What's on Pittsburgh's famous sandwich? Find out at new Fayetteville food truck
A couple with Pittsburgh-area roots is bringing Steel City dishes to Fayetteville with a new food truck.
Gina Buracchio, 41, and her husband, Josh Buracchio, 42, opened Yinzers food truck in mid-July.
The couple serve sandwiches, pizza, fries and pierogi true to their tri-city origins, often with their children, Gino, 17, Ryan, 15, and Natalia, 5, in tow.
Josh Buracchio’s occupational therapy career brought the family to Fayetteville about a decade ago. Gina Buracchio has worked as a cook at Napkins restaurant since it opened in 2019.
The pair quit their day jobs, however, to bring Yinzer fare to “North Carolinyinz.”
“We were like, why don’t we just make all the stuff we love so much from home?” Gina Buracchio said on Wednesday at Dirtbag Ales in Hope Mills, while her husband prepared for dinner service.
If the food truck’s propensity to sell out wherever it goes is any indication, Fayetteville has a taste for Yinzers food, and the truck has introduced locals to several storied Pittsburgh eats.
Fayetteville food truck serves classic Pittsburgh-style sandwiches
Yinzers makes Primanti-style sandwiches that have nearly 100 years of history in the ‘Burgh.
Primanti Bros. sandwich chain’s signature dish was born at the original Strip District shop in the Depression era. A meat, cheese and tomato sandwich was combined with its usual sides of fries and cole slaw to make a handheld meal convenient for truck drivers to eat on the job.
The restaurant’s sandwiches were originally made with bread from Mancini’s, an Italian bakery since 1936 in the McKees Rocks borough, just north of Pittsburgh along the Ohio River.
The Buracchios make their sandwiches with Mancini’s thick-sliced white Italian bread — the couple drive to the bakery every few weeks to buy dozens of loaves — and if they didn’t, customers would notice.
“Even before we opened, I had people asking me if it was going to be Mancini’s bread,” Gina Buracchio said.
The food truck’s sandwiches are piled high with a choice of chicken or capicola from San Giuseppe Salami Co., a meat producer about 100 miles north of Fayetteville in Elon; pastrami from Vienna Beef in Chicago; or steak.
The meat is topped with provolone cheese, house-made vinegar cole slaw and fries that are hand-cut each morning and fried to order.
Find Ohio Valley’s ‘cold-top’ pizza at Yinzers food truck
Like Gina Buracchio, Ohio Valley-style pizza hails from Steubenville, Ohio. Yinzers' version of the square-cut, crispy-crust pies are topped with her husband’s homemade tomato sauce and baked. Provolone, mozzarella and pepperoni are added after the pizza is cooked.
The hot crust melts the cheese and warms the toppings when the pie is transferred to a pizza box, Buracchio said, but she prefers to skip that step.
“I like it straight out of the oven with cold cheese on top,” Buracchio said. “It’s my favorite pizza ever.”
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Cold-top pizza was invented and popularized by Primo DiCarlo, who opened the original DiCarlo’s Pizza shop in 1945, after returning to the U.S. from serving in World War II. Now, the chain has nine locations in Ohio, West Virginia and Tennessee.
“We started making it when we moved down here because I missed DiCarlo’s so much,” Buracchio said.
Pierogies steal the show at Yinzers
Gina Buracchio said the best-selling item on the food truck's menu is the pierogi. The Polish dumplings are popular in Pittsburgh due to the influx of Eastern European immigrants in the early 20th century.
At Yinzers, cheese and potato pierogi are served the traditional way — sauteed in butter with a side of sour cream — or, deep-fried with marinara.
“People are loving the pierogies,” Buracchio said. “When we started this, a lot of people didn’t know what a pierogi was.”
What’s next for Yinzers food truck?
Gina Buracchio said they eventually want to transition to a permanent Pittsburgh-style restaurant or open an Ohio Valley-style pizzeria.
For the time being, the family likes sharing their passion for food with other Pittsburgh-area natives and introducing the uninitiated to their favorite comfort foods.
“The support that people have shown really makes you feel good,” Buracchio said. “It raises you up and it keeps you going.”
The details
Address and hours: Follow social media pages for an updated schedule
On the web: yinzertruck.com; @theyinzerstruck on Instagram; and search “The Yinzers Truck” on Facebook
Food, dining and culture reporter Taylor Shook can be reached at [email protected]. Want weekly food news delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the Fayetteville Foodies newsletter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Yinzers food truck serves Pittsburgh-area favorites in Fayetteville, NC