Brian Horvath: On the Street

Growing up on Long Island, Brian Horvath first visited Ithaca in the fall of 1983.

“I could feel the vibe, and I loved it,” he said.

Brian and then-partner Leslie rented a house on Danby Road, which Brian later purchased. Brian embraced the Ithaca counterculture and found this a great place to bring up kids. Though they separated later on, Leslie and Brian remained friends and co-parents of their daughter, Sara, now a Navy chief based in Greece.

At first, Brian worked as a printer, bindery operator and pressman, thanks to his high school BOCES tech training. But before those skills were replaced by computers, he made a career change to food service.

There weren’t many places delivering freshly baked pizza in 1988. A friendly guy delivering Rogan’s pizza could make a couple of hundred dollars a night. But come summer, business slowed. Brian proposed to three friends who also worked at Rogan’s that they follow the Grateful Dead on tour throughout the country, starting on the East Coast.

“We asked Frank Rogan to sell us 100 blank pizza crusts,” he said. “We rented a van and hit the road. When we reached the first concert, we parked our van, set up and sold the 100 pizzas our first night in Foxborough, Massachusetts. We were launched.”

Not only did Brian’s pizzas pay for their hotel and concert tickets, but Brian also met his future wife, Denise, at that concert.

“I realized that first night, why work for someone else?” Brain said. “On our way to the second concert, we bought French bread baguettes at a Tops Grocery. We sliced them into crusts and slathered on sauce and cheese. Again, we sold out while listening to great music. We built a shelf in the van and stacked our French bread like a cord of wood. After eight or nine shows, we each took home a nice profit.”

After the Alpine Valley shows, with friends Karen and Jon, Brian followed the Grateful Dead for its West Coast tour. On this tour, Brian and Karen also printed and sold fractal postal cards, inspired by Homer Smith of Lightlink Internet, using skills drawn from Brian’s high school vocational classes.

“When the Grateful Dead Tour was over, we drove back across the country, visiting new and old friends along the route,” Brain said.

In 1993, Brian found himself working at East Hill Carry Out in Ide’s Bowling. When Ithaca’s second Grassroots celebration was announced, Brian and his manager, Todd, decided to make a supply of pizza crusts for Grassroots.

It was so much fun and so successful that Brian focused his emerging business on music festivals up and down the East Coast.

“These festivals are filled with great folks,” he said. “The organizers, the patrons, the artists are all fine, loving people. They are small, tight-knit communities listening to incredibly good music and having fun.”

Brian felt right at home.

By 2003, Brian was 10 years into a happy marriage to Denise Wittlin-Horvath (a psychiatric nurse practitioner and social worker). Together, they took care of their children, Jason and Maryn. Brian decided the time had come to “get off the road.”

Brian decided to take his love of selling street food and open a local Greek eatery called On the Street Pita. Before long, Brian’s On the Street Pita became a popular site at the Ithaca Farmers Market and on the Commons (across from Commons’ Ambassador Lou Cassaniti and his famous hot dogs).

When the Commons construction was in its peak, Brian approached well-known local landlord Joe Ciaschi, who rented Brian the tiny space behind Maxie’s Supper Club & Oyster Bar. Before long, West Enders and other fans were flocking to On the Street for falafel, gyros and chicken pitas, piled high with delicious veggies and two homemade sauces. For six years, the fan base kept expanding.

When On the Street’s lease was done, Brian’s fans kept eating his Greek fare at festivals and the Ithaca Farmers Market. Then, at an Ithaca College event last fall, a friend offered to sell Brian his food trailer. Brian purchased the trailer in January 2020, not really knowing how, when or where he would put his new truck to use.

He spent over a month cleaning and renovating the trailer. When COVID-19 struck in March, visionary Mickey Roof invited Brian to use her parking lot adjacent to The Jewelbox on Taughannock Boulevard. It was the right site, Brain said.

Customers can now dine outside on site at socially distanced tables along the waterfront trail or take food to go for dining at home.
Since May, new and old customers form a steady line at Brian Horvath’s On the Street Food Truck. Favorites include pita sandwiches, falafel, gyros, chicken, souvlaki, salads and his fresh-cut curly fries.

Available Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Call them on the pita line at (607) 277-7472 (277-PITA).