Primanti Bros. appeals to singles on Valentine’s Day with ‘Shred Your Ex’ special

Primanti Bros. is appealing to the singles crowd with lovers to scorn on Valentine’s Day, or at least those eager to move on with help from a french fry-slathered sandwich — and industrial-grade shredder.

Dubbed the “Shred Your Ex” special, the regional chain’s timely marketing ploy will offer customers a 50% discount on one of the menu’s many “Almost Famous” sandwiches if they bring a photo of an ex, then destroy it in a shredder at one of four Western Pennsylvania locations on Friday.

“Sometimes love sucks,” Toni Haggerty of Primanti Bros.’ original location in Pittsburgh’s Strip District said in a news release. “In the last year, you shed the extra weight of your ‘better half,’ so we’re giving you half-off your sandwich. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Participating restaurants include locations in Harmar, Allison Park and Washington from 5 to 7 p.m., and the Primanti Bros. on Market Square in Downtown Pittsburgh during lunchtime, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Mobile shredding trucks will be available at each site for participants to shred the photos in exchange for half-off coupons.

Primanti Bros. officials encouraged customers to bring a photo of a former romantic partner, or, as they put it in the news release, “that no-longer-special someone who made your life hell.”

The half-off coupons can be used on the chain’s celebrated sandwiches, all of which are topped with french fries, melted cheese, tomato and coleslaw on thick slices of soft Italian bread baked by M. Cibrone & Sons in Castle Shannon. As menu signs make clear, substitutions are frowned upon, though onions, extra meat or a fried egg on top are available upon request.

Primanti Bros., whose roots date to 1933, has spread to dozens of locations across six states.