Harry’s Local Bar and Restaurant

Harry’s looks like a biker bar: beer-sign décor, graffiti on the walls, low light and loud juke box; and longnecks are the drink of choice. But the menu is hardly honky tonk. In fact, it is a prime source of seafood, Dixie-style.

Scallops, shrimp, and haddock, available broiled or lightly breaded and fried, are impeccable. Raw oysters by the dozen sparkle (if a little hard to yank from their shell – house policy is to leave them semi-attached). French fries to accompany the seafood are thick and creamy-centered.

Among locals who eat here three or four nights a week and need a break from excellent seafood, prime rib is a top-of-the-line favorite. During Happy Hour, from 4 to 7, hot wings are served at bargain prices.

Steeler-themed decor in the entryway gives a clue that Harry’s is loyal to Pittsburgh. That means that sandwiches — a Pittsburgh passion — are superb. The haddock sandwich is a foot-long bounty of meaty, moist, nutty-rich fish. It is available broiled, but we always will go for fried, the coating of which is microthin. The “Pittsburgh Sandwich” is a gloss on Primanti’s kitchen-sink Dagwood, containing not only a pile of hacked up beef, but also cheese, French fries, and cole slaw.

If you visit, look high on the wall to the far right of the bar and you will see my marking-pen scrawl from a visit back in February, 2013: “Roadfood.com loves Harry’s… and Harry himself.”