my lunch was.
The hands of time should spare The Tic-Toc, 'cause their good, simple food is 'a tickin' in my shiny head...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dZN0gQJh8I
P.S. Here's a human interest segment from 2 years ago regarding the Tic-Toc from WQED, our local public broadcasting station...
http://www.wqed.org/tv/watch/?series=4&sid=448
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)