Some buddies and I are visiting Pittsburgh on a lark. (Guys’ weekend. Catching a Pirates game or two and just hanging out for four days.)
Any recommendations for someone who is completely unfamiliar with the city?
Us: a bunch of 40-somethings of the aging hipster variety. We prefer our entertainments downscale and earthy. Maybe a bar where we could down cheap beer while rubbing elbows with locals of a similar cut. Hipsterish ideas welcome, but not something where we would feel out of place because of our age.
Any places where we could sample the best local cooking? (Again, think downscale, local flavor type stuff, though other recommendations welcome. We do clean up OK.)
Good used book stores?
Cool/funky neighborhoods?
Tourist attractions or sights we shouldn’t miss? (Including but not limited to the offbeat.)
You should go to the Church Brew Works, if nobody’s offended by the idea of a bar in a decommissioned church.
Primanti Brothers is a famous local eatery. So is Pamela’s Diner, though I personally think they’re overrated. President Obama disagrees with me on this, though.
One of my favorite places is Penn Avenue Fish Company. They have locations in the Strip District and downtown. They’re usually only open for lunch, though, and not on Sundays. I also like Mad Mex and Kaya. The Mad Mex in Oakland is always full of students and faculty from Pitt (though it will be less so this time of year, of course).
I like the Strip District for walking around and shopping.
The used bookstores near campus focus on collectible books, so they are not my thing at all. Bookstores in general have been abandoning Pittsburgh in droves The closest thing I’ve found to the kind of used bookstore I like is Half Price Books in Robinson and the book outlet in the Strip.
I can’t remember the name, but there is the sandwich place which puts everything between the two pieces of bread, including your french fries - Pammani Brothers or something? (ETA - beat me to it Anne Neville: Primanti Brothers) It is a Pittsburgh institution…
Definitely go to the Andy Warhol Museum–it’s a can’t miss. On Friday nights it is open late with half off admission and a cash bar in the lobby starting around 5pm. It’s only a block from PNC Park, so you can pre-game there if that strikes your fancy. Also similarly earthy and offbeat is the Mattress Factory Art Museum in the Mexican War Streets in the North Side.
For something a bit more classy you can go to the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History, which are connected to one another. The Hall of Dinosaurs is a must-do! The museums are across the street from the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt, which is definitely worth walking through and at least looking in the nationality rooms on the first and third floor. Somewhat nearby is the new Phipps Conservatory.
For food:
Definitely spend Saturday or Sunday morning in the Strip District, which is Penn Ave between roughly 16th and 23rd streets. It’s a great old school/funky kind of neighborhood.
The Sharp Edge Beer Emporium has a couple locations–I am familiar with the one in the East Liberty/Friendship area. It has a huge selection of Belgian beers and food. The best burgers in the city are at Tessaro’s in Bloomfield. There is also great food in Squirrel Hill (the Jewish neighborhood) along Murray Ave, Bloomfield (Italian) along Liberty Ave, and in Oakland (the University of Pittsburgh area).
The most ‘Pittsburgh’ place to me is Ritter’s Diner in Bloomfield. It is the ultimate 24 hour greasy spoon diner. Don’t go on a Sunday morning because it will be packed with little old ladies coming back from church. If you go at night it will be filled with students and hipsters. No place is more Pittsburgh than Ritter’s.
Drinking:
The South Side along East Carson Street is packed with bars and filled with a pretty young crowd. It is the most popular bar district in town. During the day, this stretch of Carson is a pretty eclectic mix of odd boutiques. Here’s their website with a calendar of what will be going on then
Near Pitt in Oakland are lots of great bars. A great one is Gene’s Place. It has the perfect neighborhood bar feel to it. The more neighborhood/hipper bar street without as many students is in Lawrenceville, primarily along Butler street.
Other:
The best used book store in town is Caliban’s on S. Craig Street (across from the Carnegie Museums and near Pitt).
Can I piggyback onto this thread? We’ll be road tripping to Pittsburgh over Labor Day weekend for a wedding, but will have some free time, plus it’s our anniversary weekend (the bride caught my bouquet at our wedding 2 years ago, mostly because I lobbed it to her, so things are coming full circle. But I digress.) Any additional recommendations for not totally downscale foodie things, live music, etc. would also be appreciated.
PNC Park is beautiful. I used to catch as many games as possible during baseball season. The fans are also friendly and fun. I have been to many a tailgate for the Buccos where I have ended up playing a few games of cornhole with strangers and sharing food and booze as well.
Sharp Edge and Church Brewworks are great suggestions for good food and a wide array of unique beers.
I am not too sure how much you would enjoy E Carson Street (it’s skews young enough that it makes myself and my friends a little uncomfortable and we are in our mid twenties). Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely a good time but there are quite a few bars that clearly cater to the barely 21 crowds.
Butler Street in Lawrenceville definitely sounds right up your alley so I wouldn’t leave without checking that out.
If I am understanding your post correctly, there are some excellent restaurants on Mt. Washington with great views of the city. They are priced higher than the suggestions so far but nothing too ridiculous. That was one of our default “nice date” locations in college.
I moved to Pittsburgh last year and have spent much of the past year trying to find out the answers to your questions!
Brillobox is probably the “hippest” bar in Pittsburgh–located in Lawrenceville, which as previously mentioned, is the hipster part of Pittsburgh. The crowd at Brillo is definitely hipster, but there are also various locals and older people who can be seen there. I took my dad. The beer isn’t incredibly cheap, but it’s good and there’s great variety. Every Sunday there are beer specials–$3 drafts from a local company, Church Brew Works (the restaurant mentioned previously, located in a church.) The food is also generally really good there.
Other hipster bars in the vicinity would include Remedy. I don’t go often so I’m not sure of the vibe for older people but it’s a pretty class joint by my standards (which admittedly are not high.) One cool bar definitely welcoming to people of all ages is Round Corner Cantina, also on Butler St (as is Remedy–Brillo is just up the hill.) Really good tacos and margaritas and mixed drinks; good selection of beer. They also have a lovely patio out back. If you like karaoke, Nico’s Recovery Room in the same area has the best karaoke in Pittsburgh, every Saturday night. If you prefer pool, Take a Break, just down the street from Brillobox, is a classic Pittsburgh bar with a mixed crowd of slumming hipsters and locals.
If you end up in Southside, most of the bars are horrible, but D’s (dive bar), Lava Lounge (hipster bar–crowd skews young), and the Library (cool name, a bit more yuppyish) are the best of the a bad lot.
The Pittsburgh restaurant scene is actually looking pretty good right now, although I understand that wasn’t the case until recently.
I love Abayin East Liberty–delicious Ethiopian food. Big portions and reasonably priced. Even if you’re not a vegetarian I think the food at Quiet Storm in Garfield is pretty good–just don’t go for brunch, it’s crowded and over-priced.
Being a poor graduate student, I haven’t personally been to any of these places, but I’ve heard really good things if you want to go slightly more upscale (by my standards): Tamari(Asian/Latin fusion, caution for stupid website!), Salt of the Earth(organic blah blah, limited menu, foodie kinda place), and Piccolo Forno(Italian.)
Most of these recommendations are in or near the Lawrenceville/Garfield/East Liberty area, which is where I spend most of my time. They are all gentrified / gentrifying areas.
On Penn Ave, also in the Garfield area, there’s a new place called Awesome Books. They have used and new books, adorable cats, etc. I think they have pretty limited hours so maybe just drop by if you’re in the area.
Squirrel Hill is a vibrant little town-in-a-city with one of the largest concentrations of Jewish people in the US (or so I’ve heard.) It’s where I currently live now. There’s a lot of nice coffee shops (Commonplace Coffee is the best!) and the people watching is always fun. There’s also a good Japanese restaurant, called Chaya, and a Korean restaurant, called Green Pepper. Shadyside is a more ritzy version of Squirrel Hill, and I don’t know as much about it.
Other things I would recommend: check out the Waffle Shop, a waffle shop with a live show every Saturday morning, and if you’re in the area when it’s open, the accompanying Conflict Kitchen is also delicious. It’s a take-out window featuring cuisine from various countries the US is in conflict with; they also host educational programs and other such hippy-like things. I think they’re doing Afghanistan now. You can also go kayakingon one of the rivers downtown–it’s really beautiful, I swear! The downtown location is under 6th St Bridge, near the Andy Warhol Museum. Pittsburgh pollution is much improved.
I would highly recommend the Mattress Factory too. The area it is located in, the Mexican War Streets district, is full of gorgeous old row streets which have fairly recently started to be renovated and beautified. The Mattress Factory has a variety of outdoor exhibits too, blending in with the surrounding neighborhood–it makes a lovely morning walk. I also really enjoyed the Nationality Rooms but I think it takes a certain kind of geek to appreciate them…
Wow, that was a lot of things! Let me know if you have any other questions.
For downscale, socially unuseful fun, try the Duckboat tour. The other suggestions sound good too.
About Pittsburgh. If you have never been there, spend some time at Google Earth or Mapquest aerial views. Streets the maps show crossing may miss one another by 100’.
You guys have to try Primanti’s while you’re here. If nothing else, get one while you are at PNC Park. Get the capicola and cheese.
I also second the recommendation for Pamela’s for breakfast one day.
The Original Hot Dog Shop in Oakland is a good place for a beer, hot dog, and a ginormous order of fries.
If you have any interest in great old wooden roller coasters, Kennywood is a great amusement park that’s also designated a National Historic Landmark.
You can tour the submarine, the USS Requin, at the Carnegie Science Center. There’s also a great, very large miniature railroad display there.
If you do go to the Oakland area of Pittsburgh, and you are fans of baseball, you can see part of the original Forbes Field outfield wall still standing, and the home plate is encased in glass in the floor of the nearby Posvar Hall.
Ride the Duquesne Incline and go up on Grandview Avenue. It’s spectacular.
Also, if curiosities are your thing, put Canton Avenue, Beechview, into your GPS. Steepest road in the world. I promise you that when you drive up your heart will skip a beat. It would be even worse driving down, but you can’t drive down because so many people have tried and failed. Beechview in general has some serious hills, to the point that you really have to wonder how anybody lives there in the winter.
Primanti Brothers and the Big O have been covered, so I need not rehash that. God’s own food, I tells you.
Thanks, all! One more question - the bride-to-be recommended that we rent a GPS (we don’t have one) because it can be difficult to find one’s way around in town. Is this true, or is she being paranoid?
I think we could start a thread about Pittsburghers getting lost in their own city. I could tell you how I tried to get to the Consol Energy Center from the Parkway East and ended up on top of Mount Washington . . .
The closest thing I’ve found to the kind of used bookstore I like is Half Price Books in Robinson and the book outlet in the Strip.
