Gannon Knight Features

     Move over, Porky’s and McDonald’s – there’s a new late-night snacking hot spot in town.
     Steel 12 Grub & Chug, located at 24 N. Park Row, offers a taste of Pittsburgh to the downtown Erie community.
     The grub and chug is a combination of two local restaurants – Steel City Pizza & Sandwich Co., located at 4801 Peach St., and Odis 12 Bar and Grille, located at 664 W. 26th St.
     The combination of these two restaurants brings together the best of both worlds – a Pittsburgh-style free-for-all and Erie’s most famous wing spot, as Odis 12 has won the title of “Erie’s Best Wings” two years in a row.
     Open for just over a month, the restaurant was formed and combined by Mark Miodus, owner of both Odis 12 and Steel City Pizza & Sandwich Co.
     The two decided to combine their venues in the downtown area for great business opportunities, including Gannon University, City Hall, Hamot Medical Center and other local businesses in the area.
     Steel 12 takes GU Gold, opens early and closes late. On Friday and Saturday nights, the restaurant is open until 3 a.m., which will certainly give other late-night places in the downtown area competition.
     Miodus said Steel 12 is open late because he knows people will stop in, as the restaurant is strategically surrounded by bars.
     “We knew that if we put a restaurant in the downtown area and kept it open late, we would have that market for people looking for a place to grub after doing the bar scene,” he said. “We’ve been pretty right on so far.”
     Miodus said that a restaurant like Steel 12 was just a matter of time.
     “There are a lot of people and college students from Pittsburgh who are in Erie and live in the downtown area,” he said. “The two places are just so close that it just made sense.”
     Steel 12 offers an extensive menu that includes pizza, wings and subs.
     It also offers specialty hoagies, including the 14-inch “Double-Triple Bypass,” loaded with three beef patties, ham, salami, pepperoni, cappicola, provolone and American cheese and more.
     Steel 12 also offers “wedgies,” which are all the ingredients of any sandwich on the menu put on pizza dough.
     The restaurant’s Pittsburgh-style sandwiches have helped to make it a popular spot in the downtown area.
     On a Steel 12 Pittsburgh-style sandwich comes meat, provolone cheese, specialty coleslaw, French fries and hot sauce all in between thick slices of Italian bread, all for $5.99.
     Kristin Babjak, a senior communication arts major and Pittsburgh native, said the food at Steel 12 reminds her of home.
     “I’m glad that there’s a place near campus that offers Pittsburgh-style food,” she said. “As a Pittsburgh native, it’s nice to have the opportunity to eat that style of food more often.”
     Babjak also said that the restaurant reminds her of Primanti Brothers, a famous restaurant in Pittsburgh which originated the big-sandwich movement.
     In addition to having a menu with a wide variety, Steel 12 has reasonable prices across the board – especially considering the portion sizes for anything on the menu.
     Heather Roberts, a sophomore physical therapy and sport and exercise science major, said that patrons should definitely come hungry.
     Roberts, who ordered a 14-inch BLT hoagie, was only able to get through half of half of a sub before being forced to call it quits.
     “This sub is beastly,” she said. “I was expecting something similar to a Subway sub, but I was definitely wrong.”
     Roberts’ BLT sub was overflowing with the only three ingredients it contained – nearly a pound of bacon, lots of mayonnaise and lettuce that overflowed onto the plate.
     The hoagie she ordered was only $6.15, and it was so large that it had to make its exit from the restaurant in two to-go boxes.
     “It’s definitely worth the money,” she said. “You get so much food for such a good price, and that’s rare these days.”
     So for anyone looking to try something new, or for those who can’t get enough of having an entire meal all wrapped up in sandwich bread, head over to Steel 12.
     With its extensive menu and variety of pizza, subs, burgers, appetizers and more, there’s no way you’ll go wrong.
     “Come and give us a try,” Miodus said. “I guarantee you won’t leave hungry.”
     Steel 12 is open from 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday and noon-3 a.m. Saturday.