Lawrenceville's Butler Street has earned its reputation as one of Pittsburgh's most dynamic dining destinations, and the latest addition only deepens that claim. Titusz, the long-anticipated debut restaurant from chef and owner Csilla Thackray, opened its doors on April 2 at 4129 Butler Street, occupying the space once home to Merchant Oyster Co. and transforming it into something altogether different: an intimate, 49-seat celebration of Central European cooking rooted in memory, family, and craft.
Thackray, who has spent more than a decade shaping some of Pittsburgh's most respected kitchens, including The Vandal and Churchview Farm and working in close collaboration with the team at Legume Bistro, conceived Titusz as the most personal project of her career. The restaurant's name belongs to her great-grandfather, a man she describes as charismatic and indulgent, someone who "embodied a love of gathering and the finer things." But the deeper roots of the project trace to Thackray's Hungarian grandmother, also named Csilla, a World War II refugee who arrived in Pittsburgh through sponsorship by a Hazelwood church and built a life here that her granddaughter has spent years honoring through food.
That mission is visible in every corner of the restaurant. Interior designer Cara George drew on Hungarian folk traditions and Central European reference points to create a space of deep maroon tones, marriage chest motifs, and textiles inspired by the work of Austrian designer Josef Frank. The dining room feels both quietly opulent and genuinely warm, the kind of room that invites you to linger. With just 49 seats, it is by intention a place where the experience, not the volume, takes precedence.
A Menu Built on Process
The food at Titusz reflects what Thackray calls a philosophy of "less, less, less" - meticulous technique and careful sourcing over visual complexity or modern reinterpretation. The à la carte menu reads as both familiar and revelatory. Chicken paprikash arrives with house-made nokedli dumplings. Lángos, the fermented fried bread beloved in Budapest street markets, makes a refined appearance. Kaspressknödel, the Alpine cheese dumpling, anchors a menu that stretches comfortably between Austria and Hungary. Topfen cheesecake and the namesake Titusz Torte close the meal with the same precision and warmth that defines it throughout.
The beverage program, led by Thackray's husband Sean Rosenkrans of The Allegheny Wine Mixer, is its own thoughtful journey through Central Europe. Expect a Riesling backbone, Grüner Veltliner, Hungarian Tokaji, and classic cocktails built from regional spirits. The list functions not as an afterthought but as a natural extension of the kitchen's sense of place.
Titusz is open Thursday through Monday for dinner, with service running from 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Sunday, and Monday, and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Reservations are available through Toast Tables at tituszpgh.com.
For Pittsburgh, the opening of Titusz is more than another restaurant debut on an already busy corridor. It is a reminder that the city's dining scene continues to attract and cultivate chefs with something genuinely important to say, and that the stories embedded in Pittsburgh's immigrant history still have the power to shape culture in the present. A Hungarian grandmother who arrived in Hazelwood decades ago helped produce a chef who now offers Pittsburgh a dining room unlike any other in the region. That is a Pittsburgh story worth savoring.