Entry No. 44 — the Pittsburgh file — filed under: bakery
Enrico Biscotti Co.
The bakery counter at 2022 Penn is open seven days and turns out over a thousand pounds of biscotti a day, cut by hand — the company's line is that nothing touches the product but bakers' hands and very sharp knives. The cafe is a separate proposition entirely: you go around into the alley, find the red door, and sit in a small courtyard space built around a wood-fired brick oven. It serves Neapolitan pizza and blunt Italian peasant cooking, largely from ingredients bought that morning off other Strip District vendors a few doors away. Larry Lagattuta started the whole thing in 1993 after quitting a job as an account executive at Lucent. The cafe opens for lunch on Friday and Saturday and that is it — two shifts a week, no reservations, seats when there are seats.
→ Three more weird eats & drinks in Pittsburgh — never the same twice
The story
Larry Lagattuta was an account executive at Lucent Technologies before he started the Enrico Biscotti Company at 2022 Penn Avenue in 1993, selling bread and biscotti; pizza and cappuccino came a few years later. The bakery half is now a production operation with a retail counter attached, open seven days and rated to turn out over a thousand pounds of biscotti a day. It is still done by hand — the company's own line is that the only things that ever touch the product are the skillful hands of its bakers and incredibly sharp knives.
The cafe is a separate proposition and a far smaller one. You go around into the alley beside the storefront, find the red door, and come out in a room built around a true wood-fired brick oven with a courtyard attached. The kitchen does Neapolitan pizza and cucina povera — Italian peasant cooking — from ingredients bought that morning off Strip District vendors a few doors down. The scale is worth knowing in advance: booked privately, the room seats 22 for dinner and holds 36 standing using indoor and outdoor space together. That is the whole cafe. It opens for lunch on Friday and Saturday and nothing else, and the site states flatly that reservations are not accepted.
The bakery has had a longer public life than two lunch shifts a week suggest: it was featured in the 2001 film The Bread, My Sweet, directed by Melissa Martin, then Lagattuta's wife, and later on Food Network. A Shadyside location followed in 2003 and a Highland Park one in 2010, the latter opening by accident during the February 9-10 blizzard and spending its first days as a soup kitchen for snowed-in neighbors. The brick oven now doubles as a classroom — bread, pizza, sauce, cookie and pie classes at $100, plus First Friday Dinners and a monthly Big Italian Throw-down.
What it's like
On a Saturday, be at the red door at 11 when it opens. There is no list to put your name on and no reservation to fall back on, so arriving at noon means standing in an alley in the Strip on its busiest morning, waiting for a room that seats a couple of dozen. Inside it is close, oven-warm and unhurried once you're down — the house description of itself is "the place where the locals gather," and the staff behave accordingly. The menu is short by design and built around what the brick oven and the morning's shopping produced, so ask what came in rather than arriving with a fixed order. Lunch stops at 2pm on Friday and 3pm on Saturday, hard. Leave through the bakery and buy biscotti by weight on the way out, which is the correct exit.
The move: Saturday, be at the red door in the alley at 11 when the cafe opens — arriving at noon means standing around, and there is no list to put your name on. Split a pizza out of the brick oven and whatever peasant dish is on that day, then walk back through the bakery and buy biscotti by weight on the way out. If you want an actual evening version of this room, book the First Friday dinner or one of the bread and pizza classes through the site instead.
📍 Before you go Cafe hours are Friday 11am-2pm and Saturday 11am-3pm only, and the site states flatly that reservations are not accepted. Bakery hours are wider — Mon-Sat 8am-4pm, Sun 9am-4pm — so the retail counter is there even when the cafe is shut. Phone (412) 281-2602. The entrance is through the alley behind Penn, not the bakery storefront, and Strip District parking on a Saturday is its own small ordeal; come early or leave the car further out.
- 📍 Pittsburgh
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 2022 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Roxanne's Dried Flowers — A block down at 2115 Penn and open the same daytime hours — three decades of dried flowers stacked high enough that the room reads as a barn loft that wandered into the Strip.
- MindFuel Method — One block over on Smallman: Finnish sauna and four cold plunge tubs, which is a defensible thing to do to yourself after a wood-fired pizza lunch.
- Gus & YiaYia's — Over the river on the North Side, a 1917 cart shaving ice balls by hand — same argument about doing it by hand, opposite temperature, and warm-season only.
More weird in Pittsburgh
Good to know
Where exactly is the entrance?
Not the bakery storefront. The cafe is reached through the alley beside 2022 Penn Avenue — look for the red door. The retail bakery counter is a separate door with much wider hours, so you can buy biscotti on a day the cafe is shut.
When is it open?
The cafe does Friday 11am–2pm and Saturday 11am–3pm, and that is the entire week. The bakery runs Monday to Saturday 8am–4pm and Sunday 9am–4pm. Phone is (412) 281-2602.
Can I book a table?
No — the cafe states outright that it does not accept reservations. If you want a guaranteed seat in that room, buy into a scheduled event instead: classes are $100, the First Friday Dinner and Big Italian Throw-down run $90–$100, and Enrico's Brunch $65–$75, all booked through the site's shop and frequently sold out.
What are the classes like?
Hands-on and food-inclusive. The breadmaking class has you make rustic Italian bread in the brick oven and then eat a family-style brunch; the pizza class puts a lead pizzaiolo on dough, oven technique and ingredients. Both are recommended for ages 16 and up, wear shoes and clothes you don't mind, and you're welcome to bring wine — private dinners in the room are BYOB.
What about parking, and getting in?
Strip District parking on a Saturday morning is genuinely bad; park east of 21st Street and walk, or come on the Friday shift instead. Note that the approach is an alley and the room is small — the site publishes no accessibility details, so call ahead if steps or width matter.
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Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-08-26