Entry No. 67 — the Pittsburgh file — filed under: vinnie-pie
Vincent's Pizza Park
Vincent Chianese learned to make pizza from an uncle in San Francisco and opened this place on Ardmore Boulevard in 1952, where it became known for the Vinnie Pie: thick crust, unapologetic grease, and a topping load that sends most couples home with leftovers. It comes in 9, 11 and 19 inches, and rather than a takeout box the big ones go out on cardboard under paper sheets. The house has always refused delivery, lunch service and advertising, and on Steelers Sundays the kitchen has run twenty pies through the oven at once. Rent and franchise trouble shut it in 2012; Chianese's daughter Toni Zollner renovated and reopened it in 2013, and it has been running since. It has also done duty as scenery — the 1998 film "Dominick and Eugene" and Philipp Meyer's novel "American Rust" both put it on the page.
→ Three more weird eats & drinks in Pittsburgh — never the same twice
The story
Vincent Chianese trained as a tailor. In 1950 he went out to San Francisco, learned to make pizza from an uncle, came back to Pittsburgh, and in 1952 opened Vincent's Pizza Park on Ardmore Boulevard in Forest Hills. What followed was seventy years of refusals. No delivery. Never open for lunch, not once. No advertising. For most of its life the kitchen sold pizza and nothing else. The signature is the Vinnie Pie — thick crust, a topping load that has to be seen, and a quantity of grease nobody at the restaurant has ever apologised for — offered at 9, 11 and 19 inches. The large ones don't go into a takeout box; they go out flat on cardboard under sheets of paper, which is a logistics problem you solve in the car park.
The scale of the thing is part of the record. On Steelers Sundays the ovens have run twenty pies at once. They ship overnight around the country. And the room has been on screen and on the page more than most neighbourhood pizzerias manage: the 1998 film Dominick and Eugene, Philipp Meyer's 2009 novel American Rust, and the 2015 series It's Alive.
Chianese died in 2010, aged 85. In 2012 the restaurant closed in a tangle of rent, franchise and royalty issues, and for a while that looked like the end of it. His daughter, Toni Zollner, renovated the place and reopened it in 2013, and it has run since. Inside it is still, as one review put it, a big two-room bar with a pizza kitchen — plenty of tables, and beer-ad mirrors on the walls. In 2020 the kitchen sent out more than 140 pizzas to front-line workers.
What it's like
Doors open at 4pm and not a minute earlier, ever, so there is no version of this trip that happens at lunchtime. Come at four on a weeknight and you get a half-empty room, a table without negotiation, and a kitchen that hasn't yet buried itself; come at seven on a Friday, or on any Sunday the Steelers are playing, and you are joining a queue for ovens already running flat out. It is a bar with a pizza kitchen in it rather than a dining room, so settle in and let the pie take the time it takes. An 11-inch is enough for two people who intend to leave under their own power. The 19-inch is a group decision. Whatever you don't finish leaves the way it arrived — on cardboard under paper, not boxed — so keep the back seat clear.
The move: Show up right at 4pm on a Wednesday or Thursday when the room is still half empty, take a booth, split one 11-inch Vinnie Pie loaded rather than two smaller ones, and plan on carrying the second half out — then walk it off along Ardmore before the drive back.
📍 Before you go Wednesday through Sunday from 4pm — closed Monday and Tuesday, and no lunch, ever. Kitchen runs to about 9pm, later on Friday and Saturday; call 412-271-9181 to confirm, though that line is for pickup orders only, not reservations. No delivery. The 19-inch is a group decision, not a date decision. It sits on Ardmore Boulevard about 20 minutes east of downtown off the Parkway East, with a lot on site.
- 📍 Forest Hills
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 998 Ardmore Boulevard, Pittsburgh (Forest Hills), PA 15221
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Trundle Manor — Ten minutes west in Swissvale, a private house full of taxidermy, jarred specimens and a singing tumor, toured by its owners — book that for the afternoon and eat afterwards, in that order.
- The Living Dead Museum — Ten minutes the other way, at Monroeville Mall, where Romero shot the dead shopping; a zombie museum before a 4pm pizza makes a tidy eastern-suburbs double bill.
- Rivers of Steel (Carrie Blast Furnaces) — The Carrie Blast Furnaces in Rankin are a few miles off, and a day of blacksmithing or aluminium casting earns a Vinnie Pie more honestly than most things do.
More weird in Pittsburgh
Good to know
Where is it and how do I get there?
998 Ardmore Boulevard in Forest Hills, about twenty minutes east of downtown off the Parkway East, with its own lot. It's a drive rather than a stroll from anywhere central.
What are the hours?
Wednesday through Sunday from 4pm — closed Monday and Tuesday. The posted close is 10pm Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, and 11pm Friday and Saturday. There is no lunch service and there never has been.
Can I book a table, or get it delivered?
Neither. The house has refused delivery for its entire existence, and the phone line — 412-271-9181 — takes pickup orders only, not reservations. You show up and you wait.
Which size should we order?
For two, the 11-inch, and expect leftovers. The 19-inch is built for a group; it also won't fit in a box, so it travels flat on cardboard under paper sheets.
Can I get one if I'm not in Pittsburgh?
They ship pies overnight nationwide, which is the only way the place has ever left the neighbourhood — it has never advertised.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-08-26