Lisa Dector was showing her children some landmarks of her Pittsburgh days when she got a chance to have a word with her home-state senator.

The Tempe, Ariz., resident, a Duquesne University graduate, was a customer in Primanti's in the Strip District as Sen. John McCain stopped in yesterday with his wife, Cindy. "It was just serendipitous," Ms. Dector said.

She and her son, Aaron, 18, and her 15-year-old triplet daughters -- Zoey, Lila and Hannah -- got a chance to chat with the Republican presidential candidate as he waited for cheesesteaks he had ordered at the iconic emporium.

"It turns out his mother is an identical twin, so it was mostly [a conversation about] family," Ms. Dector said.

Mr. McCain made the ritual political pilgrimage to the Strip District restaurant during a low-key campaign swing through the region. After a closed interview at a newspaper yesterday afternoon, the GOP standard-bearer planned to tour Consol Energy's South Park research facility this morning before sitting for TV interviews, then heading to an Ohio town hall meeting.

While he appeared to have made a favorable impression on the relatively few voters he saw in Pittsburgh, he didn't quite close the deal with the constituents he encountered amid the french fries and cole slaw.

Ms. Dector, a music teacher, said she had not made up her mind about her choice. Son Aaron, who aspires to a career in politics, will be able to cast his first presidential ballot in November. He said he had made a choice, but, displaying diplomatic skills that may serve him in that calling, declined to disclose what it was.

Amid a week of campaigning focused on the economy, Mr. McCain and his wife sat at Primanti's counter with Stanford University economist John Taylor. In a brief interview, the candidate emphasized the importance of Pennsylvania to his presidential bid, and said he planned to "talk about jobs, jobs and jobs," in the state.

The Navy veteran said he would also tell voters "that we do not agree with Senator Obama when he says they cling to their religion and guns."

He was referring to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's well-publicized remark, which cast a cloud over his pursuit of votes in the Pennsylvania primary, that many small-town residents "cling to" such cultural traditions in bitterness over their economic circumstances.

Responding to a question, Mr. McCain said he was confident that American troop withdrawals from Iraq would be governed by "the situation on the ground," despite a statement this week by Iraq's prime minister calling for a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal. Mr. McCain has criticized his Democratic foe's embrace of a withdrawal timetable, although Mr. Obama has repeated in recent weeks that he, too, would be guided by military circumstances in timing that exit.

Mr. McCain gave a more jocular glimpse of his foreign policy strategy when asked to comment about an Associated Press report that, despite tensions with Iran over its nuclear policies, U.S. exports to that country had expanded in recent years -- with cigarettes accounting for a significant part of the increase.

"Maybe that's a way of killing them," he deadpanned, then emphasized, "I meant that as a joke."

Mr. McCain described the need to exploit U.S. coal resources earlier yesterday in a Washington speech to the League of United Latin American Citizens. "The development of clean-coal technology will create jobs in some of America's most economically disadvantaged areas," he said, according to a speech transcript.