Savoring tradition: How Yinzers is bringing Pittsburgh's iconic flavors to Fayetteville
By Eddie Velazquez, posted Jun 25, 2026 on BizFayetteville.com
Josh Buracchio and his wife Gina had a vision two years ago: to bring the best of their beloved Pittsburgh’s culinary scene to Fayetteville.
They created Yinzers, now an in-demand food truck known for its take on the traditional Pittsburgh sandwiches. This type of sandwich is characterized for being loaded to the brim with traditional ingredients, while also nestling slaw and french fries all under one roof.
“Pittsburgh has a pretty good selection of food that people are familiar with. We knew there were a lot of people down here that knew and cared, but I didn’t realize how many until we actually opened the truck,” Buracchio said. “We’ve got a pretty big following.”
Traditional Pittsburgh sandwiches, the ones popularized by brands with national reach like Primanti Brothers, start with the bread, which comes from Buracchio’s homeland. Every so often Buracchio will make a pilgrimage to the Steel City to get Mancini’s Bread, the kind used by sandwich shops all over the city and by Pittsburghers at home.
“It’s kind of like a whole meal in between two pieces of bread,” he said. “We stack them up high and put all the sides on it.”
Pittsburgh-style sandwiches started in the 1930s, originally as a truck stop treat. Truckers would stop in the middle of the night with little time for a full sit-down meal, according to Buracchio, so the truck stops would stuff an entire meal between two pieces of bread.
“We try to keep it authentic here,” Buracchio said. Yinzers has joined a vibrant community of food trucks in Fayetteville. The city’s breadth and variety of food trucks make the scene special, Buracchio said.
“As far as you know, what we’ve got going on here, I feel like it’s booming,” Buracchio said. “You just keep seeing new food trucks come in all the time; you keep seeing it boom. I think it’s an awesome chance for people that want to start their own business, and to jump out into something where you can work for yourself and put your own spin on it.”
The clientele is also plentiful, and demand is steady, he said. A part of that is the influx of visitors and new arrivals stemming from Fort Bragg.
“We have a lot of different ethnicities down here, a lot of different tastes,” Buracchio noted. “All the soldiers travel around. They are fortunate that they get a lot of tastes that they’re familiar with here in Fayetteville.”
Food truck parks, he said, seem to be the latest avenue for expansion in Fayetteville. Flexibility, Buracchio added, is key. There are food trucks of all varieties, he said: some that serve breakfast, or lunch, or dinner, others that are open late night, and then others that cater/offer prepaid services. Then there are also the different locations and hours of operation — parking lots, music festivals, school or company lunch periods, private events and pop-ups.
“I think it is also just not being afraid to try different stuff,” Buracchio said. “We’ve had places where we’ve set up that just weren’t a good spot or didn’t pan out real well. Then we’ve had other places that have surprised us.”
Perhaps one of Yinzers’ biggest contributions to Fayetteville’s food scene has been pierogi plates. The traditional Polish dumplings, typically filled with potatoes, cheddar cheese and fried onions, have been a new addition to the local scene that Yinzers has been a champion of.
“There’s been a lot of people down here that have never even heard of pierogies, so we’ve been a lot of people’s first, which has been pretty awesome,” he noted.
Yinzers has innovated in this space. In the last year, Gina Buracchio came up with loaded pierogies.
“We have one called a pastramarogi. We still have potato and cheddar pierogies, but then we load them up with pastrami and grilled onions and Thousand Island dressing,” Buracchio said.
The food truck also serves traditional Pennsylvania-style pizza — yes, the one with the cold cheese. The Buracchios call it Ohio Valley style, and feature a square-cut pizza with the cheese being added to the pizza after baking. That style of pizza is actually the genesis of Yinzers. Josh, an occupational therapist at the time, learned to perfect this style of pizza for Gina, as she missed the hometown delicacy after moving to Fayetteville.
“We’re pretty happy going the route we’re going,” Buracchio said. “Two years in, just trying to stay on top of ourselves and challenge ourselves and come up with new menu items. And just getting our name out there, and keeping people’s stomachs filled, and seeing where it goes.”
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