The Story
Tom Friday's Market has been operating on California Avenue in Brighton Heights since 1955, and it is the last classic old-style butcher counter within Pittsburgh city limits. The shop still cuts beef from hanging racks, a practice that has almost completely disappeared from American retail.
Walking into Tom Friday's is stepping back in time to when every neighborhood had a butcher who knew exactly how to cut your favorite steak. The shop preserves a dying art, providing whole-carcass butchery and personalized service that supermarkets abandoned decades ago.
What Makes It Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh has lost most of its neighborhood butcher shops, but Tom Friday's Market holds the line in Brighton Heights. As the last shop in the city cutting from hanging racks, it preserves a craft tradition that was once the backbone of every Pittsburgh neighborhood's food supply.