This is part of an ongoing series highlighting Signature Dishes at locally-owned restaurants in the region. See Trib Total Media’s new online directory of restaurants, Dine Local, at dinelocal.triblive.com.
Gary Santimyer, owner of the landmark Colonial Grille in Irwin, has a secret about his restaurant’s pressure-fried chicken that he has been holding onto for years — and he is not going to let it go.
The ingredients in the marinade that make the restaurants’s signature dish of fresh pressure-fried chicken so tasty are known but to Santimyer and his cooks. You can call it a trade secret of the Colonial Grille.
“We’re really known for our pressure-fried chicken,” Santimyer said. “People come from miles around for it.”
Santimyer is willing to reveal one aspect of the signature dish.
“You have to start with good chicken.” he said with a smile.
The good fresh chicken he starts with is marinated for at least 24 hours. Forty-eight hours in the marinade makes it taste even better, Santimyer said. (By 72 hours, it is all gone, cooked for customers.)
After it is marinated, the chicken is breaded and put into heavy-duty Broaster Co. pressure fryers for about 13 minutes, which is faster than other fryers, Santimyer said. The pressure fryers that Santimyer uses in the kitchen keep the food more tender and absorb less oil in the cooking process, according to Broaster Co.
The chicken dinner consisting of a breast, leg and marinated and cooked in the Colonial Grille’s “special breading,” along with two side dishes, is $13.69.
Father started business
Santimyer is the second-generation owner of the downtown Irwin restaurant, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. His father, Len, had worked at the Isaly’s restaurant in Irwin before purchasing what was then a bankrupt Colonial Grille restaurant in 1961.
“This is our (60th) anniversary, but there’s been no time to put together a celebration,” Santimyer said.
Business was interrupted in the early 1970s when a fire damaged the restaurant. Len Santimyer relocated the business to an area of North Huntingdon across the railroad tracks from Irwin and turned to catering. He decided to rebuild the restaurant and resume serving customers on Main Street.
They purchased a hardware store in the building abutting the restaurant on Main Street and opened up access to the structure for additional seating. About a dozen years ago, Santimyer created a taproom in the rear of the former hardware store.
Len Santimyer retired in 1996, but maintained a presence at the restaurant until he died in 2012.
Business has been better than what is was prior to the covid-related restrictions, Santimyer said. It has only gotten better since the state has lifted the restrictions limiting indoor dining, which coincided with more people taking the covid vaccine and the lower rate of transmission of the coronavirus.
Santimyer said he believes one reason the restaurant has done well is that the staff has remained loyal and has continued to work during the pandemic, which caused such disruptions to the restaurant industry.
“We were able to keep all of our key people working. So many restaurants can’t get help (workers),” Santimyer said.
The Colonial Grille (333 Main St., Irwin) is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 9 p. m., and on Sundays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. (last seating at 1:30 p.m.). Call 724-863-8358 or go to colonialgrille.vpweb.com.
Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joe at 724-836-5252, jnapsha@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Categories: Editor's Picks | Food & Drink | Lifestyles | Local | Norwin Star | Westmoreland
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Signature Dishes: 'Secret' marinade makes Colonial Grille's pressure-fried chicken tasty - TribLIVE
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