PITTSBURGH — Gail Klingensmith, co-owner of one of Pittsburgh’s biggest breakfast staples, P&G’s Pamela’s Diner, has died.
The announcement was made on Tuesday morning on the diner’s Facebook page. Pam Cohen, the other face behind the diner, said, “Today, I lost my business partner, best friend and my ‘sister‘. Gail was the soul of P&G Pamela’s diners.”
Cohen and Klingensmith launched the original location on Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill in 1980, before growing into multiple locations and one of the city’s most well-known breakfast stops with its popular thin pancakes.
“We started the diners together 46 years ago, a lot of hard, dirty work for many years, but we did it together so it could be fun,” Cohen said in the post.
In 2008, the restaurant became nationally recognized when Barack and Michelle Obama stopped at their Strip District location. The year after, Cohen and Klingensmith were invited to cook a pancake breakfast at the White House.
“She was the one the Obamas loved. She was the one the employees loved. She was the one most of you loved,” Cohen said in the post. “We would often tease her, “Everybody loves Gail”.“ It would make her mad but it was the truth. I will miss my soulmate every day until the day I die.”
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