DiBella’s Subs, Pittsburgh PA

DiBella’s Subs has locations in 6 states. You can’t go wrong with these delicious subs, especially when they cook the meat to order.

Last month was my Association of Luxury Suite Directors conference. Each summer, the conference goes to a different city, and this year it was in Pittsburgh. I can’t remember the last time I visited Pittsburgh, and I honestly prepared myself for the city to not be that great…I was wrong. Downtown Pittsburgh has undergone a major redevelopment, the lakefront is full of life, and Pittsburgh is now a destination city.

I arrived in Pittsburgh on Saturday, and enjoyed a great lunch at Diamond Market Bar & Grill. Saturday evening, a few of us from the college division had a meeting with a vendor, and the conference began on Sunday.

I met Blair in 2010 when the conference was in NYC. Blair is my counterpart at Wisconsin, and we have become good friends. That’s one of the things I like most about the ALSD and the conference. I have made a lot of friends, and a few of us have become very close. Last fall we spent an amazing weekend in Wisconsin: Garth Brooks concert Friday night; Wisconsin football game Saturday night; Shania Twain concert Sunday night, and Packers/Chiefs game on Monday night.

On Sunday, we have a board meeting to officially kick off the conference, and Blair and I always go to lunch before the meeting. We wanted something relatively quick, because we didn’t have a long time. After a walk around Market Square nothing jumped out at us, so we decided to go to Jimmy John’s, just outside the Square. When I’m on the road I try to not eat anything that I can get at home. However, I hadn’t done a post on Jimmy John’s, so I agreed. As we walked, I saw a delivery car for DiBella’s Subs. Well of course I couldn’t pass up on something local, and new to us, in the spirit of the blog.

I assumed DiBella’s Subs was local, whether to Pittsburgh or PA; once again, I was wrong. DiBella’s Subs has 44 locations in 6 states, and was founded in 1918 in Rochester, NY as a family-owned business. The Market Square location is in the Square on the corner, and has a small patio with a few tables out front. The inside is a long, narrow space. There is a large order and prep counter on the right, that takes up about 75% of the length of the restaurant. There are booths along the left wall, and a few tables and the drink station in the back.

DiBella’s Subs reminds me of Subway, but better. You choose from 3 sizes of subs (7″, 11″, 14″), and there are 4 types of bread. DiBella’s Subs makes their bread in-house at least twice daily.

The DiBella’s Subs menu features 7 specialty subs, 7 regular subs, build-your-own subs, salads, and sides.

Blair went with the veggie sub

I didn’t try any of Blair’s sub, but he devoured it in record time so clearly it was good.

The sub of the month in June was Italian Sausage; there was a picture on a sign board that immediately caught my eye as we entered. I checked out all of the other options, but kept going back to Italian sausage…clearly that was a sign for me to try it. I chose multigrain bread, and added banana peppers and hot peppers. The Italian sausage sub comes with pepper and onion mix and mushrooms.

This sub is fantastic. My sub took a while to be ready, and at first I as wondering why. But then I looked over at the counter, and realized they cook the sausage to order. What a fabulous touch, and what puts DiBella’s Subs heads and tails above Subway.

Will I go back to DiBella’s Subs? Most definitely. The subs are delicious, there are so many options to choose from, and you can never go wrong with food cooked to order.

For reviews of more restaurants in Pittsburgh, please click on the photos below!