SCALLOP CRUDO AT COAST & MAIN

I read somewhere (probably online, so the validity is questionable) that there are so many restaurants in New York City, a person could dine out every night for 54 years and never hit the same place twice.

Although the size of Pittsburgh’s food scene doesn’t compare to The Big Apple’s, it would take a long time to visit every local eatery.

I haven’t managed to hit every one yet, but I’m trying!

Every year, I search for spots that bring something extra to the table. There are a lot of great places to chow down in this town. Here are 25 of them that left a lasting impression and made me want to come back for more.

The List

• Alta Via Ristorante & Alta Via Pizzeria
• Apteka
• Cioppino
• Coast & Main
• Comfort & Spice
• Curbside
• Dish Osteria and Bar
• Eleven
• Fig & Ash
• Fish Nor Fowl
• Hemlock House
• LeMont
• Long Story Short
• Moonlit Burgers
• Nanban
• North Country Brew Pub
• Oak Hill Post
• Pizza Lupo
• Pusadee’s Garden
• Scratch & Co.
• Soju
• Spork
• The Vandal
• Wise County Biscuits & Cafe
• The Wood’s House Historic Pub

Best Brand Expansion

Alta Via Ristorante & Alta Via Pizzeria

Burrito Restaurant Group opened the original Alta Via Ristorante in O’Hara on April Fool’s Day 2019. Alta Via Pizzeria debuted in Larimer’s Bakery Square a few years later on April 12 — the date Pittsburghers celebrate living in the 412 area code.

Alta Via’s Market Square location opened on Oct. 26, 2023. Although no holidays fell on that Thursday, the Christmas tree at PPG Place was already up, so I indulged in bucatini and premature holiday cheer.

The approachable, modern menu is inspired by life in both the Italian Alps and California wine country. It features fresh seafood, vegetable-forward dishes, homemade pasta and gut-busting entrees, including Long Island Duck with gnocchi, Lacinato kale, fig and thyme.

The restaurant also offers weekend brunch, lunchtime sandwiches and gelato made in-house. For a more casual dining experience that’s just as filling, visit AVP. I carbo-loaded by ordering pull-apart bread made with garlic mascarpone, Pecorino Romano and red sauce followed by a rustic, hearth-baked pie topped with pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, red onion, more of that delicious Pecorino Romano, taleggio cream, chives and chili flakes. Any day that you eat at an Alta Via restaurant is a special occasion.

O’Hara Township: 46 Fox Chapel Road
412-408-3816, altaviapgh.com

Downtown: 2 PPG Place
412-408-3816

Larimer: 169 Bakery Square Blvd.
412-755-3387, altaviapizzeria.com

Best Vegan Food

Apteka

Apteka owners Kate Lasky and Tomasz Skowronski are probably the only James Beard Award-nominated chefs to feature a special menu called Crapteka. That’s what I love about them: They serve seriously good food with a sense of humor.

For several weeks every January, the pair puts their typical Central and Eastern European fare (which is anything but ordinary) on hold and dish out vegan-friendly “junk” food. It’s all made from scratch, from the buckwheat burger patties and buns to the sunflower seed ice cream.

If you’re new to vegan cuisine, it’s a nice introduction to plant-based grub. Chances are you’ll recognize a few things on the regular menu, too, including Pittsburgh’s unofficial official dish: pierogi. I urge you to visit Apteka throughout the year to break out of your comfort food comfort zone.

Try something like the Kluski Śląskie z Kopą Warzyw and see why the James Beard Foundation thinks Lasky and Skowronski are no joke.

Bloomfield: 4606 Penn Ave.
412-251-0189, aptekapgh.com

Best Meat-and-Potatoes Restaurant

Cioppino

I’ve always been a meat-and-potatoes kind of girl, but, lately, my spud intake has skyrocketed. Cioppino’s executive chef Robert “RC” Carter also has a deep-rooted love for tubers.

“We are a seafood and steak house with a potato problem,” says Carter, who grew up in his mother’s Detroit soul food restaurant. He’s helmed the kitchen at Cioppino since 2017.

Humble taters pop up all over the all-star menu; they’re in the creamy roasted chicken soup and accompany both the halibut and the rack of lamb. If they don’t come with your entree, by all means, order them as a side, which Cioppino refers to as an “enhancement.” For brunch — served every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. — I recommend springing for the lox board, which includes a housemade potato waffle and crispy layered potatoes.

On a chilly night last October, when I was craving a hearty meal, I ordered the ultimate stick-to-your-ribs dish — beef short rib with demi-glace, Brussels sprouts and whipped potatoes that were so rich, flavorful and creamy, I wanted to immerse myself in them.

Are potato spas a thing? They should be. Cioppino’s lounge menu includes 1000 Layer Tots, thin slices of potato stacked and deep fried into bricks of crispy perfection.

I want to build a house out of them using the horseradish aioli dipping sauce as mortar and eat my way out.

Strip District: 2350 Railroad St.
412-281-6593, cioppinoofpittsburgh.com

Best Restaurant in a Mall

Coast & Main

As ’90s teens, my friends and I spent a lot of time in Monroeville Mall’s food court. We lurched around like zombies (after all, “Dawn of the Dead” was filmed there) while eating Manchu Wok samples and as many slices of Sbarro pizza as our paltry allowances could afford.

My, how times have changed.

In 2018, the shopping center welcomed Coast & Main, a gourmet seafood and chophouse where even the kid’s menu features a 4-ounce filet mignon. Now I can visit my adolescent stomping grounds, once a culinary wasteland, and order a bone-in ribeye, Chilean sea bass, lobster tail and — since I’m well over 21 — a drink at the bar!

Chef Ricky Kirsop grew up in Portland, Oregon, exploring the state’s forests and shoreline. He attended culinary school there and worked for hometown powerhouse McCormick & Schmick’s. He helped open the company’s Pittsburgh location in 2005.

Although he’s been a longtime landlubber, his love for the ocean is evident in the dishes he makes with seafood flown in daily. Catch a Pacific cod crusted in potato and parm with roasted garlic cream. At the bar, you can order crab cake sliders, salmon cakes and Tuna Tataki along with a Northwest Berry Julep.

Coast & Main is a fusion of land and sea, East and West, heart and soul. I know 16-year-old Kristy would want me to zombie-walk to the Gap for a new flannel shirt and then spring for the surf and turf.

Monroeville: 705 Mall Circle Drive
412-380-6022, coastandmain.com

Best Pop-Up Kitchen

Comfort & Spice

Comfort & Spice, a collapsible kitchen that pops up at area breweries to dish out gourmet soups and stews, might make you adopt a liquid lifestyle.

From borscht and matzah ball to Czech beef goulash and Spanish bean, Toby Vann serves comfort food from a self-designed, pallet-sized kiosk — the first of its kind in Allegheny County; it includes two professional-grade induction hotplates, a panini press, rice cooker, silicone countertops, shelving and a handwashing sink.

The structure can fit in a truck bed and be reassembled in about 30 minutes. The soup is available in to-go containers, but folks who slurp on-site can get free second helpings. I recommend staying put and diving into a bowl of tomato paprika soup served with cheesy croutons, Parmesan and herbed sour cream.

When accompanied by one of Vann’s signature grilled cheese sandwiches, it’s the kind of meal that warms the body and soul. Which is why he takes the summer off. Vann just completed a residency at Fermata Brewing Co. in Ambridge and is spending the next month in Norway studying Scandinavian food. He has big plans for Pittsburgh this fall. Take comfort in the fact that the little red soup shack will be back soon to spice things up.

Multiple Locations
instagram.com/comfortandspice_pgh

Best To-Go Grub

Curbside

Curbside is a welcome sight to motorists stuck in traffic on Route 28. You can see the rainbow-bedecked building from the highway — a beacon on a road that seems like it’s always under construction.

Take the nearest exit and head to the eatery for some exquisite to-go grub. After spending 15 years in Blawnox, Curbside moved to the bigger space last fall to offer a bigger menu. You’ll find more scratch-made baked goods, organic fruit, smoothies, yogurt parfaits and some of the nicest folks in town.

I recommend the colossal bacon, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich on toasted wheat bread. I’d endure gridlock every day for one.

O’Hara Township: 1101 Powers Run Road
412-828-9810, curbsideontherun.com

Best Romantic Restaurant

Dish Osteria and Bar

My romantic rendezvous at Dish included some fava beans and a nice Chianti. As a film geek, that thrilled me. Luckily, my girlfriend, Dre, is also a fan of “The Silence of the Lambs” and understood the reference. She basked in the cinematic glory of it all right along with me.

That’s true love, folks. The only thing that came between us that evening was a plate of Crostini di Ricotta e Fave, grilled ciabatta bread with homemade ricotta, chives and those famous little legumes.

For my main course, I ordered the housemade potato gnocchi that included Elysian Fields Pure Bred lamb shoulder, another nod to the 1991 Jonathan Demme movie, parts of which were shot in and around Pittsburgh. Dre had the cavatelli tossed in extra virgin olive oil, garlic, shallots, crushed red pepper, house made sausage, rapini, oven roasted campari tomatoes, pecorino and basil.

In a Hollywood ending, we topped off the meal with Tiramisú and Limoncello cheesecake. Even if carbo-loading by candlelight and imitating Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins isn’t your idea of a hot date, please know that Dish owners Michele and Cindy Savoia roll out the red carpet for each one of their guests.

The place is small, so make a reservation, or try to get a sneak preview at the bar. Dish is a culinary blockbuster.

South Side: 128 S. 17th St.
412-390-2012, dishosteria.com

Best Uniquely Pittsburgh Dining Experience

Eleven

If you want to have a uniquely Pittsburgh dining experience, don some black-and-gold attire and go to Eleven.

Located in a renovated Strip District warehouse near some old railroad tracks, the restaurant’s window-filled tavern is in the shadow of a 35-foot, 4-ton Heinz ketchup bottle that stands on a pedestal outside of the neighboring Heinz History Center.

For 20 years, the towering condiment container and its twin adorned the scoreboard at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) and would tilt each time the Steelers or Panthers entered the opposing team’s red zone, an area of the gridiron between the 20-yard line and the goal line. It’s a cool view in an industrial space that, for the past two decades, has served some of the ’Burgh’s best food.

My most recent meal there was a tender pork chop accompanied by crispy grits, carrot puree, braised collard greens and rhubarb BBQ. It was a touchdown for the taste buds. I ate it so fast I was ready for dessert in a matter of minutes.

I continued with the rhubarb theme and went with strawberry rhubarb cheesecake, a perfect balance of sweet, sour, salty and creamy. Eleven’s prix-fixe brunch menu is a great way to start your day. You get an entree, app and a juice or a cocktail for $39. Order a Bloody Mary and the Eleven burger, a braised veal patty topped with black pepper bacon, crispy onions and your choice of cheese.

As you gaze out at the corner of 12th and Smallman streets, dip some fries in ketchup and raise them in a salute to good ol’ Heinz 57!

Strip District: 1150 Smallman St.
412-201-5656, elevenck.com

Best Recommendation Restaurant

Fig & Ash

When someone asks me for a restaurant recommendation, I usually say Fig & Ash. Not only have I had many wonderful meals at the Deutschtown establishment, but it’s also the first restaurant that I, as a food writer, covered from the groundbreaking to the grand opening.

Interviewing chef Cory Hughes and his team over the years has taught me a lot about the restaurant industry and the passion that’s required to make a culinary dream a reality. If it’s your first visit, someone in your party must order the short-rib-and-pork-belly meatloaf.

I’ve written entire articles about this entree and it never disappoints. It’s a Fig & Ash fixture, but other items on the seasonal menu are just as delightful and filling. On a recent date night, my girlfriend and I split the family-style plate of spaghetti with San Marzano tomato, Italian sausage, crab, bay scallops and Calabrian chili.

We also shared an order of Brussels sprouts. These green buds are often viewed as villains in the vegetable kingdom, but when prepared with black pepper honey, goat cheese and cherry, they will rule your world.

The place, including the four-season courtyard, is usually packed. If you don’t have a reservation, take a chance on the bar, where the entire “farm-to-flame” menu is available fresh out of the wood-fired oven.

We snagged two seats and had a wonderful conversation with the bartender about astrology. A return trip to Fig & Ash is written in the stars.

North Side: 514 East Ohio St.
412-321-2222, figandashpgh.com

Best Comeback

Fish Nor Fowl

I’ve been in love with this Richard DeShantz Restaurant Group eatery since it opened in 2018. When the pandemic started, it closed its doors and — aside from hosting a few holiday pop-ups — remained shuttered until Valentine’s Day 2023.

I’m still head-over-heels for Fish Nor Fowl. The name, taken from an old Norwegian saying, means, “hard to classify.” I guess you could call the place a rustically modern, Italian-inspired open kitchen with a floor-to-ceiling plant wall that’ll make you think spring, a second floor with a wintry hunting lodge aesthetic and a patio with distinctly summer vibes.

Last fall, like a bear preparing to hibernate, I ate a loaf of buckwheat focaccia and an autumnal manicotti highlighted by butternut squash, ricotta, brown butter and sage. In the springtime, you’ll find a nice assortment of small plates such as shrimp mixed with garlic, white wine, lemon, cherry tomatoes and pickled celery and bigger helpings of seafood linguine and chicken parm.

Just go there and — I promise — it’ll all make sense.

Garfield: 5523 Penn Ave.
412-460-4644, fishnorfowlpgh.com

Best Menu for the Adventurous Eater

Hemlock House

At Hemlock House, owner Josh Sickels and chef Mike Allison have created a quirky spot that shrieks “Twin Peaks” and has a no-holds-barred menu. Like the cult television series from the ’90s, it takes a lot of unexpected turns.

Uni bucatini, an Italian-sushi mashup, is a mouthwatering mix of uni (the edible part of a sea urchin) and sake cream sauce, stracciatella, black masago, bucatini and American Grana cheese. You’ll find snacks, handhelds, small and large plates and desserts, and adventurous early birds can enjoy a weekend brunch that includes pork belly hash and andouille benedict.

There aren’t too many Pittsburgh eateries offering duck burgers. The patty, a mix of duck breast and beef fat, is topped with micro greens, Luxardo cherries, caramelized onions and Boursin cheese on a challah bun. Save room for corn-battered hushpuppies, consisting of lump crab and diced slab bacon topped with scallions, fish sauce and bonito flakes.

Pair those pups with a glass of Sloop John B., a mix of Beefeater Gin, lime, raspberry preserves and Dogfish Head SeaQuench Ale. Hemlock House is a bastion for irreverent eats and cocktails and boasts one of the best bar playlists around. (In addition to running Rockaway Pizza in White Oak, Sickels is in the local band Animal Scream.)

I’m a firm believer that nursing a strong cocktail in a dark, atmospheric bar with a killer soundtrack and off-kilter food is good for the soul.

Swissvale: 1126 S. Braddock Ave.
412-660-2742, hemlockhousepgh.com

Best Place to Take an Out-of-Town Guest

LeMont

LeMont used to intimidate me with its marble floors, chandeliers, maître d’ and rack of lamb. It seemed a little too fancy pants for this threadbare food writer. When I learned that LeMont’s new executive chef was a guy from my homebase in Plum, I took it as a sign and made a reservation.

You can find Michael Campbell’s seasonal offerings — including Lobster Boursin Flatbread and Firecracker Shrimp — mixed in with signature dishes such as Steak Diane and Chateaubriand for Two (both prepared tableside), roasted raspberry duck and lemon herb airline chicken.

Related: Have a Monstrously Good Meal at LeMont

Longtime employee Tom Zastawny whipped up a Caesar salad right next to me, gleefully tossing hearts of Romaine with anchovies, mustard, pasteurized egg yolks, lemon, garlic, imported Parmesan cheese and seasoned croutons. It’s the first time this carnivore has been wowed by a salad.

Since 1983, Zastawny’s tableside showmanship has dazzled patrons, including celebrity guests Johnny Carson, Wayne Gretzky, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Douglas, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson and Robert Downey Jr. (on his birthday). My job allows me to eat at a lot of different places, from fast-casual concepts and pop-up kitchens to trendy hot spots and food trucks.

At 64 years old, LeMont is a throwback that adapts to the ever-changing dining scene without losing its identity. And that view of the city skyline made me fall in love with Pittsburgh all over again.

Mount Washington: 1114 Grandview Ave.
412-431-3100, lemontpittsburgh.com

Best Brewery Food

Long Story Short

Once upon a time, Cinderlands Beer Co. opened a taproom in Lawrenceville that served Belgian pub cuisine. Last summer, in a huge plot twist, the brewery owners decided to revamp the Butler Street spot into Long Story Short.

The laidback sandwich joint has a retro rumpus room in the back and an arcade on the mezzanine level that’s plastered with posters of movies I love. The place is one big honkin’ slice of nostalgia and, like a lot of Gen Xers, that’s what I’m craving these days.

You might think the menu is a work of fiction with items such as the Meatball Mac Melt, two pieces of Texas Toast piled with smashed meatballs in a cheesy marinara sauce and yellow mustard, macaroni noodles and Doritos. But it’s real and it’s rad!

There are also classic burgers, tuna melts and Italian subs on Mancini’s bread. The spot is great for tots, and by that I mean the deep-fried potato variety. Pair your extremely happy meal with a Cinderlands brew (Lil’ Cinder Light Beer cans are $3 all day, everyday) or a cocktail and then go shoot some pool and play tabletop Ms. Pac-Man.

Long story short, go to Long Story Short.

Lawrenceville: 3705 Butler St.
412-251-0656, cinderlands.com/locations/long-story-short

Best Restaurant for Kids

Moonlit Burgers

If you’ve got young kids, college kids or you’re just a big kid at heart, Moonlit Burgers is the space for you. The company — known for its famous smash burgers — has colorful eateries in Dormont and on Duquesne University’s Uptown campus, plus a food truck cheekily named the Patty Wagon.

Who doesn’t love a rolling dad joke? I guess you could say owners Mike McCoy and Derek Stevens have the gourmet fast-food model down pat(ty).

The culinary playground also has a fried chicken sandwich so stacked it seems to defy gravity, as well as pickle-brined poultry strips, chili, shoestring fries, chocolate chip cookies, Millie’s soft serve ice cream and salads that you can nutritionally destroy with a smash patty. (That’s the kind of power move I dreamed of making when my parents told me to eat my veggies in the ’80s.)

Both stationary locations have full bars slinging beer, wine, cocktails, shots and boozy shakes. You have to be at least 21 to enjoy those, of course. Please, drink like a responsible adult even if you’re eating like a kid.

Dormont: 1426 Potomac Ave.
Uptown: 1023 Forbes Ave.
moonlitburgers.com

Best Place to Spice Up Your Life

Nanban

Nanban is a BYOB restaurant that specializes in five-alarm Asian soul food. I suggest you bring a few gallons of milk or just pull up out front in a fire truck.

Several years ago owner Roger Li combined two of his popular eateries — Ki Ramen and Ki Pollo — into one counter-service establishment that loves to bring the heat. Set your mouth ablaze with fried chicken, bao and Inferno Ramen that will boil your brain cells in the best possible way.

My fav, the Hot Chicken Sando, is an absolute scorcher with thighs dipped in chili oil, Bibb lettuce, rayu pickles, kewpie mayo and lazi seasoning. My lips are still burning from when I ate one on my 45th birthday in December.

I did not need to wear a coat or mittens that day. There was more fire in one bite than on the top of my cake.

Lawrenceville: 4407 Butler St.
412-224-2518, nanbanpgh.com

Best Road Trip Restaurant

North Country Brew Pub

PHOTO BY HUCK BEARD

In 2005, North Country Brew Pub opened in Slippery Rock, a convenient spot for when I need to rest my weary bones after hiking a small section of the 4,800-mile North Country Scenic Trail, which runs through nearby McConnells Mill State Park.

The Main Street building, erected in 1805, was formerly Uber and Sons Undertakers and Furniture Dealers. My beer-lovin’ skeleton feels at home there. Bob and Jodi McCafferty bought the place in 1998 and lived in the historical, reportedly haunted, structure while bringing it back to life.

They filled the space and rustic outdoor areas with a whimsical assortment of odds and ends. My daughter and I discover something new each time we visit, which is often. Bob’s an archeologist by trade and a hippie at heart. That playfulness is infused in the food, drink and decor. There’s an assortment of sandwiches for herbivores, including the mushroom-laden Fungus Amongus.

Carnivores can feast on the Porky sandwich, lightly smoked pork roast, slow-roasted in the company’s Paleo IPA and slathered in Paleo IPA BBQ sauce. Wash it down with a Paleo IPA draft, one of North Country’s other tasty brews or a house-made root beer, cream soda or ginger ale.

All of the pasta dishes can be made with gluten-free “impasta” noodles and most menu items can be prepared with plant-based protein options. It’s nice to lose yourself in nature, especially when it’s on your plate.

Slippery Rock: 141 S. Main St.
724-794-BEER (2337), northcountrybrewing.com

Best Breakfast

Oak Hill Post

Oak Hill Post is like a foodie version of the bar in “Cheers” — everybody knows your name. Even a house plant on the counter has been dubbed “Keanu Leaves.” And while they don’t serve alcohol, my girlfriend and I feel like the Norm and Cliff of this Brookline establishment when we show up to chow down.

Dre likes to switch things up on the food front — sometimes she opts for the breakfast burrito filled with eggs, cheese, sausage gravy, biscuit bites and harissa. On the next visit (which is often the following day), she might go with fried chicken on a biscuit or bacon, eggs and latkes.

For me it’s always the same: Creme Brulee Griddled French Toast, scrambled eggs, roasted beets topped with goat cheese and dill, a biscuit with lemon curd and a few bites of whatever Dre’s eating. That’s my favorite meal in Pittsburgh.

Brookline: 600 Brookline Blvd.
412-254-2970, oakhillpost.com

Best To-Go Pizza

Pizza Lupo

As professional firefighters for the City of Pittsburgh, brothers Travis and Brad Wolff put out infernos for a living — but they’re heating up Lawrenceville with their pizza.

Pizza Lupo (that’s Italian for “wolf”) grew out of Travis’ dedication to dough. Fascinated by ancient bread-making techniques, he began experimenting at home with sourdough starters way before it became the go-to pandemic hobby. Bread became his passion.

The dough is consistently hydrated, giving the crust a nice crunchy outside with a bite that you can really sink your canines into. The ingredients are always fresh and flavorful. Travis is on dough detail, of course, and Brad is the guy in charge of the sauces, sandwiches and pastas.

I once went outside my comfort zone and ordered the Tropic Thunder, one of Lupo’s specialty pizzas, most of which are available in sizes small, large and grandma-style. My selection featured crushed tomato sauce, smoked mozzarella, Broadbent’s bacon, jalapeño, shaved red onion, chili oil and … pineapple. I’ve always scoffed at this topping for reasons unknown, but, on a spicy pie that’s a five-alarm fire, the sweetness helped soothe this savage beast.

With help from family members, the Wolff pack is cranking out pies and placing them in inside-out pizza boxes Tuesday through Saturday. Aside from a few stools near the front window, this pizza den is a to-go establishment.

I got a vodka pie to go and turned the front seat of my car into a Best Restaurant.

Lawrenceville: 5123 Butler St.
412-782-9922, pizza-lupo.com

Best Outdoor Dining

Pusadee’s Garden

Last summer, I went on a camping trip with my girlfriend. We spent two days in the Ohio wilderness eating Doritos, s’mores and hot dogs cooked over an open flame. It was like the foodie version of “Survivor.” We were craving a gourmet meal upon our return to civilization but didn’t want to completely ditch The Great Outdoors vibe. Pusadee’s Garden was a vacation from our vacation.

The Thai restaurant is located in Upper Lawrenceville, but you’ll forget you’re on Butler Street as soon as you step inside. The dishes, like the building, are beautiful and lush. The menu could’ve been written by Henry David Thoreau, including such items as locally foraged ramps, stir-fried morning glory and bok choy with bear’s tooth, lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms.

I’m a spice girl, so I always have the server lead me to the heat. Beef tenderloin with holy basil, garlic, chilis and sweet and spicy bell peppers is a heavenly choice for hot heads, and the jungle curry full of chicken, kabocha squash, banana peppers and basil is a flavorful burn. Cool down with a cocktail or non-alcoholic alternative such as Give it a Chai, a simple concoction of chai, ginger and lemon.

If you can’t get a seat in the courtyard oasis (make those special occasion reservations early!), you can still bask in its beauty while dining indoors, including at the bar, which is encased in a big, glass box. Consider it a culinary trophy case.

Chef Busaba Tongdee was nominated for a James Beard Award this year. Book a stay at Pusadee’s this summer and you’ll know why.

Lawrenceville: 5319 Butler St.
412-252-2683, pusadeesgarden.com

Best Neighborhood Joint

Scratch & Co.

The good people at Scratch & Co. have gone out of their way to create a meatball sandwich that is structurally sound and won’t leave you wearing and seeing red.

Topped with mozzarella cheese and nestled between two airy slabs of house-made focaccia, the Meatballloaf comes with a sidecar of sauce for dipping. This is just one of Scratch’s great contributions to society. The Troy Hill cafe and pub, a favorite among epicureans since its 2015 debut, not only serves amazing meals, it also serves the community as a whole.

During the pandemic, owner Don Mahaney switched to a pay-what-you-can business model that included a small market. Now the restaurant is gearing up for a summer of fun, approachable food and fundraisers to support the Allegheny YMCA. The century-old North Side building, which includes 88 single rooms for low-income men, is getting a multimillion-dollar upgrade.

Meanwhile, Scratch’s brunch, dinner and bar menus have all gotten a boost. They’re a team effort between multiple chefs who put an emphasis on high-quality, locally sourced ingredients and let the food do the talking. A sign in the collaborative kitchen reads, “It’s about the food, stupid.” Dining at Scratch is always a smart decision.

Look for Mystic Mondays that feature tarot card readers, psychics, guest bartenders and a build-your-own Millie’s ice cream sundae bar with a portion of the proceeds going to the Y. Why? Because it’s the neighborly thing to do.

Troy Hill: 1720 Lowrie St.
412-251-0822, scratchandcopgh.com

Best Place to Make New Friends

Soju

Soju is a small Korean-American restaurant and bar in Garfield. For six years, chef Simon Chough has run the intimate space where local artwork adorns the walls, pop-up chefs can showcase their menus and it’s easy to strike up a conversation with your fellow diners.

When a massive cocktail arrived at my table, the people next to me oohed and aahed and inquired about it. The Soju Punch, I explained, was a mix of soju — a Korean rice liquor similar to vodka — Maggie’s Farm White Rum, pineapple, mango, pomegranate, ginger, Yakuroto yogurt and soda.

It’s served in a glass that looks more like a punch bowl, so it’s definitely an attention-grabber. Their dinner piqued my interest: A spicy chicken sandwich, fries seasoned with nori (dried seaweed) and BiBimBap, a mixed rice bowl with spinach, bean sprouts, mushrooms, spicy cucumber and egg.

In between sipping and chewing, we had a nice conversation. The couple had just moved to Pittsburgh from Atlanta and were thrilled that a family-owned restaurant was just a few blocks away from their new home in Friendship. If they hadn’t already been full by the time my entree arrived, I would’ve gladly shared.

I was already up to my eyeballs in Tteokbokki, a popular Korean street food made up of chewy, stir-fried rice cakes. My Korean BBQ combo gave me three, thinly sliced, marinated meat options: Kalbi (beef short rib), Bulgogi (beef tenderloin) and Dwaejibulgogi (pork tenderloin) served with rice and banchan.

The dish is a balancing act of sweet, salty, savory and spicy. There’s something in it for everyone. I can say the same about Soju.

Garfield: 4923 Penn Ave.
412-450-8968, simonchough.wixsite.com/sojupgh

Best Mood-Boosting Restaurant

Spork

I went to Spork in the dead of winter, when everything, including my mood, was dark and gloomy. I left feeling lighter — even if I gained a few pounds during the visit.

Eating at the Bloomfield restaurant snaps me out of whatever seasonal funk I’m in. It starts with the amuse-bouche, teeny-tiny, on-the-house hors d’oeuvres. The French term translates to “mouth amusement”; in Pittsburghese it means “Kennywood fer yer taste buds.”

James Beard Award-nominated chef Christian Frangiadis’ menu evolves daily because fresh ingredients are key (and also pricey, so expect to open your wallet a little wider), but there are staple dishes that never disappoint, from the seared scallops with truffle sauce to the bolognese.

Spork has a garden in the lot next door, so chances are the fresh dill in your dinner and nasturtiums decorating the plate were picked the same day. You can check the space out this fall during the annual Pittsburgh Urban Farm Tour.

The restaurant pays just as much attention to its beverages, including the ones without booze. Summon the Cocktail Cart and watch an expert hand-craft a classic cocktail tableside. I had the Old Fashioned, but it was fun to watch my date sip a boozy house specialty from a parrot-shaped mug.

At the time, The Phoenix, a fruity rum concoction, was Spork’s rotating charity cocktail. Five bucks from each bird went to service industry workers affected by the wildfires in Hawaii. Like the utensil it’s named after, Spork comes in handy in pretty much any situation.

Bloomfield: 5430 Penn Ave.
412-441-1700, sporkpittsburgh.com

Best Place to Become a Foodie

The Vandal

If you want to introduce someone to Pittsburgh’s upscale dining scene or you’d like to expand your own palate, The Vandal is a good place to start.

It’s small, with a minimalist decor, but the flavors, made with simple ingredients by chef Joey Hilty, are big and bold. Before a visit in February, my 18-year-old dinner guest was worried she wouldn’t be able to find anything at the “fancy” restaurant that could satisfy her hunger better than McDonald’s. She was happy to see chips and French onion dip on the menu.

Baked ricotta was also a safe bet, along with fresh bread, of course. That’s where we started. We ended with a bourbon-soaked toffee cake and vanilla panna cotta. All the plates were licked clean. In between the apps and dessert, we shared lobster bucatini, a pork chop with pumpkin mostarda and a hanger steak accompanied by twice-fried frites and garlic aioli dip.

It was all recognizable and approachable, even if the wording on the menu did strike fear in the heart of the novice fine diner. “What is mostarda anyway?” she asked. (Turns out it’s an Italian condiment made with fruit and mustard.)

Weekly specials include upscale takes on familiar favorites such the Thursday night cheeseburger dripping with gruyere, caramelized onions, aioli, pickles and peppery au poivre sauce. If you want a crash course on oysters, well, shucks, The Vandal serves ‘em up chilled on Wednesdays.

Intimidated by trendy booze? The restaurant’s bar seats only five, but it has a robust vino program specializing in natural and biodynamic wines, a rotating menu of signature cocktails and a proper Martini Service featuring Hendricks Gin, Noilly Prat French Vermouth, Castelvetrano olives, lemon and caviar.

Fledgling foodies might be shaken at first, but eventually they will be stirred.

Lawrenceville: 4306 Butler St.
412-251-0465, thevandalpgh.com

Best Pop-Up Turned Brick-and-Mortar

Wise County Biscuits & Cafe

For James Wolfe, buttermilk biscuits taste like home. His grandma, who hailed from Wise County, Virginia, taught him the basics of country cookin’.

Made with King Arthur Flour and local buttermilk and butter (grandma used lard), Wise County biscuits are a big, flaky homage to those Appalachian roots. And so is the new cafe. Late last year, after doing pop-ups around town since 2017, Wolfe and his wife, Lena Laskaris, settled their business into a counter-service eatery on the North Side.

The space is bright and cheerful with country-chic decor. I think the down-home atmosphere makes folks here more neighborly.

The menu features an array of breakfast plates, lunch options and sides (their home fries get my professional stamp of approval). The stars of the show are the biscuits, which, while flaky, don’t become a cascade of crumbs when you pick them up. You can get ‘em topped with either seasonal jam, pimento cheese, honey and butter or Tennessee sorghum.

They’ve got heft, so they can serve as sandwich buns, too. The best-selling Your Way gives patrons a fried egg and their choice of two toppings, from breakfast meat to braised greens. I’m a fan of Sallie’s Snack, a sammie with pimento cheese, a fried egg and Chow Chow, a condiment made from pickled veggies that I would happily eat by the truckload.

The cafe opens at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday through Monday. Wake up, y’all! It’s time yinz got wise to this restaurant.

North Side: 911 Galveston Ave.
412-330-1389, wisecountybiscuits.com

Best Historical Restaurant

The Wood’s House Historic Pub

As a food writer and a history buff, I love everything about The Woods House Historic Pub, a Scottish-style tavern that’ll take you back in time. It’s located in a residential section of Hazelwood because it was a residence, built in 1792 by Col. George Woods, the surveyor who laid out Pittsburgh’s Golden Triangle.

The stone structure — one of the oldest still standing in the area — was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. It’s a unique experience to dine in a relic that has weathered the rise and fall of the steel industry and now overlooks Hazelwood Green, a 178-acre brownfield along the Monongahela River that’s being redeveloped into a technological, environmental and cultural hub.

Once you’ve digested all the fun facts about the building’s past, get ready to dig into some hearty dishes, starting with a batch of classic Scotch Eggs, hard-boiled eggs wrapped in pork sausage, flash fried and served with brown mustard aioli. The historical proof is also in the black pudding, blood sausage, mashed potatoes, roasted peas and parsnips dripping with savory onion gravy.

Other classics include Guinness pot roast mac-and-cheese, fish and chips and steamed mussels in a creamy shallot broth served with crostini bread. And, of course, there’s a nice selection of Scotch to wet your whistle.

There are two floors and both are worth exploring. I dined on the bottom level, where a large fireplace gives the room a medieval vibe that’ll make you want to eat your leftovers while watching “Braveheart.”

Hazelwood: 4604 Monongahela St.
412-251-0894, woodshousepgh.com

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

Pennsylvania’s wine industry has come a long way since its humble beginnings. The state’s  Limited Winery Act of 1968, which raised production limits and allowed wineries to sell directly to consumers, saw the birth of the state’s first licensed winery — Penn Shore Winery & Vineyards, which was created by the pioneering grape growers of North East, the small town in Erie County that emerged as the cradle of Pennsylvania wine.

It marked the dawn of a new era.

“Through the slow and steady growth of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, our wine industry witnessed a surge in the past 15 years, burgeoning into an expansive community of over 400 wineries,” says Scott Neeley, president of the Pennsylvania Winery Association who with his wife, Hannah, own Penn Shore Winery and KingView Mead, Wine and Hard Cider. “We have a treasure trove of grape varieties — from classic vinifera like Riesling and Cabernet Franc to the trademark Ice Wine to unique hybrids and native varieties.”

In Neeley’s eyes, Pennsylvania’s future in winemaking is bright. “We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible,” he says. “The best is yet to come for Pennsylvania wines.”

Whether you’re leisurely sipping in urban wineries during a city stroll or venturing to bucolic landscapes a short drive away, there are myriad experiences to be enjoyed, especially in the summertime. With an open mind and palate, explore the unexpected — there’s a perfect pour for every taste in our blossoming wine culture.

Here’s a lineup of standout wineries in and around Pittsburgh.

PHOTO COURTESY BLACK DOG WINE COMPANY

Black Dog Wine Company

Oakdale: 7425 Steubenville Pike

724-485-9463 | Website

Established in 2016, Black Dog stands as one of Western Pennsylvania’s most decorated wineries, tracing its origins back to vintner Mark Rozum’s humble garage experiments with winemaking. Black Dog operates in the historical (and allegedly haunted) Hankey Mansion in Oakdale. There are food trucks with local bites, live music, expansive lawns for games and a ghostly touch — because why not? And let’s not overlook the canine crew — Black Dog, as the name suggests, welcomes our furry friends.

Rozum, formerly a technical solution architect at IBM, exchanged the tech world for the delightful chaos of winemaking. Fast forward to today: the winery offers a hefty portfolio of more than 20 wines, including their signature Trophy Wives — a sweet white wine crafted from Diamond grapes, all sourced from Lake Erie. Their Keelboat Red, a single-varietal DeChaunac, stands out as the perfect summer red with a medium body, lighter than Cabernet, and heavy on the good times.

Narcisi Winery

West Deer: 4578 Gibsonia Road 

724-444-4744 | Website

PHOTO COURTESY NARCISI WINERY

Venture beyond city limits to the rolling hills that cradle the family-owned Narcisi Winery. Under Roberto Smiraglio, the director of operations and sales, the winery has expanded production to nearly 300,000 bottles a year, making it one of the region’s largest producers. Set amid lush vineyards — with vine-covered pergolas, a babbling brook in the backyard and a rather stately tasting room — it evokes the rustic charm of the Tuscan countryside.

Summer at Narcisi is a jubilant affair, offering family-friendly summer afternoons where parents can sip some luscious merlot or a lean chardonnay at the outdoor wine bar or Biergarten while kids can frolic to their heart’s content. There’s also delicious wood-fired pizza for everyone. To explore the winemaking end of things, join the weekend tour (or weekday tours upon request), beginning at the vineyards, winding through the wine production process and tasting through six signature wines along the way. There’s also live music every day between mid-April to mid-October and twice a week in the winter. Bellissima!

Engine House 25 Wines

Lawrenceville: 3337 Penn Ave.

412-621-1268 | Website

PHOTO COURTESY ENGINE HOUSE 25

Engine House 25 resides within the walls of a historical Lawrenceville firehouse dating back to 1896. The private tasting room is an almost-secret wine lair in the cavernous depths beneath the Clemente Museum, with 6,000 square feet of wine-soaked history. The clientele? A mosaic of sports aficionados, discerning wine connoisseurs and those seeking an extraordinary intersection of both.

The winery (and the museum) are the brainchild of Duane Rieder, a maverick with 30 years of winemaking prowess. Rieder embraces a hands-on approach, from sourcing full-cluster grapes in California, Chile and South Africa to the meticulous process of sorting, crushing and pressing. His repertoire offers gems like the bold Clemente Cabernet and the irresistible Clemente Barbera, aged for four years in the best French barrels money can buy. Want to swirl fine wine surrounded by the memorabilia of baseball’s finest? Join the two-hour tour and tasting package for a deeper dive, a blend of history, sports anecdotes and wine.

It’s not just the fire-engine red building that makes this place so iconic, though it does make you do a double-take. It is the 150-member strong secret society of athletes — Derek Jeter, Carlos Beltran, Ichiro Suzuki — who buy wine by the barrel. It turns out that the legendary Franco Harris had a thing for Sangiovese. Rieder speaks reverently about Clemente, “I’m pretty sure Clemente is the one making all this incredible wine from the heavens, ensuring the museum stays afloat. I’m just the messenger.”

PHOTO COURTESY COURTYARD WINERY

Courtyard Winery

Strip District: 108 19th St.

412-408-3237 | Website

Despite its prime location in the Strip District, Courtyard Winery’s tasting room feels like you stumbled upon a hidden gem. Tucked alongside the Olive Tap, this cozy nook unveils a warm haven of wood and wine, bringing offerings from Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie AVA, the American Viticultural Area, which includes 2.2 million acres on the south shore of Lake Erie in Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. Choose from crisp whites, robust reds and trademark Pennsylvania sweet blends. Try the Saperavi, an ancient Georgian grape known for its big, bold flavors. Interestingly, the grape thrives in Erie, and Courtyard does a fantastic dry-style expression — a deep inky red, mouthwatering acidity, velvety tannins and great aging potential.

PHOTO COURTESY VINOSKI WINERY

Vinoski Winery

Rostraver: 333 Castle Drive

724-872-3333 | Website

Hold on to your wine glass because the tasting room at Vinoski Winery is basically a castle. Yep, you read that right. Walt Vinoski, the proud
custodian of an ancient winemaking legacy, continues his family’s centuries-old tradition at Vinoski Winery. The journey began with the Winowski Family crafting wines for European royalty in 1200 AD, a legacy transplanted to the United States by Walt’s great-grandfather, Pawel Winowski, in the late 1800s. “The Castle,” a 34-room estate transformed into a winery, provides the perfect stage for summer shindigs, tastings, concerts and maybe a few wine-induced dance moves. Picture this: centuries-old stone walls, archways steeped in history and a vibe that exudes regal elegance.

What sets Vinoski apart? A commitment to crafting private reserve-class wines — no additives, no artificial hues, just pure, unadulterated grape goodness. Walt, along with winemakers Robert Blosser and Eric Earl, sources the finest grapes from California’s Coast Valley, Sonoma and Lodi. Tastings include a sampling of sweet elixirs or a flight of the premium dry varietals. Luxuriate with some sparkling rosé while pretending you’re the king or queen of your castle — even if it’s just for an afternoon.

Greenhouse Winery

North Huntingdon: Jacktown Plaza, 10650 US-30

724-864-5002 | Website

In 2007, Greenhouse Winery began as a quaint greenhouse experiment by founders Greg Hazuza and Cindy Helinski. Over the years, it has burgeoned into a mainstay, weaving itself into the cultural fabric of southwestern Pennsylvania. Expansions brought a new banquet hall, VIP cabanas, a full wine-sampling bar and a sprawling back patio.

Grapevines once stretched over the fields right up to the winery. While they’re gone now, it still feels like a true countryside sojourn. As the sun-kissed months roll in, the patio comes alive with live music on weekends. Plus, there’s a food truck, or you can BYO snacks. The lush grounds are perfect for picnicking, sunbathing and riotous cornhole matches. Try their Riesling, a dryer, delightful take on what is arguably Pennsylvania’s favorite varietal.

Refucilo Winery

North Side: 907 Western Ave.

412-251-0231 | Website

PHOTO COURTESY REFUCILO WINERY

Argentinian wine is having a bit of a moment. To see what the fuss is all about, head to Refucilo on the North Side, one of the city’s most underrated wineries. Owner/Winemaker Juan Antonio Lora pays homage to his adventurous Uruguayan uncle, whose sailboat was called “Refucilo,” crediting him for taking him on amazing Caribbean escapades and instilling a love for fine wine early in his life. Lora’s vineyard haven in the Uco Valley of Argentina stands at 3,800 feet above sea level and benefits from varied temperatures and well-drained soils, creating wines of unparalleled complexity.

The tasting room is not just a sip-and-go affair. The WSET-accredited staff (WSET, The Wine and Spirit Education Trust, is a globally recognized organization for alcoholic beverage education) ensures a welcoming atmosphere, guiding novices and connoisseurs alike through a diverse selection of more than 20 terroir-driven wines. If you’re feeling a bit peckish, there are empanadas from the Empanada Company (based in Bridgeville) along with Argentinian tapas on offer.

Their star varietals? Refucilo does a marvelous single-vineyard Malbec. For a revelation, try the Torrontés, a white wine almost exclusive to Argentina. This savory elixir with hints of salinity is a fabulous beach vacation in a bottle. ¡Salud!

Bella Terra Vineyards

Hunker: 121 Sunny Lane | Hampton: 3141 Harts Run Road | Bedford: 113 S. Richard St.

724-635-3658 | Website

PHOTO COURTESY BELLA TERRA VINEYARDS

Bella Terra Vineyards offers a diverse array of experiences over three locations. In Hunker, lose yourself in the vast outdoor sanctuary set against the tranquility of a 3-acre lake. Seek refuge in Hampton’s Wine Cave, a subterranean spot that feels like a clandestine retreat. Lastly, the newly renovated Bedford spot showcases exposed brick walls, captivating local artwork and an awesome chalk mural by three artists.

Estate wines include chardonnay, pinot gris, merlot, petit verdot and Malbec — all grown here in Pennsylvania. Try their Blanc de Blanc, a sparkling chardonnay in an adventure-ready can — it pairs well with grilled seafood and poultry but also with their line-up of fun summer events — farmers markets, sip-and-paint events, Chardonnay and Yoga and more.

PHOTO COURTESY LA VIGNETA WINERY

La Vigneta Winery

Buffalo Township: 110 South Pike Road, Suite 204

412-802-1695 | Website

There is an immersive Italian escape near Pittsburgh — authentic Sicilian ceramics, vibrant colors reminiscent of the Amalfi Coast, and, of course, stellar wines by winemaker Fred Sammons can all be found at La Vigneta Winery. Francesca and Bob Howden started small at farmers markets and are now crafting 50,000 bottles annually on their rambling 17-acre estate in the Sarver community of Buffalo Township. At the tasting room, Calogero, Francesca’s father, hailing from Alia, Sicily, is a wine maestro guiding the tasting experience. In Francesca’s words, “There’s a lack of rules when it comes to tasting with us and an abundance of unbridled joy.”

Italian influences aside, La Vigneta also celebrates collaborations with local artisans and farms. Come summer, their rotating ‘petite’ menu is heavily inspired by seasonal produce sourced from Ambrose Farms and Pat’s Perfect Produce, a toast to the region’s flavors. Savor their award-winning Sangiovese with some rustic flatbread or the citrus-forward pinot grigio with a farm-fresh Caprese salad. In the mood for something sweet? Try the apple pie moscato paired with a warm cinnamon roll. Or, after a flight of tastings, enjoy some homemade tiramisu and perfectly brewed espresso from Ohiopyle Coffee Roasters.

PHOTO COURTESY R WINE CELLAR

R Wine Cellar

Strip District: 2031 Penn Ave.

412-562-9463 | Website

Even before you walk down to R Wine Cellar’s underground tasting room, the outdoor bar beckons to passersby with wine samples, soaked in the Strip District’s unmistakable energy. There’s a snazzy mural at the entrance, hinting at an Instagram-worthy experience. The name is an ode to the local owners, the Russell family, and ‘R’ is also Pittsburghese for ‘our,’ a nod to the city. Speaking of local, the winery supports the Strip District community by sourcing specialty cakes from My Sweet Lilly and rare cheeses from Penn Mac — a true neighborhood affair.

Mimosa-fueled weekend brunches are a crowd favorite here. Try the Fiona Peach Chardonnay, named after the family’s daughter — hints of peach and apricot that pair seamlessly with brunch fare. Want something bolder? Enter the Carmenere, a Bordeaux-style gem aged in whiskey barrels, a robust companion to summer barbecue.

Greendance Winery

Mount Pleasant: 306 Deerfield Road

724-547-6500 | Website

PHOTO COURTESY GREENDANCE WINERY

Escape to Greendance — The Winery at Sand Hill. When the Lynns and the Schillings began the monumental journey of reviving this abandoned farm in 1982, what eventually emerged was not just a winery but a flourishing oasis. The winery opened in 2007.

Hang out in their open-air cafes, munch on BBQ sandwiches and sip innovative fruit wines in the Nectar Garden amid the bees and the butterflies. The historical working farm promises a fun time for grown-ups and kids alike. Pick your own zinnias in the cutting garden or wander about to say hello to adorable goats and ponies. And the best part? No entry fees; Greendance is a family-friendly fiesta. It’s generally pet-free, but if you have your pet along, they’re allowed on leashes in the parking lot and an adjacent field. The winery and its facilities are also wheelchair accessible. Weekends bring live music on the garden stage. Some sangria with a side of jazz? Yes, please.

Pittsburgh Winery

Strip District: 2809 Penn Ave.

412-566-1000 | Website

GENERAL MANAGER COLE RAPSO AT PITTSBURGH WINERY | PHOTO COURTESY PITTSBURGH WINERY

The essence of “local” runs deep at Pittsburgh Winery, shaping every aspect of the experience. The space is crafted with reclaimed materials sourced from around the city, including bleachers from co-owner Tim Gaber’s high school and a bar made from doors of a local church. Furthermore, there’s entertainment from homegrown music bands, Pittsburgh craft brews and yummy eats from nearby DiAnoia’s.

As for the wines, they’re sourced from world-class vineyards, with California grapes delivering fruit bombs and jammy notes, while Chilean grapes offer spicier and earthier profiles. One of the proprietors, Cole Rapso, says, “The farmers have grown this beautiful fruit. We just try not to screw it up. Our goal is simple: find a wine for everyone. I cannot tell you the number of yinzers that have come in and said, ‘I hate dry wine,’ and left with a smile on their face and a bottle in their bag.”

Aakanksha Agarwal, now of Pittsburgh, is a wine, travel and lifestyle writer from India. Formerly a Bollywood stylist, she embraces writing full time while juggling family life and indulging in her passions for cuisine, literature and wanderlust.

The pandemic brought the dining scene to a standstill (unless you count all of those to-go orders), but it’s moving forward again. Or perhaps backward, thanks to a bunch of spots that use nostalgia to attract customers — particularly Gen-Xers. In addition to grand openings, the past year saw re-openings and expansions bringing everything from breakfast to late-night bites to veggie-forward food with cocktails in between. The industry is getting back on track. Enjoy the ride.

Mullett’s

Neither Marissa nor Colin Mullett, a brother-and-sister team from Peters, have ever rocked a Camaro Cut, but they think their surname suits their Pittsburgh bar to a T. Chef Gabe Bevilacqua can make everything on the menu gluten-free. Guests can share small plates of elevated bar favorites such as poutine, crispy pork belly, a fried provolone wheel or pub wings rubbed with Cajun seasonings or slathered in housemade hot honey or sweet barbecue sauce. The full bar is bourbon-focused and there are 20 cocktails on the menu, so go and let your hair down.

Mt. Lebanon
297 Beverly Road
mulletsmtlebo.com

EYV Restaurant

PHOTO COURTESY EYV RESTAURANT

Make your mother proud and go to EYV Restaurant. The name means Eat Your Veggies, but mama’s never seen produce done up like this. Chef Mike Godlewski’s plant-based menu changes with the seasons, and while meat, fish and poultry make appearances (protein is more like a garnish here), vegetables are the true stars of the show. Godlewski’s creativity in the kitchen results in beautifully plated apps, entrees and desserts that are also playful. The apple toffee cake, with its celery root ice cream, golden raisins, peanut butter mousse and candied peanuts tasted like gourmet Ants on a Log, my daughter’s favorite preschool snack. You can watch the kitchen staff in action by snagging a seat at the chef’s counter. Maybe, with a little culinary razzle dazzle, Godlewski can convince my picky eater to order a salad.

North Side
424 E. Ohio St.
EYVRestaurant.com

Balvanera

One bite of Empanadas de Carne at Balvanera made me do a happy dance in my seat — which is fitting since the Argentine restaurant space used to house the nightclub Metropol. The iconic venue closed in 2002, and the space at 1600 Smallman St. has been renovated to house Balvanera across from The Terminal in the Strip. Argentina-born Fernando Navas and Pittsburgh native Meredith Boyle, partners in business and in life, opened the 4,400-square-foot brasserie in November to serve Porteña fare, craft cocktails and South American wines. Nearly a decade ago, the couple debuted the concept in New York City, where Navas was named Official Culinary Ambassador of Argentina by the Argentine government. That’s quite the resumé piece. In addition to the empanada that set my toes to tappin’, I wolfed down Spanish-style snacks such as Gildas — skewered guindilla peppers, anchovies, onions and Manzanilla olives — and Setas Salteadas, assorted mushrooms and a poached egg in a truffle sherry vinaigrette that I soaked up with crusty Five Points bread. I had never tried sweetbreads before but threw my organ-meat inhibitions to the wind and enjoyed Mollejas served with celery root, green apple, almonds and lime. I thought I had reached my food-intake limit after a pan-seared skirt steak accompanied by fresh chimichurri, salsa criolla, roasted pepper and mashed potatoes, but pastry chef Ginger Fisher Baldwin reeled me back in. I’m a fan of the flan. Get a taste of Buenos Aires aperitivo culture with creative drink offerings developed by GM William Kohl, bar lead Kimberly Holder and New York sommelier Nicolás Andrés Martianhes. My Negroni was composed of five vermouths and local gin by Lucky Sign Spirits. With my belly full and my heart happy, I pretty much pirouetted out the door. Just call me a Balvanera ballerina.

Strip District
1660 Smallman St.
balvanerarestaurants.com

Hemlock House

Josh Sickels is the David Lynch of the local dining scene. The owner of Rockaway Pizzeria, a White Oak joint serving New York-style pies in an atmosphere that’s straight out of “Twin Peaks,” now has a full-service restaurant that’s also extremely Lynchian in its aesthetics and eats. I celebrated Halloween there and it was a real treat. Together with chef Mike Allison, Sickels is serving culinary plot twists that make dining out an adventure. Carnivalesque kielbasa corn dogs? You bet. Hush puppies stuffed with lump crab meat and bacon? Bring it. She-Crab Soup? Yes, sir! These dishes are delicious in a way that is, like a “Twin Peaks” episode, hard for me to describe. As Special Agent Dale Cooper would say, they’re “damn fine.”

Regent Square
1126 S. Braddock Ave.
hemlockhousepgh.com

Ritual House

Edwin and Amanda Smith are the masters of ceremonies at Ritual House. The husband-and-wife team run the back and front of the house, as executive chef and general manager, respectively. “I have a philosophy of five great ingredients,” Ed says. “Focus on the food and don’t cover things up with sauces or over-manipulate them.” In addition to Pittsburgh staples such as chipped ham sandwiches, pecan balls and strawberry pretzel salad, guests can indulge in bruléed navel oranges finished with local micro greens and crumbled goat cheese and a flatbread with whipped brie cheese, thinly sliced granny smith apples and housemade onion jam on a ciabatta crostini. Pastry chef Zoe Peckich, winner of the Food Network’s latest “Summer Baking Championship,” outshined nine other contestants from across the country with a dessert called Not Your Gram’s Strawberry Pretzel Salad. Before joining Ritual House, the Washington, Pa., native spent time in Italy; as a chocolatier in Charlotte, North Carolina; and at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. Ordering any one of her desserts is like hitting the jackpot. Hanging above the central bar are 18 hand-assembled chandeliers, custom-designed furniture from Turkey, accents from stores such as hot haute hot in the Strip District, a hall of mirrors and an installation by local artist Mia Tarducci that includes a wisteria garden and swings. Lisa Pollock, who co-owns the restaurant with her real estate broker/developer husband, Herky,  calls it a “sophisticated funhouse.” The couple spent 18 months fine-tuning the aesthetics of the place to meet customer demand for a unique night out. From the food and drinks to the decor, Herky believes Ritual House offers a high-end experience minus the stuffiness you’d expect from an upscale establishment. If you look closely at the wallpaper, you’ll see monkeys knocking back cocktails and having a good time. The Pollocks encourage you to do the same, but please don’t swing from the chandeliers.

Downtown
524 William Penn Place
ritualhousepgh.com

Brown Bear Bread Cafe

These will change your life,” Kate Clemons says as she hands me a bag of sourdough English muffins. As co-owner of Brown Bear Bread Cafe, she knows a thing or two about baked goods. After one bite, all I can say is Thomas is dead to me. The business is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. with brunch served 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Clemons’ boyfriend, Dan Galusha, bakes brioche buns, focaccia, ciabatta, multigrain and specialty loaves in the third-floor kitchen that’s anchored by an 80-year-old rotating baker’s oven named Big Rhonda. Can’t make it to Mount Oliver? The bread is available at Shenot Farms in Wexford and the East End Food Co-op in North Point Breeze. The brunch menu features classics such as biscuits and gravy, a cheese omelet and a breakfast platter with toast, two dippy eggs, a sausage patty, two strips of bacon and home fries. Chef Kaylie Carini’s taters are my favorite in the city. Are they as life-changing as the English muffins? Ask my waistline.

Mount Oliver
225 Brownsville Road
instagram.com/brown.bear.bread.cafe

Duo’s Taqueria

In any language, tacos are pretty darn good. Duolingo, the East Liberty-based language learning platform, is expanding people’s vocabularies and palates with a Mexican restaurant. Located next to the company’s headquarters at 5906 Penn Ave., Duo’s Taqueria started as a take-out window and is now a full-service eatery and bar stocked with more than 75 rare tequilas and mezcals. Chef Marcella Ogrodnik’s menu, which I first tried in 2022, now has even more Mexico City-inspired eats. In January, I took Sarah, my 14-year-old picky eater, to Duo’s. The kitchen staff (most employees are bilingual) kindly made her a simple cheese quesadilla. I ordered the barbacoa de borrego with lamb sourced from Elysian Fields Farm and served with guacachile, escabeche and fresh, housemade nixtamal tortillas. Sarah devoured her meal and half of mine — and, in process, learned a new Spanish phrase: Quiero más por favor (I want more, please).

East Liberty
5906 Penn Ave.
duostaqueria.com

Lilith

I got my first taste of Lilith, the new Shadyside concept from lauded chefs Jamilka Borges and Dianne DeStefano, at The Vandal last April. The Lawrenceville eatery hosted a wine dinner so the dynamic duo could showcase their coastal-inspired cuisine that pays homage to Borges’ Puerto Rican heritage and DeStefano’s Sicilian roots. The menu featured Japanese sweet potatoes with bearnaise sauce and smoked trout roe, oysters topped with cucumber, apple and horseradish, Snapper wrapped in ramps and banana leaves and tamarind-braised lamb shoulder. I left wanting more, but had to wait six months. I was the first patron to arrive for Lilith’s inaugural brunch in October at its permanent home on Spahr Street. For 26 years, the space housed pioneering chef Toni Pais’ Cafe Zinho, before he retired last year. Borges and DeStefano want to live up to his legacy but with a feminine touch. They’re off to a good start with beautifully plated, yet playful, dishes and cocktails that complement the decor that’s fun, funky and floral. It’s a Garden of Eatin’, if you will. To start, my girlfriend and I shared ooey-gooey, pull-apart Monkey Bread, rhythmically dipping each piece in creme anglaise while the overhead speakers played Taylor Swift songs. She had the breakfast sandwich — an egg souffle topped with bacon, pepper jelly and American cheese on a brioche bun — while I destroyed homemade biscuits with honey butter and a side of bearnaise-slathered breakfast potatoes. (After this dish, I never want to douse my spuds in ketchup again. Sorry, Heinz.)

Shadyside
239 Spahr St.
instagram.com/lilithpgh

Christian James

Kimberley Ashlee spent years as a journalist before opening a catering company and the fast-casual concept Terrene at Station Square. Now the veteran chef tells stories through food at Christian James, a restaurant inside the Joinery Hotel, Downtown. The seasonally evolving menu tells the tale of Christian James, a fictional foodie who travels the world trying different cuisines like a hungry Indiana Jones. Each dish is a chapter in his journey. For my entree, I took a cue from the globetrotting adventurer and tried something new to me: goat vindaloo, marinated and braised in a curry sauce with mild spices on a bed of jasmine rice. It’s a dish I’d revisit. Because the restaurant’s home is a hotel, it has to appeal to all sorts of road-weary travelers. Breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and cocktails are served. From steak and fish to a cheeseburger and fries, there’s something for everyone, including children. Ashlee and her husband, Josh Haugh, a sommelier, have a young daughter, so creating a kids’ menu was a big priority. The offerings include wood-fired pizza, chicken fried rice, white cheddar mac and cheese and other upscaled favorites. Tykes 10 and under eat for free and receive a warm cookie that they can decorate at the table. The sweet distraction gives parents a little more time to relax with a dessert — try the house-made donuts — or a boozy beverage. Bottomline: Christian James is worth writing home about.

Downtown
Joinery Hotel
453 boulevard of the allies
thechristianjames.com

Extra Helpings

If you want to eat in the ’70s and ’80s, Fat Cat on the North Side and Long Story Short in Lawrenceville serve fun, casual fare surrounded by nostalgic decor. You can even go on a retro junk food binge thanks to Hills Snack Bar, a mobile unit that stops at former Hills Department Store locations throughout the region.

A bunch of established restaurants have opened second locations or moved into larger spaces to keep up with demand. O’Hara-based Alta Via Ristorante now has a spot in Downtown’s Market Square. The Speckled Egg, a Downtown brunch destination, last summer made its debut in the SouthSide Works. Cilantro & Ajo, a South Side spot serving Venezuelan street food for the past five years, will soon have an eatery in Lawrenceville.

Like things spicy? You can dine at Tepache Mexican Kitchen & Bar in Cranberry and O’Hara. Stemming from the success of its original Shadyside location, Tocayo Taqueria & Tequila opened a second one in Bethel Park.

If “ribliciousness” is what you crave, Wilson’s Bar-B-Q, a North Side institution, is back after a 2019 fire shuttered the business.

Burgh’ers Brewing
This brewery-restaurant got its start in Butler County, but it’s a ‘Burgh thing. While the owners work on putting the final touches on a new site at The Highline development on the South Side, yinz guys can visit their Zelienople and Lawrenceville locations for a menu made entirely of locally and sustainably sourced ingredients. There are smash-style burgers with Steel City-centric names; the Fox Chapel, which won a James Beard competition, is topped with goat cheese, mixed greens, pickled onion and balsamic reduction. But it’s not just a burger thing; there are small plates (pierogies!), sandwiches and salads, too.

Lawrenceville: 3601 Butler St.
Zelienople: 215 W. New Castle St.
burgherspgh.com

PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

Cinderlands Beer Co.
Cinderlands’ first incarnation — the Foederhouse in Lawrenceville — is a cozy spot for naturally fermented foederbier and classic Belgian pub cuisine. Its larger location in the Strip is a two-story, 300-seat facility featuring a first-floor bar and dining room with views of the open, scratch kitchen. Upstairs, you’ll find another bar — as well as a lounge and patio. The brewery’s suburban taproom is a stripped-down version of their city sites with a menu to match. Get snacky items such as soft pretzels, pepperoni rolls, quesadillas, cheese dip and sliders — plus, food trucks roll up every Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m.

Lawrenceville: Cinderlands Foederhouse, 3705 Butler St.
Strip District: Cinderlands Warehouse, 2601 Smallman St.
Pine: Cinderlands Taproom, 171 Wexford Bayne Road
cinderlands.com

PHOTO BY KRISTY LOCKLIN

Spoonwood Brewing Company
When you’re driving up Baptist Road in Bethel Park, Spoonwood’s enormous, 15-barrel facility appears from behind the trees like a beacon of good beer. But their wood-fired oven looms just as large to the taste buds. Order a Working Class Hero Cream Ale while you peruse the weekly specials and a rotating menu filled with no-spoon-required appetizers, salads, burgers and pizza. A spacious, outdoor seating area and a steady line-up of live music makes Spoonwood a suburban vacation destination.

Bethel Park: 5981 Baptist Road
spoonwoodbrewing.com

PHOTO BY KRISTY LOCKLIN

Yellow Bridge Brewing
At this family-run business with locations in Delmont and Greensburg, pizza (and a smattering of salads and snacks) bridges the gap between an empty and full stomach. Using house-made dough and sauce, the little brewery is cranking out a variety of 12- and 16-inch pies. Styles range from The Plain Jane to The Pepperoni Moderno with red sauce, mozzarella, a generous layer of pepperoni, arugula, balsamic glaze and hot honey. If, during your stay in the City of Bridges, you get a hankering for Detroit-style, rectangular pizza, the Greensburg site also serves one of those, too.

Delmont: 2266 Route 66
Greensburg: 33 East Pittsburgh St.
yellowbridgebrewing.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF EAST END BREWING CO.

East End Brewing Company
One of Pittsburgh’s pioneering breweries — it’s been around since 2004 — East End is now making a name for itself with its creative pizzas. At its original Larimer site and its new sister location in the South Hills, East End Chewing is the culinary counterpart to beer production. (It also gets our Food Editor’s vote for Best Pizzeria Name.) The rustic, thick-crust pies — including an off-the-wall Pizza of the Week — are accompanied by a rotating list of soups, sides and bar snacks, including vegan and vegetarian options. And if you want to bone up on your Pittsburgh knowledge, East End is releasing a series of You Are Here beers representing each of the city’s 90 neighborhoods. Even Mister Rogers would’ve said cheers to that!

Larimer: 147 Julius St.
Mt. Lebanon: 651 Washington Road
eastendbrewing.com

PHOTO COURTESY HOP FARM BREWING

Hop Farm Brewing Company
Named Best Place For A Sunday Solo Beer in our 2023 Best of the ’Burgh issue, the Lawrenceville mainstay is also ideal for a dinner party of one or 100 (in addition to the taproom there is sidewalk seating and warehouse space). The BBQ Bacon Burger (two smashed beef patties, Swiss cheese, smoked bacon and housemade barbecue sauce) might not be good for the body, but it satisfies the soul. If you’re the indecisive type, order a flight of beers and a trio of sliders: Hop Farm Burger, Taco Burger and Pulled Pork. Hop to it.

Lawrenceville: 5601 Butler St.
hopfarmbrewingco.com

PHOTO BY KRISTY LOCKLIN

Mastic Trail Brewing
There’s a tropical oasis in … Shaler. Two summers ago, the former Moose Lodge was transformed into a 7,000-square-foot Caribbean-themed brewery named after a 10-mile scenic pathway on Grand Cayman Island. From the rattan furniture and cabana bar vibe to the floor that’s painted to look like sand and sea, it’s a respite from the industrial chic of typical taprooms. Order a beachy beer such as the Surfin’ Moose Blonde Ale. The food menu is similarly island-inspired, with Bacalao Fritters, a Cubano sandwich that’s roughly the size of Cuba and a Coconut Shrimp Po’boy.

Shaler: 1044 Saxonburg Blvd.
mastictrail.com

PHOTO: INSURRECTION ALEWORKS’ FACEBOOK PAGE

Insurrection AleWorks
If you want to rebel against typical pub grub, Insurrection AleWorks is your HQ. From a gourmet meatloaf sandwich to a vegan club, this microbrewery in tiny Heidelberg is an off-the-beaten path escape for good food for every diet. Feeling adventurous? California Roll Deviled Eggs! Canadian, eh? Poutine Loaded Fries! Saving your empty calories for beer? AleWorks Salad! Have offspring? Kids Grilled Cheese with fries! Everyone leaves happy.

Heidelberg: 1635 E. Railroad St.
insurrectionaleworks.com

PHOTO BY KRISTY LOCKLIN

The Smiling Moose
Turn your frown upside down and the volume to 11 at The Smiling Moose. Mike “Scarfo” Scarlatelli, who’s been a touring musician most of his life, opened the South Side location 20 years ago, offering upscale pub grub along with punk, rock and metal shows. A family-friendly, yet still rockin’, version debuted in the ’burbs in 2021. The menus at both Mooses are peppered with pop culture references (Pizza the Hutt’s Pizza Bread, anyone?), mouthwatering burgers, soups, salads, sandwiches (say hello to the Tony Montana Cuban) and really good pasta salad. Need another reason to grin? The Smiling Moose is also a nano-brewery churning out small-batch beers for its restaurants.

South Side: 1306 E. Carson St.
Cranberry: 8032 Rowan Road
smiling-moose.com

Editor’s Note: Toni Pais died July 7, 2024 from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

Chef and restaurateur Toni Pais quietly closed Shadyside Cafe Zinho this past February to hang up his chef coat and signature ball cap for retirement at age 68. His 45-year Pittsburgh career had a monumental impact on our city, its diners and the wider food community.

Pais grew up in tiny Canas De Senhorim, Portugal, amidst a large farm family; he cut his teeth in the restaurant business by managing the prestigious Hotel Baía restaurant in seaside Cascais at age of 19. He went on to manage dining on several Cunard luxury cruise ships, where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Princess Grace of Monaco.

Pais arrived in Pittsburgh in 1978 and proceeded to have a series of roles in the finest restaurants of the time, including The Living Room, La Normande, La Gourmande and Jacqie’s and Jaqueline’s in Webster Hall in Oakland.

Pais opened his first restaurant, Baum Vivant, in 1992. The Shadyside restaurant offered high-end, perfectly prepared European cuisine with a fantastic wine and cocktail list in a moody environment of dark wood and blood-red seating. When I arrived in Pittsburgh two years later from culinary-mecca San Francisco, you could literally count on one hand the restaurants here that offered high-quality ingredients and a dining “experience,” including Baum Vivant and Laforet (1988-2007) in Highland Park from Pais’ friends, the Uricchio family.

At Baum Vivant, you might enjoy a lovely rolled lamb stuffed with pine nuts, feta and spinach accompanied by a lush demi-glace and a robust red wine with fresh bread to mop up Pais’ artful sauces. In contrast, Pittsburgh’s typical “upscale” meals were often all-inclusive, meaning your entrée came with soup and salad, a roll with foil-wrapped butter and a scoop of ice cream for dessert, something I hadn’t seen since my childhood in Chicago in the 1970s.

After Baum Vivant, Pais opened two more restaurants, intimate Café Zinho (1997- 2023), known for its luxury comfort food such as mariscada stew and stuffed quail, and Café Zao (2004-2011), a formal venue in Downtown’s Cultural District with killer steaks and jumbo seafood. At one point, Pais was shopping and cooking at all three restaurants. But somehow, when you peeked into any kitchen, it seemed like Pais was always present. Although he nurtured many young chefs, he never left the work to others, except to occasionally play soccer; he was always shopping, cooking and effortlessly navigating the kitchen, with occasional stops in the dining room to chat with guests with genuine affection and good cheer. Pais’ work ethic is almost inconceivable but seems to come naturally to him because he lives and dreams food.

Pais won numerous awards, including a James Beard Chef of the Year nomination (2002) and many years of recognition from Pittsburgh Magazine and other publications. He had the honor of cooking at the James Beard House in Manhattan in 1988 and 2005. I was lucky to attend the 2005 dinner that featured Pais and other A-team Pittsburgh chefs: Bill Fuller of big Burrito, Michael Uricchio of Laforet, Bob Sendell of All in Good Taste Productions and pastry chef Andrea Carros Schrenk. In 2014, Pais was recognized at a dedicated Friends of James Beard dinner at the former Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

When asked about his contribution to the dining scene, Pais cited his use of farm ingredients, his sense of presentation and his sauces. Pais’ Portuguese heritage surely contributes to his respect and use of farm ingredients. He also had a deep understanding of the emotional significance of dining; in his restaurants, you could unwind on a Friday night or celebrate a special occasion, with great conversation, a satisfying meal and a glass of wine in hand.

Pais developed Parkinson’s disease in 2004 and became a medical symbol of hope after he underwent deep-brain stimulation surgery in 2013 for the brain disorder that causes uncontrolled movements. UPMC proudly features him on their website, as his cutting-edge surgery allowed him back in the kitchen after the illness partially debilitated him. He has since mentored many other Parkinson’s patients.

Pais eschewed culinary trends such as molecular cuisine (foams, powders and food extruded from tubes), runny eggs on top of everything, caveman cuisine (big knives, big bones and smoked cocktails) and extreme-luxury dining of 16+ tiny, precious courses. His food was consistently of high quality but relatively simple and traditional, like a meal you might enjoy in a European seaside town.

It is with deepest gratitude that we thank Pais for the thousands of meals he prepared for us and the joy he provided. His years of dedication, amazing talent and unfailing spirit truly made our lives better. He raised the bar for Pittsburgh restaurants and the expectations of diners, pushing us toward the food city we are today. His legacy is profound.

Valentina Vavasis was the dining critic for Pittsburgh Magazine from 2009 to 2014 and a contributor until 2016. She is a graduate of Pennsylvania Institute of Culinary Arts and cooked at various restaurants in Pittsburgh. She is currently on the faculty at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture and continues to have a passion for all things food.

THE MACMACHINE AT DE PAN Y QUESO BOCADILLOS BAR | PHOTO BY ELAN MIZRAHI

In Pittsburgh, beer flows like the three rivers — but, for every brewery in town, there’s a cocktail lounge slinging boozier options.

From beloved institutions such as Kelly’s Bar & Lounge in East Liberty to hidden gems such as The Monk’s Bar inside the Priory Hotel on the North Side (it’s the smallest watering hole in Pennsylvania!) there are plenty of places to get your drink on.

Feeling like a Zombie? Head to Hidden Harbor in Squirrel Hill for the classic Tiki drink. Dig a retro vibe? Bloomfield boasts Tina’s Bar & Bottleshop. Veteran Mixologist Spencer Warren, the man behind seasonal pop-ups such as Miracle and Cocktails from the Crypt, creates a buzz year-round at Downtown’s The Warren Bar & Burrow.

During the pandemic, bar owners pivoted to offer to-go cocktails and establish mocktail menus for sober-curious customers, ushering in a new wave of hotspots. Here are nine places that, despite debuting in the COVID era, always see the rocks glass as half full.

PHOTO COURTESY CADENCE+ CELLARS SPEAKEASY

CADENCE+ Cellars Speakeasy
Strip District, 2400 Smallman St., Suite 100
cadenceatthestrip.plus

If you want a taste of Strip District history, head to the basement of a new bicycle shop.

Since 1825, the building at the corner of 24th and Smallman streets has been a hotbed of activity — some of it illegal in the speakeasy era. Originally constructed as the Phoenix Steam Cotton Factory, the structure housed several breweries over the years.

Now, the property is known as CADENCE+ At The Strip, a venue with a 350-seat, cityview event space, a Pro Bike+Run store and a windowless, speakeasy-style restaurant and bar that doubles as a time machine to the Prohibition Era.

The cavernous venue, which includes several private event rooms, also features a tunnel that runs under Smallman Street to Wigle Whiskey Distillery. Bootleggers used the passageway to transport bathtub gin. Since the homemade hooch didn’t taste good, enterprising bartenders added fruit juices and other ingredients to mask the flavor, inadvertently launching America’s craft cocktail movement.

CADENCE+ Cellars Speakeasy embraces its somewhat seedy past by serving classic cocktails such as the Sidecar and Sazerac. The site also offers beer-, wine- and spirit-tasting events hosted by alcohol experts.

Aside from the glow of the backbar and images of roaring fireplaces on the TVs, the lighting is dim. Vintage black-and-white photographs of flappers, mustachioed bartenders and barrel-busting law enforcement agents hang on the rough, concrete walls.

I enjoyed sipping a rye Old Fashioned in an upscale dungeon — a dungeon that held me captive with its food menu. Local company Common Plea Catering dishes out modern American fare, from grazing boards and burgers to filet mignon and weekend brunch.

CADENCE+ Cellars Speakeasy is a great place for a stiff drink and a satisfying snack in an atmosphere that’s filled with spirits of the past — and not all of them come in a bottle.

Bitter End
Etna, 409 Butler St.
instagram.com/bitterendetna

People have bellied up to the bar at 409 Butler St. in Etna since Prohibition ended in 1933 (and it’s probable there was some illegal imbibing going on before that).

Long known as Nooch’s Bar, it reopened as Bitter End in June 2022. If the green light above the front door is on, it’s cocktail time!

General Manager Michael Hammer created a menu of bourbon-, rye- and gin-based Speakeasy Classics infused with fresh, house-made ingredients, while the space itself was inspired by “The Great Gatsby.” The dark room seems plucked from the pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. (Co-owner Mike Rios was a literature major in college.)

If you enjoy a turn-of-the-20th-century drinking experience, Bitter End delivers on aesthetics. The small space is big on exposed brickwork and boasts a tin ceiling, original terrazzo floor, a beautiful back bar and even an old Cruikshank Brothers ketchup mural that the modern-day construction crew discovered behind the drywall.

Order a Southside, a mix of gin, lemon and mint that was Chicago crime boss Al Capone’s favorite beverage. Light snacks such as a hummus bowl with veggies and pita dippers, a cheese-and-crackers plate, housemade malt vinegar chips, mixed olives and sesame sticks will help you soak up the alcohol — or you can walk down the street to Bitter End’s sister businesses, Rear End Gastropub & Garage and Pie Hole Pizza.

Jay Gatsby believed in the green light, and so should you.

THE CUP OF EXCELLENCE ESPRESSO MARTINI AT SOLUNA PGH | PHOTO BY NICK BOMBICH

Soluna PGH
Strip District, 1601 Penn Ave.
solunapgh.com

If it’s been a while since you visited Cafetano in the Strip District, the difference is night and day.

Rebranded in late-2022 as Soluna (a combination of the Spanish words for “sun” and “moon”), it still serves Honduran coffee, pastries and sandwiches during the day, but its offerings are more potent Thursday through Sunday evenings.

The rear of the building has a 13-foot bar loaded with beer, wine and spirits; you’ll find more than 100 types of mezcal, an agave-based libation known as The Mother of Tequila, on the menu.

Don’t expect to see bottom-shelf booze or run-of-the-mill margaritas at Soluna. Owner Carl Allison, a local businessman who frequents Central and South America, features products from family-owned mezcal distilleries, where the production of the liquid is an ancestral artform centered around clay pot stills.

A veteran mixologist from Chicago’s booming cocktail scene, John Hess manages the bar program. His fascination with agave spirits led him to Soluna, one of the few places in Pittsburgh to grab a mezcal-based beverage.

Hess has formulated 12 cocktails, including the El Gigante, a Mexican-style Old Fashioned with Espadin mezcal, a dash of reposado tequila, lavender bitters, a house-made, faux tobacco essence and smoked tea syrup. Complement the offering with a selection from the traditional tapas menu.

Eventually, Hess hopes to use the second-floor Global Coffee School — one of two educational coffee centers in the United States — as a mezcal classroom, where attendees can sip the elixir from traditional clay cups. If you overindulged in Jose Cuervo in college, maybe it’s time to go back to school.

PHOTO BY TOM O’CONNOR

Goodlander Cocktail Brewery
Larimer, 6614 Hamilton Ave.
goodlandercocktails.com

A few years ago, Wes Shonk had a big question: Why wasn’t anyone in Pittsburgh — or the world, for that matter — making cocktails in big batches like beer?

When the skilled bartender, who made a splash at Butcher & The Rye and Hidden Harbor, couldn’t find an answer, he decided to take the challenge upon himself.

In May 2021, Shonk opened the first-of-its-kind Goodlander Cocktail Brewery. Inside the 3,400-square-foot building, his team zests, juices, measures, filters, chills and carbonates ingredients in a 200-gallon tank using 1,000-liter totes of nationally known brands of gin, vodka and rum. (Goodlander is licensed as a distillery, so in-house spirit-making is one of Shonk’s goals.)

Ready-to-serve, effervescent beverages such as mojitos, highballs and seasonal offerings are then kegged and poured straight from the tap. The business sells between 3,000 and 4,000 cocktails a week, with ABVs hovering between 10% and 13% alcohol.

Enjoy samples or a 6-ounce pour on-site during retail hours, or get a returnable 32- or 16-ounce growler filled to go. Beers from nearby East End Brewing are always on tap. Folks (including kids) who like bubbly beverages without the booze can order non-alcoholic varieties, including oolong seltzer and cold-brewed Taiwanese “milky” oolong tea.

Unlike the speakeasy-type establishments on this list, Goodlander is the perfect location for upbeat day-drinking. It’s bright and inviting, bursting with plants and positive vibes. There’s a foosball table and other games in the back production area. The dog-friendly tasting room has 14 seats.

Goodlander sells kegs — which keep the liquid fizzy for at least two weeks — to about 20 area restaurants and shot-and-a-beer bars that want to beef-up their cocktail programs.

For Shonk, it’s all about being a good neighbor.

THE REGGAETON WINTER AT DE PAN Y QUESO BOCADILLOS BAR | PHOTO BY ELAN MIZRAHI

De Pan Y Queso Bocadillos Bar
Brighton Heights, 2827 California Ave.
facebook.com/bareats

Tom Hanks is a fan of Bocadillos Bar.

Last year, while filming “A Man Called Otto,” the actor — whose word is gold around here — dropped by the cozy spot for a drink and some bocadillos. Although the bar is named for the Spanish word for “snacks,” the California Avenue watering hole’s menu spans the globe, from Korea to Norway to owner Tzveti Gintcheva’s native Bulgaria.

The beverages, made with Pennsylvania-distilled spirits, will take your taste buds on an adventure, too.

In 2021, after two decades in Pittsburgh’s service industry, Gintcheva refurbished the Stone Front Witch Way Inn into an eclectic hangout with potions to suit any mood. No broom or black cat needed!

Warm up with a Hot Naughty, made with fig, burnt orange bourbon, dark agave, mint and citrus served in a glass rimmed with brown sugar. Hangover? The Bloody Maria will get you back on your feet once you leave the bar stool thanks to a kick from spicy agave spirit, vodka, paella shrimp, Iberico Spanish chorizo, anchovy and olive-cured olive.

During warm weather, Gintcheva hosts pig roasts and barbecues in her side lot, allowing patrons to sip a summery cocktail — such as Lindsay’s Gin and Juice Martini made with cucumber gin, triple sec and fresh-squeezed clementine — while taking in a unique view of the city.

Despite the gloomy winter weather, Gintcheva is thinking of fun in the sun and promises more pop-ups and live music in 2023.

Give (t)Hanks now.

St. Clair Social
Friendship, 302 S. St. Clair St.
stclairsocialpgh.com

Cat Cannon and Cecil Usher didn’t let COVID-19 dash their dream of owning a bar.

Taking a cue from Tom Cruise in the movie “Cocktail,” they hung a sign in their establishment with the words “Cocktails & Dreams” illuminated in pink-and-blue neon. That’s the lifestyle they’ve been living since opening the doors to St. Clair Social in 2020.

The enormous corner bar is located in Friendship, a fitting neighborhood for a gathering place frequented by local residents and outsiders looking for a “Cheers”-type vibe.

Cannon and Usher probably know your name. Entrenched in Pittsburgh’s service industry for years, the pair runs Mindful Hospitality Group, a consulting firm that designs bar programs for local restaurants and nightlife venues.

They pour their expertise (and love) into each glass.

The come-as-you-are bar offers a little something for everyone, starting with classic cocktails such as the El Diablo, which has been heating up the scene since 1946. It’s a fiery mix of Teremana Blanco Tequila, ginger, lime juice, Natrona Bottling Co.’s Hot Hot Hot Ginger Beer and ginger bitters.

St. Clair’s “Social Cocktails” are inspired by beverages from the 1950s through the early-2000s. Nix your usual rum and coke and spring for a French Connection No. 2, a concoction of Hennessy, cocoa nib-infused Grand Marnier and salt.

The Steel City’s blue-collar heritage is celebrated through boilermakers, a shot of liquor chased with a pint of beer. St. Clair has a variety of combos, such as Jagermeister and I.C. Light Mango, Evan Williams Bourbon and Yuengling or El Jimador and Prosecco.

The same amount of love goes into the upscale grub. Yeah, you’ll find pub favorites such as wings and burgers, but St. Clair standouts include their seitan chili, Parmesan truffle fries and the crispy chicken sandwich.

I ordered a spicy version of the buttermilk-soaked, floured and fried bird with lettuce, house pickles and roasted garlic aioli on a brioche bun. Partnered with an El Diablo, it’ll light a fire in your belly. Now that’s the ultimate boilermaker.

Harold’s Haunt 
Millvale, 142 Grant Ave.
maudespaperwinggallery.com/harolds-home

Everyone is welcome at Harold’s Haunt — even if you don’t have a pulse.

The idea for the “they bar” — a hangout where members of the LGBTQIA+ community can commune over cocktails — was conjured by the owners of nearby Maude’s Paperwing Gallery in 2022. The metaphysical gift shop has a resident spirit named Harold who likes to play tricks on the staff. His ghostly vibes spill over into the watering hole a few doors down.

The signature drink menu, including mocktails, changes monthly. Among January’s potions and elixirs was Waffle’s Revenge, an eye-opening mix of tequila, maple syrup, chocolate bitters and orange peel. A Silver Bullet shot of gin, whiskey and lemon juice was a popular extract during the full moon. If you’re a Capricorn, your spirit guides probably told you to order the Astrology Special: tequila, blueberry puree, pomegranate juice and lime juice in a sugar-rimmed glass.

In addition to hosting regular events such as Stitch Witchery Wednesdays, where you can sip and sew, Harold’s Haunt promotes Sober Sundays by banishing booze and offering a full lineup of mocktails.

Whether you put the “boo” in booze or opt for something from the NA cauldron, you’ll have so much fun it’s scary.

Co-Sign Speakeasy
Homestead, 145 E. Eighth Ave., Fourth Floor
cosignpgh.com

When Joe Deasy and his son Joe Deasy Jr. purchased the historical Monongahela Trust Co. building in Homestead, they banked on housing several businesses inside.

Their investment is paying off.

The Munhall natives operate Escape Room Pittsburgh, Ace Axe Throwing and their latest venture, Co-Sign Speakeasy, which opened in 2021.

Located on the fourth floor of the 30,000-square-foot structure, the bar is open 6 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday. There’s no outside signage, but sleuths should keep an eye open for a green light.

Online reservations, and a knack for problem-solving, are encouraged. First-timers will have to figure out how to get into the intimate space, where the Roaring ‘20s are alive and well — with some tech-savvy surprises.

Head bartender Eva Kobylar crafts prohibition-inspired cocktails and seasonal specialties with care (and sometimes fire!) at the dark main bar, which is decorated with vintage bank notes the construction crew found in the basement during renovations.

A tiny, ethereal cloud rises from a Smoked Old Fashioned; paired with a comfy arm chair and a fireplace, it’s the perfect winter sipper. Another bourbon beverage, Zelda, is a combo of tangerine, sage, lemon, egg white and Angostura bitters. The It Girl is a delicate and feminine concoction of lavender- and lemon-infused Crater Lake Vodka, Lazzaroni Amaretto, lavender tea, lemon and honey.

Guests can try and find a secret door to a separate room, which is decorated like a study. The Deasys plan to open a third, red-hued space soon — to help them stay in the black.

BARTENDER OLIVER SCOTT SERVES A ROYAL CUP AT MARGAUX | PHOTO BY KAREN WOOLSTRUM

Margaux
East Liberty, 5947 Penn Ave.
margauxpgh.com

If you’re looking for a first-date destination, gaux to East Liberty.

During the day, Margaux is a relaxing place for lattes and yogurt parfaits. When the sun goes down, it morphs into a swanky lounge with Champagne cocktails and Spanish Chorizo Croquettes.

Opened in the summer of 2021, the 3,200-square-foot former department store has the chic cafe-to-cocktail lounge trend down to a science. Owner Michael Sanders, who also helms Opus One Productions and Club Cafe on the South Side, named the place after the wine region of France, so there are plenty of vino varietals to choose from as well as a stellar beer list. During the week, the bar opens at 3 p.m. On weekends, you can grab a cocktail from the brunch menu starting at 10 a.m.

Despite the high-end beverages, fancy snacks and European-inspired decor, Margaux isn’t stuffy. You can kick back on a comfy couch for a more intimate experience or make new friends at the large, U-shaped bar. Order the Grace Kelly, a Miller High Life pony bottle and a shot of green chartreuse, and maybe you’ll score that second date.

PHOTOS BY SEAN COLLIER

There’s a popular episode of the “Pittsburgh Dad” webseries in which the titular father loads up the family for a road trip. After hours of driving, he arrives at their destination: the nearest remaining Rax Roast Beef location. “All I ask is for one little thing — for yinz to drive six hours round trip to go to Rax,” he says. “Do yinz know how rare this is? Finding a Rax is like finding Narnia.”

“Pittsburghers love nothing more than something that’s gone,” says Chris Preksta, the director and co-creator of “Pittsburgh Dad.” Perhaps there’s a particular pain created by “something that’s taken away from you when you’re young” that lingers, he says.

For many Pittsburghers, there’s a heartfelt affinity for chain restaurants that were once local staples but have since receded from the landscape. Fast-food and casual-dining joints ubiquitous in the ’80s and ’90s, when now-middle-aged Pittsburghers were in high school, seem to occupy a cherished place in our memory, even after years or decades of separation.

Preksta and star Curt Wootton are no exceptions to that rule — in fact, he says, the journey to Rax wasn’t even originally planned as a “Pittsburgh Dad” episode. “We just wanted to go eat Rax.”

Undoubtedly, there is more import in the closure of a true Pittsburgh icon; losing the likes of Poli, Gullifty’s or the Tin Angel is, in some sense, more of a story than the gradual decline of Rax. Yet casual restaurants are where Pittsburghers spend a lot of time; these aren’t special-occasion places, these are where we go week in and week out.

Plus, Preksta points out, there was something local — or at least regional — about the chains, too.

“It used to be that you would go on road trips, you would see a restaurant [chain] that you didn’t know or some type of store that you didn’t know. Now, if you fly or drive anywhere in the country, you’re getting Target, Applebee’s, Red Lobster. Whereas Rax and Hills … because it [wasn’t] national, it felt like ours.”

Many such chains are gone for good. News broke in June that the last remaining Howard Johnson’s Restaurant had closed; no North American locations remain for the Chi-Chi’s chain, which saturated the Pittsburgh market through the ’90s. In the case of a few former stalwarts, however, the food is still available — albeit sometimes with a bit of a drive.

Should you plan a whole trip around a fast-food sandwich, the way that Pittsburgh Dad did? That’s up to you. But if you happen to be traveling in the vicinity of these bygone staples, you should add a slice of nostalgia (and, in most cases, a very filling meal) to your journey.

Rax Roast Beef
Nearest Location: Lancaster, Ohio (approx. 3 hours)

Undoubtedly, the franchise southeast of Columbus is the Rax you’ll remember.

The decor and layout of the restaurant may as well have been preserved in amber since the late 1980s. The counter, almost like a cafeteria, is still separated by an interior wall from the main dining room; the solarium-style front of the building, an innovation Wendy’s copied from Rax, still lets in the sun (although on my two visits, it was cordoned off). If the familiar tabletops have ever been replaced, they show no sign of it.

While this location has endured, however, nearly all of its sister establishments have disappeared.

The Rax chain once boasted more than 500 locations across the country — and even internationally, with a late-’80s expansion to Guatemala. Today, there are fewer than 10; the Rax website lists eight, but only five appear to still be operational (a pair near Columbus, a flagship in southern Ohio and lone outposts in Kentucky and Indiana). Run-of-the-mill poor business decisions led to a series of bankruptcies and sales throughout the ’90s, and most locations either morphed into Hardee’s or Tim Horton’s franchises or closed outright.

In Lancaster, Ohio, however, the food still satisfies. Most of the menu is similar to that at rival Arby’s, though Rax’s roast beef tastes a bit more fresh and light than that at the more successful chain. (The curly fries are indistinguishable.) While some of the more experimental aspects of the menu’s heyday are no more — sorry, no salad bar here — you can get baked potatoes with a variety of toppings and a few soups. If you’ve got a family in tow, you can order off of Uncle Alligator’s Kids Menu, with surprisingly low prices. Nothing at Rax is too expensive, in fact; fast food is cheap everywhere, but particularly affordable here.

Travelers should know that the atmosphere in the Lancaster location can be a bit gloomy; on our visits, the restaurant was mostly deserted and the fixtures clearly showed their age. For some reason, there was no music to be heard, either — further amplifying the lost-in-time status of the restaurant.

While a descent from 500 locations to five doesn’t bode well for the future of this tasty, familiar chain, perhaps a local entrepreneur could launch a comeback bid. A link on the chain’s website does offer the possibility of opening a new Rax franchise; could some nostalgic Pittsburgh Dad bring Rax back to the ’Burgh?

If you’ve got some cash to spare, Pittsburgh demands Rax — with solariums. (And bring back the salad bar.)

Ponderosa Steakhouse
Nearest Location: BUTLER (approx. 1 hour)

There’s an old expression I like — “tougher than a $2 steak.”

At Ponderosa, I bought a steak for $2. (Technically less; it came with a baked potato.) Fortunately, the idiom was inaccurate; the steak was pretty good.

OK — technically, you cannot spend two bucks and get a steak and potato a la carte. That was the price to add a steak to the purchase of Ponderosa’s dinner buffet, the spotlight feature of the ailing chain; the steak may be in the name, but families visiting bygone Ponderosas were going for the buffet.

In 2022, that buffet is still a smorgasbord of casino-like variety: pizza, soup and salad, fried chicken, sides, pierogies, full tacos and who knows what else awaits the voracious appetite at Ponderosa. At this point, the steak becomes a side.

It’ll also be the best part of the meal. A steak at Ponderosa, while nothing you would mistake for a cut from a fancy joint, is satisfying and tasty. So too are the wide variety of desserts. Much of the buffet fare was less remarkable, but let’s be honest: This is definitely a quantity-over-quality situation.

While most of us in the Pittsburgh region are no more than an hour away from an operating Ponderosa — the Butler location is seated in the shadow of the Clearview Mall — there used to be many more local outposts of the budget-steakhouse chain, including the well-remembered spot just outside of Kennywood and a longstanding restaurant on McKnight Road.

At the time I visited, it was tough to determine how many franchises remained … because the company website had vanished. While that doesn’t exactly speak to a healthy organization, it has since returned to life. In any case, Google Maps shows a trio of operating Ponderosas in Ohio and four more in Michigan; there’s also a pair in Indiana and one apiece in Wisconsin and Kentucky. The Butler restaurant seems to be the only remaining in Pennsylvania — though the chain’s sister restaurant, Bonanza Steakhouse, has two locations in the middle of the state.

Both Ponderosa and Bonanza are named for the western television show “Bonanza,” though they were once rivals; Bonanza was founded by one of the show’s stars, Dan Blocker (better known as Hoss). Ponderosa was a competing steakhouse with similar offerings; as chains were sold, liquidated and combined in the ’80s, Ponderosa’s parent company bought the Bonanza brand, but the two chains kept separate names.

If the recently errant website is any indication, the sun may be setting for Ponderosa. While it’s not the best meal I’ve ever had (with Cracker Barrel in the world, the need for Ponderosa drops to nil), I appreciate its no-frills attitude, absurd buffet and country charm.

And it’s probably the only place I can get a $2 steak.

Ground Round
Nearest Location: Perrysburg, Ohio (approx. 3½ hours)

Those making the long journey to the nearest Ground Round restaurant won’t find quite the same place they remember from the chain’s heyday.

The location in Perrysburg, Ohio — just south of Toledo — sits in the Holiday Inn & Suites Toledo Southwest. It’s a very modular, generic restaurant and bar, more hotel lobby than family restaurant. There are no peanut shells on the floor, no silent cartoons on boxy televisions, no scale to weigh youngsters as part of the famous pay-what-you-weigh promotion.

The food, though, still does its job — and fills you up.

Once a suburban staple, the chain has endured a slow decline, including a 2004 bankruptcy proceeding and further setbacks due to pandemic closures. Nine remaining restaurants are listed on the chain’s website, down from 15 before the pandemic; once a staple in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, no restaurants remain in this part of the country. In fact, there are more remaining Ground Rounds in sparsely populated North Dakota — three — than there are east of Lake Erie (two, both in Maine).

In Perrysburg, the Ground Round brand is present, but it could swiftly be rebranded as an Applebee’s or a TGI Friday’s overnight. If the history of the franchise is any indication, that’s a very real possibility; for now, though, it remains a place to get a great deal of rich food without paying much. On my visit, I opted for the clubhouse sandwich, a gargantuan and flavorful variation on the club, served with a heaping portion of mashed potatoes in the middle. The most memorable part of the meal, however, was the appetizer — a mountain of fried cheese curds served with ranch.

Is it indulgent? Yes. Will you devour it? Absolutely.

The tab for these satisfying calorie bombs barely topped $20, and the restaurant does offer a number of family-friendly specials. In the ’80s and ’90s, the pay-what-you-weigh promotion offered families the chance to measure their children’s mass on a giant scale, then pay a penny per pound; fondly remembered though it may be, it’s probably for the best that this promotion has been replaced with a simple offer for free kids’ meals on Sundays.

The restaurant also offers a variety of margaritas — free on Mondays if you buy fajitas! — and signature cocktails, along with a decent beer list. In a surprising update, a gluten-sensitive menu is offered.

Other restaurants on this list will more accurately    feel like their bygone Pittsburgh locations, to be sure; no matter how many cheese curds you dunk in ranch, you won’t forget you’re in a hotel lobby. Endangered though the chain may be, however, the Ground Round still offers the core of its appeal: A lot of affordable food at a casual family restaurant.

MAX & ERMA’S
Nearest Location: Monroeville & Mars (approx. ½ hour)

Don’t let the missing burger statue Downtown fool you: Max & Erma’s is doing just fine.

There may not be as many locations of the burger-focused chain as there once were; the 2012 departure of the Downtown Max & Erma’s, recognized by the gargantuan sandwich mounted above the entrance on Stanwix Street, may have convinced some locals that the chain is no more. Unlike every other chain I visited, however, there are two Max & Erma’s locations left in the area — one in Monroeville and one in Mars.

There are more, too, including a location in Erie, a handful in Ohio and even airport Max & Erma’s in Cincinnati, Dayton and Detroit. In fact, my early-August visit was marked by celebration: It was the 50th anniversary of the chain’s founding, in the summer of 1972 (even if the original location in Columbus is no more).

I visited the Monroeville location, where there’s only the barest indication that the year is 2022. Hanging lamps illuminate tables; cozy booths line the walls. There’s a lot of wood trim. Endless Pittsburgh kitsch on the walls is much more 20th century in character: A massive mural of a steelworker asking how you’d like your burger, faux buttons bearing old Bob Prince catchphrases.

While I haven’t been to a Max & Erma’s in quite a while — I remember getting takeout from a bygone location about six years ago but probably hadn’t visited for a decade before that — I knew that the burgers are the thing. So I ordered the appropriately titled Bodacious Bacon Burger, a riot of a sandwich featuring both smoked bacon marmalade and strips of bacon along with lettuce and a roasted garlic-cheese spread.

It was messy, massive and delicious. Like all of Max & Erma’s burgers, it came with unlimited seasoned fries; you won’t need an additional helping, as the serving given is plenty filling.

Eventually, my server came around and asked if I wanted more. I didn’t. I said yes anyway.

What — like I’m going to turn down free fries?

While I’d welcome a local resurgence from any of the restaurants on this list, I’m glad that Max & Erma’s is the chain still a short drive away for most Pittsburghers. Aside from its yinzer bona fides — I don’t mind telling you that I saw a few Pittsburgh Magazine covers on the walls — it’s a friendly, inviting, familiar place. Its charm is retro, but its appeal is timeless: Good food, kind service and hometown spirit.

OK, one bit of bad news: The bathtub sundae bar is a thing of the past. But they’ll gladly whip you up a mean bowl of ice cream and toppings on request. That’s that great service I was talking about.

Roy Rogers
Nearest Location: Cumberland, Maryland (approx. 2 hours)

Technically, you can find a Roy Rogers closer to home. As anyone who frequently leaves town headed east knows, the cowboy-themed fast food restaurant maintains several locations inside Pennsylvania Turnpike rest stops.

I was searching for a proper Roy Rogers, though — a freestanding joint with posters of the mid-century western movie star on the walls. For that, you’ll have to cross the Mason-Dixon line and wind up in downtown Cumberland, Maryland, not far from the cabin where George Washington strategized during the French & Indian War.

This spot is no throwback, however; this is a recently updated, downright commodious Roy Rogers. I’m not going to tell you that any fast-food restaurant is worth a two-plus hour drive on its own — but I will say that you should reroute trips near Cumberland to include a Roy Rogers stop.

The chain was the victim of an ill-fated sale to the Hardee’s parent company in 1990; many Roy Rogers locations were converted to Hardee’s, but loyal Roy customers rejected the change.

Franchise numbers dwindled from there, though there are many more Roy Rogers around than any other entry on this list — about 40 across six states.

There’s a surprising variety of (very fresh) food at this Roy Rogers, which positions burgers, fried chicken and roast-beef sandwiches as equal fixtures on the menu; it’s like the core products from Arby’s, KFC and Wendy’s are all hanging out with the sides from Popeye’s (you can replace your fries with mashed potatoes, baked beans, coleslaw and more).

Here, all of that food is fresh; you’ll watch each item prepared, and it’ll come out tasting like it was just made. The staff pays attention to detail, frequently cleaning and replacing the array of sauces (the staples, plus a Boom Boom sauce and “Roy’s BBQ”) and switching out the toppings on the Fixin’s Bar, where you’ll top your sandwich with the expected lettuce, tomato, onions and more — fresh jalapeños and Old Bay seasoning await.

You can even add a second course; there’s a lengthy “treat” menu of desserts. Pair a sweet with the mild Trailblazer Coffee. You’ll love it — and this is a good hang-out joint, with TVs in the corners and a generally pleasant atmosphere for a fast-food place.

It’s something of an oasis, really. Tucked against a switching yard, you’ll see Wendy’s and Taco Bell locations in sight of the front door — but why would you choose those? They’re everywhere. Roy Rogers is a special treat, and one you should take advantage of.

There’s even patio seating. And it’s lovely.

Pittsburgh restaurants are moving through a period of transition, resetting and restructuring. So this year, I’ve dialed back the Best Restaurants list to 25 establishments.

What was I looking for when I compiled this list? The sole fundamental qualification to be included on the list is that the restaurant must have opened by the end of the previous calendar year. Then, as I always do, I start by asking:  “Does this restaurant fulfill its intention exceptionally?”

The List

Click on the restaurant you want to check out first or continue scrolling through the entire list.

• 40 North at Alphabet City
• Alta Via
• Apteka
• Back to the Foodture
• Bar Marco
• Casbah
• Chengdu Gourmet
• DiAnoia’s Eatery
• Dish Osteria
• Driftwood Oven
• Eleven Contemporary Kitchen
• Everyday Noodles
• Fig & Ash
• Gi-Jin
• Ladybird’s Luncheonette
• Mola
• Morcilla
• Oak Hill Post
• Pusadee’s Garden
• Sakura Teppanyaki and Sushi
• Salem’s Market and Grill
• Senti
• Spork
• Taiwanese Bistro Cafe 33
• Udipi Cafe
• Fet Fisk (Best Pop-Up)
• stuntpig (Best Food Truck)
  

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Delicious food must be at the forefront. Whether it’s dumplings, lentils or duck, the best restaurants delight us with what they are serving. Service played a more prominent role in my rubric this year than it did last year, too. One of the things that drew me to several of these restaurants was seeing management and longtime employees helping newcomers learn the ropes.

Despite the headwinds, these restaurants found a way to thrive. Long-standing establishments leaned into systems knowledge to weather the continuing storm of uncertainty. Newcomers brought needed energy and creativity into our dining landscape. Chefs tuned into their culinary visions. Pittsburgh’s international restaurant owners continued to grow confident expressing their voices.

It didn’t happen in a bubble.

Organizations such as Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Aid and the Pittsburgh chapter of the United States Bartenders’ Guild redoubled efforts to educate, assist and advocate for hospitality industry employees. Our region’s farmers expanded their fields, extended their growing seasons and produced an ever-increasing array of flavorful crops.

The year was marked with significantly more tumult and uncertainty than anybody expected. The delta and omicron variants spurred spikes in COVID-19 cases, forcing establishments to augment operating hours. Staffing shortages got worse. That’s ebbed somewhat, but restaurateurs now need to train a new generation of hospitality staff. There were supply chain issues across the board, and inflation like we haven’t seen in decades meant price hikes at restaurants around town.

We lost some fantastic restaurants that would have had a strong case for inclusion on this list had they remained open. Other longtime stalwarts are working through a transformational phase with their menu, service or overarching philosophy, or a mix of those factors. I expect that most of those establishments will find the right footing over the next year. I certainly hope so.

Most of us have returned to dining in-person at restaurants. Once we did so, we were reminded of how much a visit can add to our lives. Restaurants are a place of connection. We gather with our friends and families or take a moment for ourselves. Restaurants allow us to explore new flavors, savor long-standing favorites and appreciate the artistry of a chef cooking with perspective. And it sure is nice just to feel taken care of, too.

It remains, by any standard, a challenging time for Pittsburgh restaurants. Yet I continue to be hopeful for the future. There’s vibrancy and creativity and a desire to push forward. I believe that things will be moving along at a faster clip by this time next year. For now, let’s celebrate what’s offered by these excellent establishments.

These are the 25 Best Restaurants in Pittsburgh.

40 North at Alphabet City

The year-old 40 North at Alphabet City brought welcome energy to the city when it revived the dormant restaurant space in the City of Asylum’s North Side building, where it shares space with a performance venue and an independent bookstore. It’s a place for vibrant conversation (or for you and your book of the moment) where you’ll get a wholesome meal, peppy-yet-professional service and an upbeat atmosphere.

Leading the charge is executive chef Bethany Zozula. She earned a nod as a 2022 James Beard Award Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic semifinalist (her second) for 40 North’s Western Pennsylvania foodways-rooted menu. Start with one of Zozula’s salads, which always pop with the season, even in winter. Be sure to ask about the lamb specials; Zozula’s connection to the region’s agricultural producers extends to bringing in at least one whole halal lamb every week. The ribeye is one of the few pricey items on a generally reasonably priced menu, but it’s locally raised and always cooked just as it should be. Vegetarian diners are well taken care of with thoughtfully prepared dishes such as falafel, beets and yogurt, khachapuri and those aforementioned salads.

North Side  40 W. North Ave.
412/435-1111, 40northpgh.com

Alta Via

Although it’s only three years old, the O’Hara restaurant already feels like a longtime Pittsburgh fixture. Alta Via’s sprawling-yet-intimate-feeling dining room — and its lovely square bar — offers a relaxing, easy-to-love experience that’s a boon for a part of town that needed a dining boost. The restaurant is also a destination for eaters further afield. Longtime Casbah executive chef Dustin Gardner crossed the Allegheny River last year to step in as Alta Via’s executive, tightening up the wood-fired large plate section of the menu. I’m a big fan of the restaurant’s vegetable dishes, which are always made with attention to detail and just enough nuance to bring out the best flavors and textures of the plants. In addition, Alta Via’s plates of pasta are some of the best in town — I suggest taking the option for a half-portion so you can try a few of them on the same visit.

Big Burrito launched an offshoot with Alta Via Pizzeria in Bakery Square in Larimer in March. You’ll find tray and round pizza variations, plus some of the pasta and sides that make the original Alta Via one of our Best Restaurants. Early next year, a second location of Alta Via will spring up in Downtown’s Market Square.

O’Hara  46 Fox Chapel Road
412/408-3816, altaviapgh.com

Apteka

Apteka chefs/owners Kate Lasky and Tomasz Skowronski earned a well-deserved first nod from the James Beard Awards as semifinalists in the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category this year, as the duo continued to dive deeper into an exploration of how Eastern- and Central-European culinary traditions, Western Pennsylvania foodways and a vegan philosophy intersect into utterly delicious meals. While some menu staples such as pierogi have remained since the early days of Apteka, Lasky and Skowronski’s offerings are significantly more dynamic now. Lest this all seem a little serious, there is also a lot of merrymaking. Crapteka, the establishment’s annual January play on fast food, features housemade plant-based burgers, an array of marvelous dipping sauces and a mind-blowing sunflower-based milkshake.

I was thrilled when Lasky and Skowronski reopened a renovated dining room in July, and its backyard garden is a draw for a fun warm-weather meal. Apteka’s bar program is one of Pittsburgh’s most ambitious — housemade cordials bolster one-of-a-kind cocktails (and also are available for sipping as-is, which you should try), its deep natural and biodynamic wine list rivals any in town and the beer list features a selection of European bottles you won’t find anywhere else in Pittsburgh. Those who choose not to imbibe will appreciate the non-alcoholic drinks list, which is as detailed as the boozy one.

Bloomfield  ​​4606 Penn Ave.
aptekapgh.com

Back to the Foodture

It’s been a treat to see Back To The Foodture, Angel and Edward Magwood’s hamburger and wing joint, mature into a new phase with a move last May from its original Pitcairn location to a prominent position in South Side Works. The establishment’s narrow dining room has a luncheonette vibe (and limited seating) where you can power through a dozen wings while appreciating the ebullient Edward Magwood’s collection of nostalgic knickknacks. There’s also outdoor seating in the warmer months, and you can bring your bites over to the nearby square.

Angel Magwood is Back To The Foodture’s head chef. Every time I visit, I’m in awe of how she can throw together so many permutations of hamburgers and wings (38 burgers and 154 wings, plus 18 hot dogs and 26 fries) yet have them (almost) all ring scrumptious. So here’s what I suggest: go for a burger such as Dusty Rhodes (Provolone, crispy onion, bacon, sliced wing dust chips, Carolina sauce) or a wild one such as 504 Boy (Ghost pepper cheese, jalapeno, onion, coconut habanero sauce) and then get a mix of dry and wet wings ranging from mild to hot.

South Side  2767 E. Carson St.
instagram.com/back2thefoodture

Bar Marco

The evolution of Bar Marco is one of the most vibrant success stories of Pittsburgh’s modern-era dining boom. The Italian-influenced Strip District restaurant turned 10 in January, and chef/owner Justin Steel continues to find nuance in his let-the-ingredients-speak-first perspective with top-notch housemade pasta, perfectly cooked and simply dressed seasonal vegetables and larger-format dishes such as milk-braised pork with sage and lemon.

Bar Marco’s hospitality-forward team kept diners in good cheer (speaking of merriment, the beverage program here is always a crowd-pleaser) in a tented area for much of 2021 prior to reopening its intimate dining room this January. As of press time, the establishment is offering a two-course $45 menu, including a starter such as Tuscan onion soup and a pasta, meat or fish main course, with a “bonus pasta” available. Always get the bonus pasta at Bar Marco.

Strip District 2216 Penn Ave.
412/471-1900, barmarcopgh.com

Casbah

In a year of significant upheaval in the hospitality industry, Casbah’s management trained new staff members to seamlessly keep pace with expectations in a restaurant known for its consistency. Indeed, the Shadyside restaurant thrives because of its fine-tuned systems, some of which are obvious and some of which take place behind the scenes. As a result, Casbah is one of those places where you’ll have the same well-taken-care-of experience if you are a Wednesday night regular, haven’t visited for years (or even a decade) or are there for the first time to celebrate a special occasion.

Casbah’s pasta, fish and roasted meat selections are always a solid choice, but I’ll also steer you to the excellent vegetable cooking. The big Burrito group continues to source better and better local ingredients every year, and the chefs here know what to do with them. Look at seasonal selections such as spring salad with tender greens, fava beans, green garbanzo beans, watermelon radish, avocado tahina, benne seeds and white balsamic vinaigrette and English pea and fava bean ravioli with preserved lemon butter, sunflower shoots and sumac — and don’t skip the vegetables served on the side of those main courses, either.

Shadyside 229 S. Highland Ave.
412/661-5656, casbah.kitchen

Chengdu Gourmet

I missed feasting around the large table in the back corner of Chengdu Gourmet’s subterranean Squirrel Hill dining room more than I missed any other singular Pittsburgh dining experience during the various stages of the coronavirus pandemic. Reveling in a shared meal around a parade of dishes ranging from soul-satisfying to mind-numbing hot is a friendship-building experience I highly recommend experiencing with people close to you. If you’re new to Sichuan cuisine, start with classic dishes such as cumin lamb, Chongqing beef hot pot and pickled vegetables, and then ask the Chengdu Gourmet staff to help round out your meal.

Executive chef/owner Wei Zhu earned his fifth consecutive James Beard Award Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic semifinalist nomination this year, and it’s well deserved. Rather than sit on his laurels, he continues his journey toward mastering the art of Sichuan cuisine, introducing new dishes such as beef filet in an electrifying green Sichuan peppercorn sauce while honing in on his interpretations of the canonical items. Look for a second, larger location of Chengdu Gourmet on McKnight Road in Ross this year.

Squirrel Hill 5840 Forward Ave.
412/521-2088, chengdugourmetpittsburgh.com

DiAnoia’s Eatery

DiAnoia’s Eatery is always humming. Over the last year, the Strip District restaurant fully reopened for breakfast, lunch and dinner service. Whichever meal you pick for a visit, you will get top-notch, informed service at the high-energy space. What I love about DiAnoia’s is how it blends a classic, red-sauce Italian-American joint with contemporary Italian culinary influences. I also appreciate how owners Dave Anoia and Aimee DiAndrea aren’t above delivering a little Instagrammable pizzazz with dishes such as gnocchi pumpkin bowl — that’s a whole pumpkin filled with gnocchi, pumpkin cream sauce, mozzarella and nutmeg.

My suggestion for dinner is to share a seasonal salad and a few of the restaurant’s outstanding pasta selections, such as rigatoni al forno and capellini alla vongole, then dive into a main dish such as the luscious porchetta and drippings served with a slab of focaccia. I’m into the vast array of hot and cold panini offered at lunch (the veal parmesan is excellent) and am glad there’s a small selection of lunchtime pasta dishes now available, too.

Strip District 2549 Penn Ave.
412/918-1875, dianoiaseatery.com

Dish Osteria

Pittsburgh’s restaurant world felt a little more complete when Dish Osteria reopened in late September 2021. The 22-year-old South Side gem had remained shuttered longer than nearly any Pittsburgh restaurant that intended to reopen, so it was cause for celebration when Michele and Cindy Savoia (and almost the entire pre-pandemic staff) welcomed guests into their cozy Sicilian restaurant and bar. Dining at Dish, whether you’re a longtime regular (they are legion) or a first-time visitor, is a portal into the importance restaurants have in connecting us in a way that you’re not going to share over a Zoom happy hour.

Put your trust in Michele Savoia’s straightforward southern Italian cuisine. Begin with a seasonal salad — even through the cooler months, Savoia worked with farmer Jason “Joddo” Oddo to bring in locally grown vegetables such as punchy puntarelle and bitter chicories — and a fish such as grilled sardines. Get whatever soup is in season — in winter it might be earthy maccu di fave (fava bean soup) and in spring bright and pungent stinging nettles and ramps. Then, split a couple of pasta dishes; stuff-your-face-indulgent rigatoni alla scamorza is always on my must-get list. Go back to fish for the main course, or perhaps the crispy and lovely grilled quail. Finish with a few bites from the dessert menu plus a glass of a digestif from Dish’s extensive amari list.

South Side 128 S. 17th St.
412/390-2012, dishosteria.com

Driftwood Oven

Like a well-tended sourdough starter, Driftwood Oven adapted to its environment and grew stronger over the past year. After closing his Lawrenceville dining room in 2020, chef/owner Neil Blazin expanded the establishment’s kitchen space to bolster its roster of baked goods (a small dine-in area and some outdoor seating are still available). Now, every weekend bakery manager Alaina Phillips brings a celebration of craveable creations consisting of croissants, cruffins, cookies and cinnamon rolls to Pittsburgh. All the leavened items offered at Driftwood Oven are prepared with a natural starter, which adds a hint of pleasant, tangy roundness to the goods.

On the savory side, Driftwood Oven’s 16-inch round pies and its Roman-style trays are among the few on the peak of Pittsburgh’s pizza pyramid. Go for something straightforward, such as classic cheese or pepperoni, or dig into a seasonal or specialty pie — whatever route you choose, the pie will be well-balanced. This year, one of the more excellent changes is that the bakery’s Roman-style pizza is now also available by the cut. On top of it all, Driftwood Oven’s menu of shareables, sides, salads and sandwiches likely would merit the restaurant’s inclusion on this list even if that was all it served.

Lawrenceville 3615 Butler St.
412/251-0253, driftwoodoven.com

Eleven Contemporary Kitchen

The thing I dig most about Eleven Contemporary Kitchen is how it’s in a constant state of slow evolution. Things never change too drastically at the Strip District restaurant, yet it always seems to be the right fit for the time. There are menu staples such as nicely cooked scallops, salmon, chicken and a couple of beef dishes, but they swap the accompanying side sets often enough to keep things lively. For example, take the scallops from a few months back — the black garlic puree, white asparagus, peas, fava beans, radish and toasted shallot-pink peppercorn vinaigrette spoke to the early spring weather.

Everything else at Eleven is framed with friendly formality. You will find one of the most professional front-of-house crews in Pittsburgh, led by a team of longstanding managers, servers, hosts and bartenders and rounded out by the next generation of Pittsburgh’s hospitality industry. The restaurant boasts an excellent wine list and a comfortable, upscale design. That, alongside a menu just about anyone can dig, makes Eleven one of the top spots in town for an upscale meal.

Strip District 1150 Smallman St.
412/201-5656, elevenck.com

Everyday Noodles

As much as I enjoyed getting takeout from Everyday Noodles (bowls of savory, piquant and satisfying pickled mustard greens with pork noodle soup in particular), it sure was nice to return to the narrow Squirrel Hill dining room to enjoy a meal peppered with one after another juicy xiaolongbao, the signature dish of the restaurant. Owner Mike Chen and his team have extended the menu to offer what functionally is dim sum without the carts — you’ll find a variety of buns that range in form and filling, from classic potstickers to fried stuffed bun, which is a pork-meatball filled bun that’s fluffy like a bao on top and crunchy at the base.

Staffing remains an issue at Everyday Noodles, which means that for the moment, you won’t see the show of chefs Pop! Thwack! Roll! Slice! as they prepare noodles a la minute; prep work tends to take place during the day now. But the brisk, efficient servers are great at navigating your order and keeping the busy space moving without making you feel rushed — if you’re looking for a quick bite before heading to a show (as long as the wait isn’t too long to get a table), you can be out the door, stuffed and happy, in 30 minutes.

Squirrel Hill 5875 Forbes Ave.
412/421-6668, everydaynoodles.net

Fig & Ash

There’s intoxicating magic to a restaurant when the entire staff sings the same tune. That’s what’s happening at Fig & Ash, the welcoming North Side establishment run by Cory Hughes and Alex Feltovich. The restaurant was one of my favorite openings of 2020, and it continues to shine as it rolls through its second year on Pittsburgh Magazine’s Best Restaurants list. I appreciate how the restaurant sits in a hard-to-find sweet spot between neighborhood tavern and destination, night-out dining.

Hughes, executive chef Chris Shuplock and the rest of the kitchen crew deliver a crowd-pleasing menu with dishes inspired by Sunday dinners and classic American cuisine. What makes it shine is they use quality ingredients, add some nuance in technique you might not want to do at home and execute the cookery with fine attention to detail. There are now-stalwart dishes such as double-cut pork chop and short rib and pork-belly meatloaf with side sets that change seasonally (jump on the luxurious mashed potatoes if they are listed), as well as seasonal salads and soups plus rotating items such as lentil shepherd’s pie.

North Side 514 E. Ohio St.
412/321-2222, figandashpgh.com

Gi-Jin

Gi-Jin, one of the recent additions from the always-hustling Richard DeShantz Restaurant Group, brings escapist vibes and a flair for fish to the mini-restaurant row in the Cultural District. You’ll find a ridiculous gin menu, hard-to-find (in Pennsylvania) sake bottles, and upbeat, informed service in an immersive dining space. Downtown Pittsburgh has a new superstar restaurant to enjoy as it slowly wakes up from two-plus years of sometimes near abandonment due to the coronavirus pandemic.

You’re coming to Gi-Jin for chef de cuisine Michael Taylor’s varied permutations of raw fish. It’s been a joy to see him delve into his craft as he quickly moves deeper into modern-day sushi philosophy. Taylor does everything from precision butchering to aging an aquarium of sea creatures. The quality of his work is shown in nigiri that ranges from delicate to flavor-bomb. Be sure to get some of the stunning small plates, such as hamachi crudo and spicy tuna rice cake, to share with your pals, too.

Downtown 208 Sixth St.
412/325-7007, gi-jin.com

Ladybird’s Luncheonette

Earlier this year, Ladybird’s Luncheonette owners Jade Cageao and Alex Jordan moved the entirety of their operation from the restaurant’s original Ellwood City spot to what previously was a satellite location on the second floor of a building in downtown Beaver. That space offers more room for Cageao and her crew to prepare the array of savory and sweet treats that make the establishment a destination. It also allows the duo to throw multi-course dinners, offer classes such as sourdough baking techniques and provide a small dining room where guests can crush their Appalachian-influenced craveables to the sounds of alt-country and Belinda Carlisle.

I’m drawn to Cageao’s blend of timeless pastry skills, sense of seasonality, focus on local ingredients and flair for contemporary whimsy. Her generously filled hand pies have crackly, flaky shells, her soups are heartwarming and her desserts decadent. If you’re feeling indulgent, get messy with dishes such as BBQ Mac hand pie stuffed with roast chicken, macaroni and cheese, bread and butter pickles and barbeque sauce. Are you feeling a little more wholesome? Cageao’s avocado toast, served on homemade sourdough, elevates a tired trend with a pop of texture and flavor; pair that with one of Ladybird Luncheonette’s energizing juice blends. Whichever direction you choose (or choose both, like I do), don’t skip what’s in the pastry case.

Beaver 459 Third St., Second Floor
724/506-6302, ladybirdsluncheonette.com

Mola

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

The thing I love best about Mola is chef/owner Alex Tang’s deliberate and continuous drive to refine his proficiency in the craft of sushi making. Over the past year, he’s deepened his supply chain to import a global lineup of seafood that can’t be found at establishments elsewhere in the region. For example, there were times when he offered five varieties of uni from various geographies, allowing diners to experience how terroir affects the characteristics of sea urchin. Tang also treats fish with the utmost respect, experimenting with aging (contrary to popular belief, fresh isn’t always best when it comes to sushi) and curing techniques. His sushi rice is on-point and delicately seasoned. This year, he introduced a call-ahead omakase option, one of the few of its kind in Pittsburgh.

There are some excellent small plates on the menu, too. I love the juicy hamachi collar, and Mola’s seaweed salad is a vegetal and sweet way to balance the rest of the meal. Diners looking for non-fish dishes should consider pork belly bao, pork gyūdon and Japanese curry chicken. Service at Mola is upbeat, and the small dining room is lively. Later this year, Tang and Everyday Noodles owner Mike Chen will launch a food hall centered around Asian restaurants in the Terminal Building in the Strip District.

East Liberty 6018 Penn Ave.
412/365-6688, themolafish.com

Morcilla

Passing tapas and sharing big-format dishes while quaffing funky fermented cider might be the norm in Mediterranean Spain, but it wasn’t even an option in Pittsburgh prior to Justin Severino and Hilary Prescott Severino opening Morcilla in late 2015. The restaurateurs entrusted longtime Cure chef Nate Hobart with the kitchen, who, as executive chef and partner, is offering a ridiculously tasty menu of Spanish-style dishes. Morcilla’s menu moves with the seasons, so don’t miss dishes such as almejas en salsa verde (Manila clams, green garlic salsa verde, vermouth, lemon) when offered. You’ll also find consistency in shared items such as the Laurel Hills Farm trout with fried artichokes, salsa verde and lemon and costillas de la matanza; those baby back ribs are my favorite rib dish in town.

The bar at Morcilla, with picture windows opening to Butler Street, is one of my favorite places to relax with a drink and a snack. Morcilla’s beverage menu has a deep sherry and vermouth list, its cocktails are refined and balanced, the beer is local and the wine list is marvelous. As for snacks, I’d go for the Salty Pork Bits platter (Severino’s charcuterie business is top-class), zesty fried artichokes and the luscious oxtail montadito.

Lawrenceville 3519 Butler St.
412/652-9924, morcillapittsburgh.com

Oak Hill Post

Oak Hill Post owners Christian Schulz and Rebecca Nicholson strengthened the voice of their already outstanding Brookline establishment by slowly transforming what began as a takeaway sandwich and pasta shop into Pittsburgh’s premiere daytime restaurant. When I reviewed the restaurant in February, I noted how it walks a perfect line between a contemporary, ingredient-driven restaurant and a diner with a small-town vibe. I crave visits to Oak Hill Post for the depth of flavors on its small-yet-dynamite menu, and I return for the warmth of service.

Breakfast is a big draw here, with crusty, flaky biscuits that serve as a base for sweet (lemon curd and jam) and savory (get the breakfast sandwich). The hearty breakfast burrito and airy French toast are fantastic options, too. For lunch, Oak Hill Post’s All American Burger makes a strong case for Pittsburgh’s top hamburger. Sandwiches such as No. 26 (a wildly yummy fried chicken sandwich) and The Breakfast Club (turkey, bacon, fried egg and more) round out a delightful list of items.

Brookline 600 Brookline Blvd.
412/254-2970, oakhillpost.com

Pusadee’s Garden

The most exciting Pittsburgh restaurant opening of 2021 kept rolling strong in 2022. A visit to the sophisticated reimagining of Pusadee’s Garden in Upper Lawrenceville is transportive. I feel like I drop all of my worries the minute I step into the elegant, breezy entrance arcade and land in a seat in one of the semi-private dining rooms, the glass-box bar or the restaurant’s gorgeous garden, which, fewer than two years in, is already starting to mature into a dreamy modernist fantasy (I can’t wait to see how beautiful it’ll be as it matures over the years).

Pusadee’s Garden’s menu has staple small plates, such as charcoal-cooked lemongrass meatballs (be sure to enjoy the sugarcane stick they are grilled around) and pork belly with garlic caramel, and mains such as khao soi short rib with egg noodles and pickled mustard greens. There always are a few new dishes for voracious eaters to explore. If you’re a fan of spicy food, I’ll steer you to som tum; the spicy green papaya salad is brightly acidic, a little sweet and comes with an (adjustable) heat that awakens the palate for the rest of the meal.

Lawrenceville 5319 Butler St.
412/252-2683, pusadeesgarden.com

Sakura

Fenping Geng and Feng Gao’s Squirrel Hill restaurant has a Japanese name and a wide-ranging menu that offers everything from sushi to canonical Chinese-American dishes. But dig in deeper to what effectively is a restaurant within a restaurant, and you’ll find one of the most exciting places to eat in Pittsburgh. That’s because Geng, the effusive front-of-house personality, and Gao (a chef growing ever more confident in his culinary vision) have moved the dishes of their native Shaanxi province to the forefront of the menu. And those dishes, along with Geng’s gracious presence, are why Sakura is on this list.

Geng and Gao significantly expanded Sakura’s handmade dumpling list earlier this year, and what’s offered now is extraordinary. Get into the “Amazing Dumplings” list with selections such as the spicy, crunchy pork with lotus root, vegetal pork with fennel fronds and the juicy northern classic pork with sour pickled cabbage. A new “Chef’s Secret Northwest Noodles” list includes hand-pulled noodle treats such as beef hot-oil noodles and ripped noodles topped with tomato and egg. Don’t skip out on other Northern dishes such as the crackly ​​Laotongguan pork sandwich and cold chicken salad popping with cilantro and warm spices, either.

Squirrel Hill 5882 Forbes Ave.
412/422-7188, sakura-pgh.com

Salem’s Market and Grill

The dining room at Salem’s Market and Grill got an upgrade this year with new flooring, tables, and bright digital signs, making the fairly lengthy menu easier to navigate. While you wait in line to order, watch executive chef Nurul Huda oversee a multicultural crew of cooks working grill stations and batching portions of flavorful Middle Eastern cuisine in the Strip District restaurant’s open kitchen. Since it’s attached to a best-in-the-region butcher shop, the halal restaurant is reasonably priced, especially considering that the meat is locally raised and of remarkable quality. Vegetarian diners are looked after, too — the establishment offers a tantalizing array of dishes for those who choose not to eat meat.

There’s the hot bar, one of the best meal deals in Pittsburgh, where you can order heaping portions of goat curry and chicken biryani along with sides such as spinach paneer. Or go for the grill, where kebabs and shawarma come as plates or sandwiches. And while it might seem like a bit of a departure for a Middle Eastern restaurant to offer a hamburger, Salem’s has one of the best in Pittsburgh; the custom blend is ground in-house daily.

Strip District 2923 Penn Ave.
412/235-7828, salemsmarketgrill.com

Senti

As Pittsburgh (in line with restaurant trends across the country) settles into an era where casual dining and comfort food is at the forefront, it’s particularly critical for our city to celebrate its elegant dining options, too. Senti fits the bill. With friendly-formal service and refined contemporary northern Italian cuisine, the Lawrenceville restaurant is a perfect spot for a special-occasion meal, out-of-town family visit or a lovely mid-week date.

Senti’s spaghetti pomodoro reminds us that even the seemingly most straightforward dishes can spark perfection when everything works in harmony; the al dente noodles seem to be drunk with tomatoes and basil. Agnolotti di vitello, dumplings stuffed with veal and herbs, swim in a bright veal and sage broth; the tiny pockets are deep, vegetal and wondrous to eat. Senti’s menu includes a rotating selection of seasonal main courses (typically, two are offered) and a dynamite list of starters. The restaurant’s wine list is one of the most exceptional in Pittsburgh.

Lawrenceville ​​3473 Butler St.
412/586-4347, sentirestaurant.com

Spork

I appreciate how Spork is a restaurant driven by curiosity. This year, the major evolution for the Bloomfield restaurant was in the style of service, which became significantly more formal. The kitchen sends out a series of amuse-bouche between courses, many of which will be among the best bites of the meal, and you’ll find a bit of theater as a bartender prepares beautiful classic cocktails on a roving bar car (the whole bar program is top-notch). Unless you alert staff otherwise, dinner may linger for a few hours. I’m here for it — this sort of heightened dining experience is a real treat, and the dynamic, upbeat soundtrack featuring artists such as The Clash and Blondie keeps the energy high.

The menu changes pretty frequently at Spork, but dishes typically don’t move forward without testing. Take an early spring halibut dish — the firm, juicy fish was seasoned with toasted rye bran and coriander and served with grassy English pea puree and hard-to-find corn sprouts, plus a painter’s palette of sauces such as spicy yogurt, pistachio miso and harissa. Executive chef Chris Frangiadis and his team go one or two steps extra in a way that nearly always works by using fresh, preserved or fermented elements from the restaurant’s adjacent garden.

Bloomfield 5430 Penn Ave.
412/441-1700, sporkpittsburgh.com

Taiwanese Bistro Cafe 33

One of the liveliest places in Pittsburgh is the dining room of Taiwanese Bistro Cafe 33. Tables are nearly elbow-to-elbow at the Squirrel Hill restaurant, which is located in a former laundromat around the corner from the hubbub of Forbes Avenue. Co-owner Jenny Tao and her upbeat front-of-house staff walk newcomers and loyal regulars through her husband Asan Tao’s Taiwanese menu, which runs the gamut from mild items such as chicken cutlets over rice and turnip cakes to the assertive changsha chou doufu, known in English as stinky tofu.

It’s easy to put together a balanced meal at Cafe 33. I adore Asan Tao’s approachable yet elegant dishes such as steamed halibut dressed in soy sauce, sesame oil, scallions and cilantro (be sure to ask about fresh fish specials), and I crave comfort food such as pork rolls with oyster sauce and lightly fried tofu with chive blossoms. Tao’s approach to canonical Taiwanese dishes such as beef noodle soup, scallion pancake with eggs and three-cup chicken (listed as chicken with basil and garlic in a hot stone pot) are terrific, too.

Squirrel Hill 1711 Shady Ave.
412/421-2717, twcafe33.com

Udipi Cafe

Udipi, which opened in 1996, is the Pittsburgh-area’s longest continuously operating vegetarian restaurant. The lively eatery offers an expansive menu primarily focused on the southern Indian cuisines of the Tuluva-Mangalorean and Andhra regions. The Monroeville establishment garners long-standing love from devoted regulars yet continues to remain under the radar enough to make it a bit of an unsung gem. Owner/chef Manjunath Sherigar dialed things in another step this year. It is operating with a precision of execution that makes it even more of a destination than it has been all these years.

Udipi has built a reputation as the go-to spot for dosa, a thin crepe prepared from a batter of fermented lentils and rice. Lacy with umami on the inside and filled with items such as potatoes, onions, minced vegetables and spicy chutney, they are energy-dense and utterly delicious. Be sure to get some selections from the appetizer menu — the sampler plate with vegetable cutlet, vegetable samosa idli, medu vada and pakoda is a mighty array of crispy bites that are particularly yummy when dipped in some of Udipi’s spicy condiments.

Monroeville 4141 Old William Penn Highway
412/373-5581

BEST POP-UP

Fet Fisk

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

Nik Forsberg and his crew carry a lot of good cheer under the Fet Fisk umbrella. There’s a small farm, which he’s expanding this season. There’s the Bloomfield farmers market stand where Fet Fisk sells pickled vegetables, smoked fish, condiments and other housemade delights. There are whimsical specials such as the “Fisk Fry” and “Burger Knights.” There are Forsberg’s cleverly crafted newsletters. There’s a newly introduced series of multi-course dinners in collaboration with Nine O’Clock Wines.

And then there’s the continuation of where it all began with collaborator and co-founder Sarah LaPonte in 2019 — the pop-up series. Forsberg found a temporary spot for the typically biweekly popups at now-closed Pear and the Pickle in Troy Hill and in May moved the events to (for the time being, at least) Soju in Garfield. Forsberg and his crew shine with menus that seamlessly combine local seasonality and foodways with Scandinavian culinary influences. What’s offered changes each time, so just dive in with a few friends and get into it.

fetfisk.net
instagram.com/fet_fisk

BEST FOOD TRUCK

stuntpig

Ariel Alexander and Cody Maze launched stuntpig in mid-2021, delighting an ever-growing multitude of fans with their lineup of raise-your-hands-in-the-air tasty sandwiches. There typically are three or four of them available when the Pig Rig rolls up to one of the region’s terrific breweries (and, occasionally, other locations). I crave the backyard barbeque delectability of Mr. Pink (smoked pork shoulder, chipotle mop sauce, fennel-coriander slaw, violet mustard) and the bright heat of Mr. Orange (smoked and pulled chicken, spicy piri piri sauce, briny cucumbers, chimichurri aioli), while Mr. Blonde (house-cured rosemary ham, melty swiss, bread and butter pickles, mustard jam) is an easy-to-love pressed sandwich.

Not all of stuntpig’s sandwiches are named for “Reservoir Dogs” characters, and the menu is rounded out with just-as-enjoyable items such as herby “grandma-style” potato salad, grilled carrot salad and jerked chicken drumettes.

stuntpigpgh.com
instagram.com/stuntpigpgh

PHOTOS BY HAL B. KLEIN

It’s easy to feel a little salty right now with the weather jerking us back and forth from sunshine and breezy warmth one evening to wondering if that’s really frost on the ground, again, the next morning. It is. Tomorrow, it might be sunny and 70 degrees again.

Rather than revile the jerking changes, revel and roll with them. Let’s embrace this time of the year for what it is: the most versatile season for cooking meat. Right now, you’ll have the opportunity for smoking brisket over hickory and oak one day, and then the following day, it’s chilly enough for a long braise of a locally raised Boston butt. And it’s never not a good time to roast a whole chicken.

But where can you shop for high-quality meat in Pittsburgh?

Building a relationship with a local butcher can help you make sure your favorite and specialty cuts are available, and they can even turn you on to new things to cook. Butchers provide an outlet for locally raised meat and also supply meat for the specific needs of cultural and religious culinary traditions.

The problem is that there are hardly any independent butchers left in the region.

“There used to be shops all over Pittsburgh,” says Raymond Turkas Jr., owner of Strip District Meats. “But the reality is there are very few independent butcher shops left in any city. It’s really a thing of the past.”

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA LAMB FROM SALEM’S MARKET & GRILL

Iowa Beef Packers introduced boxed beef — pre-cut and vacuum-sealed hunks of cow that could be ordered and shipped from afar directly to the shop or grocery store — in 1967. Boxed beef moved into prominence in the 1980s and now dominates the market; just four meatpackers control 85% of the beef market in the United States. Similarly, large entities control the hog and chicken markets, too.

“The whole stream of processing has become monopolized by just a few companies in the country and even the world,” says Abdullah Salem, owner of Salem’s Market & Grill in the Strip District.

On top of consolidation at the front-end of the supply chain, there was a significant shift in the 1980s and ’90s in how we shopped for just about everything.

“As soon as big box stores moved in, all the little, independent stores from clothing shops to pharmacies to butcher shops were gone. It was tough to stay competitive with that,” says Moe Martin, production manager of Weiss Meats in Pleasant Hills.

It still is.

One of the region’s most ambitious newer butcher shops — Heritage Craft Butchers in Washington County — shut down in February after just three years following a couple of rough weeks. In doing so, it closed a pipeline for customers interested in purchasing high-quality, locally raised meat that wasn’t previously frozen. In the past decade, others have tried, too. Marty’s Market in the Strip District, Butcher on Butler in Lawrenceville and D’s Butcher Shop in Bloomfield all tried to revive the local butcher, but none lasted more than a few years.

TOM FRIDAY’S

There are a handful of smaller grocers around the region that continue to maintain meat cases similar to what you might find at a larger chain grocery (in that they are ordering from the conglomerate meat processors) but have the added feature that they can special order for you and often make some products such as sausage, jerky and bologna.

Just a few businesses managed to weather the storm to still offer what would be considered a classic butcher shop or meat counter. That perseverance might pay off.

Now, in an era where an ever-increasing part of the population cares where their meat comes from and how its raised, when small businesses, particularly the ones with deep history, are celebrated as local institutions and when inflation in national and international commodity markets means that locally raised meat can compete on price with feedlot farms, it’s a good time to look to our local butchers.

They thrived during the pandemic. “When there was no meat in Giant Eagle, Costco, Sam’s Club, when you could only get a couple of things at a time, people came here because they knew we had everything and didn’t have a limit on how much you can buy,” says Tim Thoma, owner of Thoma Meats in Saxonburg.

With new government programs such as the Meat and Poultry Expansion Program and the Local Food Provision Program included in the Build Back Better Act, there’s an opportunity for butchers to expand their businesses or grow new ones, too.

“It’s not a question of availability. It’s a question of wanting to do it. Pennsylvania has one of the most vibrant livestock systems in the United States. You go to the livestock auctions and they are full of options,” says Salem.

The seven establishments listed below are my favorites in the region. All of them except for one have operated for more than 30 years (and three for more than 70).

NABIL MALOU, A BUTCHER AT SALEM’S FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS

Salem’s Halal Market and Grill
The Draw: halal meat. Large selection of goat and lamb. Affordable prices, particularly considering the quality. A large percentage of meat is locally raised and traceable to the source.

The butcher counter in the back of Salem’s Halal Market and Grill has been humming with the sounds of multicultural marketplace since it opened in the Strip District in 2010. But the business, and the tradition of whole-animal butchery, goes back to 1981 when Massaud Salem founded Salem’s in Oakland. Salem’s is a halal butcher shop, meaning the rearing, slaughtering and butchering of animals must all take place under the rules of the Islamic dietary law known as Dhabīhah.

Salem’s sources all of its beef and most of its lamb and goat from farms primarily in Washington and Indiana counties. Whole animals are brought in daily, stored in the large walk-in cooler and broken down on-site. The chicken comes from Crescent Foods, a top-line halal meat processor.

“We can offer quality that you’re not going to be able to find elsewhere. We’re going to offer support to farmers and producers you’re not going to find elsewhere. There aren’t many butchers like us that will custom cut just how you like it,” says Abdullah Salem, the second-generation owner.

Salem’s is the largest non-industrial purchaser of livestock in Pennsylvania, which translates to a selection that is always going to be fresh. Because Salem’s has an attached restaurant (on Pittsburgh Magazine’s Best Restaurants list every year since 2017) that uses the same supply chain, and a large catering operation, prices are competitive with chain grocery stores, too.

Inside the long meat case, you’ll find whole front- and hind-quarters of lamb and goat, perfect for a roast or a long smoke. There are whole oxtails ready for braising, plump chickens for roasting and a range of stew meat and steaks, too. Since Salem’s is bringing in the animals whole, all secondary cuts such as kidney, liver and hoof are also available.

“If something is locally raised. If it’s purchased by you. If it’s butchered by you, there is no comparison in flavor,” Salem says.

Many of Salem’s customers have cultural culinary preferences to eat animals at certain stages of their lifecycle. Salem says that they can place custom orders in addition to the already outstanding everyday selection.

“This is a community center. The butchers here know what you like. They know that you like a lamb shoulder better than a leg. They know someone else prefers older, tougher cuts of goat. They know when it’s someone’s birthday and what they like to cook to celebrate. That’s the difference between us and a big-box store,” Salem says.

2923 Penn Ave., Strip District; 412/235-7828, salemsmarketgrill.com

TIM THOMA

Thoma Meats
The Draw: You couldn’t get closer to the source if you tried.

Nestled in the rolling hills north of Pittsburgh is Thoma Meats, where, over 77 years, the Thoma family expanded its operation from a small butcher shop on Main Street in Saxonburg to a sprawling, fully integrated facility just outside of town where they now run the largest USDA-inspected meat processing plant in Western Pennsylvania.

“It’s the history. It’s the location. And most of all, it’s our reputation,” says Tim Thoma, the third-generation co-owner. “Most of the farmers we work with go back multiple generations, too.”

Thoma processes between 150 to 175 head of livestock per week. Beef, lamb, goats, hogs and even rabbits come in every weekday from farms across the region. While much of what’s processed goes back to the farmers, restaurants and even some big-box stores, the Thoma family also purchases livestock at auction for its retail operation.

“We take pride in supporting our agricultural community,” Thoma says.

There’s a retail shop with a nice array of cuts butchered just steps away from the counter, which is filled with select cuts of high-quality meat. There’s plenty to pick up here but the go-to move is to call ahead for custom cuts, which can be anything from a goat shoulder, a whole hog trussed and ready to smoke or even a 300-pound half-side of beef broken down into all its parts.

Thoma processes everything they bring in. Using an array of smokehouses, grinders and stuffers, it offers 25 value-added products, including bacon, ham, sausages, ring bologna, snack sticks and Canadian bacon. Have a dog? The “we don’t waste a single thing” business also offers high-quality raw dog food called Dinnerbell Pride.

The business, which continues to grow, employs 30 people, and the fourth generation is already working the floor.

“You might not know the difference until you taste what we have here. And then … pow! The flavor profile is amazing. Once you try it, you’re going to want to come back,” Thoma says.

748 Dinnerbell Road, Saxonburg; 724/352-2020, thomameat.com

ABUL KAFE, BETTER KNOWN AS ABU MUHAMMAD

La Madina Mediterranean Halal Market
The Draw: The newest butcher in town brings a lifetime of international experience to the South Hills. Most of the meat is locally sourced and all of it is halal

Abdul Kafe, known as Abu Muhammad, came to Pittsburgh in 2018 as a refugee from Syria. Back in his native Homs, Abu Muhammad ran a restaurant with an attached butcher shop, marrying his lifelong passion for tail-to-nose respect for animals. Prior to coming to Pittsburgh, he spent time in Cairo, where he also ran a wholesale butchery business.

“I opened my eyes and from then on I was a butcher,” he says.

Abu Muhammad took partial ownership of La Madina Mediterranean Halal Market on Banksville Road in November. It’s a small store chock full of specialty ingredients from the Middle East, and in the far right corner is his butcher counter.

His case is stocked with halal lamb, goat, beef, veal and chicken that he’s broken down into various whole muscle and smaller cuts; he’ll also prepare custom orders upon request. Abu Muhammad drives to eastern Ohio weekly to purchase lamb and beef from Amish farmers; he says he typically breaks down five to 10 lambs and one whole cow per week. “You will get a higher quality of meat here than you will find at the grocery stores. It’s meat that is fresh. It’s meat that is treated with respect,” he says.

He says that the primary difference in lamb between Syria and Western Pennsylvania is that the lamb was bred for its flavorful tail fat in his homeland. “The quality of the lamb is very different here. You can taste that they eat a diet full of grass and that everything is natural from nature,” he says, adding, “Beef, it’s basically the same.”

In the same way other butcher shops across the region use trimmings to prepare sausages according to their culinary traditions, Abu Muhammad offers sujuk, a spicy, fermented dried sausage, and other items such as chicken and beef sausage that former chef makes with what he brings into the store.

Ibrahim Alebedy, who works at La Madina and translated for Abu Muhammad, says that the butcher has already built a loyal following in the months since he’s opened the market. “He is very famous in the halal community in Pittsburgh. People come from Ohio and West Virginia because they know how good he is at what he does,” he says.

“It was fate that brought me to Pittsburgh and to this market,” Abu Muhammad says. “We are just beginning to build the business that we want to have here,” he says.

2880 Banksville Road, Banksville; 412/502-2539

VAL AND JOHN KENNEDY

J.L. Kennedy Meat Stand
The Draw: Direct, farm-to-table fresh meat from a family business with centuries-old roots in Western Pennsylvania agriculture.

J.L. Kennedy Meat Stand is in the back corner of Farmers’ Market Coop of East Liberty, open year-round every Saturday.. The fifth-generation family business, one of four original members of the cooperative founded in 1941, offers an enticing selection of fresh, non-cryovaced cuts of beef, pork, poultry, goat and lamb, as well as additional specialty items throughout the year. All the meat is locally raised on pastures by the Kennedy Family, who also operate Four Seasons Game Bird Farm in Valencia.

“We grow everything we sell. We never use any boxed meat. It’s a lot more work but we think it’s worth it for the quality and to carry on the tradition,” says co-owner Val Kennedy.

Talk about tradition: The Kennedys have been staples of our region’s agricultural economy for a very long time — the family began farming and raising animals in Butler County in the late 1700s.

The best way to order from J.L. Kennedy is to call the farm during the week. “This way, the 10 questions you have about a cut of meat can be answered quickly. And you can get custom service or place specific orders easily,” Kennedy says.

The farm also sends out a helpful text message every Friday to let customers know what’s going to be at the stand on Saturday morning; you text back with what you want to pick up (the market opens at 5 a.m., and while there is always something, I suggest getting there early if you don’t place a pre-order). While you’re there, you can pick up piecemeal items such as slices of bacon and rashers of Canadian bacon from the market stand. Plus, the other vendors at the cooperative offer locally grown and value-added products, including jams, beans, eggs and vegetables.

“You can Google all you want, but a lot of times there are nuances that you’re only going to learn from having conversations with people who have been doing it for as long as we have. And sharing that knowledge base means so much to us,” Kennedy ways.

344 Sheridan Ave., East Liberty; 724/898-2316 (farm) and 412/661-1875 (market), fourseasonsgamebirdfarm.com/j-l-kennedy-meats

TOM FRIDAY JR.

Tom Friday’s Market
The Draw: Historic meat stand with hanging beef. Great location for North Side residents. Old-time charm.

Tom Friday’s is the last classic, old-style butcher counter in the back of a grocery store in the Pittsburgh city limits. The Brighton Heights market, founded by Tom Friday Sr. in 1955 and now run by Tom Jr., is one of the few remaining butcher shops in the area to cut beef from hanging racks rather than pre-packaged boxes. And that beef is local, too. Friday receives a shipment at least once per week from Thoma Meats in Saxonburg. “I would never change. It was instilled in me by my father that this was the best way to do it,” Friday says.

What this means for a consumer is there are always expertly butchered, flavorsome cuts of locally raised beef available, and the shop can offer custom steaks and grinds for anyone who calls ahead. Friday says he rounds off his beef selection with Certified Black Angus beef so that he can supplement the demand for popular items such as strip steak and ribeye because there aren’t enough of them on each cow (ask for the locally raised cuts if that’s what you’re looking for).

You’ll find chicken, pork and lamb at Tom Friday’s, too, including some less common offerings such as pork steaks. Friday’s custom blend of ground brisket, chuck and short rib makes for some of the tastiest hamburger meat in town and the house-made kielbasa and other sausages rank high, too. This is a wonderful spot if you’re looking for big beef bones for stock since they are straight from the cow.

Prices are reasonable, and everyone behind the counter is very into the notion of lean-forward customer service. This is the kind of place where you can develop a relationship with your butcher.

Friday says it all meets his guiding principle. “You give a customer good quality and a fair price, and they’ll come back,” he says. “And we plan to be here for them when they need it.”

3639 California Ave., Brighton Heights; 412/766-4500, tomfridaysmarket.com

GARY BARDINE

Bardine’s Country Smokehouse
The Draw: A large retail shop in the heart of Westmoreland County with an array of beef and pork, some of which owner Gary Bardine raised himself.

Butchering runs in Gary Bardine’s family. His grandfather Albert was a butcher in Abruzzo, Italy, prior to emigrating to the United States. His father, Robert, raised animals and owned a slaughterhouse in Westmoreland County. In 1991, Bardine picked up the trade and opened a small butcher shop on the family farm in Crabtree.

About a decade later, he expanded into Bardine’s Country Smokehouse’s current building, a high-ceilinged space resembling a barn where there is an array of just about any cut of pig and beef you’d hope to find. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to call ahead if you want something specific, but, for the most part, you’ll be able to find anything you want in the store’s 50-foot refrigerated cases.

“Unlike a lot of the bigger places around Pittsburgh, we’re a retail-only operation. Everything we process we sell out the front door,” Bardine says.

Some of the cows and hogs sold at the store are processed and raised by Bardine on the land adjacent to the store. He and his crew of butchers typically process one cow a day — about half of them are his and the rest come from nearby farms, and he supplements the local meat with boxed beef for popular cuts such as strip steak. Bardine also raises fewer hogs than he does cattle, but much of what’s offered is purchased locally, rounded out with primal cuts from pigs butchered in Sandusky, Ohio, and eastern Pennsylvania.

“We process everything in-house and we do it the old-fashioned way, no rushing. We’re not braggarts here, but we do like to do things nice,” Bardine says.

Bardine also operates five smokehouses on the property where every month, he and his team turns thousands of pounds of meat into hams, bacon, jerky and snack sticks. Bardine, a former president of the Pennsylvania Association of Meat Processors and a 2018 inductee into the American Association of Meat Processors Cured Meats Hall of Fame, is well respected for his work. The retail shop is adorned with hundreds of awards he’s won over the years.

“I retired from competing after being inducted into the hall of fame. It’s important for me to give back the knowledge I have and help mentor the next generation now.”

224 Bardine Road, Crabtree; 724/837-7089, bardinemeats.com

RAYMOND TURKAS JR.

Strip District Meats
The Draw: Outstanding selection. Super knowledgeable. Custom orders.

Raymond Turkas Jr. has seen just about every trend in his more than five decades in the butchery trade.

“We pretty much sell everything you can think of. I never would have imagined that. When I first started out, all we did was chicken. We were still killing poultry in this building when I was in grade school,” he says.

Turkas officially joined the family business in 1971 (though he worked informally since childhood) and started introducing other types of meat to the store. “I’d move into 10 feet of space here, a few feet there. They let me do whatever I wanted as long as we had a few extra dollars in the bank,” he says.

Now, Strip District Meats has just about anything you can ask for. Turkas says the business, which started operating on Penn Avenue in 1952, began to move away from working whole carcasses about 25 years ago (like just about every butcher shop across the country), which he says is good for business because they order just what they want instead of getting stuck with too many certain things. He says his focus is consistently improving the selection and quality of what he offers. The lowest grade of beef at Strip District Meats is USDA Choice (a lower grade, Select, is more prevalent at grocery chains), and there is a significant selection of Prime as well as a case stocked with ever-increasing offerings of specialty Wagyu beef.

If they don’t have something on display, they might have it in the back or can special order it for you. In addition, there’s a good selection of sausage made in-house, plus various cures of bacon that you can purchase piecemeal. There also are game meats such as elk, antelope and venison, a selection of offal and even less-common meats such as camel, kangaroo and python.

Turkas says that customer service is the real key that sets his business and the other remaining butcher shops — even the tiny counters found in the back of small groceries can offer something you’re not going to find in the big-box stores.

“It’s all about building relationships with your employees and with your customers,” he says.

2123 Penn Ave., Strip District; 412/391-1762, stripdistrictmeats.com

MOE MARTIN AND JOE GSIACA

Weiss Meats
The Draw: Large-format cuts at big-box prices but instead of a national chain, you’re supporting a Pittsburgh-owned business. Customization of orders. Great if you are in the South Hills.

Weiss Meats, located in an industrial park in Pleasant Hills, was founded 74 years ago by Milton Weiss and is now run by sons Joe and Elliott Weiss and grandson Aaron Weiss. The large storefront offers a terrific number of options for just about anything you could ask for.

Aside from a smattering of locally raised Elysian Fields lamb, the meat comes from national meatpackers — Weiss stopped butchering whole animals years ago. The draw here, then, is customer service, choice and pricing.

Retail manager Moe Martin, who has worked at Weiss Meats for 16 years, says that people used to come in once every few months and stock up on bulk cuts. Now, most customers visit to purchase what they need in the short term. Either way, he says, meat counters such as Weiss offer larger-format items, including beef subprimals such as whole brisket and strip loins, not typically found outside of wholesale stores such as Costco or Restaurant Depot, as well as smaller cuts such as pork chops. The difference, he says, is that at Weiss Meats they’ll cut it just how you like it.

“Everything is custom. If it’s not in the case we can cut it or we can get it for you,” says Martin. “You can come here and stock up. And we’ll break things down if you want us to.”

Martin says the recent addition of a digital display letting people know what’s currently in stock and how to cook it is an excellent augmentation of what is another of the biggest draws to Weiss Meats: “A lot of it is a matter of education. We want to help people who are coming in here figure out what they like.”

Martin says that what people are looking for changes fairly often, partly because of social media, and Weiss is constantly adapting while still aiming to appeal to its legacy customers.
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“Those trends on TikTok and YouTube have a huge influence on what people are coming in here to buy. And it’s moving a lot faster now, too,” he says.

Right now, big-bone tomahawk steaks, tri-tip and short ribs are the hot trends. “We got in a ton of the full rib with the long bones so we could make our own tomahawk and they took off,” he says.

100 Terence Drive, Pleasant Hills; 412/650-8560, weissmeats.com

PHOTOS COURTESY PITTSBURGH BREWING

As mostly small craft breweries pop up all over the region, the 161-year-old maker of Iron City and I.C. Light beers is opening what will become the largest brewery in Allegheny County.

Beer is expected to start flowing in mid-May at Pittsburgh Brewing Company’s newest facility, a 170,000-square-foot production space in East Deer. It is located in what was once the Pittsburgh Glass Works plant, and before that, the original PPG Paints warehouse. The brewery features 25 aging and fermentation tanks and an initial capacity to produce up to 200,000 barrels of beer — and that’s only just the beginning.

Pittsburgh Brewing has crafted a long line of well-known beers — I.C. Light, I.C. Light Mango, Old German, American, American Light and, of course, Iron City — brewed in what the company calls “classic Pittsburgh style” since the Victorian era.

“Everybody has their thoughts on Iron City. That’s the original beer from 1861,” says Todd Zwicker, president of Pittsburgh Brewing Company. “Last year was its 160th anniversary. [Sales] grew 5.7%. I don’t know any other brands that are that old that are growing.”

Once brewing is underway, Pittsburgh Brewing Company can begin to implement the additional phases of its grand vision — including eventually increasing barrel production to more than 500,000 and using an old boiler house on the site to make rye whiskey and bourbons.

“We by far aren’t the largest brewery in the country, obviously, but we’re sizable,” Zwicker adds. “This is very high-tech, and it’s going to be very efficient.”

Brandon Mayes, director of brewing and quality assurance, spent the last 16 years cutting his teeth in brewing science at the Long Trail and Otter Creek breweries in Vermont. He says the massive tanks will be brewing lagers for now, but the space offers room to grow into new products.

“Innovation should be something that is certainly in the front of our minds moving forward,” he says.

Other long-term plans include a retail area, a restaurant and a museum, which Zwicker says will feature “thousands of Pittsburgh Brewing memorabilia items that have been collected over the years,” as well as other interactive exhibits.

With significant outdoor space and ample parking on the 40-acre site, the company also has the goal of capitalizing on its location along the Allegheny riverfront to make it a community hotspot.

But like most businesses in the disrupted pandemic era, Pittsburgh Brewing Company is reckoning with a familiar beast: supply chain shortages. Allocations of aluminum cans have presented challenges throughout the process.

“Glass is not a problem, at least not for us. Obviously draft beer is no problem. But bulk cans? It’s month-to-month,” Zwicker says. “There’s a lot of can plants that are coming online, but it might take a little bit of time to get caught up. We’ll get through it, but it’s a challenge.”

Since 2009, Pittsburgh Brewing Company has produced its beer in Latrobe, out of the old Rolling Rock plant owned by City Brewing. The local brewing behemoth made the decision to use the plant in the Creighton section of East Deer, just a stone’s throw from Route 28, in August 2020.

As soon as the Creighton plant is up and ready, the company will transition all of its production to the site — less than 20 miles away from the Lawrenceville blockhouse that saw the advent of Pittsburgh Brewing Company in 1861.

It’s the history of the new site, too, that makes Pittsburgh Brewing Company’s return to Allegheny County so notable.

“This is where PPG started, a very iconic Pittsburgh company,” Zwicker says. “And now you have another iconic Pittsburgh company going into the same building, so that’s pretty cool.”

Related:

Pittsburgh’s Craft Breweries and Taprooms Offer More than Just Great Beer

Ride Thirsty: Try This Bike-And-Brew Tour Along Pittsburgh’s Rivers

It’s a frigid Friday night in January, and Pittsburgh’s newest brewery, Golden Age Brewing Company in Homestead, is beginning to hum. The post-holiday wind-down, sub-freezing temperatures and the spike in COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant have kept more people at home than might typically visit; nevertheless, groups gather around the airy space’s long, rectangular tables for conversations and board games. Outside, fire pits rage.

Most everyone is sipping crisp pilsners or malty schwarzbiers, lagers that are the brewery’s specialty and a style of brewing that is one of the most prominent trends in beer right now. These clean, crisp brews are a break from the ultra-hopped and hazy IPAs, high-alcohol imperials and fruit-forward tartshakes that dominated the past five years (and remain popular among many beer lovers).

Golden Age’s in-house kitchen serves a limited menu, but it’s tasty. In addition to outstanding hamburgers, juicy chicken sandwiches and succulent wings, it’s serving what may very well be the best arancini in town. The crispy-crunchy, saffron-spiked risotto balls served on a bed of butternut squash, topped with sage-infused aioli, are an utterly satisfying companion to beer.

GOLDEN AGE IN HOMESTEAD | PHOTO BY TOM O’CONNOR

The brewery has two more of its beers on tap — kölsch, a light, hybrid beer that begins as an ale and finishes as a lager, and a fresh-sipping Citra American pale ale that’s a callback to a less hop-headed era. Golden Age’s other taps pour beers from Pittsburgh stalwarts, such as Roundabout Brewing and East End Brewing, and a hop-forward New England-style IPA from another well-regarded Pittsburgh newcomer, Old Thunder Brewing in Blawnox.

The idea that a craft brewery would want to sell — or even be allowed to sell — beers from another brewery would have been wild just a few years ago. Heck, a decade ago it wasn’t even possible to drink most breweries’ own beer where it was brewed.

It’s why Golden Age co-owner Peter Kurzweg and his brother Matt initially opened a bar, Independent Brewing Company in Squirrel Hill, in 2014. Back then, it took a bit of effort to explore a variety of locally brewed beers in Pittsburgh.

“You had good beer bars such as Piper’s Pub and Carson Street Deli that predated us who had heavy doses of local beer on tap, but they drew from other sources, too. The idea of putting together an all-local list was kind of laughable at the time because there just wasn’t that much out there. But within a year of our opening, we had a lot of new breweries to choose from and that list just kept growing,” Kurzweg says.

In 2022, there is so much good beer brewed in Pittsburgh that people don’t want to go to one place to get it. Instead, they visit the sources.

With 45 breweries in Allegheny County (at press time) peppering neighborhoods throughout the region, Pittsburgh is riding the wave of a brewery boom. It used to be that these spaces were largely the domain of hop heads and homebrew aficionados, but breweries in Pittsburgh now are our community gathering places and neighborhood pubs.

BOB BATZ, JR.

“A lot of bars are from an older era,” says Bob Batz Jr., longtime beer writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “They’re dark and not welcoming. Most of these breweries were planned in contemporary times, and they’re designed to give people what they wanted. There are places that are spacious. There are places that are dog-friendly. There are places that are kid-friendly.”

The pandemic has caused an ebb-and-flow to the crowds in the taprooms, but it hasn’t stopped people from visiting when they can, and it certainly hasn’t diminished the industry’s growth. The production side of beer brewing in Pittsburgh is thriving due to advancements in the cost and ease of canning and broader distribution availability.

How good are things right now? Only one brewery in Pittsburgh, Couch Brewery in Larimer, closed during the pandemic. Another brewery is already set to move into the space later this year.

Just about everybody, it seems, loves a brewery.

SCOTT SMITH AT EAST END BREWING IS ONE OF THE FOUNDATIONAL FIGURES OF PITTSBURGH’S CRAFT BEER BOOM. HIS LARIMER TAPROOM IS A DRAW FOR ITS FAMILY- FRIENDLY ATMOSPHERE.

A Short Pour

For decades, Pittsburgh Brewing Company, maker of Iron City and I.C. Light, dominated Pittsburgh’s post-Prohibition market, much in the same way that industrial macrobreweries such as Pabst, Budweiser and Coors built businesses in their respective cities. And the company’s offerings, once an anchor of industry in Lawrenceville, remain popular enough today that the company is preparing for a massive new life. Read More.

As for our craft brewing history? “It was a very slow start here,” says Batz.

The craft beer movement in the United States was given a foothold with the passage of the Small Brewers Excise Tax Differential in 1976, a law that leveled the fiscal playing field for small brewers. A decade later, Tom and Mary Beth Pastorius launched Penn Brewing when they contracted with Pittsburgh Brewing to brew Penn Pilsner. In 1989, the couple opened Allegheny Brewery & Pub in Troy Hill (they changed the name to Penn Brewery in 1994); it was the first “tied house,” a restaurant operating in conjunction with a brewery, in Pennsylvania since the end of Prohibition, and, even though it has transferred ownership several times, it remains a respected anchor of Pittsburgh’s beer community.

Penn Brewery was the only tied house in the region until Church Brew Works opened in Lawrenceville in 1996. A smattering of now-closed breweries attached to restaurants operated in the following years. It wasn’t until 2004, when Scott Smith opened East End Brewing in Larimer, that the stage would be set for what would become the explosion of brewery culture in Pittsburgh.

TRACE BREWING

Smith, an engineer by trade and at the time an avid homebrewer, didn’t want to open a brewpub — he wanted to brew beer and sell it for distribution at local bars and restaurants, something that seems so commonplace today but was a novel idea in Pittsburgh less than two decades ago.

“I called the [Allegheny] County Health Department and they asked me how many seats I had in our restaurant. I told them there was a chair by my desk and that was about it,” Smith says. “They didn’t know what to do or how to classify us.”

Smith’s Larimer building was classified as light industrial. He started with one beer — Big Hop, an IPA that he says people told him was “too hoppy” at the time but now is so mellow by comparison that, he says, “we call it an American Ale now. If we were to call it an IPA today, it wouldn’t meet the expectations of that style.”

Smith took his first keg of Big Hop to Kelly’s Bar & Lounge in East Liberty on a snowy December night, unsure if anybody would show up to drink it. An hour after tapping the keg, he had to drive back to the brewery to bring another one to the bar, where it has had a dedicated tap ever since.

Bit by bit, Smith, going bar to bar at night, built his business. And then, one day in 2005, he sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board asking about the parameters of self-distribution. They let him know he could sell growlers of his beer on-site. “And that’s what changed everything,” he says.

Smith would place a keg on the sidewalk and use a Sharpie to scribble hours on a paper posted to the door to let people know he was open for retail sales.

Smith and early adopter brewers such as Strange Roots (opened in 2011 as Draii Laag) in Millvale and Roundabout Brewery and Hop Farm Brewing Company, both of which opened in Lawrenceville in 2013, would offer “samples” of their beer for sale at their breweries.

“These places were small. They were more interested in packaging beer than they were selling it to drink on-site,” says Batz.

BEER IN PROGRESS AT NECROMANCER BREWING IN ROSS

Sampling, which Smith says was “a little squishy legally,” was more about allowing guests to enjoy a brew while filling growlers than it was about drawing new customers into the space. Craft cocktail culture was all the rage at the time in Pittsburgh. People weren’t yet hanging out at breweries. Slowly, however, laws regulating the sale of beer were relaxing.

In 2014, three significant breweries — Grist House Craft Brewery (Millvale), Hitchhiker Brewing Co. (Mt. Lebanon) and The Brew Gentlemen Brewery (Braddock) — opened with taprooms using a brewpub (GP) license, which allowed for breweries to serve pints on-site as long as they had 30 seats and served “legitimate” meals. Hop Farm began serving beer by the pint at its brewery, too.

In the years that followed, regulations such as the wording colloquially called the “bag of chips law” (which meant that brewers could now sell pints for consumption on-site so long as the space had at least 10 seats and snacks such as the proverbial bag of chips) and other reframing of what you could do with a ‘G’ (brewery) license continued to make it easier for breweries to become hangout spots.

A clarification of an earlier “storage facility” provision, used by Voodoo Brewery (Meadville, 2005) to open a taproom in Homestead in 2015, noted that it was indeed legal to sell beer from two remote locations used to store kegs, paving the way for breweries to operate multiple facilities. Further legislative changes in 2017 meant that breweries could sell beer, wine and spirits from other Pennsylvania producers, too.

Pittsburgh grew from a town with limited choices beyond the industrial brewers to a town with a dedicated and robust craft beer scene. Brewery taprooms now come with a base expectation that the beer sold there will be good.

“You’re not necessarily going to a brewery because you want to try their particular beer or style. I don’t think most people are going to drive across town just to get a specific beer in a way that they used to,” Batz says.

LAUREN HUGHES

Good Beer, Everywhere

“You can get as deep as you want with brewing. You can get a little science or get deep into a whole lot of science. You can use classic recipes or you can push the limit. It all depends what your interests are and how far you want to take it,” says Lauren Hughes, head brewer of Necromancer Brewing in Ross.

Necromancer opened in May, selling cans for takeaway. In August, it added a 56-seat taproom decorated with plants hanging over a slick black wall with “Necromancer” scripted on the bottom. The wall is false, a placeholder for when the pandemic is behind us, and people will feel comfortable gathering in large groups again. Behind it is another 9,500 square feet of raw space, an industrial warehouse ready to be transformed into a grand beer hall.

It’s in line with what’s happening all over town, as breweries continue to expand to draw in more customers. On the other side of the rivers, The Brew Gentlemen reopened its Braddock taproom after 21 months of production only (plus a summer beer garden Downtown at Allegheny Overlook) with a shiny new space.

OLD THUNDER BREWING IN BLAWNOX IS ONE OF PITTSBURGH’S NEWER BREWERIES. ITS OWNERSHIP TEAM PREVIOUSLY WORKED AT THE BREW GENTLEMEN IN BRADDOCK.

And while some breweries such as Strange Roots, which now operates in Gibsonia and still has a taproom in Millvale, and Abjuration Brewing in McKees Rocks function with particular styles in mind, most, even if their brewers have a passion for certain varieties, offer a wide range of beer designed to deliver something for everyone.

At Dancing Gnome in Sharpsburg, the taproom was already filling up at its Saturday noon opening time on a cold January day. The brewery is best known for its classic, juicy New England-style hazy IPAs, but you can also get pours of a wide range of styles, such as the bitter-smooth, coffee-and-lactose-infused milk stout Sua Da and Hibernal, a malty, piney winter-season IPA, from the 16-tap system in its spacious new taproom, which opened in October.

“There’s a return to classic styles and beer-flavored beer that appeals to a wide audience,” East End’s Smith says, noting that many of his regulars drink the same core classics. But novelty remains, particularly with younger drinkers.

“Most people come in here and ask, ‘What’s new?’ And it turns out it has to be pretty new.”

DAY BRACEY

These days, however, innovation might draw a line of a brewery’s biggest fans to a limited can release, but it will not make you stand out from the crowd.

“Just about everybody is making good liquid,” says Day Bracey, Pittsburgh beer podcaster and co-founder of Barrel & Flow Fest, the nation’s first Black beer festival. “Some folks are hitting out of the park, some folks have niches, but ultimately you can get good liquid from just about any brewery around here. So if you’re going to differentiate yourself, you have to have a culture. You have to have more than just good liquid.”

THE PLANS FOR CINDERLANDS WAREHOUSE INCLUDED A FULL KITCHEN

So What’s the Draw?

“Every brewery has its own vibe. Each has its own idiosyncrasies and styles. That’s the cool part of all of this,” Smith says. “And it seems to fit Pittsburgh, too. We have all these neighborhoods in Pittsburgh and everything is a little bit weird, a little bit quirky. And that’s what I think puts everybody on a level footing of sorts.”

It took Smith a little longer than many of Pittsburgh’s newer brewery owners to recognize that an inviting taproom space might be a draw to get people to hang out for a few pints. His Larimer space was not exactly photogenic at first. “There was barbed wire on the top of the fence, and it was leaning inward to the courtyard. The interior was a bunker, with no daylight coming through at all,” he says.

He made significant changes in his space in 2019 when he partnered with Justin Severino and Hilary Prescott Severino on an in-house eatery called Larder at East End. Part of the deal with the duo, owners of Salty Pork Bits and co-owners of Morcilla, was adding new windows, refurbishing the courtyard and adding new tables throughout. All of it, plus a smattering of table games, helped to turn East End Brewing into a family-friendly destination, as well as one for avid cyclists (We suggest this bike and brew tour along Pittsburgh’s rivers).

Larder closed in 2020 and a year later was replaced with East End Chewing, an in-house pizza shop run by Sheryl Johnston, formerly kitchen manager of the once-beloved vegan restaurant Quiet Storm. She uses pan pizza as a canvas for culinary exploration and makes sure to offer something that you might not typically think of at a brewery — there always is a meat-free pizza as thoughtfully constructed as the one for omnivores.

Food of all kinds is part of the draw nowadays.

STUNTPIG

“The No. 1 direct message I get on social and by the phone is, ‘What’s your food truck tonight?’” says Aadam Soorma, head of marketing and guest experience at Trace Brewing in Bloomfield.

Many breweries have food trucks roll in on a regular schedule. Taqueria El Pastorcito pulls up to Trace three Wednesdays per month to serve an array of tacos, soups and daily specials. Breweries help these food entrepreneurs build a loyal following; the food can be just as much of a draw for the space as the beer. Pittsburgh Sandwich Society even took up full-time residency as the not-quite-in-house kitchen of Strange Roots in 2021.

“People are showing up, more and more, to breweries expecting there will be a food option,” Soorma says. “We try to diversify who we are booking, because we also see it as a neighborhood service.”

The relationship between brewery and food truck keeps getting better, too — two stalwarts of the brewery circuit (El Pastorcito and stuntpig) are on Pittsburgh Magazine’s 2021 Best New Restaurants list.

Quite a few breweries have in-house kitchens, too. There were early adopters such as Spoonwood Brewing Company (opened in 2015), where the menu, which includes wood-fired pizza and smoked meats, is lengthier than most restaurants around town. The plans for Cinderlands Warehouse, the multi-million-dollar refurbishment of the old Spaghetti Warehouse space in the Strip District (a 2019 opening that marked a new era in Pittsburgh beer), included building a massive kitchen on the ground floor and an ambitious, restaurant-style menu. Cinderlands’ original space in Lawrenceville, renamed Cinderlands Foederhouse, now serves as a space for some of the best experimental hamburger builds in town.

Some breweries, such as Two Frays in Garfield and Old Thunder Brewing, encourage guests to support neighborhood restaurants by allowing outside food in the taproom. Two Frays even goes as far as to list nearby establishments on its website. The brewery works to connect with its neighborhood in other ways, too, such as collaborating with the down-the-block nonprofit Assemble — a community space for arts and technology — on a refreshingly tart sour ale conditioned on blueberries and pomegranates. Artist Brenna Thummler’s unicorn-robot Assemble mascot is featured on the magenta cans, and the brewery hung photographs from Garfield native Veronica Green for the bottle release party.

AADAM SOORMA (pictured) AND GENERAL MANAGER KATIE RADO BOOK A VARIETY OF PROGRAMMING AT TRACE BREWING

Indeed, breweries around town are now hubs for all kinds of activities.

There are trivia nights, including Geeks Who Drink trivia Thursdays at Eleventh Hour Brewing Company in Lawrenceville and BuzzWorthy Trivia on Wednesdays at Cinderlands’ Wexford outpost. Live music abounds in Pittsburgh breweries, too. At Hop Farm, the desire to offer space for entertainment helped prompt the brewery to triple the size of its Lawrenceville location in October with a new warehouse extension, which serves as a public and private events space and hosts evenings such as Thursday music sessions featuring local and touring artists. Comedy nights are becoming a part of the entertainment rotation in taprooms, too. And for those looking to unwind, Mindful Brewing Company, East End and Trace are among the Pittsburgh breweries that offer yoga classes.

Who these spaces are run by and designed for is undergoing a renovation, too.

TRACE AIMS TO FOSTER DIVERSITY WITH ITS PROGRAMMING AND VOCATIONAL BREWER TRAINING. KYLE DYE (LEFT) IS THE THIRD PARTICIPANT IN THE PROGRAM.

Opening the Taproom

Breweries such as Trace, which opened in 2020, are making overt strides to increase inclusivity. A rainbow flag flies prominently in its taproom and events such as drag nights and brunches bring in a crowd that might not have thought about going to a brewery just a few years ago.

Most importantly, Trace offers a six-month paid vocational training program targeted to women, people of color and LGBTQIA+ people — no high school or college diploma required — designed to open doors in the beer industry.

“The hardest thing is finding a way to break into the industry. It’s tough to begin with, and if you’re not a white dude it’s really tough. So having a way for folks to get training to make them an ideal candidate is awesome,” says Hughes of Necromancer Brewing.

Right now, Hughes is the only female head brewer in Pittsburgh. She worked for Sun King Brewery in Indianapolis while finishing her degree in music. A job as the manager of artistic operations for Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra brought her to Pittsburgh; she was there for a few years when her wife suggested she get back into brewing because she thought she’d be happier.

At Necromancer, she’s brewing beers such as Borrowed Time: a crisp, fruity Saison; Give Me a Second: an aromatic, hazy, double IPA; Blindfold: a toasty, luxurious, black-wheat beer; and Soggy Bottom: a hoppy, boozy, pastry stout brewed with blueberry, cinnamon and milk sugar.

AT NECROMANCER BREWING, HUGHES (LEFT) AND ASSISTANT BREWER NINA SANTIAGO (RIGHT) AT WORK. THE ROSS BREWERY’S TAPROOM HAS 56 SEATS, WITH AN ADDITIONAL 9,500 SQUARE FEET READY FOR EXPANSION.

The profound gender disparity is something Hughes actively is working to change, serving as a mentor to brewers such as Nina Santiago, an alumna of Trace’s vocational program and now assistant brewer at Necromancer. Hughes also serves on the Pittsburgh Brewery and Tap Room Diversity Council, a small group of beer and brewery professionals dedicated to expanding access to historically underrepresented communities in the professional beer space. She’s partnered with organizations such as Brave Noise, a collaborative brewing project focused on advocacy for inclusive environments in the beer world, and helped lead She Knows Beer, a brewery diversity council project that highlights women working in craft beer.

“With the formation of the diversity council and inspiration from people like Day Bracey, we’re starting to be seen. Black people, brown people, gay people all love beer, too,” says Soorma. “What I’m sensing is that we’re at the precipice where it isn’t as awkward a moment when you walk in as a person of color and say you love wild-fermented beers, you love sours and you can just have a person-to-person beer-focused conversation.”

BRACEY CO-FOUNDED THE NATION’S FIRST BLACK BEER FESTIVAL IN 2018

There’s activity to expand the reach of brewery spaces to Pittsburgh’s Black community, too.

Bracey and then-partner Mike Potter organized the first Black beer festival in the country, Fresh Fest (since rebranded as Barrel & Flow), in 2018. It was an instant hit spotlighting the need for inclusivity in the beer space, both in terms of who is brewing beer and who is working in all the sectors surrounding brewing.

“There aren’t a lot of places in America where a lot of Black craft beer drinkers congregate. I thought that was a Pittsburgh issue, but it’s really a national issue. You can go to Philadelphia, New York, D.C. and Los Angeles and you still weren’t going to see craft breweries filled to the brim with Black people,” Bracey says.

To that end, he reached out to Black artists, community leaders and musicians in Pittsburgh to collaborate with the region’s craft brewers; the festival also featured 10 Black-owned breweries from across the country. As a result, 2019 brought national and international attention and a significant increase in sponsorship dollars, allowing Bracey to better pay artists and brewers for their work.

Barrel & Flow’s 2020 event was held virtually and 2021 took place between waves of the coronavirus. With a vaccine mandate in place, Bracey says it was the most successful festival to date in expanding the reach and opportunity for Black beer professionals and craft beer lovers.

“A lot of what this festival is, is showing what the reality of diversity and inclusivity looks like in action. It’s no longer theoretical. It’s not, ‘If you do this, it can be this.’ It’s, ‘We did this,’” he says.

Barrel & Flow already has announced it will bring a weekend of beer, art and community to a new location in the Strip District this August.

Bracey says that the reach of the festival is beginning to extend into who is being booked for entertainment in brewery taprooms and which artists brewers are working with for canning labels.

“Who is going to be there? Who is performing? Is there a connection to my community? That was lacking pre-pandemic in Pittsburgh. I think that’s something you can’t overlook. And if you do, it’s going to be a loss in your potential revenue,” he says.

Bracey adds that the increased exposure has offered opportunities for local artists to collaborate with breweries in other ways. “What the festival helps to do is redirect energies. The Black artist community in Pittsburgh is now dialed into working with breweries as an opportunity. And in doing so, the breweries now have dope artists on their rotation. The artists have a new avenue for their art,” he says.

Having artists on rotation is increasingly important because more and more Pittsburgh breweries are expanding their reach with ambitious canning projects, and those cans need labels.

CANNING AT TRACE

Full Flow

Breweries “have a community gathering spot side, but they also are little beer factories. And the beer factory part was especially important during the pandemic since community gatherings have been up and down and sometimes fraught with peril,” says Batz.

One of the most important leaps forward has been the relative ease and access to canning lines.

“People want cans. When they go to a brewery you want to take something home. Growlers don’t last. And with cans you have the labels, too. It’s visual, it’s tasty, it’s something you can share with your friends. Cans are king,” Hughes says.

There are now several mobile canning operations around town, and many breweries have added canning lines to the array of equipment in their brewhouses. These lines range from the relatively compact assemblage found at Necromancer to the shiny, state-of-the-art counter-pressure canning line that Smith added to East End Brewing last year, the single most significant investment he’s made in the brewery since it opened in 2004.

Cans have minimal exposure to oxygen, so they offer a significantly longer storage capacity than growlers, and they are more portable. On top of that, canning allows Pittsburgh breweries to expand their footprints by selling six-packs, and even individual cans, across town.

EAST END BREWING IS SET TO OPEN A SECOND LOCATION IN MT. LEBANON LATER THIS YEAR.

Expanded Horizons

Pittsburgh’s brewing shows no sign of slowing down.

“There are still new breweries popping up all over, which is great,” says Hughes. “If Pittsburgh wants to be considered [a destination] beer town, we need to have more breweries. It’s nice to be able to have more new places to try.”

It’s likely that as many as 10 new breweries will open in Allegheny County in 2022. Tortured Souls Brewing Co. is set to replace Larimer’s Couch Brewery. Coven Brewing will move into the Roundabout Brewing space in Lawrenceville when owners Steve and Dyana Sloan move on (Roundabout’s Chateau beer garden will continue to run this season); co-owner Caiti Sullivan will be Pittsburgh’s second woman head brewer when Coven opens this spring. Velium Fermentation is in the works to return locally brewed beer — as well as kombucha and activities such as arcade games — to the South Side.

Established breweries are set to expand in 2022. The most notable development on the horizon is Grist House Craft Brewery’s massive project at the former Nike Missile site in Collier. The site houses a Cold-War-era 55,000-square-foot building on one of the highest hilltops in the county. When open, it will serve as a production facility, retail store and massive taproom, as well as offer plenty of outdoor space for festivals, food trucks and fire pits.

And Smith’s East End Brewing Company is set to open a second taproom later this year in Mt. Lebanon. It will feature a full kitchen and outdoor seating, though brewing operations will remain in Larimer.

If someone had told Smith when he started that there would be 45 breweries in Allegheny County, he says his reaction would have been, “Yeah, sure, right. Maybe when I’m dead. But now, it shows no signs of stopping.”

People often ask me about kitchen tools and utensils, and they always want to know what my favorite food is to cook. That answer is easy: Bread. There is something magical about the chemical reaction of gluten and sugar and yeast that turns inert ingredients into a living, growing and delectable treat. Besides the mystery of transforming a few cups of flour into an expanding mass of dough, baking bread has all the satisfactory components that bring cooks to the kitchen.

Bread doughs are easy and very forgiving. The smell of baking bread permeates the house with an aroma of comfort. The final product is beautiful to behold and delicious to eat.

Keep a supply of bread flour (the higher gluten content makes for chewier, more flavorful loaves), some yeast (buy it economically by the pound) and some powdered milk (for those days when you are snowed in), and you can be baking golden loaves and rolls all winter long.

Because it has such a history as a staple of life, bread has inspired endless traditions in many cultures that tie it to holidays and seasons. For the new year, it is a European tradition to make large, soft, pretzel-shaped breads that are often garnished with candied fruit and nuts. The pretzel is the universal sign of the baker, and it is also supposed to bring luck for the whole year. Not as sweet as cake and not as plain as bread, this colorful pretzel makes a beautiful centerpiece for any New Year’s table, and everyone who eats it will feel lucky. Now, where did I put that electric bread slicer?
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups milk, scalded and skimmed
1/2 cup sugar
4 ounces (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
6 to 7 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 eggs
1 pound confectioner’s sugar
Almond extract
Water
Toasted, sliced almonds
Candied cherries

Directions

• Put the scalded milk, sugar and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and let stir until the butter and sugar are dissolved.
• In another small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water with a few grains of sugar. It should begin to foam in about 5 minutes.
• Add 5 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon of salt, the yeast mixture and the 2 eggs to the milk mixture.
• Use a dough hook to mix until it is a soft, even batter. Add more flour 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough forms. Continue to knead until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl. Take the dough out on a lightly floured board and give it a few turns to form a smooth ball. Put it into a greased bowl and cover. Let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
• Turn the dough out onto the board and divide in half. Roll each half into a long rope and shape into a pretzel. Lay the pretzel onto a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet and allow to rise for another hour.
• Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes until dark golden-brown. (Thermometer will read 190 to 200 degrees.) Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
• Make a frosting by mixing the confectioner’s sugar with a teaspoon of almond extract (or vanilla if you prefer) and enough water to make a spreadable icing. Pour the icing over the bread and decorate with the toasted almond slices and candied cherries.

Originally published in December 2017.

From left: Christopher Nelson, Bethany Zozula, Amanda Marion, Kassandra McGlynn, Emma Minnows

40 North at Alphabet City has the vibe of an old-school Greenwich Village, North Beach or London’s Shoreditch arts cafe. It’s the kind of place where a spur-of-the-moment, simple dinner turns into a festive occasion — because you and your pals decide another round and dessert is what your Wednesday night needs — and it’s a new destination for those of us who love to sit at the bar with a great novel as a companion for a light dinner. 

Start your evening with something energizing, such as spicy greens salad — a layered, balanced plate of peppy leaves such as mustard and mizuna, pickled onions, hazelnuts, pepitas and sheep’s milk feta. For an opening snack, look for something seasonal such as late July’s chanterelle toast. That dish, a slab of crunchy bread painted with a dark mortar of black trumpet mushroom butter, chanterelles bursting with the flavor of a summer forest floor cascading off of and in front of it, was a celebration of peak Pennsylvania mushroom season. Pair your first dishes with a sour-sweet fruit shrub spiked with gin (or don’t spike it; the shrub and soda is fabulous on its own, too) or a refreshingly bracing martini softened with a touch of Apricot Eau de Vie. 

Executive chef Bethany Zozula and front-of-house managers Josh Bondi (who since has left 40 North for another position) and Sam Suter (also the restaurant’s beverage director) developed an experience that, from menu to music selection, fuses seemingly opposing relaxing and energizing, sophisticated and casual energies into a singular feel-good experience. All three (and a good number of the staff) are alumni of the hospitality program at the former Ace Hotel, where Zozula was executive chef of the hotel’s restaurant, Whitfield. The legacy shows; service at 40 North lands the hard-to-find sweet spot between personable and formal. 

40 North occupies approximately one-third of the ground floor of Alphabet City, which is operated by City of Asylum, a nonprofit arts organization that houses writers exiled from their home countries as a result of their artistic expression. The restaurant shares the space with a terrific bookstore — unfortunately for those of us who love to browse and buy, its operating hours don’t extend into dinner service — and a small performance venue. 

Each time I visited 40 North, I liked the dining space even more. That had a lot to do with management moving seating deeper and deeper into the (still inactive during my visits) performance area in the center of the building. Doing so broke the fourth wall and fully embraced the site as a whole entity, something that the two previous restaurants to occupy the facility failed to do. Be sure to check City of Asylum’s schedule prior to making your reservation, as occasional performances have since returned and could impact your dining experience.  

Zozula and the restaurant’s staff are working with City of Asylum and treating the (typically) two-hour performance window as a special event that includes augmenting the menu and even adding a small (optional) tasting menu; no shaken cocktails will be served from the bar, either. Anyone who makes a reservation on those evenings will be contacted to ensure guests know what’s happening. 

40 North is an evolution for Zozula, one in which she’s speaking with an increasingly confident culinary voice. Her menu reaches deep into her past experiences, and it pulls from the eastern European culinary traditions that have a significant influence on our region’s immigrant foodways. All of that is built with a larder of ingredients from purveyors such as be.wild.er Farm, Fet Fisk (its farm and prepared foods), Weatherbury Farm and Goat Rodeo Farm & Dairy — all of whom embrace Western Pennsylvania’s seasonality and agricultural quirks. 

Something that sets 40 North apart from other restaurants in Pittsburgh is Zozula’s focus on lamb from Western Pennsylvania, arguably the best lambing region in the United States. As of press time, Zozula is purchasing one or two lambs every week from Salem’s Halal Market & Grill in the Strip District; the owners of the butcher shop, international grocery store and its attached Pittsburgh Magazine’s Best Restaurant work with local ranchers to raise and slaughter lamb under halal guidelines. Zozula is bringing the lamb in whole, which means that in addition to a rotating selection of excellent renditions of more typical offerings such as braised lamb and grilled chops, you’ll find the bits and bobs often discarded or overlooked in the United States offered as specials on Thursdays and Fridays (sometimes Saturdays if there is any left). 

I had lamb heart on my first visit to 40 North. Seared on the grill and elegantly sliced against the grain of the hard-working muscle, it was among the best heart dishes I’ve ever had. A few weeks later, my friends and I mumbled, “Wowohwowohwow!” as we devoured a lamb liver taco. The liver was coated in spices such as cumin and coriander and fried creamy-crisp. A good tomato, tender-crisp greens and tzatziki finished the dish, which tasted like the richest (and least vegetarian) falafel imaginable. Although the shell was more flatbread than flour tortilla, I’d order it again. 

“Bitter!” might not be the first thing you’d say if I asked you to shout your top flavor descriptors, but Zozula shows a flair for how a dish could be tastier with the sharpness dial turned up a hair. I remember being a little disappointed when I was presented a khachapuri that resembled wrapped flatbread with soft cheese — an early mentor taught her this variation on the Georgian dish, which typically resembles a bread canoe filled with cheese and egg — the first time I tried it. I became a convert to Zozula’s permutation on a later visit; this time, it was aggressively charred on the outside, giving it a delicious bracing bitterness that served as the perfect foil for the sour cheese. In August, I was beguiled by a seasonal salad that featured a mix of grilled peak-summer peaches, marinated and charred radicchio and bittersweet pomegranate molasses. It was a study in how various permutations of bitterness could magnify the fruit and vegetables’ sweeter qualities, particularly as a creamy tang of chevre served to smooth things over.

Most of the main courses — there typically are six — captivated me, too. Of those, a pan-roasted Jubilee Hilltop Ranch ribeye with a salty, mahogany exterior and textbook medium-rare interior stood out as exceptional. The accompanying sauces — a zing from the horseradish and herbaceous pow-wow from the chimichurri — served to enhance the dish further. There are quite a few vegetarian options throughout the menu, and the falafel, intensely crisp on the outside but still nice and fluffy on the inside, is worth seeking out.

Each main course comes with two sides from a menu of six to eight options. Smashed and fried potatoes demonstrated the universal appeal of potatoes. The ping-pong-sized spuds had some tug in the skin, which gave way to a soft and buttery interior, with textures from velvet to shatter-crisp on the edges of the smashed parts. Cauliflower was a crispy and beautiful highlighting of the brassica, cut into neat florets so you can appreciate the texture of each bite. The only absolute failure was the eggplants. Gummy with the consistency of spackle or wallpaper glue, they weren’t cooked in a way that highlighted the eggplant’s lushness or its capacity for playing well in various oils. 

Two dishes, both from the small “Sandwiches and Wraps” section of the menu, didn’t wow me, either. 40 North’s spicy fried chicken could have been way crunchier and the thighs were a little squishy. It wasn’t by any means a lousy sandwich; instead, more of a general example of how it’s a good time to pause the “here’s our version of a fried chicken sandwich” trend. And while a hamburger only feels sort of out of place on the menu, the current version needs some straightening out. The Alphabet City double smashburger (Colby, pepper jam, caramelized onions) didn’t present smashburger as advertised — it was more like two thin-ish bar-burger patties and, worse, it was overwhelmed with a gigantic tavern-burger style bun that washed out any beefy enjoyment. 

Indeed, the whole four-item “Sandwiches and Wraps” section of the menu reads as a leftover concept from when a lunch menu was in the works; it’s even plopped in at the bottom even though having it prior to the mains would read more logically. 40 North introduced Sunday brunch after I reported for this review (lunch service likely will launch in the forthcoming months, too), and the sandwiches, wraps and burgers are on that menu. I think that’s where they belong — there’s just too much happening at dinner service (even if you are stopping in for a quick bite at the bar) to justify the inclusion of these departures from the overall philosophy of the menu. I’d much rather see an expanded starters section of delicious and affordable nibbles to nosh on. 

Be sure to finish your meal with dessert. All I tried were outstanding; coeur a la creme, a light and lovely, heart-shaped, no-bake, crustless cheesecake upon which Zozula paints a canvass of seasonal berries and flowers and adorns it with roasted nuts, is a gem. Another terrific option is warm peach pie, which has a buttery crust filled with not-too-sweet, delicately spiced peaches that retain some of their texture, topped with cinnamon-oat streusel and vanilla ice cream.

Casellula and Brugge on North, the two restaurants that previously occupied this space, closed before they were two years old. I’m almost positive 40 North will have a different fate. The food, beverage menu, design and overall vibe of the space are the first I’ve experienced that feel connected to the building as a whole rather than offering weirdly disorienting neutrality or even trying to ignore the fact that the entire floor shares energy. Zozula’s menu perspective and her celebration of the region’s agriculture make this a destination rather than simply somewhere to go for dinner. The front-of-house staff curate the same situation on an experiential level. It all combines to make one excellent restaurant.

40 W. North Ave., North Side; 412/435-1111, 40northpgh.com

KEVIN SOUSA IN 2015 | PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

In July, Kevin Sousa announced he planned to open two restaurants, Mount Oliver Bodega in Mount Oliver and Arlington Beverage Club in Allentown — his fifth and sixth restaurant openings (plus a bar) in a little more than a decade. 

If these new projects existed in a bubble or if Sousa were running an established restaurant group, there’s reason to believe this is something we ought to be excited about — Sousa is a creative and talented chef who has delivered terrific restaurants to Pittsburgh.

These announced establishments don’t exist in a void. Mount Oliver Bodega and Arlington Beverage Club come with a track record. 

It’s not wildly out of the norm for an ambitious restaurateur to launch a bunch of restaurants over a decade, even if a few of them don’t work out in the long run. This is a tricky, low-margin business, after all. However, Sousa’s record is of big promises for the restaurants he’s opening, which typically are in low-income neighborhoods, followed by complete disengagement. And then he’s on to the next big thing, the thing that he says truly speaks to what he wants to do.

Take this quote from a July article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette celebrating Sousa’s forthcoming restaurants. “For the first time, I’m getting emotional about food,” he said. “I smelled a pizza that I made last night, and it was the first real ‘Ratatouille’ moment.”

The following is the lead quote in his 2013 Kickstarter campaign for Superior Motors in Braddock, which raised $310,225 from 2,026 backers: 

“For the first time in my career, I have the opportunity to breathe life into a restaurant that is not chasing trends, but a restaurant that has no choice other than to represent a Place and Time by producing food representative of its past, present and future.”

At the time, Sousa was executive chef and part owner of three restaurants: Salt of the Earth in Garfield and Union Pig and Chicken and Station Street in East Liberty. A little more than a year later, he’d be divested of all three. 

Sousa isn’t a huckster or deliberate peddler of empty promises. His issue is that once he believes in the next new thing, he leaves a turbulence of debt — sometimes with public and institutional money that could have been used to fund chefs with fewer advantages or other works — and disappointment in the rearview mirror. 

The latest disappointment is Sousa’s departure from Superior Motors, which he announced on Instagram in July (the same day he and his partners sent press releases announcing their new ventures). Sousa no longer has any ownership in Superior Motors. The nationally acclaimed restaurant remains closed, though its ownership group is committed to a long-term goal of re-opening the restaurant under new leadership. 

“It’s clearly a pattern,” says Liza Cruze, one of the primary investors in Salt of the Earth, Sousa’s first restaurant, which opened in 2010. “Maybe he enjoys starting new things, and that’s what he’s good at. But he leaves a wake of destruction behind him.”

We reached out to Kevin Sousa multiple times over several weeks and all interview requests were declined. 

Rub Salt on It

SALT OF THE EARTH IN 2010 | PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

In 2007, Sousa was executive chef of Downtown’s Bigelow Grille, a position he’d held since 2005. He was a year into his first big spotlight project, a molecular gastronomy influenced tasting menu called Alchemy that functioned as a restaurant within the restaurant and was the toast of the town.

But Sousa was already casting his net elsewhere, in talks for a restaurant of his own. He left Bigelow in 2008 and worked here and there until that space for Salt of the Earth became available. 

“We had the building. We thought a restaurant would be great there because we lived in [nearby] Friendship,” says Cruze, who runs Cruze Architects with her husband, Doug. 

The Cruzes eventually stepped in as investors. They were joined by Sousa’s now-ex-wife, Holly, and two of the Sousas’ friends, Kristi Cooper and Alberto Vazquez.

Sousa shined at Salt of the Earth. He won accolades locally and nationally and the establishment is a transformational part of Pittsburgh’s culinary history. The restaurant  launched or helped develop the careers of a generation of hospitality industry professionals. Did you know, for example, that Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream got its start at Salt? 

“What went wrong was when it was doing so well, Kevin shifted into a, ‘me, me, me, I, I, I’ mindset and it started to make everyone mad,” Holly Sousa says.

Even in those two years of jobbing around prior to Salt of the Earth, there were signs of what was to come. He briefly performed an a la carte version of Alchemy at the former Red Room in East Liberty in 2008. In 2009, he was invited, “no risk,” to take over the kitchen at the former Yo Rita on the South Side. 

From our December 2009 review: “Within a few weeks, they had cleaned house. The menu was scrapped … New cooks were brought in. ‘Real cooks,’ says Sousa.” He went on to say he was “in for the long haul.”

Just a year later, ​​Eric “Spudz” Wallace was Yo Rita’s executive chef; by 2012 Sousa was no longer involved with the restaurant. 

“He’s hurt a lot of people. And he’s left a lot of people to control his messes,” Cruze says. 

In 2012, Sousa began working on two new projects, Station Street Hot Dogs and Union Pig and Chicken. He promised to remain an integral part of the Salt team, telling the Tribune-Review the day after Station Street opened: “If Station Street Hot Dogs had been somewhere else, it wouldn’t have even crossed my mind … I wouldn’t have even entertained the idea of doing it. But, since it’s so close, and I’m pretty invested in the ‘206 — all three restaurants are in the same ZIP code — what’s the worst that could happen? I sleep a little bit less or work a few more hours a day.”

Sousa continued to take a salary at Salt of the Earth, but multiple sources confirm that he was almost entirely absent from that building once he started working on the new establishments.

Cruze says that as investors, she and Doug Cruze dove into what they did best — the design, building and maintenance of the space. But as far as the day-to-day operations of the restaurant, “We were hands-off to a fault. We weren’t micromanagers.” 

As things devolved, Cruze says she and her husband stopped going to the restaurant. “We disliked dealing with him that much. It wasn’t a great situation.” They bought Sousa out in 2014 by assuming the URA loan he received when preparing to launch Salt of the Earth. “It was a big effort to extricate ourselves from him,” she says. 

“I really want to leave it behind. Life is much better without him,” Cruze adds. 

Salt of the Earth closed a year later. 

Cruze says that they were in topsy-turvy shape financially when they closed Salt of the Earth, with a few lingering debts to pay, as well as a mortgage and utilities on an empty building until it sold in 2016. In September 2018, restaurateurs Richard DeShantz and Tolga Sevdik opened Fish Nor Fowl, their sixth restaurant to date, in the building.

Disunion

SOUSA PUTS HIS SPIN ON A HISTORIC HOT DOG SPOT | PHOTO BY TONY RICHEY

The last time Sousa opened two restaurants simultaneously, they caused the largest amount of financial ruin. Union Pig and Chicken and Station Street Hot Dogs aimed to hit a more casual crowd than Sousa was catering to at Salt of the Earth.

Sousa received some pushback about these concepts, particularly Union Pig and Chicken. The restaurant specialized in barbeque and fried chicken — foods that have significant, long-standing cultural and historical ties to Black foodways in the United States. Someone with Sousa’s celebrity chef status, with easy access to bank loans and institutional financing should have done better to acknowledge community concerns of his opening shop in a predominantly Black neighborhood on the brink of gentrification. And, in retrospect, perhaps such funding should go to someone already living in those neighborhoods interested in operating a restaurant.

This time, he and Holly Sousa were the sole proprietors of both businesses, which they called the 1117 Group. They received a loan from the East Liberty Development Corp. as well as a loan from a family member. 

Holly Sousa says that while many of her debts now are paid off or settled, she retains more than $450,000 in liens, including one on the former couple’s Polish Hill house, which she can’t sell. “I don’t want to come off as a disgruntled ex-wife. I was a business partner. I co-signed all of those loans,” she says.

Union and Station Street were very good places to eat and drink and were crowd-pleasers. The income never seemed to catch up with the debts however. “There are people who are very good chefs and very good business people. Kevin isn’t one of them. He’s a very good chef; nobody can really dispute that,” says Jessica Keyser.

Keyser was hired as Union’s opening general manager but soon was named director of operations for the restaurant group (which, technically, wasn’t a restaurant group, as the Cruzes were not affiliated with the other two establishments). She said that debts started to compound almost immediately due to high food and labor costs as well as rent payments and money owed to various vendors and lenders. “Even though Station Street served a very good hot dog — a ‘Kevin Sousa hot dog’ you couldn’t find anywhere else — you can only charge so much for a hot dog. It doesn’t matter how much work goes into it,” she says. 

According to Keyser, it didn’t seem to matter to Sousa that the finances weren’t working. “Back then, there was always money for the asking. It’s pretty remarkable how he made it work,” she says. 

“It always shocked me that there was always someone waiting in the wings when he needed an influx of cash and nobody ever asked to see what, for me, were the most basic finances,” she adds.

Keyser says that Sousa didn’t want to delve into the nitty-gritty of day-to-day operational costs and he never asked for help managing the financial aspects of the business until it was too late to do anything but dig a deeper hole to get out of the hole that needed immediate filling. 

Another, now familiar, pattern was emerging, too. She says Sousa would breeze in and out of Union and Station Street but wasn’t scheduling himself to work for any period of time at either establishment. “He always had an excuse to not be there,” Keyser says.

Sousa was already at work on a restaurant project in Braddock. Not that one. We’ll get to Superior Motors in a bit.

A Less Popular Braddock Tale

Sousa’s vision for a Braddock restaurant goes back to 2011, when he first toured the Pittsburgh suburb with then-mayor John Fetterman (Fetterman now is the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania). In June 2012, Sousa, at a press conference with Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, announced plans for a restaurant in Braddock called Magarac. He said he and his family were going to live in the old Ohringer home furniture building when the restaurant, which would in large part be funded by foundation and public grants, opened in 2013. He was offered two years of free rent for the restaurant by the building’s then-owners, Heritage Community Initiatives, too. 

“A lot of people tell me I’m crazy,” he tells the Post-Gazette in a June 2012 story. “But they thought that about Salt being in Garfield, and a white kid doing BBQ and my opening a hot dog shop across the street from what used to be one of the worst projects in the city.”

Sousa goes on to say that he’s “not going there to turn a buck” and that he “wants to be part of something from the ground up. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” There are promises about working with farms and making it affordable for the Braddock community, in particular a small takeout window where he would serve hot dogs, barbecued chicken and ribs. In the end, the reason given was that the renovation was too costly to pull off. 

For Sale

Keyser purchased Union Pig and Chicken from Sousa in January 2015. “He was fast to do the sale. He wanted to get out. He didn’t want cash, he just wanted me to assume all the debt so that he could leave,” she says.  

There were thousands of dollars of back rent and debts to vendors outstanding. On top of that, Keyser says there was nearly $60,000 of unrevealed outstanding federal and state payroll taxes that were discovered six months after she took control of the operation. All-in-all, Keyser estimates she was on the hook for somewhere between $250,000 and $300,000. 

Keyser closed Union Pig and Chicken in November 2016. She says that most of the private and institutional debt is either paid or settled, but she’s still sorting through much of the tax burden. The second floor of the former Union Pig is now a yoga studio; the first floor sits vacant.

Station Street’s owners faced similar, though not quite as deep, debts when Sousa closed that business at the end of 2014. Robert and Ruth Tortorete, who owned the building and rented it to Sousa, loaned money to the chef so that he could purchase equipment. They eventually sued for approximately $60,000 in back rent, cleaning fees and the unpaid loan. Holly Sousa says that outstanding debts are now paid off. The Fire Side Public House now occupies the building.

A few months after Sousa’s departure from his first three projects, he was moving full steam ahead with his biggest one to date, Superior Motors.

Braddock, Redux?

CONSTRUCTION ON SUPERIOR MOTORS WAS STALLED IN 2015 | PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA.

Sousa’s Kickstarter for Superior Motors, which set a national record at the time for the largest amount of money raised via a crowdsourcing campaign, came with a lot of promises about building a “community-based ‘ecosystem’ that combines food, farming, art, history, industry, training and lodging.” (Note: I donated $25 to this campaign.)

Then-Mayor Fetterman helped “the restaurant ecosystem” raise funds via a nonprofit, Braddock Redux, which received loans and grants from nonprofits including Enterprise Zone Corporation of Braddock, The Heinz Foundation and The Laurel Foundation. Fetterman also offered a lifetime guarantee of free rent for Superior Motors (he and his wife, Giselle, own the building — a former car dealership — and their family lives in the upstairs apartment). 

Superior Motors garnered national attention in the digital food magazine Eater, which ran a long piece on Sousa’s promises for Braddock. 

And then the chef fell silent, leaving many of his Kickstarter backers and a cadre of eager diners, as well as those who believed in Braddock, wondering what was going to happen next. 

Despite the Kickstarter funds and money lined up from other sources, Sousa in earlier interviews acknowledged that the project likely was underfunded from the get-go, and when construction began the building was in significantly worse condition than anticipated. 

The delay wasn’t Sousa’s fault, though he could have been more forthcoming about the reasons for it. Instead, Sousa, in an interview with a Pittsburgh-based digital agency called Carney, blamed a March 2015 story in the Post-Gazette that examined Sousa’s shaky financial history in relation to the Kickstarter campaign. In that interview, Sousa dismissed the story as “just filling content, and it was above [the fold] on a Sunday” and “just innuendo without any substance,” despite the fact that it was an investigative article based on data, court cases and interviews. 

Superior Motors could have ended there, but an investment group led by the lawyer Gregg Kander stepped in. He and his group secured the funds needed to get Superior Motors back on track and it opened in 2017. 

HAMACHI CRUDO SERVED AT SUPERIOR MOTORS | PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

It was a hit. Tables were packed. Toasts were made. Pittsburgh Magazine named the spot our Best New Restaurant of 2018. Time Magazine lauded it as one of its 100 World’s Greatest Places in 2018. Food & Wine Magazine named it as one of its Best Restaurants of 2018. The late writer Anthony Bourdain devoted two segments, more air time than any other location, to Superior Motors in his 2017 “Parts Unknown” Pittsburgh episode. 

The Buhl Foundation contributed a $10,000 grant to help build a new pizza oven replacing the slightly dilapidated but functional community oven that had long served the Braddock community. Sousa planned to use the oven as an expansion for the restaurant in the form of a pizza operation called Parts & Service.

The perception in Braddock was that Superior Motors was staking a claim to the space, which for years was used as a gathering spot for community functions. “It didn’t feel like it was ours any longer. It felt like we were getting kicked out of a community space,” says Mary Carey, art, culture and information facilitator at the Braddock Carnegie Library and a community leader. “There were these unprecedented rules [for the oven] we weren’t aware of or talked to about.”

Chris Clark, former general manager of Superior Motors, says there was a Google calendar shared among various organizations, including the restaurant, the library and Barebones Productions (its theater shares the building with Superior Motors). 

“We didn’t commandeer it by any means. When you have something that’s yours all the time and then you’re sharing it, it might feel like it’s less available. It took coordination,” says Clark, now a partner in Mount Oliver Bodega and Arlington Beverage Club.

The pizzeria never took root, but the idea of Superior Motors serving as a gatekeeper to accessing the oven exacerbated tension with residents of Braddock. “They were never committed to the community. It was all for show,” says Carey. 

SOUSA MAKING A PIZZA IN THE NEW OVEN IN OCTOBER 2017 | PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

A major part of that commitment — as well as a portion of the foundational funding — was to train and hire Braddock residents, including young people in the community. 

“I thought it was going to be a great experience for these kids. They were going to come to Braddock and give these young boys a chance to have jobs,” says Pam Sanford. Her son, Daryl Williams would eventually be employed as a high school student as part of the restaurant’s jobs training program. “He was so excited about the job and the people he was going to meet.” 

Superior Motors did indeed make an effort to hire at least some of its staff from Braddock and some of those hires became full-time employees at the restaurant. Clark says that worked to achieve a goal of hiring as much as 60 percent of the staff from the community and that he feels “we were there much of the time.” (In my December 2017 review, Clark estimated that 30 to 40 percent of the staff were residents of Braddock.)

“We were one of the only places in Braddock that were hiring people with barriers to entry,” he adds. 

Clark says the first cohort of the training program was comprised of eight local hires (four of whom finished). They spent mornings receiving instruction, primarily from Sousa or Clark, in everything from developing pricing structures for drinks to how to quenelle ice cream and then worked in the restaurant in the evenings. “We covered everything you would need to know to be a triple-threat in the service industry,” he says. 

In February 2020, Clark began interviewing candidates for a new 12-week course; it never could launch because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to some Braddock residents, however, the jobs training program didn’t come close to fulfilling its stated goals. “I was working there not even a week when the whole group of us got terminated. They didn’t give us any reason, they just told us to turn our uniforms in,” says Ahmad Williams, who was in high school when he participated in the program. 

“As many as they hired, they fired. They paid them $200 for the week and that was that,” says Sanford. Sanford explains that her son, for example, was fired as a no-call-no-show, but that he had never been properly scheduled to begin with.  

“I’m not going to speak to any individual case. I don’t think it would be fair at all to discuss that,” Clark says. 

Williams, Sanford and Carey all report that lines of communication between Superior Motors management, including Sousa and Clark, were virtually nonexistent. “This was this new kind of restaurant with food they had never tasted before. But they wouldn’t take the time to help them learn what they were doing. It’s like they were setting them up for failure,” says Carey. 

A New Act? 

OUTSIDE SUPERIOR MOTORS IN AUGUST, 2021. THE RESTAURANT HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR 16 MONTHS | PHOTO BY RICHARD COOK

The onset of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdown caused Superior Motors to close in March 2020. 

Management organized a GoFundMe campaign that netted about $20,000 to support the restaurant’s staff. Superior Motors also received at least $190,000 from the federal Paycheck Protection Program in its first round of grants and loans. Kander says they took the PPP finances as a loan rather than as a grant and that some of the money went to pay Allegheny County and Enterprise Funds loans and the “lion’s share” is still held in a bank account as a loan. “There’s no scandal here. No money went into anybody’s pocket,” says Kander. “I don’t want him [Sousa] to be wrongfully blamed for this. It’s not like he took the money.”

Sousa was already off working on other projects prior to the pandemic. It didn’t get much attention at the time, but he announced Arlington Beverage Club in December 2019. 

“We’re two years into Superior Motors and Kevin starts talking about doing another project. And I’m like, ‘you’re kidding me. No. I’m not co-signing any more loans,’” Holly Sousa says, citing his stated commitment to staying in Braddock long-term. The couple divorced in 2020. “He said, ‘I’m going to do what I’m going to do. And if you don’t do it with me, I’ll find someone else.’” 

Kander wasn’t interested, either, preferring to deepen his commitment to Braddock, where he currently is focused on the restoration of The Ohringer Arts building, located a half mile from Superior Motors on Braddock Avenue. Sousa found a partner for the Arlington project with Joe Calloway, a South Hills native who runs the real estate investment company RE360.  

The oven now is back in the stewardship of the Braddock community. The Braddock Carnegie Library hosted a poetry and pizza night in late July and more events are in the works for the future. The space, equipment and opportunity remain to build on the foundations of the training program at Superior Motors, too. There are plenty of talented and dedicated hospitality industry professionals in the region to lead it, as well as a backer in Kander who seems sincerely devoted to Braddock. 

Kander says there is a second chapter for Superior Motors in the works, though it’s too soon to say specifically what it will be. He adds that although there are some outstanding debts to “people who believed in us, and we are committed to paying them,” the restaurant otherwise is on solid financial footing. 

“I do agree it’s terrible he can’t hang in there and grind. And I’m sure there is going to be some negative backlash. But so much good has come out of this project and that’s how I prefer to think about it,” he says, citing the holistic community development he sees happening in Braddock.

John Ellis, vice president of communications for The Heinz Endowments — which provided financial support for Superior Motors via Braddock Redux — said in an email, “The restaurant achieved its goals in not only serving as a vibrant and successful asset for the neighborhood, but also in fulfilling its mission to provide training and employment, primarily for people living in the community, and in supporting a number of other local enterprises including a 10-acre urban farm … While we are disappointed to learn that Kevin Sousa has left the project, we hope that the owners of the restaurant are successful in their plans to reopen at the earliest opportunity.”

Braddock’s current mayor, Chardaé Jones, found out that Superior Motors wasn’t going to reopen with Sousa at the helm when she read the Post-Gazette article announcing Sousa’s new endeavors. It prompted her to write a blog post where she looks at Sousa’s promises for Braddock and questions the chef’s sticktoitiveness. “I saw a pattern, and that made me write the piece that I wrote. He didn’t fulfill his mission that the original Kickstarter set out to do,” Jones says. 

In it, she ponders if Mount Oliver and Arlington will in a few years find themselves in the same place as Garfield, East Liberty and Braddock.

“Now that Sousa has distanced himself from yet another project, my questions are,” she writes, “what happens when he gets bored again? Does he not realize that his decisions affect jobs in these communities that he briefly invests in, and what was he doing all this time if he wasn’t inspired by food? If I was a community and saw this pattern I would have trust issues and ask for more investment in the form of what value are you adding to a community beyond food? It’s easy to gather people, but it is incredibly hard to build community.”

Update: Sousa Left Mount Oliver Bodega two months after it opened.

Whether you’re committed to an animal-free diet or eat omnivorously, chances are you’ve taken notice that vegetable-forward menus are becoming more mainstream. Even though a 2018 Gallup poll indicated that all-in-all American dietary preferences remain steady, with approximately 5 percent reporting they are vegetarian and 3 percent as vegan — similar numbers to a 1999 report — consumer tastes are changing.

A hunk of meat at the center of the plate doesn’t signify “this is the main course” in the way it used to in American restaurants. Vegetable-forward and 100 percent vegan restaurants are on the rise throughout the country; the lauded, high-end restaurant Eleven Madison Park in New York City even relaunched as an entirely meatless establishment earlier this year.

In Pittsburgh, this means an increasing number of restaurants are catering to vegetarian and vegan clientele on their menus, and conscientious Pittsburgh eaters overall are eating less meat. It’s not unusual, for example, to see diners of all stripes enjoying a meat-free dinner at the popular Apteka in Bloomfield.

Things used to be pretty bleak for meat-free eaters. “It was rough. Growing up here, it was hard to eat as a vegan. You were really looking for this path that wasn’t there for you,” says Kate Lasky, co-owner of Apteka.

The List

Click on the restaurant you want to check out first or continue scrolling through the entire list.

• Apteka
• ShadoBeni
• Disfrutar
• Onion Maiden
• Allegro Hearth Bakery
• Pure Grub
• The Zenith
• Udipi Cafe
• Abeille Voyante Tea Co.

Lasky used to look to The Quiet Storm, the beloved Bloomfield eatery that served vegetarian food from 2001 to 2013, for a place to gather with friends. Aside from a smattering of options throughout the region, there weren’t many other places to go; just a handful of Pittsburgh restaurants had even one vegan option on the menu.

Locally, things began to shift a few years ago. In 2016, a slate of vegan restaurants, including Apteka and (now-closed) B52, both honored soon after as Pittsburgh Magazine Best Restaurants, opened. The year prior, Leila Sleiman and Natalie Fristick founded Pittsburgh VegFest, an annual event that includes a food festival with approximately 50 vendors serving plant-based dishes, a marketplace full of animal-free products and activities such as yoga classes. It regularly draws more than 5,000 people, and many of the eateries featured below made their debut at a VegFest.

“Most vegan cooks [who open restaurants or other food businesses] are doing it because that’s what they want to eat. It’s what they’re passionate about,” says Omar Abuhejleh, owner of B52 and Allegro Hearth Bakery. “It’s often harder financially than running a non-vegan restaurant. It would be so much easier for me to buy butter than to make it. The only way it makes any sense is because it’s something you care about, that you get fulfillment from making the product.”

People choose to eat diets free of animal products for a variety of reasons. Environmental justice, particularly as the effects of our impact on the climate appear to be growing graver each year, guides some people’s decision to forgo eating animals. Many are driven by animal welfare and believe that all living creatures ought to be treated with the same dignity as humans. Some are motivated by real or perceived health benefits. Often, people eat vegan and vegetarian for religious or spiritual reasons. Generally speaking, many of these motivations overlap for meat-free eaters — for example, animals confined in horrific conditions in feedlots also emit a massive output of methane into the environment.

“In a world where there is so much harm and damage everywhere and every day, we try to minimize the damage that we do,” says Lasky.

Today, Pittsburgh’s vegetarian and vegan eateries are run by a diverse group of people and take many shapes, and this has the potential to make them exciting to eaters of all backgrounds. Some chefs look to their roots and build menus from cuisines that traditionally are plant-based. We are at the tip of a technological revolution in meat alternatives, and some restaurant operators are embracing that. There are chefs who embrace the hippie spirit of Moosewood-era cookbooks. And with the recent boom in Pittsburgh-area farming, there are better ingredients to work with, too, plus a wilderness full of food to forage and preserve.

While Pittsburgh has an ever-growing roster of restaurants that offer enticing vegan and vegetarian options, I’m focusing on entirely meat-free restaurants for this list. Six of them are completely vegan, two make minor exceptions upon request and one is a vegetarian spot that uses some butter and cheese in certain dishes.

This article was updated on 5/13/22.

Apteka

It may come as a surprise to most people, considering that Pittsburgh often is saddled with a meat-and-potatoes reputation, but this vegan establishment arguably is most representative of what is special about Pittsburgh cuisine right now. Kate Lasky and Tomasz Skowronski opened Apteka in 2016, offering dishes such as the profoundly comforting kartofle z jogurtem migdałowym (boiled potatoes with lingonberry jam and nut-milk-based yogurt). They built a menu forged from Skowronski’s Polish roots — his parents moved to the United States when he was 3 — and Lasky’s sixth-generation Pittsburgh culinary lineage. Of course, the resulting menu tilts heavily toward items, including pierogi (the duo ran a pop-up, Pierogies vs., for six years prior to opening Apteka), that pay homage to that cuisine.

“In a way, having the restrictions of being a vegan restaurant and being an eastern- and central-European restaurant allows you to be creative. We’ve been able to delve into what is essential and what is interesting about this cuisine,” Lasky says of a menu built on flavors of smoke, fermentation, pickling, jams, fruit and roasting.

TOMASZ SKOWRONSKI & KATE LASKY

We recognized Apteka as Pittsburgh’s Magazine’s Best New Restaurant in 2016, and it has been a staple on our Best Restaurants list since it became eligible in 2017. While they continue to offer terrific versions of the dishes that got them there, what’s exciting is that Lasky and Skowronski are a lean-forward duo; their menu has evolved as they’ve developed deeper connections with Pittsburgh-area farmers such as Bitter Ends Farm Co., Who Cooks For You Farm, Clarion River Organics and be.wild.er Farm. On top of that, they hand-pick hundreds of pounds of fruit every year, and Skowronski’s parents add box upon box of foraged ingredients to the roster, too.

What you get at Apteka are dishes such as faszerowane pomidory (oxheart tomato stuffed with long rice, zucchini, onion and fermented tomato), rwaki (foraged chanterelle mushrooms, yellow wax beans, potato noodles, tomato and burnt cabbage broth) and delectable sunflower seed ice cream. These are dishes that speak to lovers of fantastic food, no matter their dietary perspective.

Lasky and Skowronski recently renovated the restaurant’s dining room and garden. Many of their long-term preservation projects (in the form of tinctures and cordials) now are making their way into what is one of Pittsburgh’s most outstanding beverage programs, which also includes a deep selection of natural wine.

4606 Penn Ave., Bloomfield; aptekapgh.com

ShadoBeni

PHOTOS BY HAL B. KLEIN

With ShadoBeni, Ulric Joseph digs into the roots of his native Trinidadian cuisine. Joseph, who’s eaten a vegetarian diet since 1995 and shifted to fully vegan two years ago, moved to Baltimore in his 20s and built a career as an artist, even winning the Best in Show prize at the 2019 Three Rivers Arts Festival’s Juried Visual Art Exhibition. But long commutes from teaching in Baltimore to his home in Pittsburgh had him thinking about changing his career.

“For me, it’s really and truly to do with sustainability. I just feel like we should eat less meat on the whole. I’m not saying everyone needs to be fully vegan but if we don’t change our ways now, it’s going to be problematic later on. I prefer when there aren’t too many steps between when food leaves the ground and it goes in the pot. It also makes me feel better to eat this way,” he says.

While on a family visit to Trinidad, his wife, Jennie Canning (who also is involved in the business and helps run the market stands), noticed Joseph’s passion for the island country’s cuisine, which has quite a few popular vegetarian dishes due to the foodways of a significant portion of its population being of Indian descent. Joseph knew that with a little practice he could adapt other Trinidadian dishes that typically aren’t meat-free. They launched ShadoBeni in 2019 as a pop-up at two Pittsburgh farmers markets and went full-time in 2020 when Joseph left his teaching position.

ULRIC JOSEPH

Doubles, Trinidad’s most famous dish, is a menu staple. The dish features bara, a turmeric-spiced fried flatbread topped with curried chickpeas and a variety of vivid chutney that range in flavor from bright and tangy tamarind to a fiery pepper sauce. Other dishes include pelau, a staple Trinidadian dish of rice, carrots and pigeon peas simmered in coconut milk and burnt sugar. Joseph serves his with savory curry-stew soya, which has a pleasing chewy mouthfeel to it. His peas and the rice are cooked to just the right toothsome texture; it’s all topped with creamy, vinegary slaw. It’s a satisfying one-dish meal that will keep you fueled for hours.

ShadoBeni will continue to pop up at the North Side, Bloomfield and Squirrel Hill markets for the remainder of the 2021 farm market season. By then, Joseph hopes to have his standalone restaurant on the North Side open [update: it opened in early April 2022]. Expect a menu with rotating vegan sides that will allow guests to build a meal with rice, roti or dal puri, and dishes such as doubles on the weekends. Joseph will feature punches — nutritious, smoothie-like drinks made with power-packed ingredients such as oats, sea moss, flax and banana — and a drink made from unprocessed cocoa, one of Trinidad’s most important crops.

1534 Brighton Rd., Brighton Heights
shadobeni412.com, instagram.com/shadobeni412

Disfrutar

In April, Perry Parra launched his pop-up, Disfrutar, because he felt like the city lacked a robust selection of vegan options rooted in Mexican cuisine. Now, on any given weekend, you’ll see Parra around town serving tacos such as luscious jackfruit birria, al pastor made with pleasantly chewy soy curls marinated in guajillo chili and pineapple and sin-carne asada with luxurious soy beef marinated in orange juice, tamari, faux beef broth, jalapenos and cilantro — all served with homemade salsas.

“I just fell in love with my grandmother’s and mother’s cooking. And I learned to make vegan versions of what they would cook. I wanted to bring what I was cooking, what I grew up with, to Pittsburgh,” Parra says.

Parra grew up in Riverside, California, eating the home cooking of his parents, both of whom immigrated to the United States from Mexico. He spent his summers visiting his grandparents in Mexico, watching his grandmother cook.

PERRY PARRA

Parra became a vegetarian when he was 15 and decided to switch to an entirely plant-based diet when he was 17. He says a stint in Austin prior to moving to Pittsburgh introduced him to the joys of Tex-Mex cuisine, too, and that influence is something he hopes to bring to his menu in the near future.

Parra moved to Pittsburgh in 2019 to pursue a career in nursing. When COVID-19 struck, however, he decided he’d rather wait for in-person classes and delayed enrolling in nursing school. During that time, he launched Disfrutar; although he’s still working full time at UPMC as an emergency room technician, he now envisions transitioning Disfrutar from pop-up to food truck in the next year. In the meantime, he’ll keep appearing around town with an expanding menu that will include tamales, tortas, pupusas and burritos.

Keep an eye on Parra’s Instagram to find out when and where you can try Disfrutar.

instagram.com/disfrutar.pgh

Onion Maiden

Brooks Criswell, Diana “Dingo” Ngo and Elyse Hoffman started Onion Maiden in 2015 as a way to offer easy-to-prepare, plant-based snacks such as veggie dogs at DIY punk shows throughout Pittsburgh. Animal rights and politics are connected philosophically to segments of hardcore and punk subcultures that believe all living things deserve respect; politically active bands such as Pittsburgh’s Anti-Flag carry the mantle for a movement that likely had its start in England in the 1980s. (Chefs such as Brooks Headly, of New York City’s supremely excellent vegan establishment Superiority Burger, first cut their teeth as musicians, too.)

“That’s the reason we went vegetarian in the first place. We were listening to bands talking about animal rights and animal politics. It comes out of a deep-seated respect for all living things. It’s punk bands talking about how a life is a life no matter what the life,” Criswell says.

Onion Maiden grew from punk rock show fuel to popular pop-ups, including a stint at Lili Cafe in Polish Hill. In March 2017, Criswell, Ngo and Hoffman opened a standalone location in Allentown.

BROOKS CRISWELL & DIANA “DINGO” NGO

Comfort food and nostalgia are the baselines for Onion Maiden’s menu, guided by a vegetable-forward philosophy rather than a meat-substitute base. Ngo is the executive chef; her parents used to own Chinese restaurants, and you can see influences of that in dishes such as General Ngo’s. On a menu full of crunchy, crumbly tater tot options, General Ngo’s, with tots topped with red cabbage, chili oil, soy caramel, bean sprouts and cilantro, stands out for its full-bodied flavor. Straight To Hell, a Vietnamese vermicelli noodle salad with tofu, mixed greens, sprouts, beet pickle, scallion oil, mixed herbs (cilantro, shiso, Thai basil and mint), lemongrass, peanuts and sweet citrus dressing, is a lighter option with just as much zing.

As of publication, Onion Maiden was gearing up to relaunch in-house dining. When it does, it’ll be with a new liquor license — but don’t overlook the craveable and colorful housemade horchatas. [Update: The dining room is open and it’s terrific]

639 E. Warrington Ave., Allentown, 412/586-7347, onionmaiden.com

Allegro Hearth Bakery

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

Converting a 19-year-old production bakery to offer a 100 percent vegan selection is a steep challenge in terms of both production challenges and customer expectations, but that’s just what Omar Abuhejleh decided to do with Allegro Hearth Bakery last year. Abuhejleh purchased the bakery in 2004, which is right around the time he decided to eat a vegetarian diet; he was vegan at home but says he found himself eating a fair bit of butter, eggs and sometimes cheese at the bakery to make sure things tasted as they should. Still, the idea of converting to a full vegan selection always gnawed at him a bit. He got the prompt he needed when restaurant closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic cost Allegro more than half of its wholesale business; he says the loss of business gave him the flexibility — even the need — to make some changes.

“I was living with that contradiction in my life for years. And I couldn’t justify it anymore. If I was going to reinvent the place, I figured now is the time to do it all vegan. I couldn’t get excited about doing things otherwise. It had to be vegan,” he says.

Many baked goods traditionally rely on eggs and dairy for their structure and flavor. For example, butter’s plasticity and sweet tang is what makes the laminated pastries such as croissants so appealing. Abuhejleh says it took about 75 iterations of experimenting to formulate a butter made from fermented sunflower seeds and fermented oak milk, emulsified with coconut oil and sunflower oil, to get the right mouthfeel, flavor and viscosity to bake with. Although he says the process continues, Allegro Hearth’s butter-free croissant is tender-crisp and flaky, with the rich, comforting flavor you might find in all but the most delicate croissants.

Long fermentation — Allegro Hearth’s challah is a four-day-long process, for example — helps everything the bakery offers, including its outstanding sourdough boule. Recently, Abuhejleh added a line of terrific sandwiches and a handful of other grab-and-go items to expand the bakery’s vegan offerings.

2034 Murray Ave., Squirrel Hill, 412/422-5623, allegropgh.com

Pure Grub

Asanté Bierria’s mission is to evangelize wholesome, healthy food to everyone in Pittsburgh, with an extra focus on helping people in low-income and minority communities shift their dietary perspective to nutrient-dense cuisine.

Bierria says he’s had a love affair with food since he was a kid, inspired by how food created community and joy in the people surrounding him. After working on the front-of-house side of the hospitality industry at some of Pittsburgh’s most essential nightlife destinations (such as Firehouse Lounge and Shadow Lounge), he started preparing and offering nutritious food through a word-of-mouth business. Five years ago, along with business partner Ashley Tunney, he officially launched Pure Grub.

“I want to bring healthy goodness whenever I can. I love flavor. I love how food can bring people together,” Bierria says. “It’s about common sense eating. What are you really eating? How is this benefiting you?”

ASANTÉ BIERRIA

Everything Pure Grub sells is vegan, gluten-free and organic, and Bierria prefers to highlight natural ingredients rather than use machine-crafted mock meats. To do that, he draws on his West Indian, Cuban and southern American background for much of his offerings. For example, he might offer a menu of vegetable stir-fry with mango jerk sauce and Jollof rice with Hoppin’ John. On the first Thursday of every month, he offers “Journey to the Soul” at Abeille Voyante Tea Co. where he serves vegan versions of dishes such as jambalaya and ye’abesha gomen that highlights the impact of the spice and slave trade on modern American. However, Bierria doesn’t set hard geographical limits to inform what he’s serving, believing that there is an entire world of plant-based cuisine to explore — so he’ll utilize wholesome and delicious vegetables such as Japanese sweet potatoes and even trendy (though rooted in indigenous Central American cuisine) items such as chia as part of his output.

Pure Grub is now a staple at Pittsburgh farmers markets: Mondays in East Liberty, Tuesdays in Lawrenceville, Fridays on the North Side and rotating Sundays in Squirrel Hill. On Thursdays (except for the monthly Abeille Voyante Tea Co. barbeque), he’s at Trace Brewing in Bloomfield.

puregrub412.com, instagram.com/puregrub412

The Zenith

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

Imagine visiting your quirkiest relative’s dinner party. Enter through an antique store and take a seat at one of the tables with a layer of plastic protecting colorful tablecloths. Knick-knacks surround you with a post-punk/new-wave/alt-90s soundtrack with bands such as Public Image Ltd. and They Might Be Giants on the speakers. Everything coming from the kitchen is vegan (though they do have some cheese in the back of the fridge just in case somebody wants it). Here you are at The Zenith, Pittsburgh’s oldest vegetarian restaurant.

Mary Kay Morrow and David Goldstein opened the South Side space as an art gallery and antique store in 1991. Fellow antique store operator Robert Trakofler suggested Morrow add coffee and snacks to earn extra income; Trakofler and Elaine Smith later expanded the menu when they purchased the business in 2002. Trakofler says they are guided by two primary principles: animal rights and environmental justice.

“There’s enormous waste involved in giant factory farms and meat-processing plants. It’s so bad for the environment. Minimal waste is the theme for the restaurant and the antique store. If we don’t sell something as-is, I’ll take it to my workshop and turn it into something else. Everything has a beauty to it,” he says.

ROBERT TRAKOFLER COURTESY THE ZENITH

He and Smith are committed to supporting locally owned food purveyors, shopping in the Strip District and working with growers such as Frankferd Farms for their ingredients. It’s a scratch kitchen — even the seitan is housemade — and the menu of a couple of entrees, a few sandwiches and some sides changes weekly depending on what looks good while they are shopping. That means there might be a curried chickpea stew one week and sesame tofu stir-fry a few weeks later. One staple that you’ll always find is the utterly flavorsome peanut noodles salad; the dish has roots in Thai cuisine but varieties of it have long been a staple in American vegan and vegetarian kitchens.

Sunday brings a festive brunch buffet — it’s a time to celebrate the restaurant’s staple dishes and serves to use any ingredients that the restaurant didn’t sell during the week. The zero-waste policy continues after brunch; they donate food, if there is anything substantial left, and all the trimmings and scraps go to a worm farm for composting.

86 S. 26th St., South Side, 412/481-4833, zenithpgh.com

Udipi Cafe

Manjunath Sherigar opened Udipi Cafe in Monroeville in 1996 after noticing there were no nearby restaurants serving a menu of 100 percent vegetarian cuisine. He says that worshipers at the nearby Sri Venkateswara Temple, one of the oldest traditional Hindu temples in the United States, as well as workers in Pittsburgh’s budding information technology sector were looking for somewhere to eat. While Udipi continues to cater primarily to those clients, remaining under-the-radar to many non-vegetarian Pittsburgh eaters, it’s grown in popularity thanks to Sherigar’s enticing menu.

“This cuisine is not easy to do right. I had a lot of experience cooking vegetarian food. I grind and blend my own spice mixes. Each dish I make has its own unique flavor. So I came here to do that,” Sherigar says.

Sherigar started cooking in vegetarian restaurants in Mumbai in 1982 and later cooked in restaurants in New York City. He specializes in the Tuluva-Mangalorean and Andhra cuisines of southern India, known for their emphasis on pulses, grains and vegetables and their lack of meat and fish (ghee and some dairy-based cheese is used, but the cuisine otherwise is plant-based). He even named the restaurant Udipi as homage to the small city of Udupi in Karnataka, a region known for its temples and flavor-packed vegetarian cuisine.

MANJUNATH SHERIGAR

Udipi’s most popular dish is dosa, prepared with a batter of fermented rice and lentils. The enticingly funky griddled crepe often is stuffed with ingredients such as potatoes and onions; it’s served with sambhar, a lentil and vegetable soup that is one of Sherigar’s favorite items. The deluxe thali, a selection of small servings of white rice, chapati, yogurt, pickle, papad, dal, sambar, rasam, kootu, poriyal and payasam, is a smart place to start for guests who are visiting Udipi for the first time; poori, a deep-fried puffy bread made from whole wheat, is another must-get. The restaurant’s menu is rounded out with popular Indian dishes such as crispy pea-and-potato packed samosas and a few northern Indian vegetarian dishes such as vegetable korma and palak paneer.

4141 Old William Penn Highway, Monroeville, 412/373-5581

Abeille Voyante Tea Co. (formerly Tupelo Honey Teas)

Danielle Spinola started selling custom tea blends in the Strip District in 2007 and later in Allison Park, but it wasn’t until she opened her Millvale cafe in 2016 that she decided to add a light menu to complement her offerings. Spinola started eating a nearly all-vegan diet 10 years ago — she makes an exception for honey from apoidea apiary and Russellton Bee Works, two Pittsburgh-area, women-owned apiaries she feels align with her ethics — in support of animal welfare, environmental justice and overall better health. Her Millvale space is a cozy alternative for those looking to connect with themselves or others over something other than, say, a beer and a hamburger.

DANIELLE SPINOLA

“Plant-based is good for your health, of course. But when you dive into the humanity of eating vegan, there’s a lot there. The thing about eating almost entirely vegan for me is that my quest to eat that way and live in that lifestyle is that it really connects me more to humanity, more to everything that’s happening around the world. Everything you do has an impact,” Spinola says.

Bri Scala runs the Abeille Voyante Tea Co. kitchen, offering an ever-changing output of food that you’d want to consume with a cup of tea. Scala’s menu, completely vegan aside from a honey-sweetened elderberry elixir that’s served for six months each year, leans toward cafe-style food such as sandwiches with a bit of twist on veganizing home-cooked-style food. Summer is more produce heavy, with fresh vegetables taking center stage. In the fall, you’ll find soups and stews. And, though most everything is traditionally plant-based, winter might bring a comfort food dish such as a hamburger-helper-style entree prepared with mock meat. Abeille Voyante Tea Co. also partners with other locally owned small businesses such as Pure Grub.

The 10-seat cafe, which offers more than 100 varieties of tea and is attached to the Millvale Community Library, will reopen for on-premise consumption this month.

211 Grant Ave., Millvale, 412/821-0832, tupelohoneyteas.com

Previously listed but now closed:

Reed & Co.

Reed & Co. is Pittsburgh’s of-the-moment vegan eatery, hip to all of the cold-pressed juices, nutrient-dense bowls and power-packed smoothies that health-conscious eaters are looking for right now. At the same time, chef Justin Crimone leans into the modern revolution in meat substitutes to craft indulgent dishes that could satisfy any eater’s craving for, say, a burger or crispy chicken sandwich.

It’s just the blend that owner Reed Putlitz is looking for.

“Everyone has their own way to look at food, and this is our specific way to look at it. It’s fast-casual and it’s vegan, but it’s also personal and forward-looking. We just kept adding and expanding. I couldn’t have imagined doing half the things we were doing when we first started,” Putlitz says.

Putlitz worked in the New York City fashion industry prior to moving to Pittsburgh with his wife, a Washington County native, in 2016. Looking for a change of pace and a more direct connection with people, he decided to open the plant-based eatery in Lawrenceville later that year.

JUSTIN CRIMONE & REED PUTLITZ

Crimone, a longtime Pittsburgh chef who previously worked at the vegan restaurant Amazing Cafe, works his skills using a mix of in-house preparation and sourcing top-quality products. The results are mouthwatering. “It makes you forget that it’s vegan” is a little trite, right? But Reed & Co.’s breakfast wrap is as satisfying as any other breakfast wrap you can get in town. Crimone uses a “JUST” egg patty, made from mung beans, which tastes like a soft scramble. And the Impossible Meat chorizo is how this product should be used — it’s fine in a burger, but this sandwich really lets it shine with the spice blend. Violife cheddar, a coconut-oil-based product that melts like dairy cheese, red pepper sauce, greens and pickled onions round out the flavorful combo, which is served pressed-and-grilled in a flour tortilla wrap.

Crimone also offers heartier options, such as a full-flavored and very satisfying Chik’n katsu bowl. If you’re in search of a lighter pick-me-up, Reed & Co. whirls up its custom-build Goodnature X-1 juicer in the wee hours of the morning for a cold-press extraction of fruit and vegetables juices. The store’s tasty menu is rounded out with smoothies and delightful cold dishes such as gamja salad (smashed potatoes, green onion, baby corn, celery, wasabi mayo, garlic, carrot and pickled cucumber). Crimone says that next up in the ever-evolving offerings is what he hopes will be the best vegan pizza in Pittsburgh.

B52

B52 opened as part of Pittsburgh’s vegan wave of 2016. Much like Apteka, which also opened that year, B52 shined as an outstanding restaurant with a specific culinary perspective — one that happened to be vegan simply because that’s what the chef/owners of the restaurant wanted to offer. In this case, Omar Abuhejleh, who also owns Allegro Hearth bakery (see next page), wanted to tap into the foodways of his Palestinian roots; both of his parents were born and raised near Nablus in the West Bank. The cuisine of the Levant, which includes the gastronomic cultures of Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, is rich with food prepared from plant-based ingredients, with pulses such as chickpeas and lentils, seeds such as sesame and ancient grains such as emmer and kamut providing the base for many dishes.

Abuhejleh says opening a Pittsburgh restaurant that explored that culinary lineage was something he’d been thinking about for years as he explored more vegan cookery and the ideas behind it.

“What drives my philosophy about eating a plant-based diet is concern for animal welfare and concern for the environment. Those are the two main things. Once I started down this road, my desire to eat this way just kept shifting. It’s not a sacrifice in any way. It’s just what I like to eat. That’s what I’m doing now; I’m cooking the food I want to eat myself,” he says.

OMAR ABUHEJLEH

What you’ll find at B52 is smooth, creamy homemade hummus rich with tahini — it puts the stuff you’ll find on grocery store shelves to shame — and other mezze such as smoky, luscious baba ganoush and fried cauliflower in a lemony dill dip. There’s also a falafel wrap with crunchy yet soft falafel (arguably the best in town) accompanied by Mediterranean slaw, preserved lemon, pickles, pickled turnips, mixed greens, tahini and toum.

On the flip side, B52 shines as a power-packed breakfast restaurant. The pancakes, made with flax and buckwheat, are spongier than a conventional pancake; well-fermented, they also feel noble to eat, like you’re getting some nutrition with your carbohydrates. Be sure to try the yogurt made from cashew milk, which is topped with nourishing ingredients such as oats, banana and goji.

All of this comes alongside an excellent cafe with the loveliest lattes and strong coffee, takeaway items such as preserved lemon, zhug and red lentil soup and pastries from Allegro Hearth.

Viridis

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

The owner of Viridis, who prefers not to be named, is another member of Pittsburgh’s vegan class of 2016, having launched Relish, a bakery specializing in donuts and comfort food, that year. She followed that up with crumb, first as a placeholder at Smallman Galley to finish out another tenant’s lease and then as a late-night option at Gluten Free Goat. Last October, she opened Viridis in the former Amazing Cafe space on the South Side.

She is guided by the principle that people eat plant-based diets for various reasons. To that end, she’s built a small menu — usually about 10 items ranging from a selection of sandwiches to pastries — at the daytime cafe designed to be accessible in terms of dietary restrictions, financial obligations and even familiarity.

“I’ve always loved doing things that people are more open to trying, donuts, breakfast sandwiches, things that people recognize the name of even if it isn’t made with meat or dairy. I want to make sure the flavors aren’t too complicated. A lot of my customers don’t want food that’s over the top,” she says.

PHOTO COURTESY VIRIDIS

Even with that framework, she is serving some seriously craveable food. Her egg sandwich — tofu egg patty, salad greens, roasted red onion and gochujang honee aioli (using a vegan honey substitute made from apple juice, chamomile and simple syrup) served in a toasted “everything” seasoned bun is a complete package. The ample serving of greens and sweetly caramelized onion gives balance to the tofu egg patty, and the honee adds spicy, sweet fruitiness. A football-sized breakfast burrito stuffed with loads of tofu egg, cheddar, crispy hash browns, tomato, spring mix, avocado, everything blend, aioli and Cholula hot sauce is equally satisfying. And her donuts, with a glazed and crisp exterior giving way to an airy interior, are gems.

It’s been 14 months since Gov. Tom Wolf issued a public health directive for restaurants to close during the initial, uncertain wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. In that time, I’ve organized picnics in parks, gathered around fire pits in backyards and embraced, as best I could depending on the weather and the severity of the pandemic, dining outdoors at restaurants. I’ve eaten melancholy bowls of soup alone on dreary, humid August evenings; I’ve lost myself in revelry crushing pizza and sandwiches after masked drives with friends in the dead of winter. As of late, I’ve returned, fully vaccinated, to indoor spaces. I bet you have similar stories about the ways you supported Pittsburgh restaurants during this tumultuous time.

We had to go the extra mile to get through the past year, and Pittsburgh’s restaurants were there to nourish us — even as they were forced to do it very differently than usual. Pittsburgh Magazine’s 2021 Best Restaurants list reflects the ways we’ve dined through the pandemic while looking forward to what’s coming next.

The List

Click on the restaurant you want to check out first or continue scrolling through the entire list.

• Alta Via
• Apteka
• Back to the Foodture
• Bar Marco
• Butterjoint
• Cafe Agnes
• Casbah
• Chengdu Gourmet
• Della Terra Italian Bistro
• DiAnoia’s Eatery
• Dish Osteria
• Driftwood Oven
• Eleven Contemporary Kitchen
• Everyday Noodles
• Fet-Fisk: Royal Market
• Fig & Ash
• Gaucho Parrilla Argentina
• Independent Brewing Company + Hidden Harbor
• Ladybird’s Luncheonette (Ellwood City)
• Mediterra Cafe (Mt. Lebanon)
• Mola
• Morcilla
• Oak Hill Post
• Poulet Bleu
• Pusadee’s Garden
• Sakura Teppanyaki and Sushi
• Salem’s Market and Grill
• Senti
• Spork
• Taiwanese Bistro Cafe 33
• The Speckled Egg

Restaurants foster connection and conversation, furnish an escape from the day-to-day routine and, from hamburger to haute cuisine, transform sustenance into bliss. Restaurants are economic drivers, too. In 2017, labor analytics research firm Emsi noted that more people in the region worked in restaurants than in any other field; that’s not counting the other spokes in the wheel, such as farmers, janitorial staff and laundry services, that make the industry run.

This list is dedicated to everyone who works in the hospitality industry. To that end, I’ve decided not to name executive chefs in each restaurant’s information bubble, as is typical for our list. This isn’t meant to diminish the importance of an executive chef to a restaurant; instead, see it as a reflection of the reality that restaurants are a holistic operation.

To all the dishwashers, servers, bartenders, chefs, line and prep cooks, managers, bussers and hosts, you deserve unyielding esteem. This pandemic exposed much of the dark side of the restaurant world — the parts we’re not supposed to think about when we’re out to dinner. Wage disparities, often stemming from tipped-wage power dynamics, were exacerbated as servers were thrust into the role of teaching a new dining etiquette to a sometimes politicized public. Punishing hours in cramped, poorly ventilated kitchens were always part of the typically unseen working conditions for many back-of-house staff; now those conditions put those workers at a high risk for contracting COVID-19. Lack of healthcare for too many people who work in restaurants, along with an at-will labor policy that left thousands of people without jobs at a moment’s notice, resulted in many feeling anchorless and, frankly, scared. An even brighter spotlight was fixed on the urgency for a long-overdue reckoning with systemic, overt and unconscious forms of racial, gender and sexual discrimination that have for generations plagued the industry.

In the face of it all, hospitality-industry workers showed the backbone that makes this community special. When the Commonwealth left front- and back-of-house restaurant (as well as agricultural and grocery) workers off the vaccine prioritization list — all but saying, “you are essential but not essential enough, please keep working but figure out how to stay healthy on your own” — people formed networks to share information about appointments for shots that otherwise might have gone to waste. Hospitality industry veterans banded together to launch Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Aid, a nonprofit that, since its inception in March 2020, has provided relief in the form of physical goods, information exchange and shared emotional burden. Longer-standing organizations such as the Pittsburgh chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild and 412 Food Rescue stepped up to help a community in crisis. And a Downtown restaurant, The Warren Bar & Burrow, distributed free, no-questions-asked meals to restaurant workers who found themselves displaced from their jobs.

I hope that one of the lasting takeaways from the past year is more widespread recognition that working in a restaurant is as noble a career choice as any and, as a society, we ought to work harder for equity across the board. As a writer and as a diner, it’s my goal to continue to fight for that; just as importantly, I want to make sure I’m actively listening so that underrepresented voices are better heard.

While this list is, by its nature, selective (and subjective), every restaurant owner who navigated the pandemic while adhering to public-health measures deserves praise. You didn’t get the support you should have from the federal and state government when they asked you to protect the general welfare by severely curtailing your businesses. In the wake of it all, you rode it through openings, closings, capacity restrictions, an understandably nervous dining public and countless other obstacles as best you could, even as a small number of restaurant owners selfishly chose a short-term money grab or political posturing over the greater good.

Thank you.

So, in light of all of this, how did I put the 2021 Best Restaurants list together? Aside from the qualification that a restaurant had to have opened by the end of the 2020 calendar year, I always ask one core question: “Does this restaurant fulfill its intention in an exceptional fashion?” With restaurants operating in an augmented and ever-changing reality for 14 months, I found answering that was even more complicated than usual. The listings this year are longer, and more personal, than past manifestations of Best Restaurants.

Delicious food always remained at the forefront for me. Everywhere you go on this list serves lovely things to eat. I did give a wider berth than I have in the past for establishments that have enough dishes to spark delight — even though you might have to sort through a longer menu to find them. (I’ve done my best to point you in the right direction.) I even included a few establishments that aren’t restaurants in the traditional sense because I love the food so much.

Because this list was compiled in large part via takeout or through dining in outdoor spaces meant to be temporary, design didn’t play as much of a factor as it has in the past. That’s OK. Even so, there are establishments that continued, when they could, to offer exemplary atmosphere and service; I’m sure they will continue to do so, and that’s why they made this list.

Some establishments found, reasonably quickly, ways to pivot into expanded takeout operations while keeping their dining rooms closed. Others emerged as models for all-season outdoor dining. Newer restaurants demonstrated how casual meals prepared with quality ingredients and attention to detail were what we needed this year. All in all, I think this reflects a healthy balance of what Pittsburgh restaurants have to offer. I’m certain you’ll find outstanding places to choose from no matter what you’re in the mood for on any given day.

The pandemic claimed many Pittsburgh restaurants. Some, including Spoon, Whitfield, Union Standard and Dinette, were stalwarts of this list as well as personal favorites. I’m looking forward to the next act from the people who made those establishments thrive.

As of press time, there is a significant staffing shortage in town. This means service might be a little slower or less attentive than you might expect and that menu options are reduced (although I’d argue, overall, that shorter menus are a good thing). Although more people are vaccinated from COVID-19 every day, the pandemic lingers on (and while I am optimistic it has crested, it could resurge), so continue to adhere to whatever public safety measures are in place and don’t be a jerk about it. Exercise patience and kindness as you return to restaurants.

As I write this in early May, everything is in a state of what I hope is healthy metamorphosis. I’m feeling upbeat about the future of restaurants in Pittsburgh. Takeout remains an option, but diners are returning to establishments. As restaurant professionals and guests are vaccinated, it’s starting to feel fun to go out again. I’m eager for what comes next.

These are the Best Restaurants in Pittsburgh.

Alta Via

The first new concept from the big Burrito Restaurant Group since 2004 proved to be a hit when it opened in 2019, offering the suburbs northeast of Pittsburgh a much-needed dose of first-rate cooking. Executive Chef Ben Sloan takes advantage of the restaurant’s wood-fired hearth to provide an excellent selection of smoke-kissed cuisine; I’m particularly fond of the vegetable dishes, such as baby artichokes with mint salsa crudo and Meyer lemon aioli.

I’ll also steer you to Alta Via’s pasta plates, which are made in-house and always feature the proper cut of noodle. There are seasonal treats such as fettuccine mixed with an armada of spring vegetables and wow-wow crowd-pleasers such as crispy chicken breast over spaghetti with red sauce; they’re some of the best around. I was a big fan of Alta Via’s bar — both the physical space and the cocktail and wine programs — prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and am looking forward to returning for a bite and a drink. Service at Alta Via is excellent, too, in line with the customer-forward expectations of the big Burrito Restaurant Group.

46 Fox Chapel Road, O’Hara Township; 412/408-3816, altaviapgh.com

Apteka

Chefs/owners Kate Lasky and Tomasz Skowronski’s eastern- and central-European-influenced vegan menu and dreamy, often candle-lit bar program has made Apteka one of Pittsburgh’s most exciting destinations since its 2016 opening. Closing the dining room during the pandemic allowed Lasky and Skowronski the space to dive even deeper into their roots, and the dividends paid off. The duo opted for a honed-in, highly seasonal takeaway menu with dishes such as chłodnik (chilled beet soup with yogurt, cucumbers, seared beet greens and kohlrabi kraut) and faszerowane pomidory (oxheart tomato stuffed with long rice, zucchini, onion and fermented tomato) highlighting farmers such as Chris Brittenburg and Aeros Lillstrom (Who Cooks For You Farm) and Jason “Joddo” Oddo (Bitter Ends Farm Co.).

On top of that, the bottled cocktail program included a lineup of drinks made with long-term projects of foraged preservation such as quince and cornelian cherry cordials, spruce syrup and juniper tincture. And Apteka was the first in town to introduce a dynamic wine-to-go bottle shop focused exclusively on natural and biodynamic wines, adding an easy-to-navigate website full of handy descriptions and recommendations. Lasky and Skowronski are in the process of renovating Apteka’s dining room and plan to reopen for on-premise dining this summer.

4606 Penn Ave., Bloomfield; aptekapgh.com

Back to the Foodture

I love chef/co-owner Angel Randolph’s hamburgers and wings. When I first wrote about the establishment she co-owns with her husband, Edward Magwood, in early 2020, I asked the question: “What happens when you fuse the gastronomic lineage of southern grandmothers with the over-the-top culinary carnival of Guy Fieri?” Well, Randolph’s culinary creations have only gotten more over-the-top, marvelous and numerous since then.

The key to her wings is the crisp and juicy fry. From there, you choose an adventure of dry rubs and sauces with flavors that range from classic to red hot to sweet and herbaceous; salt & vinegar, Barnzy, Thai basil and Angel’s Revenge are among my favorites. Randolph’s burgers are equally varied; simple versions ring true to form while wild ones such as Buggie (grilled cheese sandwiches rather than buns, egg, bacon, tomato, lettuce, mayonnaise) don’t just look show-stopper — they are messy, indulgent and delightful. Look for Magwood, a consummate entertainer and lover of all things pop culture, to add his charm to the couple’s new South Side location, which opened in early May.

2767 E. Carson St., South Side; facebook.com/Back-To-The-Foodture-737494689957282/

Bar Marco

I’ve been a regular or semi-regular at Bar Marco since the day it opened in 2012 (really — I was there on day one). It had become routine for me over the last few years to pop in for a Tuesday-night chicken parmesan special and a glass of wine after a yoga class, so, naturally, the first dish I ordered for takeout when restaurants were shut down for in-house dining was chicken parm. For a moment during the whirlwind of that initial disquiet, everything felt kind of normal.

Executive chef/co-owner Justin Steel and his team pivoted to a thrice-weekly, takeout-only model, choosing to keep the dining room closed. On top of that, two former front-of-house employees, Celine Roberts and Christie Kliewer, followed their passion and launched an in-house (yet independent) wine shop — Nine O’Clock Wines — specializing in natural wines. I continue to be a big fan of Steel’s seasonal, Italian-influenced menu, which is never too fussy and always lets the ingredients speak. Look for a return to camaraderie and fun as things ease back to normal; Bar Marco’s Wine Room is available for booking, outdoor dining is off to a festive start since it returned in April and the main dining room is expected to reopen sometime this summer.

2216 Penn Ave., Strip District; 412/471-1900, barmarcopgh.com

Butterjoint

At the beginning of the pandemic, Trevett and Sarah Hooper were deep into the process of combining their three adjoining restaurants, Legume, Butterjoint and Pie For Breakfast, into a singular establishment they were calling Butterjoint All Day. The idea was to pull the best from all three — Legume’s intensely seasonal cookery (which earned it Hall of Fame-worthy inclusion on PM’s Best Restaurants lists), Butterjoint’s classy bar food and Pie For Breakfast’s casual-upscale diner cuisine.

Throughout the COVID-19-augmented year, the Hoopers kept their dining room closed and offered many of their best dishes frozen for takeaway, adding fresh specials and provisions to the list as they could, along with bar manager Austin Ansell’s rotating batched cocktail specials. Hooper also added a smashburger. Expect an augmented version of the combined Butterjoint vision, spurred by Trevett Hooper’s reconnection to his kitchen, as Butterjoint welcomed guests again into the cozier, Thommy Conroy designed dining room in May. The menu will be limited at first, tilting toward sandwiches and other easygoing dishes, and will ramp up as Butterjoint’s back-of-house staff expands.

214 N. Craig St., Oakland; 412/621-2700, butterjoint.com

Casbah

PHOTO BY CHUCK BEARD

Each year as I write this list I think, “What can I say about Casbah that I didn’t say last year or the year prior?” The restaurant will turn 26 in October, and it is the longest-standing member of Pittsburgh Magazine’s Best Restaurant club; it’s been on our list every year since 1996. Slow, steady and consistent improvement is the hallmark of the big Burrito Restaurant Group, and nowhere is that more evident than at Casbah.

While executive chef Dustin Gardner’s Mediterranean-influenced menu has a familiar feel, the subtle changes to the way dishes are prepared — which include a continuously deeper commitment to the local food economy, as well as the streamlined set of offerings to reflect the realities of the COVID-19 era — mean that Casbah always feels like the right thing to be eating at the moment.

229 S. Highland Ave., Shadyside; 412/661-5656, casbah.kitchen

Chengdu Gourmet

Twelve of us gathered together around the large table in the back corner of Chengdu Gourmet three nights before the initial restaurant shutdown. We indulged in what felt like a “last supper” feast of executive chef/owner Wei Zhu’s nuanced renditions of Sichuan dishes. Cumin lamb, mapo tofu, dry-sauteed green beans, Lion’s Head meatballs and crispy Chongqing chicken were among the many “hope this strangeness won’t last long” favorites we passed around the table. More than a year later, it reminds me how dining out with a crew of friends is always an evocative experience.

I’m thrilled Zhu’s menu has held up for takeout — hot and sour yam noodles, crispy pickled cucumbers and many of the above dishes made for a few epic backyard feasts, and this year’s house-made winter sausage was the best Zhu has ever offered. Still, I’m bursting with excitement for the first night spent rowdily sharing dishes, arriving home stuffed and tingling from hot peppers and Sichuan peppercorn. Zhu plans to reopen his dining room on June 1. You bet I’ll be there.

5840 Forward Ave., Squirrel Hill; 412/521-2088, chengdugourmetpittsburgh.com

Della Terra Italian Bistro

PHOTO BY CHUCK BEARD

It’s exciting to watch a restaurant blossom into itself. Fiore and Michelle Moletz opened Della Terra in a strip mall in Harmony in 2013. Over the years, the restaurant quietly earned a reputation as an under-the-radar gem, particularly for Fiore Moletz’s outstanding naturally leavened neo-Neapolitan pizza. In late 2019, they moved the operation to a former bank on Zelienople’s main drag.

I’m excited about the move for a lot of reasons — mainly, that it allows more people to have access to Moletz’s culinary chops and his quiet farm-to-table ethos (nobody, for example, will brag that the egg yolk on the top-notch spaghetti carbonara comes from the Moletzs’ chickens, but it does). In addition to the still outstanding pizza, cooked in an oven heated with kiln-dried locally sourced hardwood, the menu features some of the best scratch-made pasta dishes in the region, as well as terrific starters such as artichokes romano and main courses such as Lambrusco chicken with salt and vinegar potatoes. Service is charming, and the wine and cocktails are terrific.

100 N. Main St., Zelienople; 724/473-0630, dellAterrapgh.com

DiAnoia’s Eatery

DiAnoia’s pivoted to a dinner-only restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic, at times operating as a takeout-only restaurant, offering outdoor dining and, in March, returning guests to the inside of the establishment. Throughout, it maintained its well-earned reputation as an all-around crowd-pleaser. DiAnoia’s dinner menu weaves Italian-American restaurant classics such as meatballs and spaghetti and escarole, beans and sausage with big-plate Italian dishes such as porchetta with focaccia and drippings and steak Florentine. DiAnoia’s Eatery typically is a triple threat, with daily breakfast and lunch worth indulging in, too. When things return to a more even flow, I recommend visiting in the mornings for excellent espresso drinks (or a breakfast cocktail if that’s your thing) and my favorite NYC-bodega-style breakfast sandwich; go at lunchtime for sandwiches such as sausage and peppers, veal parmesan and tuna with balsamic vinegar, as well as dishes including Tuscan kale salad and roasted cauliflower.

In 2020, owners Dave Anoia and Aimee DiAndrea added a casual eatery, Pane è Pronto, just down the block from DiAnoia’s. There you’ll find killer, ready-to-eat Italian sandwiches on house-made bread (you can also purchase a variety of bread on its own), a hot bar, a frozen food case and pastries.

2549 Penn Ave., Strip District; 412/918-1875, dianoiaseatery.com

Dish Osteria

Here’s how much I love Dish Osteria, Michele and Cindy Savoia’s South Side hideaway: It is the only restaurant that has been closed for the entire COVID-19 crisis to still make this year’s Best Restaurants list. Given that it reopened in 2019 in even more vital form following a two-year hiatus (and I can confirm it will reopen this year once the staff is fully vaccinated), I expect that this blurb from my never-published 2020 Best Restaurants list will ring as true as ever:

Even though it’s elbow-to-elbow boisterous, Dish is one of Pittsburgh’s most romantic restaurants, in large part due to the needs-anticipating service team and transportive ambiance. On the flip side, the front bar is an everybody-knows-your-name neighborhood hangout, where reasonably priced wines and a deep amaro list keep you buzzing. Dish is proof that serving straightforward dishes prepared with quality ingredients is the best way to go. Michele Savoia’s menu is attuned to his Sicilian roots — salads speak to the seasons; fish and shellfish, grilled and simply adorned, speak to the beauty of the sea; pasta dishes speak to our souls. It’s beautiful.

Update: Dish reopened on September 29.

128 S. 17th St., South Side; 412/390-2012, dishosteria.com

Driftwood Oven

Last year, Driftwood Oven executive chef/owner Neil Blazin earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nod for Outstanding Pastry Chef for his top-flight work as a pizzaiolo, bread baker and, occasionally, a preparer of scrumptious treats such as cinnamon rolls, all of which begin with a sourdough starter that he’s nurtured for years. Blazin closed his dining room in response to COVID-19 and expanded his bakery program to bagels and sweets.

His old-world and Roman-style pizzas remain in Pittsburgh’s top-tier, with straightforward pies and thoughtfully topped permutations such as Major Tom (finocchiona, morita chili oil, herbed ricotta, mozzarella, provola, fresh garlic and white wine shallot cream sauce) hitting the right notes. Dishes such as hoagies, kale salads and baba ganoush round out an excellent menu; I’m consistently impressed with the little details, such as the way crispy-yet-chewy croutons were packaged separately for a takeaway tasty winter salad. Look for Driftwood’s dining room to open in a smaller, fast-casual capacity, which will include lunch service, late spring or early summer.

3615 Butler St., Lawrenceville; 412/251-0253, driftwoodoven.com

Eleven Contemporary Kitchen

The last formal review I wrote for Pittsburgh Magazine was for Eleven Contemporary Kitchen in our April 2020 issue. The biggest takeaway I had was how impressive executive chef Eli Wahl and his team were at nuancing their menu design and execution so that everyone who visits Eleven has an exceptional experience. There’s an art to pushing boundaries — but not too far to be way out of the box — while not playing it so safe as to be dull and repetitive, either. The big Burrito Restaurant hits that mark at Eleven.

I can still remember how pleased I felt eating dishes such as Elysian Fields lamb loin with parsnip puree, sweet potato and tart cherry-Marcona almond salsa; that one felt perfectly attuned to the season and comfortably of the moment. Service at Eleven ranks among the most attentive in the city, and the wine list is fabulous, making it a top choice for a let’s-get-back-to-restaurants upscale dinner. In pre-COVID times, Eleven made for a terrific spot for a light lunch (or a heavy one, if you want to go indulgent with its fabulous hamburger), and its attached bar offered the best happy-hour menu in town. Both are currently on hold; hopefully, they will return later in the year if conditions allow.

1150 Smallman St., Strip District; 412/201-5656, elevenck.com

Everyday Noodles

Prior to the pandemic, my every-visit move at Everyday Noodles was to order xiaolongbao. There are few things more delightful than housing a homemade dumpling that contains unctuous meat soup and tender, seasoned ground pork, and Everyday Noodles is my favorite place in town to eat this Jiangsu province classic. That bao doesn’t travel particularly well (though I did order them a few times), so I took full advantage of the fact that owner Mike Chen, one of Pittsburgh’s most seasoned restaurateurs, has over the past year worked with his Taiwanese chefs to expand the menu to offer significantly more dishes than he did when the restaurant opened in 2013. Although many of his chefs returned to Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic, Everyday Noodles is as delicious as ever.

This change of pace proved to be an opportunity to get to know the rest of the menu. Take pickled mustard greens with pork noodle soup, for example. Its broth resonates, tangy and vegetal; it nourishes my body and my spirit. The accompanying noodles (packaged separately for takeaway) are hand-pulled to toothsome perfection. That soup, more than any other restaurant item in Pittsburgh, became my go-to when I felt the lonesome blues of physical-distancing measures.

5875 Forbes Ave., Squirrel Hill; 412/421-6668, everydaynoodles.net

Fig & Ash

It took Fig & Ash’s executive chef/co-owner, Cory Hughes, nearly four years to open his North Side restaurant. We’re lucky he stuck with it through construction nightmares and COVID-related inspection delays, because Fig & Ash is one of Pittsburgh’s brightest new destinations. Hughes is a longtime Pittsburgh chef who most recently served as executive chef at Google Pittsburgh; prior to that, he worked at Spoon and Eleven Contemporary Kitchen.

At Fig & Ash, he built a menu influenced by Sunday comfort food dishes that he liked to prepare with his family. Here’s what I love about what he’s doing — while you might see meatloaf and clam chowder on the menu, they are prepared with more refined details in composition and plating than most home cooks would want to bother with. At the heart of the kitchen is a wood-fired grill (get one of the seats by the glass-enclosed kitchen for some theater with your meal); from there, you’ll find many of my favorite dishes, which include a spectacular double-cut pork chop and hearth-roasted heirloom carrots. The family influences extend throughout the restaurant — Hughes’ wife, Kate, an intensive care nurse, designed the cozy-yet-upscale dining room, and his brother-in-law, Alex Feltovich, is Fig & Ash’s general manager and co-owner.

514 E. Ohio St., North Side; 412/321-2222, figandashpgh.com

Gaucho Parrilla Argentina

It’s been a delight to experience Gaucho Parrilla Argentina’s development over the years. In 2013, owner Anthony Falcon opened his wood-fired restaurant in a pocket-sized Strip District building; it was primarily a takeout joint, with a limited menu of grilled meats. It was so good that in 2015 it helped us redefine what exactly made a restaurant a Best Restaurant. That same year, Falcon expanded Gaucho into an adjoining building, adding a host of banging new menu items, significantly more seating and a high-energy, counter-service style; this also began Gaucho’s signature line, a queue that would wrap toward the 16th Street Bridge.

In 2020, Falcon moved the establishment Downtown. Here, the menu still sings with the wood-fired joy of its previous iterations, and the high energy remains, too. But the line is a thing of the past; Gaucho now takes reservations. The most significant addition is a liquor license; Falcon curates the wine list, which is almost 100 percent Argentine, and bar supervisor Alison Hillard’s well-executed cocktail list has classics such as Aperol spritz and Fernet & Coke plus tasty originals such as Cafe Gaucho (Maggie’s Farm rum, house-made horchata, coffee liquor, Jannamico Super Punch and cinnamon).

146 6th St., Downtown; 412/709-6622, eat-gaucho.com

Independent Brewing Company + Hidden Harbor

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Squirrel Hill stalwart bars Independent Brewing Company and Hidden Harbor. Columnist Celine Roberts and I named Peter Kurzweg, Matthew Kurzweg and Adam Henry’s establishments, which also include Lorelei in East Liberty, as Best Bar Group in 2020, citing how the Independent has “evolved from a hyper-focused beer bar into a well-rounded modern gastropub.” The evolution continued through the COVID-19 pandemic, as Peter Kurzweg and Henry combined the Independent and the adjacent Hidden Harbor into a singular entity. They closed both dining rooms, opting to build a charming (and well-heated) courtyard getaway in the alley behind the building. There, they served an easy-to-like menu of snacks, salads and sandwiches, and, after long resisting it, introduced a hamburger as a regular menu item (it’s terrific). The drinks, as you’d expect from the best bar group, continue to be destination-worthy in their own right. Indoors, Kurzweg, Henry and company built a terrific wine and beer shop, a to-go menu and space for occasional guest sets by beloved Pittsburgher Rick Sebak. Look for the spaces to evolve this year as they reopen for indoor dining, now with Taylor Radebaugh as head chef.

Kurzweg’s leadership went beyond his restaurants, too. He has been an outspoken advocate for adhering to public safety measures from the get-go, speaking out against the small cadre of scurrilous restaurant owners who decided to buck best-practice restrictions. I’ve included Independent/Hidden Harbor on this list foremost because they, as combined forces, make for an outstanding restaurant, but this is also a nod to Kurzweg’s leadership.

1704 Shady Ave., Squirrel Hill; 412/422-5040, independentpgh.com

 Ladybird’s Luncheonette (Ellwood City)

It’s not too often you’ll find a chef who is equally skilled in savory and pastry cookery. Jade Cageao, chef/co-owner of Ladybird’s Luncheonette, nails both techniques with aplomb. I first visited the charming Ellwood City eatery on a whim — it was a pleasant July day, and I needed a little escape from the city. I was thunderstruck by La Marquita, a lard-fried carnitas sandwich with queso fresco, jalapeno pesto and smashed avocados, and I was haunted for days by the lingering memory of Cageao’s funky-sweet miso-buttercream double-ginger cookie sandwich.

Subsequent visits introduced me to handpies, meatloaf sandwiches, cakes and more, all crafted in-house and, as much as possible, with locally grown ingredients. Sure, the menu is pretty indulgent, and the portions are generous, but you can wash it down with a feel-good, house-pressed juice blend. Cageao and business partner Alex Jordan operate a second location, with a slightly pared-down menu, in Beaver.

507 Lawrence Ave., Ellwood City; 724/824-3623, instagram.com/ladybirdsluncheonette

Mediterra Cafe (Mt. Lebanon)

PHOTO COURTESY MEDITERRA CAFE

The Ambeliotis family has, since 2001, been feeding Pittsburgh via its versatile Mediterra Bakehouse. But family patriarch Nick Ambeliotis has long harbored visions of a neighborhood cafe that would offer an assemblage of quality food and drink for dine-in and takeaway. He and the next generation of his family realized that dream when they opened Mediterra Cafe in Sewickley in 2017. In 2020, the Ambeliotis family expanded on the vision by opening a larger version of the cafe in Mt. Lebanon.

Both spots offer executive chef Aniceto Sousa’s delightful menu of breakfast items, salads and sandwiches (where the bakery’s bread beautifully complements the sandwich fillings) and outstanding Roman-style pizza, plus a pastry case full of treats. On top of that, Ambeliotis pulls from his past career as a fine-foods importer to offer a top-of-the-town selection of cheese as well as a specialty foods market that is a genuine thrill to browse, at both locations. What sets the Mt. Lebanon location apart, for me, is the large and charming dining room (as well as the equally charming outdoor space) and the liquor license, which offers a full bar menu that includes Christina Squillace’s tasty cocktails.

292 Beverly Road, Mt. Lebanon; 412/533-9588, mediterracafe.com

Mola

Across the board, Mola is my favorite place to get sushi in Pittsburgh, and, when executive chef/co-owner Alex Tang is in the zone, his nigiri and hand rolls are genuinely top-flight. The first thing I noticed when I visited Mola, shortly after it opened in late 2018, was the quality of Tang’s rice — he cooks his Koshihikari rice al dente and gently seasons it with aged vinegar before serving it body temperature, which helps gently warm the raw fish. That fish Tang imports is excellent in quality, too — be on the lookout for weekly specials, which often include hard-to-find (especially in Pittsburgh) offerings such as kama toro, the fatty collar of tuna, which was the single best piece of fish I had in Pittsburgh in 2020.

Rounding out the Mola menu are nicely prepared vegetables such as the lotus root, snow peas, wood ear mushrooms, enoki and tofu skin that make up the Mola-Style Vegetables dish, bao (get the crispy chicken), quality dumplings and tasty rice bowls.

6018 Penn Ave., East Liberty; 412/365-6688, themolafish.com

Morcilla

PHOTO BY ADAM MILLIRON

There are two ways I like to approach Morcilla, the Lawrenceville taverna owned by Justin Severino and Hilary Prescott Severino. The first is to sit at the bar and order a selection of charcuterie, snacks such as crispy beer-battered smelts and beet conserva and small plates such as roasted cauliflower, pairing them with a funky cider or a few glasses of vermouth. This is equally as delightful on a transportive hot summer night as it is uplifting on a cold winter evening.

The other way to do it is to get a table in the refurbished dining room and go wild with executive chef/co-owner Nate Hobart’s menu — think cider-braised chicken, Calasparra rice and herbs, Jamison Farm lamb tagine and roasted duck with fennel, pomegranate and blood orange. Here, I like to get into the restaurant’s excellent cider and Spanish wine lists. I appreciated Morcilla’s 2020 pivot to takeout; dishes such as costillas de la matanza (baby back pork ribs, pomegranate sherry caramel, scallions, coriander and crunchy black olive) and fried artichokes with anchovy aioli and burnt lemon held up on short drives to backyard hangs.

3519 Butler St., Lawrenceville; 412/652-9924, morcillapittsburgh.com

Oak Hill Post

For much of last winter, I was really into driving around and eating meals over the trunk of my car. One of the highlights of that extended, distanced adventuring was reveling in Beets + Greens, a vegetarian sandwich from Oak Hill Post. It was layered with roasted beets, broccolini, arugula, marinated olives, sauce gribiche and Boursin cheese, all inside house-made focaccia; aside from Pitaland pita, all the bread at Oak Hill Post is made in-house.

That sandwich confirmed that co-owners Christian Schulz and Rebecca Nicholson hit the mark when they pivoted from their original plans to launch a “finer diner” concept to instead deliver an easy-to-love takeaways neighborhood spot with purposefully constructed sandwiches, a wicked good hamburger, scratch-made pasta dishes and weekly specials. Look for this concept to remain the same, with the addition of an expanded beverage program, when Schulz and Nicholson open for indoor dining. Yes, the menu is limited, and I’m OK with that; sometimes, it’s better to offer the best of what you’re doing than to try to hit too many notes all at once.

600 Brookline Blvd., Brookline; 412/254-2970, oakhillpost.com

Poulet Bleu

The Richard DeShantz Restaurant Group always seems to find the right balance between hospitality, fun and food. I’ve been impressed with owners Richard DeShantz and Tolga Sevdik’s decade-long build-up of their brand and I’m eager to experience its continued development. Of their restaurants, it’s Poulet Bleu that stands out as my overall favorite this year.

Although the restaurant’s bistro menu is pared down from its original list due to the COVID crisis, there is still plenty of goodness to get lost in. Poulet Bleu’s French onion soup is my favorite in town; its oniony, veal-stock broth and broiled cap of Comte and Emmental cheeses is a decadent delight. Aligot potatoes, which also feature those cheeses with a heap and another heap of butter, are an indulgence worth indulging. If you’re looking for something lighter, go for a classic French preparation of mussels with apple cider, leeks and bacon. The desserts at Poulet Bleu are top-notch, too — you could make an end of night memorable with chocolate souffle and one of the restaurant’s beautiful after-dinner spirits.

3519 Butler St., Lawrenceville; 412/325-3435, pouletbleupgh.com

Pusadee’s Garden

I don’t remember the last time I was so excited about a Pittsburgh restaurant opening. Technically, in the case of Pusadee’s Garden, it’s a reopening. Still, when diners arrived in early January, they visited what, start-to-finish, is a brand new restaurant. (I’ve made an exception to the typical end-of-calendar-year cutoff as the restaurant was scheduled to open in December 2020 but had to delay due to public-health and safety measures.) MossArchitects’ transportive, tranquil design includes an open kitchen, glass-box bar and rectangular rooms of semi-private dining, all of which encase a modernist garden courtyard.

I’m blown away by the Pusadee’s Garden menu, which is built on multi-regional Thai dishes and recipes from the Tongdee family’s kitchen, all designed for sharing. Savor the variety of marinated meats charred over slow-burning charcoal on tao stoves, each one dressed to highlight its flavor; lose yourself in the indulgent depth of beef short rib with Penang curry; and brighten your day with smoky, just funky nam prik noom, pulverized eggplants and chilis rolled with lotus root and lettuce. Pusadee’s Garden now has a liquor license, but don’t despair at the end of BYOB; bar manager Curran “Curry” Dewhirst’s innovative cocktail program, as well as the excellent wine cellar, are reasons to celebrate.

5321 Butler St., Lawrenceville; 412/252-2683, pusadeesgarden.com

Sakura Teppanyaki and Sushi

Chef/co-owner Feng Gao’s Shaanxi cuisine speaks to my heart; Sakura is my comfort food restaurant. When I need a pick-me-up, I might order hand-pulled noodles with eggs and tomatoes; when I need to be fired up, it could be those noodles with pork and tingling mala chili oil. I love to gather with friends for celebrations that call for sharing, with steamed or roasted whole fish, hot with blended peppers and studded with vegetables, tofu and thin, chewy noodles as a centerpiece.

For several years, co-owner Fengping Geng, one of Pittsburgh’s most gracious restaurant hosts, invited my friends and me for a make-your-own dumpling Lunar New Year party, but you don’t have to make the dumplings to enjoy some of Pittsburgh’s finest. Just order any of those, and stick to roots-cooking dishes such as the crackly, toothsome Laotongguan pork sandwich, lamb stew and hot-oil noodles from the somewhat lengthy menu, and you’re in for a treat. A note: I’m more biased with this selection than I am with any other establishment on this list. Sakura’s comfort also includes occasional texts from Geng alerting me that her husband has made his pork belly stew and asking would I like to come to pick some up; rich with five-spice, bowls of it gave me solace through the long, pandemic winter.

5882 Forbes Ave., Squirrel Hill; 412/422-7188, sakura-pgh.com

Salem’s Market and Grill

There’s so much I love about Salem’s Market and Grill. My fondness for the restaurant begins with the multicultural dining room — as much as most people don’t like to talk or think about it, Pittsburgh’s dining spaces are too often lacking diversity, and Salem’s is the type of place where you can find a crowd representing the broad cross-section of people who live in the city (sitting in the now-reopened dining room was something I dearly missed, though I did appreciate the expanded outdoor seating). Everyone is there for the outstanding pan-Middle-Eastern cuisine.

The Halal menu is a draw for omnivores and vegetarians alike, with dishes such as lamb kebabs, spinach paneer, shawarma sandwiches and falafel setting the stage for a mouthwatering meal. If you’re having a day where you can’t quite decide what to get from the main menu, the restaurant’s hot bar always presents flavorful options at a reasonable price. Salem’s adjoining market, which owner Abdullah Salem refurbished earlier this year, was one of my go-to spots for pandemic shopping, too — the in-house butcher counter is my favorite in the city.

2923 Penn Ave., Strip District; 412/235-7828, salemsmarketgrill.com

Senti

PHOTO BY CHUCK BEARD

There are just a handful of places in Pittsburgh where I think dressing up is the best way to go, and Senti is one of them. It’s just so elegant, thanks to owner Franco Braccia, who consistently demonstrates why having an owner oversee the front-of-house operations is every bit as valuable as a celebrity chef in the kitchen. The native of Abruzzo, Italy, has worked in the restaurant industry for nearly 40 years. His smart table touches, especially as diners returned to on-premise dining, set the stage for a terrific meal.

Start with seasonal dishes such as arancini con piselli; the crispy fried spheres of risotto, peas and Grana Padano over red-pepper cream sauce sing the joy of springtime. House-made pasta dishes such as the luxuriously layered Veneto style lasagna or the bright fettuccine con ricotta are a must-get, and I would recommend at least one of the main courses for sharing, too. Senti has some terrific cocktails, especially the classics, on its menu, but you’re going to want to delve into the epic wine list, too.

3473 Butler St., Lawrenceville; 412/586-4347, sentirestaurant.com

Spork

PHOTO BY ADAM MILLIRON

I love Spork’s arc to elegance. It took a couple of years for executive chef Christian Frangiadis to fully find his vision, but the chef and his all-star crew have turned the Bloomfield establishment into Pittsburgh’s most elegant dining experience. Frangiadis, who ran some of Pittsburgh’s finest restaurants in the late 1990s and early 2000s prior to taking a decade-long break in the U.S. Virgin Islands, offers a menu that draws from garden-to-table cuisine (the restaurant’s adjacent garden is an enviable operation) and modernist-meets-traditional elements such as koji-curing and global fermentation techniques.

Besides an often-changing menu with dishes such as braised short rib with black-garlic sweet potato puree and dry-aged prime strip steak with foie gras, pecan miso butter, fermented blackberry jelly, roasted poblano cream sauce and duck fat potatoes, Frangiadis offers special menus throughout the year. Combine that with general manager Sean Enright’s dynamic front-of-house staff and a top-notch cocktail program and it’s a destination for special-occasion dining.

5433 Penn Ave., Bloomfield; 412/441-1700, sporkpittsburgh.com

Taiwanese Bistro Cafe 33

I relished the small touch of connection bestowed by Cafe 33 co-owner Jenny Tao every time I picked up food (which was often) during the period when restaurants were operating for takeaway only. It reminded me how much joy we lost without being able to share space with service industry professionals who gain energy from hospitality during carefree dining.

Happily, it didn’t mean missing delight in the enjoyment of dishes such as fish with pickled sour mustard soup, three-cup chicken, and minced pork with chive stems in black bean sauce. Tao’s takeout transition was seamless; even dishes such as scallion pancakes with eggs (a shoo-in to appear on any future feel-good food list I might make) and pan-fried dumplings held up for the time it took to assemble a picnic or home meal. I’m looking forward to returning to one of my favorite dining rooms in Pittsburgh for a renewed sense of interconnectedness.

1711 Shady Ave., Squirrel Hill; 412/421-2717, twcafe33.com

The Speckled Egg

PHOTO BY TOM O’CONNOR

The Speckled Egg is a lovely refuge from the returning hustle and bustle of Downtown. Tucked into the nook in the lobby of the majestic Union Trust building, Jacqueline and Nathan Schoedel’s daytime restaurant weaves elements of a classic diner (with dishes such as buttermilk pancakes, chicken salad sandwiches and eggs and corned beef) with contemporary touches such as avocado toast and cold-pressed juices. All of the dishes are built with quality, mostly locally grown, ingredients and layered flavors.

Here’s a nice bonus — in addition to the quality coffee drinks you’d hope to find at an upscale diner, there’s a fantastic selection of classic and bespoke cocktails, plus beer and wine. Service similarly straddles the line between down-home and upscale; I found that all of the little details were looked after yet never felt intrusive.

501 Grant St., Downtown; 412/251-5248, thespeckledeggpgh.com

Two Not Quite Restaurants That Are Still Best

I’ve thought a lot in the past year about what makes a restaurant a restaurant. Over the years, the criteria for what qualifies as a Best Restaurant have broadened. When I took over writing this list in 2015, it took negotiation to allow for an establishment that didn’t serve dinner or have a lot of seating to be included. This year, I’m including two establishments that continue to break the mold because they both offer some of the best bites in the region.

— HBK

Cafe Agnes

PHOTO BY MARCELLA OGRODNIK

I’ve been gobsmacked with delight, time and time again, since Marcella Ogrodnik launched her Salvadorian popup, Cafe Agnes, in early 2019. Ogrodnik is a Culinary Institute of America graduate who worked at, among other establishments, The French Laundry, Delfina and Cure, as well as serving as chef-in-residence at Villa Lena, an agriturismo and artist’s residency in Tuscany. With Cafe Agnes, she decided to pursue the cuisine of El Salvador, where she holds dual citizenship and lived for some of her high school years, as a way to celebrate the cuisine of the often-maligned country.

At the heart of her menu are pupusas and tamales, both of which begin with aromatic heirloom corn that Ogrodnik nixtamalizes, grinds and kneads into aromatic masa. She stuffs them with ingredients such as roast pork, beans and cheese, mushrooms with roasted poblanos and queso chihuahua, often using ingredients from farmers at the Bloomfield Saturday Market, which was where she set up her stand last season. Ogrodnik introduced a line of salsas, including the lush garlicky heat of salsa negra, last season, too. Look for Cafe Agnes to continue at the Bloomfield and Squirrel Hill markets this season, where Ogrodnik will again cook hot food that highlights Salvadorian dishes in addition to pupusas and tamales while using meat and produce from western Pennsylvania. She will continue to offer frozen versions for takeaway as well.

cafeagnes.com

Fet-Fisk: Royal Market

Fet-Fisk: Royal Market, the pandemic-era iteration of Nik Forsberg and Sarah LaPonte’s formerly ultra-dreamy popup series, hits all the right notes for me. I found jouissance in the array of cured meats, pâtés, prepared and pickled vegetables and condiments on Forsberg’s early smörgåsbords, and have been thoroughly impressed with the way he has developed his offerings to include smoked fish and sausage, confit mushrooms, prepared dishes such as English-style mackerel pie and special offerings such as the Lenten season “Fisk” fries.

Sure, the “dining room” for this takeaway-only spot might be a picnic blanket, your garden or kitchen table, and the offerings are explained in Forsberg’s poetic weekly emails rather than in-person. Still, for me, it made the Fet-Fisk experience all the more extraordinary that the magic held when I transported it to my own space. Look for Fet-Fisk’s prepared foods at the Bloomfield and Lawrenceville farmers markets this season, as well as expanded menus such as Friday evening “Burger Knights” for roadside pick-up at the market. Forsberg says Fet-Fisk popups will return once it feels safe for his crew and for guests to gather indoors again.

800 Mt. Royal Blvd. #9, Shaler; 412/465-0757, fetfisk.net/royal-market

PIZZA HOUSE, BETTER KNOWN AS POLICE STATION PIZZA, OFFERS OHIO VALLEY STYLE PIZZA IN AMBRIDGE

As much as people try to wedge a definition for “Pittsburgh pizza,” the truth of it is that we don’t have a signature city style.

There are a handful of pizzerias that often come up in conversations about Pittsburgh pizza. However, with due respect to long-standing establishments such as Aiello’s, Mineo’s and Fiori’s, what they deliver is typical of the mid-century coast-to-coast boom of the American gas-oven pie, which has a slightly thicker crust and, often, a sweeter sauce than you’d find in the legacy New York City deck-oven pie-and-slice joints from which that style was derived.

What’s endearing about our region is how idiosyncratic pizza makers have over the past 75 years put their spin on what it means to make a pizza. There are sundry pizza styles within an hour’s drive of Pittsburgh, each with a story.

Our pizza foundations were built in the 1940s and continued to blossom through the 1970s, the four decades that represent the heyday of widespread commercial regionalization of pizza in the United States. (Prior to that, establishments that sold pizza were almost exclusively limited to what food writer Ed Levine calls “The Pizza Belt,” which was centered in New York City and New Haven, and tendriled as far as Boston and Philadelphia.)

The migration of regional Italian foodways — and how newly arrived immigrants strove to feed a lot of people on a budget — set the framework. The return of GIs stationed in Italy during World War II, many of whom (particularly those with roots in the country) were smitten with the pizza sold in bakeries, spurred the boom, as did mid-century innovations in technology, especially the gas-heated deck ovens popularized by Bakers Pride and Mastro. The creative spirit of pizzaioli, who fused all of this to build businesses where they lived, is what made it last.

It all took place in an era predating the domination of chains such as Pizza Hut and Domino’s. And it’s made for some unconventional, delicious bites still delivered by the establishments that saw their way through the generification of pizza.

A CUT OF DICARLO’S PIZZA IN WHEELING. PIZZA WAS SO NOVEL WHEN BROTHERS PRIMO AND GALDO DICARLO OPENED THERE IN 1949 A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE HAD TO DESCRIBE WHAT IT WAS.

The Raw Story

The story of our region’s pizza begins in Steubenville in 1945 when a first-generation American named Primo DiCarlo opened his eponymous storefront on the city’s main street. DiCarlo had just returned from serving in Italy, and he had a vision.

“They would eat [a homestyle version of pizza] at home. When he was over in Europe, he saw they were actually selling it. When he got back, he thought it would be a great thing to try here. There was a big Italian community in Steubenville,” says his niece Toni DiCarlo. Her father, Galdo, joined his older brother in the venture.

They had the wherewithal to do it, too — their father, Michael, an immigrant from Sora, Italy, opened the first Italian bakery in the region in 1896.

A PHOTO OF PRIMO DICARLO ON DISPLAY AT DICARLO PIZZA’S DOWNTOWN STEUBENVILLE LOCATION.

The idea of selling that pizza was so new that when the DiCarlo brothers opened a second location in Wheeling, a 1949 News-Register article noted, “The brothers specialize in an Italian delicacy called Pizza, which has been called ‘the poor man’s cheese cake.’” Because hardly anyone knew what pizza was, the story goes on to describe it as “an Italian bread dough base garnished with a sauce of tomatoes, parsley and green peppers that’s seasoned with oregano, served with anchovies, cheese, pepperoni or mushrooms.”

The brothers DiCarlo were ahead of the game in many respects — not only was Primo DiCarlo granted the first license for a “pizzaria” in Ohio, but the family also introduced the idea of selling “by the slice” to the valley (and were among the earliest nationwide to sell pizza this way) and were one of the first to franchise. Their legacy is a regional style pizza that now extends from Steubenville to the southern entrance of the Fort Pitt Tunnel.

It’s How You Build It

It’s called Ohio Valley style, and it’s beloved by people who grew up eating it — but often is maligned by those who haven’t. That’s because its signature is a topping of uncooked, room-temperature cheese.

The style has been derided as Lunchables or a drunk person’s food (in fact, there is a pizza parlor in Oneonta, N.Y., that serves a cold-cheese topping specifically to help drunken college students eat it faster). But, the haters, many of whom judge from photographs and not by experience, are wrong. When it’s done right, Ohio Valley-style pizza is one of the tastiest types of pizza there is.

“I used to always say it’s kind of like a party in your mouth. You have so many different things going on, as opposed to everything fused together in a typical pizza. When you bite into a DiCarlo’s pizza, you get the full sensation of the pepperoni, the cheese, the sauce and then the crust. It’s all distinct,” DiCarlo says.

Ohio Valley-style is built on a crust similar to the “grandma” style brought to acclaim by the celebrated restaurateur Umberto Corteo on Long Island in 1965. Both come from the same place: the home kitchens of Italian women in the region between Rome and Naples. Thinner than the more widespread Sicilian and contemporary interpretation of grandma pizzas, the rectangular dough is baked crispy in pans. Ohio Valley-style sauce varies from place to place, though it’s typically a simple puree of tomato, seasoned with a little bit of bell pepper, oregano and olive oil. Some establishments cook the sauce; some, like DiCarlo’s, don’t.

Only once the pizza comes out of the oven is it topped with cheese, which almost always is hand-shredded Provolone; optional toppings such as pepperoni, olives and pickled hot peppers are also added at this time.

The rationale for adding the cheese and the toppings after cooking is murky. The conventional DiCarlo’s history alludes to the idea that the original pizzas took a long time to cook because the pans were heavy, so the cheese was added after cooking to prevent it from burning. Other people theorize that it was a deliberate culinary act all along. “I just know from growing up, that’s how we always did it,” DiCarlo says.

It’s How You Eat It

Of all the builds specific to the region, the Ohio Valley-style has the broadest reach. The DiCarlo family has spread the gospel of Primo and Galdo DiCarlo’s innovation far and wide. Primo’s side of the family, run by his grandson, also named Primo, owns two locations in Steubenville. Two of Galdo’s children handle the other side of the business: Toni DiCarlo owns three locations in West Virginia, and Anna DiCarlo is in charge of the franchises, which are located elsewhere in West Virginia as well as in Pennsylvania, Ohio and South Carolina.

Among the pizzerias that serve Ohio Valley style, Giannamore’s Pizza, Iggy’s and Ray’s are all near the Steubenville birthplace. Osso’s Original has a storied history in Washington County. Beto’s Pizza, on Banksville Road just two miles from the Fort Pitt Tunnel, is likely the spot best known to Pittsburghers; it’s the place that often evokes, “Oh, is that the weird thing they do at Beto’s?” when Ohio Valley-style is mentioned (indeed, Beto’s, which opened in the mid-1950s), is an offshoot of the now-closed third location of DiCarlo’s Pizza, which opened in 1952).

Just about everywhere you go, the pizza is handed to you in a cardboard box. You’ll know an Ohio Valley joint cares about the integrity of its product when even the cuts — that’s the preferred terminology for a slice — come in a box that’s folded over and held together with a rubber band or string. Exercise a moment of zen prior to your first bite, allowing the uncooked cheese a few moments to steam, transforming raw strings into a liminal state that coaxes the milkfat to begin to melt. This is important.

Here’s what you get: the airy, savory cracker crunch of the crust, a pop of bright, tangy sauce as it meets the pillowy top of the crust, and then the cool, elastic cheese. Skip the pepperoni, a product much better when cooked, but get an extra cut because you’re going to want one. You might as well; they typically cost about a dollar anywhere you go.

Both scions of the 75-year-old DiCarlo family business offer exemplary versions of the style — the downtown Steubenville location shines exceptionally bright in its adherence to the original vision — but my favorite version of the Ohio Valley pizza is found in Ambridge at Pizza House, which is better known as Police Station Pizza.

POLICE STATION PIZZA OFFERS AN EXEMPLARY VERSION OF OHIO VALLEY STYLE PIZZA.

Sound the Alarm

According to Bill Cain, who worked at Police Station Pizza for 20 years prior to purchasing the business in June from Alex Burzese, Tony Dippolito founded the pizzeria in 1951, and his cousin (Al’s dad) Robert Burzese took it over in 1954. Al took the reins in 1984.

“The way we do it now is the old, long process,” Cain says. “But it’s not as ridiculously hard as it used to be. They didn’t have any mixers or anything back then for the dough.”

A typical day starts as early as 6 a.m., when Cain or one of his employees starts making sauce, which cooks for about five hours. “It’s a simple sauce. We don’t use much of anything. It’s whole tomatoes and a little bit of stuff, but that’s it,” he says.

The dough is made daily, proofed twice and then par-baked. It’s sauced and dressed with cheese before it’s baked a second time. Cain says he believes the cheese is another key to the success of Police Station Pizza. It’s a blend of three varieties of Provolone, and it’s finished with Romano. “There’s never any mozzarella. It’s too greasy for this kind of pizza,” he says.

It’s a symphony of movement once the shop opens for business at 4 p.m. Four employees finish 24-inch by 16-inch pans with room-temperature cheese from a large tub, as well as any additional toppings, when pulled from the oven.

Crispy, crunchy and airy, there’s a half-inch of loft to the dough, so you get a little bit of the soft tug where it meets the sauce at the top. It’s an exceptional tray pizza crust. The sauce is bright and tangy, and it melds the bridge between the multi-textured cheese. And here’s the real key — it’s not overdressed with cheese, which is the case at some of the other establishments (DiCarlo’s Steubenville is similarly restrained). It’s a true demonstration of the dignity of Ohio Valley-style pizza.

The early history of Police Station Pizza is partially lost to time, and it’s an open question as to whether the Police Station Pizza was an independent culinary creation. There isn’t any evidence or remembrance that Al Burzese or Tony Dippolito had any connection with the DiCarlo family, but it’s possible word of this style of pizza traveled the 35-mile journey from Steubenville. Two nearby institutions — the excellent D&G Pizza in Beaver Falls (which has a second location in Monaca) and Breezy’s Pizza in Aliquippa — trace their roots to Pizza House.

Cain says that Alex Burzese still works most mornings. And, even though Cain is the first non-family member to own the 70-year-old institution, nothing is going to change. “The only way I know how to do it is the way we do it now,” he says.

Up The Mon, A Red Top

Donora is the birthplace of baseball greats Ken Griffey Sr., Ken Griffey Jr. and Stan “The Man” Musial. It’s also the birthplace of a pizza style that may very well be unique to this curve in the Monongahela Valley — the Mon Valley red-top pie.

Anthony DiDonato, who co-owns Anthony’s Italiano with his wife, Theresa, believes he first made the pie in the early 1980s. It came about from discussions with his friend and former employer, Armand Forlini, who owned Armando’s Pizza from 1969 until he died in 2014 (Armand’s son Justin now runs the operation, which has locations in Charleroi and Monessen).

The two aimed to create a version of a Chicago-style, deep-dish spin called stuffed pizza popularized in the mid-1970s; it likely is a version of the northern Italian Easter pie, scarciedda.

However, DiDonato and Forlini didn’t travel to Chicago to try it, and information exchange between pizzaioli was much rarer in those days, so DiDonato says they created it themselves.

“The red-top is just something that was our version of a Chicago deep-dish pizza thing. I saw it on a program a long, long time ago. They put all the stuff in a pan, and I said, ‘we could do something like that but not in a pan’ because we didn’t have the right pans and our ovens were different,” DiDonato says. “I just threw one together with just cheese, and it tasted good, and that was it.”

It begins with an American gas-oven-style dough base — DiDonato makes dough every morning he’s open — stretched medium-thin. Next, a thick layer of cheese; DiDonato’s is a provolone and mozzarella mix he shreds and blends himself. Toppings, such as pepperoni or black olives, would be added at this time, too. A second crust, thinner than the first, is placed atop the cheese layer and crimped at the edge to the bottom crust. Finally, uncooked homemade sauce is ladled atop the pie. DiDonato bakes it for about 12 minutes in an ancient two-deck Bakers Pride oven he’s used since he opened his shop in 1977, then adds another layer of sauce as well as a sprinkle of Romano and Parmesan before it’s cooked for another three minutes.

The result is as if pizza and lasagna made some plans and pizza said, “Let’s meet partway.”

You get a soft-crisp crust at the bottom, with some of the tug of a New York gas oven pie. Then you get the cheese, which doesn’t have the fat cooked out like a traditional pizza, nor is it in a liminal state like the Ohio Valley style. It’s closest to what you might get in a perfectly made mozzarella stick. Then you get the second crust, which is thinner and adds a subtle layer of texture. The second application of sauce means you get a little bit of tang contrasting with the deeper flavor of a cooked sauce. Toward the edge, where the crusts are crimped together, you get the best bit, little ropes of cheese with wisps of sauce. It’s a delight.

DiDonato’s pies aren’t artisanal in the vein of a modern baker weighing heritage wheat to the gram and using precise hydration ratios. Yet there is an art in this handmade tradition invented just outside of Pittsburgh. The Mon Valley red-top found at Anthony’s Italiano is a pizza made by a pizza person; DiDonato, 65, started making pizza when he was 15, and he met Theresa, who started making pizza at 16, at Armando’s.

“Both grandmas were from Italy, but I don’t know where. They kept that side of the tradition away from me. They said, ‘You’re going to be an American boy, not Italian,’” DiDonato says. “But I love to make pizzas. I take pride in what I do. Every pizza I make is special to me. I put my heart into it.”

Justin Forlini carries on Armand’s part of the story at Armando’s, where their red-top pie now is cooked in a rotating oven rather than a thick-stoned gas classic. “We both make our versions, and each one is a little different,” DiDonato says of the place where he worked when he was a kid.

Up the hill, in a residential part of Donora, Marty’s Pizza, which opened in 1987, is also serving Mon Valley red-top. Marty’s offers a significantly more rustic pie than Anthony’s. When you talk about a pizza pie, this is the pie, weighing in at more than four pounds for a 12-inch. The bottom crust is very crunchy, the cheese has a photogenic pull, the top dough layer resembles something you’d encounter in a baked pasta dish and it’s topped with a thick sauce layer with a lot of oregano. It’s an affordable indulgence that’s worth seeking out.

The style remains nestled in the valley, though it should be spread far and wide.

JOHN SASSAK CONTINUES TO MAKE A STYLE OF PIZZA FIRST SERVED BY HIS GRANDMOTHER, COSAMINA NUZZACI. SHE STARTED SELLING TRAYS OF SPONGE PIZZA IN MONESSEN IN 1952.

Cushioned

On the lower floor of a white house with sky blue trim on a Monessen hilltop, John Sassak carries on a pizza tradition started by his grandmother, Cosamina Nuzzaci. “She made it up. She came over from Italy in 1922. She started mixing it in a washtub in 1952 when she opened the shop,” Sassak says.

Sponge pizza, as he calls it, is unique to the location (at least in this form). He keeps his grandmother’s original recipe, written on a brown paper bag, even though he can’t read Italian.

Sassak says the massive, rectangular loaf weighs approximately 15 pounds. It’s nearly 2 inches thick and is as if an Italian cook interpreted a southern dinner roll but made it into a loaf and crossed it with focaccia. Substantial and weighty, but not heavy. Soft, with just a very slight crunch on the bottom.

Sassak says, aside from the washtub, the process hasn’t changed through three generations of family ownership — his mom, Mary Sassak, ran the business from 1964 until 2002. John left work as a long-haul truck driver to take over the business when she passed away.

Nuzzaci’s sponge pizza, which is the only thing Sassak serves, begins with a 50-pound sack of flour, water, oil, yeast, sugar and salt. Sassak mixes batches of dough by hand, no electric contraptions involved. After a rise, the dough is weighed, patted into pans, risen again and baked. “I let it cool like a loaf of bread and then cook it a second time when it’s time to make the pizza,” he says.

Sassak’s sauce, which he makes several times per week, combines two kinds of tomatoes, onions, water, oil and sugar. Toppings are limited and placed under the layer of provolone and mozzarella. The trays are cooked in an 80-year-old Blodgett steel oven. He says the decades of seasoning, as well as the handcrafted construction of the oven, are part of what makes a Nuzzaci sponge pizza what it is. “It’s expensive to keep it going. But it wouldn’t taste the same with a different oven,” he says, noting that people who take par-baked ingredients home have a good result but say it isn’t quite like getting it from the shop.

It’s comforting. It’s $12. And it can feed a family. It also would work as part of a meal, perhaps with some hearty greens and beans alongside it. That speaks to the democratization of pizza; this handcrafted dish with a long history is still accessible to just about anyone.

How long that tradition will last at Nuzzaci remains up in the air. It’s a one-and-a-half person show; Sassak working full time and his wife, Patty, who works a full-time job elsewhere, helping him in the evenings. Although there is a large extended family, nobody seems interested in taking over the shop. And Sassak doesn’t intend to sell the family recipe or the store to anyone else. “It’s a shame to say, but nobody else wants it. I just bought a brand new Chevy. When I retire in seven years or so, that’s it,” he says.

Then again, he said the same thing in a Tribune-Review article — in 2010. “It feels really good to keep this family tradition going for all these years. As long as I’m having fun, I’m going to keep doing it,” he says.

CHEESE BELOW SAUCE HAS BEEN THE RULE SINCE THE DAY FRANK’S PIZZERIA OPENED. TODAY, ROBERT ALOE MAKES PIZZA THE SAME WAY HIS FATHER DID WHEN HE STARTED IN 1958.

A pie For Everyone

The pizza styles and their creators are peppered throughout the region.

There’s Jioio’s, the pizza with a flaky, almost pastry crust that’s drawn decades of speculation about the origins of its sweet flavor; it’s been a Westmoreland County staple since Fred A. and Elvira Jioio started serving pizza in 1951. Further afield in Youngstown, volunteers at St. Anthony of Padua Church popularized the Briar Hill pie, a round, pan pie ladled with long-cooked sauce, and topped with peppers and a smattering of Romano cheese. That pizza, with roots in the southern Italian region of Basilicata and the immigrant kitchens of Youngstown’s Briar Hill neighborhood, is still served once a week at the church (be sure to call ahead to order) as well as a few pizzerias in the area. And the innovation continues; last year, the Pabala family, owners of Peoples Indian Restaurant in Garfield, introduced pies with toppings that reflect the culinary heritage of the country they emigrated from years ago.

Back in Ambridge at Frank’s Pizzeria, Robert Aloe carries on his father Frank’s tradition of putting the cheese on before the sauce. It’s the way the Calabrese fisherman (he tried his hand at a fish shop and pastry business prior to opening a pizzeria) and his family have made it since he purchased a Mastro gas oven, a dozen pizza trays, a cutter and two peels for $600 in 1958. Aloe traveled to the Bowery in New York City to learn from the Mastros, and Robert Aloe says they told his father to put the cheese on first to create a bond with the crust, creating a crispy, cheesy bite with bright sauce. He’s been doing it the same way as his dad — same recipe, same flour, same yeast, same oven — ever since. “We’re always told we make pizza backward. But maybe the rest of them make it backward. We’re right, and they’re wrong,” says Aloe.

In an era when pizza is either generic or hyper-artisanal, these pizza makers carry on long-lasting traditions. Unlike many restaurants right now, none of these businesses are struggling; typically, the phone is ringing off the hook right at opening, and most ship nationwide to fans who miss their taste of home. They all are remarkably affordable, reminding us that good, handmade food can come at a reasonable price when simple ingredients are crafted with generational skill and supported enough by the community that they can sell a lot of it.

“It’s amazing. We’ve all survived so many different things,” says Aloe. “I don’t think my dad expected this to last as long as it did when he opened the business. What we do is becoming a lost art.”

“WE NEED TO BAND TOGETHER TO KEEP THE INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE SAFE. EVERYBODY IS IN A BAD SPOT WHERE THEY NEED MONEY, BUT PUTTING A BARTENDER IN A SITUATION WHERE THEY HAVE TO POLICE A DINING ROOM ISN’T OK. IT’S AN IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION TO THEM.” –– KATE ROMANE, OWNER OF BLACK RADISH KITCHEN

It’s been a terrible year for just about anyone who operates a restaurant,  bar or catering business.  Since March 16,  when the first public health measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 included the prohibition of on-premises consumption,  life in the region’s hospitality industry has been a roller coaster of uncertainty.  While it’s true that restaurants and bars close every year and Pittsburgh hasn’t,  to date,  seen a tidal wave of COVID-related shutterings, tension about survival is high.  Union Standard,  Brillobox,  Ace Hotel,  The Original Hot Dog Shop,  Mixtape,  Spoon and Fairlane,  among other beloved establishments,  are gone for good.  The rest of the industry is hanging by a thread.

“FROM THE DAY MY FATHER DIED, I’VE BEEN WORKING TO OVERCOME THINGS ALL MY LIFE. IF COVID HAS PROVEN ANYTHING, IT’S THAT I HAVE A GREAT ABILITY TO FIGURE THINGS OUT. NOW I KNOW EVEN A PANDEMIC ISN’T GOING TO STOP ME.” –– JACKIE PAGE, OWNER OF LOVE ROCKS CAFE

‘The fact that every state, every county, every city, had to go through this individually, without any unified federal leadership, was a big problem. Our anti-Federalism led to every single place having to spend resources and time trying to figure it out on their own,” says Bill Fuller, president and corporate chef of big Burrito Restaurant Group.

Yet in the face of suffering and uncertainty, the people who operate businesses in the region’s hospitality industry have continued to adapt through creativity, community support and sheer force of will.

“From the day my father died, I’ve been working to overcome things all my life. If COVID has proven anything, it’s that I have a great ability to figure things out. Now I know even a pandemic isn’t going to stop me,” says Jackie Page, owner of Love Rocks Cafe.

Kate Romane, owner of Black Radish Kitchen, was attending a catering convention in Las Vegas when word spread about the novel coronavirus’s impending threat. She’d lost $45,000 of projected business by the time she returned to Pittsburgh a few days later.

Romane had to lay off her entire staff: 10 full-time and 50 part-time workers. She and her director of events and development, Sarah Tafel, brainstormed what to do next. “We lost the product that we sell. We promote people coming together. Food is our vehicle for everyone to have an easy time doing that,” she says.

She quickly developed some action ideas to staunch the financial void, such as launching a weekly meal delivery subscription. “It wasn’t clear at the beginning how extensive this would be,” she says.

It’s clear now that it would be pervasive — 10 months and counting. And that series of challenges to keep afloat would get more daunting as time went on.

“How do you know if you’re going to do enough volume to pay for product and pay the people that work for you?” says Fuller.

“THE FACT THAT EVERY STATE, EVERY COUNTY, EVERY CITY, HAD TO GO THROUGH THIS INDIVIDUALLY, WITHOUT ANY UNIFIED FEDERAL LEADERSHIP, WAS A BIG PROBLEM.” –– BILL FULLER, PRESIDENT AND CORPORATE CHEF, BIG BURRITO RESTAURANT GROUP

Muddle Through Uncertainty

Aside from a splinter group of politically motivated, short-term-thinking and science-denying restaurant owners, most people who run local hospitality businesses believe the Commonwealth’s public health measures, as restrictive as they are at times, are necessary. However, they wished they were included in the conversation about what was happening. The changes often came rapidly and without any additional guidance or assistance, the result was an overabundance of already-paid-for perishable food and the anguish of having to abruptly lay off staff.

“We expect these things to happen. But, as business owners, we don’t get edicts until 24 to 48 hours before they go into effect,” says Meredith Meyer Grelli, co-owner of Wigle Whiskey and Threadbare Cider and Mead. “We’re in crisis management mode. Having a four-week plan would be helpful. What’s less helpful to us is to have these advisories go out to people’s cell phones telling us not to leave the house but then also telling us that we are open at 50 percent. How do you tell people they can come in when they’re also getting messages on their phones saying don’t you dare go out?”

The fact that these changes were coupled without any significant financial support from government institutions makes things worse. The Paycheck Protection Program wasn’t structured in a way that would be helpful to most restaurants, and the money granted didn’t last long enough to sustain the businesses that were able to use it. The Restaurants Act, which would have helped significantly, was left to die in the 116th Congress. On top of that, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania chose to use the money it received as part of the CARES Act to balance its budget rather than help businesses it asked to shut down to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“When I talk about, ‘They don’t care about restaurants and small businesses,’ it’s because, as rules were made to close them, there was never a concomitant allocation of funds to help. It was just like, ‘You’re closed. Good luck,’” says Fuller.

Other issues came to the forefront, as well. There was a need to educate diners on the etiquette of going out. While most of the public was generally willing to comply with public safety rules such as wearing a mask unless eating or drinking, recalcitrant and entitled guests created a strain on ownership and employees. On the flip side, anecdotal evidence points to a significant portion of the population who haven’t felt comfortable dining at a restaurant, particularly indoors, or who have at the very least severely curtailed the frequency in which they visit restaurants.

To get by, business owners had to dig deep into their strengths.

“PEOPLE WANT TO GET TOGETHER AGAIN, TO DINE OUT WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY. WE, AS AN INDUSTRY, NEED SUPPORT TO GET US THROUGH THE NEXT FEW MONTHS WHEN NOBODY CAN REALLY DO OUTDOOR DINING.” –– MEREDITH MEYER GRELLI, CO-OWNER OF WIGLE WHISKEY AND THREADBARE CIDER AND MEAD

Hybridize

Some restaurants, such as Apteka and Butterjoint, chose to forgo opening for on-premise dining altogether, opting instead to expand takeaway options. Arguably, the decision has allowed both of those establishments to become more focused on the nuances that make them exceptional destinations.

At Butterjoint, co-owner Trevett Hooper now sells weekly meal specials, fully prepared frozen dishes and provisions such as housemade condiments and yogurt, as well as locally raised meat and regionally grown grains. On top of that, his team put together a top-notch cocktail program and beer shop.

Butterjoint was one of the first in Pittsburgh to launch a restaurant-as-provisioner concept. It started in mid-March with Hooper cleaning out his walk-in to minimize food waste while meeting payroll for his 50-person staff. Hooper sent a special edition of his popular, bi-monthly “Notes From the Kitchen” newsletter to let people know what he had to offer. Everything sold out. He sent another the following week — everything sold out again — and he is still at it. “It’s what we have to do to survive,” he says.

It’s helping. But it also shows that even the restaurant owners who have (in some ways) figured things out are barely keeping afloat. Despite a PPP loan, having an understanding landlord and a loyal customer base, Hooper can only afford to employ seven full-time and five part-time workers.

“Something might work one week, and then two weeks later it’s not working anymore. We’re constantly peddling what we’re serving. When you’re a chef, you write a menu, and you serve it. Now, it’s a different zeitgeist every month, and you have to sell what’s new every week,” he says.

Serve Those In Need

Page says that what’s helped her get through this is that two of her most vital attributes are her ability to plan and network. “When people say pivot and figure it out, you really had to figure it out,” she says.

So she got to it. What she learned is that she could help those most at risk — the people already living with food insecurity and those brought to that point by the consequences of the pandemic, particularly school-aged children — while keeping her business afloat. Erin Hart, program director of Farm to Table, reached out in April. Contracts from the Heinz Endowments and United Way allowed her to cook for Allegheny County Housing Authority sites. Sustainable Pittsburgh reached out, and she prepared six weeks of meals for children in McKees Rocks housing plans.

Other Pittsburgh establishments also stepped up to provide meals for those who could use them. Scratch & Co., Community Kitchen Pittsburgh and Aunt Cheryl’s Cafe all participated in the United Way program. Peoples Indian offered free boxed lunches; The Warren provided thousands of free dinners to out-of-work service industry employees and their families.

Page says she cooked, on average, approximately 1,000 meals a week for those in need. And those meals, which included items such as a holiday feast of whole roasted chicken with stuffing, mashed potatoes and salad, were always something special. “It made me happy to be able to feed people that I knew needed it,” she says.

“SOMETHING MIGHT WORK ONE WEEK, AND THEN TWO WEEKS LATER IT’S NOT WORKING ANYMORE.” –– TREVETT HOOPER, CO-OWNER, BUTTERJOINT

Leadership

Over the past few months, Romane has found other ways to use food to help people have an easier time with their lives, pivoting into outlets such as home meal delivery, meal kits and working with organizations such as the Hillman and Posner foundations to deliver food to families in Homewood and Larimer. Romane has also partnered with Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Mutual Aid to prepare meals for Allegheny Eats (and has donated space for Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Mutual Aid to use as its distribution hub). Although revenue is down significantly, Romane says she’s getting by and has hired back much of her staff.

Romane channeled her extra energy and time into activism, emerging as one of the region’s most outspoken leaders for protecting the welfare of service industry employees as well as the general public.

She’s used her expertise to help initiate Safe Service Allegheny, an industry group that serves as a community resource. The organization aims to build a community of like-minded establishments dedicated to uplifting each other through resource sharing, including best practices to keep its employees and the public safe.

“We need to band together to keep the industry as a whole safe. Everybody is in a bad spot where they need money, but putting a bartender in a situation where they have to police a dining room isn’t OK. It’s an impossible situation to them,” she says.

Romane recognizes the desperation in the small group of restaurant owners who decided to defy Gov. Tom Wolf’s public safety measures but sees their view as short-sighted and damaging to the industry as a whole. In contrast, Safe Service Allegheny lists 58 organizations that have signed its “member promise,” which commits them to follow federal, state and local public health guidelines, among other actions. “Being safe now, operating in a way that you let customers know you have their safety and your employees’ safety in mind, is the way you’re going to get people to return to restaurants with the same enthusiasm they had before this started,” she says.

Where Do We Go?

It’s likely, Fuller says, there will be more closings, as well as attrition of talented chefs and bartenders as people seek careers in other industries. He also says that menus, which have contracted significantly at most establishments, probably will continue to remain honed in for the foreseeable future. And while crowds will return to restaurants, designing items that work for takeout and delivery is going to last, too. And, he says, “Barring something just awful, I expect all of our restaurants to still be here on the other side.”

“We’re so far into this that we remain committed to moving forward,” says Grelli. She and her team have ridden the wave at Wigle and Threadbare’s several locations with a combination of food and bottle pairings for takeaway menus and outdoor dining when it was practical. Look for Wigle’s expanded original location to finally get booming once things return to normalcy — the new restaurant, tasting room, bottle shop, event space and mini-museum doubled its original size and was open for just two days prior to the shutdown.

“People want to get together again, to dine out with friends and family. We, as an industry, need support to get us through the next few months when nobody can really do outdoor dining.”

Hooper says that he’s a different chef now, more rooted in his kitchen than he has been in years. For example, he’s looked at recipes from 10 years ago that slowly have changed via a game of chef-to-chef-to-chef “telephone,” and honed them back into what he loved about them in the first place. Hooper also adapted some recipes, changing Butterjoint’s celebrated bistro-style burger into a Smashburger because that style is better suited for takeaway and less expensive. He also decided to pull back on some of the hyper-complex, do-it-all-in-house systems that had become a signature of the former Legume, opting to keep his sourcing rigorous but be less rigid in methodology. He says this change is the framework for reopening Butterjoint, which in its new form was just a couple of weeks old when the March 16 shutdown happened.

Page is already looking forward. She plans on starting a Sunday brunch at Carousel Cafe at the new Nafasi on Centre in the Hill District, has her sights on opening a restaurant in that neighborhood, and is brainstorming about a gourmet sandwich and local beer spot. “I’m almost 56 years old, and I keep thinking about restaurant concepts,” she says.

Romane sees a renewed sense of community in the industry. This interconnectedness is what helped build Pittsburgh’s restaurant boom, and it might be what holds it together as the city emerges from the pandemic.

“If we start to lose independent restaurants that put their values before the bottom line, we’re going to see the whole region lose something big. We need to support them, their values and the delicious ideas that they are putting forward,” Romane says. “I’ve spent my whole adult life in Pittsburgh. I’ve watched the food scene turn into something cool. Supporting good talent paves the way for more talent to have big ideas.”

OAK HILL POST

Only one establishment on this list, Cobra, opened in the pre-COVID world.  To that end, most of these restaurants were selected with meals that I ordered for takeaway, though I did try to eat them as soon as possible to minimize transportation shock.  Heart meant more to me than detailed plating,  though,  of course,  you can get a tasty meal at every place on this list.  I’ve divided the list into two sections — one for brand new establishments and one for establishments that underwent significant enough change that they qualify as a novel experience.  All things considered,  this is one of the strongest Best New Restaurants lists I’ve put together in recent years.

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

Cobra

Given everything that’s happened in 2020, it seems a dream that one of my favorite openings of the year is inside a building that features communal cooking on Shinpo Yakiniku grills, private room karaoke and a retro-futuristic bar. That’s Cobra. At the heart of executive chef Julio Peraza’s elegant menu is carefully butchered, prime-grade meat seared on a tableside grill; it’s an engaging, interactive way to dine out. Peraza’s menu is rounded out by a small assembly of Korean- and Japanese-influenced dishes. The hip bar features colorful cocktails, a strong-for-Pennsylvania sake list and excellent Japanese whisky and beer options. I’m looking forward to returning to the grill tables, as well as the adjacent room, which offers space for DJ dance parties and karaoke, as one of my first post-pandemic celebrations.

BLOOMFIELD: 4305 Main St.
412/682-2608, cobrapgh.com

Oak Hill Post

Christian Schulz and Rebecca Nicholson had just opened a brick-and-mortar location of their popup restaurant, Menuette, when public safety measures related to COVID-19 forced them to shut down. After a break, the duo decided to pivot their Brookline space into something a little more necessary to the adjusted rhythm of pandemic life, reopening as a casual eatery called Oak Hill Post. Oh, Hi, as they call it, offers a rotating menu that features layered, crushable sandwiches such as Beets + Greens (roasted beets, broccolini, arugula, marinated olives, sauce gribiche and Boursin cheese), hamburgers and a selection of handmade pasta dishes; I’m still salivating over the carrot-top pesto spaghetti I had in November. Thoughtful side salads, condiments such as giardiniera and housemade sausages round out the worth-driving-through-a-tunnel offerings. Oak Hill Post is a terrific example of what a contemporary neighborhood sandwich shop can offer with a hands-on, detail-oriented approach.

BROOKLINE: 600 Brookline Blvd.
412/254-2970, oakhillpost.com

Fig & Ash

Fig & Ash executive chef/co-owner Cory Hughes announced this project more than four years ago. The former Google Pittsburgh chef and his team spent the last two years building the establishment, which offers a lovely dining room and a cozy patio. Hughes’ menu is contemporary New American and features a glorious wood-fired grill; it’s one of the most thoughtfully constructed lists of the year. Like most openings in 2020, Fig & Ash primarily serves as a neighborhood spot. However, with dishes such as a hunking, juicy tomahawk pork chop served with sage spätzle and braised red cabbage and hearth-roasted carrots with whipped ricotta, honey, brown butter and Marcona almonds, it’s very much destination dining, too.

NORTH SIDE: 514 E. Ohio St.
412/321-2222, figandashpgh.com

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

Dagu Rice Noodle

With Dagu Rice Noodle, I’m breaking a longstanding prohibition of chain restaurants on my lists. I’m smitten with this outpost of the Chinese noodle-bowl restaurant; the Squirrel Hill branch is one of only three locations in the United States, which speaks to the neighborhood’s blossoming into a port of call to explore regional Chinese cuisines. The specialty of the house is a Yunnanese soup, crossing-the-bridge noodles (過橋米線). Legend has it that the components — chewy rice noodles and a selection of ingredients such as thin-cut meat, tofu, lettuce and eggs — were packed separately from the unctuous broth (typically pork, but there are several options at Dagu) to keep a scholar’s meals tip-top during the long walk needed to deliver them to him. In the age of dining-at-a-distance, this packaging also works perfectly for a take-home meal. Other dishes, such as whole fried chicken, are worth checking out, too.

SQUIRREL HILL: 5829 Forbes Ave.
412/504-4672, dagu-usa.com

2 Sisters 2 Sons

2 Sisters 2 Sons, the Sharpsburg restaurant from sisters Denise Josephs and Marlene Siddo and their sons Michael Brown and Kwasi Prince, offers outstanding Jamaican cuisine in a region that definitely can use more. Josephs and Siddo (co-head chefs who previously ran a restaurant in Wilkinsburg) and their sons built a small following in 2017 at Pittsburgh Jerk Fess, and now, with the help of their extended family, have expanded on that with the summer’s buzziest opening, with well-earned lines of people often spilling onto the street to pick up takeout. Start with jerk chicken, which has a distinct grilled flavor and a hot, fruity and spicy rub; it’s one of my favorite dishes of 2020. If you’re looking for something milder yet still flavor-packed, brown-stew chicken or goat is the way to go, and the oxtails are fantastic, too.

SHARPSBURG: 1882 Main St.
412/252-2864, instagram.com/2sisters2sons

The Speckled Egg

I love the idea of a well-executed, scratch-made diner, a place where classics begin with quality ingredients and are prepared with attention-to-detail. That’s precisely what Jacqueline and Nathan Schoedel, two chefs ready to leap into the next phases of their careers, are offering at The Speckled Egg. Their cozy restaurant is tucked into a nook in the grand lobby of the Union Trust Building, and you’ll find a daytime menu that’ll leave you feeling more cheerful for eating it. Look for morning favorites such as breakfast sandwiches, buttermilk pancakes and omelets, an assortment of salads and some thoroughly delicious sandwiches; I’m a big fan of the turmeric-enriched chicken salad sandwich. It’s a sweet spot for a drink, too, with cold-pressed juice blends, strong coffee, wine, beer and a cocktail program that punches above its weight for a space this size.

DOWNTOWN: 501 Grant St.
412/251-5248, thespeckledeggpgh.com

St. Clair Social

What I love about St. Clair Social is that it meets its promise — a neighborhood tavern with scratch-made food, affordable, well-crafted cocktails, a great beer list and a hospitality-forward mindset. The establishment is helmed by Cat Cannon and Cecil Usher, two of Pittsburgh’s most prominent bar industry leaders. The duo founded a consulting company, Mindful Hospitality, early last year and became co-owners of St. Clair Social in the depths of the pandemic. Will Randall is the restaurant’s executive chef, and his menu of sandwiches, burgers, wings, mussels and daily specials is a well-executed crowd-pleaser. Look for the space to become a local gathering spot once public health mitigations due to COVID-19 are lifted.

FRIENDSHIP: 302 S St Clair St.
412/600-1572, stclairsocialpgh.com

New in their way, these three relaunched restaurants deserve acclaim.

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

Rockaway Pizza

Rockaway Pizza owner/pizzaiolo Josh Sickels is as obsessed with the thin-ish, floppy, greasy Queens, New York pizza pie as I am. He makes it just like they do, but with a better-fermented dough than most legacy establishments. Sickels intended on opening a larger location in the building adjacent to the original spot last year, but a series of delays halted the project until November. The unanticipated pause was unwelcome, but it allowed him time to expand his repertoire to a few other iterations of New York pies. There’s Carcosa, a pepperoni forward tray pie inspired by Prince Street Pizza, which features a long-cooked tomato sauce seasoned with piles of onion, garlic, butter and red pepper flakes. A grandma-style pie features a sesame seed bottomed crust, adding a rich depth of flavor. The original spot wasn’t very conducive to dining-in, but his new location will be a killer spot for a pizza party once that’s a thing we can do again.

WHITE OAK: 1949 Lincoln Way
rockawaypizzeria.com

Gaucho Parrilla Argentina

Every few years, Gaucho Parrilla Argentina metamorphoses into a larger entity. Anthony Falcon’s ode to the steak-forward, parrilla-style cookery of Buenos Aires started as a closet-sized, built-for-takeaway, Strip District storefront in 2013. In 2015, Falcon expanded into the adjacent space, adding menu items and ample seating. This year, he and his loyal crew — the restaurant has one of the best staff retention rates in town — migrated to the former Six Penn Kitchen space Downtown. A wood-fired grill remains the core of the kitchen, which means diners still can crush smoke-kissed, relatively affordable steaks, fish and chicken, as well as some tasty vegetables. The most significant change is that the third iteration of Gaucho has a liquor license. The cocktail list tilts toward classics such as Pisco sour, Fernet & coke and Aperol spritz, and smart takes such as a boozy horchata round the mix. Gaucho’s wine list is built almost exclusively from Argentine wines, and the draft beers are all local.

DOWNTOWN: 146 Sixth St.
412/709-6622, eatgaucho.com

Fet Fisk Royal Market

Nik Forsberg and Sarah LaPonte were in the early stages of seeking a permanent location for their ever-enchanting and always delicious popup series, FetFisk, when COVID-19 put a hard pause on the action. Forsberg decided to grow vegetables on an urban farm and LaPonte hit the road to pursue a master’s degree in North Carolina. Over the summer, Forsberg had the opportunity to take over an existing commercial kitchen in Shaler, and he jumped on it, launching FetFisk Royal Market in September. Forsberg’s kitchen offers something quite special to regional food lovers — a growing, scratch-made specialty food market. At its core is the smörgåsbord, which includes an ever-changing rotation of dips, spreads, sausages and raw, cooked and fermented vegetables. The market now has dishes such as juniper-crusted roast beef, gravlax and smoked trout and condiments such as rouille, strong mustard and tomato jam. I miss the energetic parties of FetFisk 1.0, but the spirit is there to create your own at home.

fetfisk.net/royal-market

The Expansions

Ladybird’s Luncheonette photo by Hal B. Klein

Some of my favorite Pittsburgh establishments multiplied in 2020. Among them, Pane è Pronto straddles the line between new and old, expanding on some of the things DiAnoia’s Eatery does best. The Strip District storefront draws  inspiration from the kind of casual food shop you might find throughout Europe, though this one, like its parent restaurant, draws from Italian culinary traditions. You’ll find a variety of fresh-baked bread, pastries, ready-to-eat sandwiches and a hot bar with dishes such as greens and beans, wedding soup and meatballs.

Mediterra Cafe opened a second branch in Mt. Lebanon. Executive chef Aniceto Sousa oversees the fast-casual menu of delightful sandwiches, breakfast dishes and salads and the specialty marketplace, pastry and bread options are all a draw, too. The new location features roomy seating options and a liquor license.

One of my best days last summer was when I first visited Ladybird’s Luncheonette in Ellwood City. Chef/co-owner Jade Cageao is a rare talent who crafts multi-sensory sweets such as ginger-molasses cookie sandwiches just as well as she makes savory delights such as an overstuffed lard-fried carnitas and avocado sandwich. In August, she and business partner Alex Jordan brought their magic, and a similar menu, to a second location in downtown Beaver.

Adda Coffee & Tea House’s Shadyside and North Side locations have always been community hubs. Owner Sukanta Nag stepped up his commitment in October with Adda Bazaar. In addition to serving the cafe’s always outstanding coffee and tea drinks (try the turmeric latte), the Garfield branch of Adda features a curated marketplace heavy on Pittsburgh-made culinary and craft goods, as well as a selection of hard to find gourmet food items sourced at the suggestion of Pittsburgh restaurant owners.

Baby Loves Tacos owners Kat Muscianesi and Zack Shell expanded their low-key farm-to-table taqueria operation into Millvale this year. The roomier space offers the opportunity to expand the affordable menu here and at the original Bloomfield location, both of which offer tacos, burritos and a handful of specials.

Keep an Eye On …

PHOTOS BY HAL B. KLEIN

Coop De Ville

The seventh restaurant from the Richard DeShantz Restaurant Group will be a funhouse when its full vision plays out. There’s a plush, eight-lane duck-pin bowling zone, arcade games, three bars and a fast-casual fried chicken counter all flowing in the 14,000-square-foot Strip District space. However, due to public health restrictions in place because of COVID-19, the long-awaited establishment opened in October but is not yet running at full steam. Given the restaurant group’s track record of opening entertaining spaces with good food, I have every reason to believe this will be a diversion-worthy destination once physical distancing restrictions are lifted.

STRIP DISTRICT:
2305 Smallman St.
412/991-2667
coopdevillepgh.com

Worth a Mention

Happy Day Dessert Factory

A meal, a bike ride, a walk or anytime, really, is even better with a sweet finish. Happy Day Dessert Factory, owned by 18-year-old Galen Rose Jr., offers scoops of excellent handmade ice cream. Everything I’ve had is delightful, though I’m partial to flavors such as cinnamon toast crunch that bring back the best memories of last-night cereal treats.

NORTH SIDE: 906 Western Ave.
412/872-0117, happydaydessertfactory.com

Ed. Note: We misspelt the names Ladybird Luncheonette co-owners Alex Jordan and Jade Cageao in an earlier draft of the story. We have updated their names and regret the error.  

SCRATCH & CO. OWNER DON MAHANEY

On a warm Tuesday night in late September, Froman Street in Troy Hill is a mellow buzz of diners eating and drinking in the newish outdoor dining space of Scratch Food & Beverage, an establishment that in its five years has straddled the line of destination dining restaurant and neighborhood pub. A Tuesday at Scratch used to mean crowds gathered for weekly trivia night. This year, it means ordering a meal on your phone for contactless payment and eating at physically distant tables. But the energy is still high, as is the level of hospitality that’s become a signature of the establishment.

“With so many external uncertainties, we have to look right in front of us for opportunities we can control and make the best with those circumstances,” says Scratch’s owner, Don Mahaney.

CHEF ANDREW SZUMINSKY AND SCRATCH OWNER DON MAHANEY ARE EMPHASIZING A MENU OF FEEL-GOOD ITEM, SUCH AS THE REUBEN SANDWICH WITH HOUSEMADE SAUERKRAUT THAT CAN BE ASSEMBLED SAFELY BY THE STAFF.

As the COVID-19 crisis stretches into its seventh month, Scratch has emerged as a model of flexibility in navigating its consequences and uncertainty. Mahaney and his team have embraced changes as they happen and have managed to maintain a neighborhood- and worth-driving-to dining experience while emerging as a hub for food access in a challenging time.

“Every change is guided by how we can create a situation where our staff is gainfully and safely employed, and we are contributing to the overall benefit of the community,” Mahaney says. “A lot of things can happen when you’re working within the framework of those criteria.”

CHEF ANDREW SZUMINSKY (LEFT) AND SCRATCH OWNER DON MAHANEY

Over the summer, Scratch’s chef Andrew Szuminsky put together a dynamic menu of dishes that includes feel-good items such as layered, mostly vegan, grain and vegetable bowls popping with flavor; comforting slow-pot dishes such as gumbo; decadent cannelloni variations; and a smattering of sandwiches. The offerings are easy-to-enjoy crowd-pleasers, ready to be consumed on the premises yet able to hold their quality if transported home or as part of a picnic.

More importantly, Mahaney says, the menu is designed to minimize his staff’s risk of exposure to COVID-19. When a cook tested positive for COVID in July, Mahaney immediately shut down the restaurant. Although everyone else tested negative, he decided that the one positive test was enough of a prompt to change the way his kitchen operated. “There was an identified weakness with everyone in our kitchen standing so close to each other, even if we were wearing masks,” he says.

So rather than run a more traditional cooking system in the restaurant’s pocket-sized kitchen, Szuminsky and Mahaney designed a menu that can be prepared and assembled in component stages, which allows the kitchen staff to remain separated from one another. The move followed in line with Mahaney’s drive to keep his team employed throughout the pandemic. He also instituted a no-tip model for his front of house staff, operating under the logic that with restaurant sales rollercoastering for an uncertain time, it would be a thoughtful decision to pay his staff a single, steady wage.

SCRATCH’S OWNER DON MAHANEY IS SPINNING OFF A PROVISIONING COMPANY, SCRATCH & CO. MADE BRAND, WITH AN ARRAY OF LOCALLY GROWN AND MADE PRODUCTS SUCH AS SAUERKRAUT, DELI MEATS, FRUIT BUTTERS AND PICKLES.

Among the other kitchen changes were converting the restaurant to a neighborhood market that included everyday household items in late March; that initial market concept is mostly phased out, but some items still are available. In April, Scratch introduced crockpot kits, a smart solution for weekly meal planning. To help parents navigate the challenges of teaching and working from home, there now is a subscription service for school lunch boxes that includes a weekly supply of housemade deli meats, cheeses, dips such as hummus and baba ganoush, sandwich bread, grain and vegetable bowls and soup; a dinner box is also available. “Whatever happens, we want a menu that people can enjoy just as easily at home as they can in the restaurant,” Mahaney says.

Mahaney’s efforts have extended beyond staff and customers, too. In March, he introduced a temporary pay-what-you-can meal to help people during a period of financial uncertainty. During the depths of the crisis, his community work also included acting as a hub for free distribution of donated produce and joining other Pittsburgh restaurant owners in preparing free meals for out-of-work restaurant industry members. On top of that, he has since April delivered grocery and sundry packages to seniors as part of a partnership with Wesley Family Services and the United Way.

Mahaney just made his next pivot, rebranding his business as Scratch & Co. to better represent the community aspects — including farmers, collaborators and customers — that encompass the business. He’s spinning off a provisioning company, Scratch & Co. Made Brand, with Kevin Klingensmith running the culinary operations. The idea is to offer an array of locally grown and made products such as sauerkraut, deli meats, fruit butters, and pickles at the same price as those from the global supply chain. By cutting all of the steps in the middle of the supply chain and working with local food retail businesses such as Wild Purveyors, Mahaney believes he can pay his employees a fair wage and reduce the carbon footprint of his business while offering tasty things for his customers at an affordable price.

CALEB SISCO IS PIPING PASTA FILLING FOR CANNELLONI.

“I believe there is a great opportunity to create a systems-level change for how we get our food. The social good that comes from it is a definite driver for us,” he says.

Mahaney says the plan is to sell Scratch’s Made products at the restaurant and online, and he hopes to be on the shelf at delicatessens, grocers and small market shops throughout the region. On top of that, Scratch will continue its charitable work through an initiative called Share, and Mahaney has also launched an events and catering component.

As for the restaurant, Mahaney says he’ll continue to embrace fluidity with the way it’s run. Indoor dining returned in late September, with temperature checks and contact tracing measures in place, as well as a service model that limits staff exposure to guests.

“We’ve been blessed with gracious guests coming into the space and being flexible with modified menus and service models. But we don’t know what’s going to happen with cases. We’re determined to assure our safety and guests safety through all the best practices we can implement,” he says.

Scratch Food & Beverage
1720 Lowrie St., Troy Hill, 412/251-0822, scratchfoodbev.com

Farmers plan. As soon as a killing frost ends the growing season, they build the framework for the next one. What worked and what didn’t work? What did people get excited about buying? And just like that, they’re growing food again. In western Pennsylvania, items such as the heirloom tomatoes on our late-summer plates must be selected for variety and started from seed in a greenhouse or basement in the dead of winter.

Farmers also need to be flexible. An unexpected heat wave with no rain in May can wither an otherwise reliable bounty of salad greens. A ravenous groundhog or deer can mow a row of crops overnight. But restaurants are depending on a delivery for their evening menu, and those CSA boxes still need to get to subscribers.

And then a global pandemic that has the entire region sheltering in place can cause you to rethink your whole business model, especially when that model relies on people coming to your farm to eat the food that you grow. That’s what’s happening with Tara Rockacy’s Churchview Farm.

It’s a good thing the former librarian excels at both planning and flexibility.

“As farmers, we have the ability to be a little creative with what we are doing and how we get our product out there. I’m the kind of person that always has to be moving forward. I have to be adjusting and adapting. That’s how I thrive, and that’s how Churchview Farm thrives,” Rockacy says.

In 2007, Rockacy was an experienced gardener who adored sharing what she grew with her friends. She moved from Squirrel Hill back to her family’s land in Baldwin Borough in part to pay homage to her farmer grandfather, Emil, but mostly to save the nearly 10-acre allotment from potential development.

There wasn’t much there except for a few raspberry brambles when she broke ground. By 2009, she had 14 raised beds, a 20-person CSA subscription and a mentor in the esteemed urban farmer Barb Kline, one of the founders of Grow Pittsburgh.

Early on, Rockacy, who has a deep fondness bordering on obsession for flavorful heirloom tomatoes and peppers, decided she was going to focus on specialty crops for chefs rather than grow for the general market. And she made a long-term investment in growing fruit, which is a rarity in the region. She even has a fig mentor. “From a farmer’s perspective, fruit is the ultimate investment. You have to have a lot of patience with fruits,” she says.

It takes multiple years for a decent yield, even in best-case circumstances. Different fruits have very different needs as far as soil; blueberries, for example, thrive in a highly acidic environment. Fruit trees need yearly pruning and pest management. But Rockacy’s persistence is paying off, as raspberries, yellow raspberries, figs, gooseberries, honeyberries, Italian plum trees, blueberries and serviceberries begin to blossom on the farm. Now, she is adding a tree that’s been grown in this region for millennia — the American persimmon.

Year by year, Rockacy built the farm to become a destination. “I saw this community developing,” she says. “People who wanted to come to this space and step out of their lives for a few hours, whether it was for a work-share or to come to a dinner, that’s what I wanted to foster.”

As the business grew, it made sense for her to scale back on restaurant deliveries (you can still find her crops at a few establishments, such as Superior Motors) in favor of a series of farm dinners that span the growing season. Chefs such as Jamilka Borges, Kevin Sousa and Roger Li are regulars. Every year meant a new project to make the experience more engaging for guests and visiting chefs. A roofless pergola on uneven ground now is level and weather-tight; guests can see the sky on a beautiful summer night but dine comfortably even on the rainiest night. Early on, chefs cooked on propane burners. Now, they prepare Rockacy’s specialty produce in a fully equipped outdoor kitchen.

There’s a composting toilet with running water and electricity. There’s a tribe of goats that is both productive and photogenic. “We’re feeding people with ways to engage each other and engage people,” Rockacy says.

Rockacy planned on engaging a new audience by introducing an international dinner series featuring Wei Zhu of Chengdu Gourmet and Feng Gao of Sakura this summer. It meant starting seeds for vegetables in the Chinese culinary canon.

Now, the fate of those vegetables, and the rest of Churchview Farm’s produce, is uncertain. It’s hard to plan for a summer of culinary parties when it’s unclear how physically distant we must be from one another. But the farm must go on. One of the first things Rockacy did was reach out to existing and former workshares to let them know she was opening the spacious farm to a few people per day to come and be in the soil and the sun, work a little bit and take home food.

“I refuse to do anything but keep moving forward. For my sanity, it’s the only way I can operate in this age of uncertainty,” she says.

Update: In May, Rockacy decided to introduce a “Pickup Pop-Up” series as a way to maintain a connection in the wake of COVID-19 social distancing measures. Here’s how it works: Guests are assigned a pick-up time. Upon arrival at the assigned time, they will walk up the farm’s driveway where they’ll be greeted with a glass of sparkling wine. Guest will have half-hour or so to hang out at the farm during which they’ll be able to talk, from a safe distance, with the evening’s chef, visit the goats or just take in the open-air space. Churchview Farm staff will be on hand to make sure that everyone is maintaining an appropriate distance, and prior to the next group’s arrival, they’ll sanitize the public areas of the farm.

Guests will depart the farm with tote bag filled a three-course meal for two, a bottle of wine, seating cards with the guests’ names and a bouquet of flowers. Each experience will also include a virtual tour of the farm and playlist to enjoy with dinner. “People will be able to have a Churchview Farm pop-up dinner in their backyards or in their homes. And we’ll be able to support the farm, our staff and Pittsburgh chefs,” Rockacy says. 

The series starts on May 25 with DiAnoia’s Eatery. Among the lineup of chefs are Brian Pekarcik (Spoon) with Jamilka Borges, Kate Romane (Black Radish Kitchen), Csilla Thackray (Butterjoint All Day) and Brian Little (Superior Motors). A list of chefs, as well as Churchview Farm’s safety guidelines, is on the farm’s website.

PHOTOS BY LAURA PETRILLA

Lebanon likely isn’t a country that springs to the tip of the tongue when discussing the geography of chocolate making. While it’s never been a major player on the global market, Lebanon has since its independence in 1943 supported a boutique chocolate industry based in its capital, Beirut.

Earlier this year, that tradition came to Pittsburgh when Nancy Tabbara opened Tabbara Artisan Chocolate, an offshoot of her family’s Beirut chocolate shop. In Lebanon, the family business is called Chocolat Saad, but, as Tabbara explains, “We couldn’t call it Saad because of the pronunciation. What we do is completely the opposite of sad.”

The business was opened by Tabbara’s husband’s grandparents in the 1950s and was one of the major players in the country until the 1970s civil war nearly crushed the enterprise. Saad carries on in Beirut today but in a much smaller form.

Keeping the family tradition going is part of the reason that Tabbara, who visits her native Lebanon as frequently as once a year, decided to open her business in Pittsburgh, where she’s lived for the past seven years. “I always loved baking. And I love the family story. Most importantly, I love chocolate,” she says.

Tabbara looked to her family for guidance, learning the Belgian-influenced methodology that guides the preparation of chocolate in Lebanon. In an effort to learn more contemporary methods of chocolatiering, she also took classes at The Chocolate Academy in Chicago. “I mostly focus on perfecting the classics. I make small batches using quality ingredients,” she says.

Tabbara’s product line features bite-sized pieces and truffles that she packages as boxed assortments featuring dark, milk, white and ruby chocolate bases. In those, you’ll find delights such as croquant (caramelized hazelnuts coated in dark chocolate), datte (dates embedded in dark chocolate), tea (tea-infused ganache coated in milk chocolate) and caramel (salted caramel covered in dark chocolate), to name a few. “It’s good to keep it simple so you can get the true taste of the chocolate,” Tabbara says.

She recommends enjoying each bite on its own and taking a small sip of water between to refresh the palate. Although most pieces will stay fresh for a couple of months, Tabbara says it’s best to enjoy them quickly to ensure peak flavor.

Tabbara prepares her confections at a small workshop in the X Factory building in Point Breeze, which also houses food-related businesses such as Black Radish Kitchen. It takes two days to make a batch, because each step requires specific timing in order to heat and cool the chocolate, which begins with a Belgian base. Tabbara uses an Italian-built machine to temper some of the chocolate, a step that improves the consistency, visual appeal and mouthfeel. Everything else, from roasting nuts to adding colors to some of the bites, is done by hand, just as it is in Beirut. “You can’t rush chocolate making. It won’t work if you try to hurry,” she says.

tabbarachocolates.com

PHOTOS BY LAURA PETRILLA

What happens when you fuse the gastronomic lineage of southern grandmothers with the over-the-top culinary carnival of Guy Fieri? You get Angel Randolph. At Back To The Foodture, she serves 104 flavors of chicken wings, more than 30 permutations of hamburgers — including one sandwiched inside of doughnuts — and scores of French fry and hot dog combinations.

Randolph opened the three-table establishment in June with her fiancé, Edward Magwood, who goes by his stage name, Eddie Barnz. He’s a pop-culture enthusiast committed to preserving the memory of the analog age. The two met decades ago as students at Brashear High School; a run-in later in life set the stage for a partnership that weaves destination comfort food into a trip down memory lane in what once was a run-down bar space in Pitcairn, a sleepy borough approximately 15 miles from Downtown.

There’s a vintage Street Fighter II arcade console where, for free, you can journey to the 1990s to pit E. Honda against Balrog in battle. Along the walls are display cases stuffed with vintage video game consoles, board and table games, cameras, action figures and other bric-a-brac, some collected over the years but much of which Barnz has carried with him throughout his life. “I thought when I was a kid that if I held on to these things, my kids would be rich by the time I gave it to them,” he says.

Remember the flashy fashions of the 1970s? You can see photographs of those swinging summers on the long bar, which Barnz and Randolph converted into a pictorial history of the United States from the 1900s to the present day. There are photographs of famous and infamous figures, as well as bullet points describing some of the significant moments of each year. Barnz, who says he often falls asleep watching reruns of TV classics such as “I Love Lucy” and “The Munsters,” peppers the timeline with blurbs about big pop-culture moments, what things used to cost, and the top records of the day. Interspersed throughout are family photographs; you’ll learn, for example, that Randolph’s great-great-grandfather was part of the first publicly educated black kindergarten class in Atlanta.

Take it all in while you’re waiting for Randolph’s scratch-cooked food. Her chicken wings sit at the top of the bone pile in a sports- and beer-loving city that has many places where they know how to make them. Randolph’s offer salty crunch and a little bit of tug when you bite into them, giving way to the tender, juicy meat. You’ll find yourself picking through what you’ve already eaten to search for stray bites. You’ll order more.

What makes Randolph’s wings so habit-forming, though, is the care she puts into crafting her flavorings. Don’t let the fact that she’s preparing chicken wings and hamburgers fool you; Randolph’s savvy layering of flavors demonstrates serious cooking chops. So while 100 flavors seem like a lot, each sings with its own voice — nearly all of them in harmony. Randolph’s hot sauce, which she bottles, has notes of warm spices such as allspice and cinnamon working as undertow for gentle, vinegared heat. Thought you craved salt & vinegar chips? Try Randolph’s wing version; they’re better. Her “Barnzy” sauce — one of many tributes to her family peppered throughout the menu — adds garlic and butter to a hot sauce.

With her most straightforward offering, Beefy Baby, Randolph ranks among Pittsburgh’s top flat-top hamburger-makers. A griddled patty dressed with the traditional fixings and served inside a warm, buttered bun hits all the salty, fatty, savory notes a diner-style burger should hit. Where the self-proclaimed Food Network junkie shines, however, is in the novelty burger genre. One More Chance features two patties dressed with sweet chili sauce, pepper jack cheese and crispy onions inside a soft pretzel bun that Randolph griddles to a near char on its interior to offset the sweetness. “Wow,” is the most appropriate reaction when eating this perfectly balanced hamburger. Buggie Burger, named for her youngest son, is a comically massive tower of hamburger indulgence. Like a club sandwich gone rogue, Randolph stacks a grilled cheese sandwich, hamburger patty, generous portion of bacon, lettuce, tomato, fried egg, mayo-ketchup blend, grilled cheese — and then she repeats the whole thing. It’s wild to look at and so messy to eat. And so satisfying.

While Randolph’s creations venture toward over-the-top, they are rooted in a significant culinary legacy. Among the photos lining the bar are ones that feature the two people who influenced her the most — Grandma Maymi “Sweetie Pie” Burwell and Grandma Ruth “Peaches” Williams. Randolph, the oldest of nine children, spent her early childhood in Monroeville. By the time she was 8, she was Sweetie Pie’s right hand, picking beans from the garden. “She was a deep southern cook. Hog maws, pig’s feet, things like that. She was everything,” Randolph says.

When her parents divorced, Randolph relocated with her mother to Beltzhoover, where Grandma Peaches took over the culinary education. “She was the same way. Make this cornbread. Cook these beans. Learn from using your fingers. Use a pinch of this and a pinch of that. She was the one that taught me how to put strange flavors together. That’s where I learned all of my secrets,” Randolph says.

It’s also where she met Barnz when she was 15. He lived in the Hill District, and the two of them shared overlapping friend groups at Brashear High School. “We came from rough areas during rough times. We grew up in the ’90s when there was a lot of gang violence,” says Randolph.

Barnz says that he’s a product of those times. He was, at one point, homeless for a year, but has channeled adversity into a career that has seen him as a signed recording artist, the creator of a perfume line, the face of a vodka brand and the author of a book, among other things. “I know what it feels like to be homeless. I want to make sure I’m never in that position again,” he says.

Randolph and Barnz reconnected just prior to Randolph’s 30th birthday party. A few weeks later, while cooking for friends at another party, Randolph recalls that she “stepped out of the kitchen for a second and found him in there eating my wings. And, there and then, I knew it was a thing.”

Randolph, a trained nurse, was working at a Veteran’s Administration facility when, following the popularity of her dinner parties, she decided to start a small catering business. Barnz, who was working at the time at a Duquesne Light call center, encouraged her to quit her job and start catering full-time. As her business took off, she started meeting with a real estate agent who led her to Pitcairn and the former bar space. “It was so dark and dingy in here,” she says.

Back To The Foodture is the opposite. Barnz, an exuberant host with an affinity for social media, keeps things lively in front. And Randolph can’t stop working on flavor combinations; eventually, she hopes to have as many hamburger and fry combinations as she does wings.

378 Broadway Blvd, Pitcairn; 412/372-3100, facebook.com/Back-To-The-Foodture-737494689957282/

From precision-driven cocktail bars to beloved neighborhood taverns on hilltops and in hollows, Pittsburgh continues to be one of the best cities in the country to get a drink. So what makes a bar “best” in a city full of outstanding watering holes? There isn’t a simple rubric.

There were a few factors that spun a common thread — inclusivity, hospitality and commitment to the space. These bars are places where anyone who walks in should feel at ease, and they’re run by people who care about the details that sometimes go overlooked. Beyond that, our Best Bars cut a pretty wide swath of genre. And that’s precisely why we like it.

The list:

Click on the bar you want to check out first or continue scrolling through the entire list.

Independent Brewing Co.
Hidden Harbor
Lorelei
Con Alma
Mixtape
Apteka
Butterjoint
Allegheny Wine Mixer
Spirit
Dish Osteria and Bar
Acacia
tina’s
The Warren Neighborhood Bar
Piper’s Pub
Poulet Bleu
Morcilla
Umami
Kelly’s Bar & Lounge
Park House
Bob’s Garage
Spirits & Tales
Scratch Food & Beverage

We love that a new generation of bar owners are taking their place on a classic bar continuum — establishments such as tina’s and Allegheny Wine Mixer have the ethos of an old-school spot while tapping into modern mixology methods and design aesthetics. Of course, we still have our beloved actual classic joints such as Park House, too. We adore classy, escapist rooms such as Con Alma, our Best New Bar, and Dish Osteria and Bar, the space that most tugs at our heartstrings. Finally, we found that we really love bars that are attached to restaurants — you’ll find a good number of those on this list.

This year, we decided to exclude bars that still allow smoking, primarily because subjecting employees to hours of secondhand smoke every shift is unfair, and, frankly, a dangerous labor practice. From a consumer perspective, choosing to not go to a bar because you’ve just washed your jeans that day is a pretty good reason to disqualify an establishment from this list; if you have to leave your clothing piled on the porch after a night out, the bar you visited probably isn’t a Best Bar. There is good evidence, both quantitative and anecdotal, that eliminating indoor smoking from a bar doesn’t do anything to harm either the atmosphere or the business; just look at an establishment such as Bob’s Garage, which decided to go non-smoking in 2017. While this decision leaves a few of our favorite bars on the sideline, this is the right thing to do from a public health perspective.

We’ve also decided to leave brewery- and distillery-attached bars off the list. We love them, but they operate under a separate set of liquor laws. That’s a story for another month.

These are the 22 Best Bars in Pittsburgh Right Now.

Best Bar Group

Independent Hospitality Group

In 2014, two lawyers walked into a just-closed bar and decided to open one of their own. Brothers Peter and Matthew Kurzweg took over the former Fanattics space in Squirrel Hill, spruced it up and rebranded it Independent Brewing Company, an ode to the Pittsburgh’s pre-Prohibition consortium of local breweries. They aimed to open a neighborhood tavern with a draft list comprised exclusively of beer produced by Pittsburgh’s emergent craft brewing community. Peter Kurzweg’s law school classmate, cocktail enthusiast Adam Henry, stepped behind the bar on Saturday nights to run a drinks program featuring Pittsburgh-distilled spirits.

Now, Kurzweg and Henry (Matt Kurzweg maintains ownership but isn’t involved day-to-day) operate three establishments — IBC, neighboring Hidden Harbor and Lorelei in East Liberty. The core of each bar is a knowledgeable staff dedicated to the art of hospitality. Yet each establishment is distinct in voice and a top-notch example of what a bar in that specific category should embody. Between them, they are the Best Bar Group in Pittsburgh.

Over the past five years, Independent Brewing Company (IBC), a comfortable, two-tier space, has evolved from a hyper-focused beer bar into a well-rounded modern gastropub. IBC’s 16-tap system is demonstrative of why we prefer a curated list over a massive one: the beer always is fresh and the tap lines are kept in tip-top shape, ensuring a tasty mug (or other vessels; we also appreciate the attention paid to appropriate glassware, too) every time. The focus of the list continues to feature Pittsburgh-area breweries, but it now is rounded out by an alluring selection from international breweries rarely found on-tap at Pittsburgh bars.

For those who prefer cocktails and wine, we dig IBC’s low-key excellence in both of those categories, too. Jamilka Borges, a James Beard Award Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic semi-finalist and 2018 Pittsburgh Magazine Chef of the Year, offers a menu that transcends typical pub grub in favor of dishes, many of them vegetable-forward, such as loaded sweet potato with miso, kimchi and crema and mussels with squash, basil and coconut curry. Pastry Chef Dianne DeStefano adds her magic with sweet treats and breads, which also are offered at the bar group’s other destinations.

SQUIRREL HILLS: 1704 Shady ave.; 412/422-5040, independentpgh.com

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Hidden Harbor opened in January 2016. It’s not just one of our favorite bars in Pittsburgh — we believe it is one of the best tiki bars in the United States. What’s set the establishment in the upper echelon from the start is it’s a drinks-first destination. At the beginning (it was our Best New Bar in 2017), the drink offerings almost entirely were outstanding cocktails created by Hidden Harbor’s ace bar team. Over the years, they’ve recognized the value of tiki classics, and pitch-perfect versions of the Zombie, Tropical Itch and other old-school gems grace the menu, too. That’s not to say that the decor and music at Hidden Harbor don’t also transport us (especially in the winter) to a tropical fantasy.

It’s a common saying among tiki enthusiasts that a tiki bar is never finished being decorated, and that rings true at Hidden Harbor, which has seen a steady increase in paraphernalia over the years.

SQUIRREL HILL: 1708 Shady ave.; 412/422-5040, hiddenharborpgh.com

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Independent Hospitality Group introduced Lorelei in mid-2018. The East Liberty bar exemplifies ownership’s ability to adapt while still sticking to a theme. The original intention of Lorelei was to use the two separate-but-connected spaces as separate-but-connected bars. The front room, formerly The Livermore, and, prior to that, The Waffle Shop, would be a dimly lit cocktail bar featuring lesser-known spirits. In contrast, the larger back room, which once housed the legendary Shadow Lounge, would be a beer hall dedicated to smooth drinking lagers and pilsners.

What they learned is that people wanted more flexibility in the space; sometimes, a large group of cocktail nerds might want to spend time in the more convivial beer hall and a couple on a date might want to enjoy a beer in the moodier front room. That’s precisely the way the bar now operates. Longtime bartender Max Stein, another tiki enthusiast turned bar guru, now is using Lorelei as an outlet for his burgeoning career as a sommelier, rounding out the offerings with an outstanding selection of Alpine wines.

LORELEI: East Liberty: 124 S. Highland Ave.; loreleipgh.com

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Best New Bar

Con Alma
Rarely have we seen a new bar in Pittsburgh instantly feel like a classic gem. Such is the case with Con Alma. Tucked into a circa 1880s brick building on Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside, the establishment is a true triple-threat, with owners John Shannon, Aimee Marshall and Josh Ross combining strengths to create an immersive space that, from the day it opened in April, ranked among our favorite in Pittsburgh.

It starts with jazz. Shannon is the music curator, and he oversees a rotating line-up of Pittsburgh’s top musicians, as well as world-class visiting players; the intimate venue now is at the heart of Pittsburgh’s jazz revival. Marshall is the beverage director and general manager, overseeing an excellent cocktail and wine program while also floating above the hubbub, organizing the elbow-to-elbow crowd in the sleek front room so that everyone has a view of the action on the stage. Rounding out the trio is Ross, who as executive chef offers a menu of tasty pan-Latin cuisine, with dishes such as ropa vieja, jackfruit mole enchiladas and various permutations of ceviche.

We love that ownership went the extra mile in refurbishing the space, which previously had housed a litany of less successful establishments. For example, what appears to be a tin-plated ceiling is high-quality PVC sound-proofing, weaving jazz-era design into functional, top-notch acoustics. The seating is comfortable, the staff hospitable and the vibe makes you feel as if you’re on top of the world. We dig it. Con Alma is very, very cool. If it’s this good already, we’re keen to see what happens as it continues to grow into the space. Reservations recommended.

SHADYSIDE: 5884 Ellsworth Ave.; 412/363-5316, conalmapgh.com

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Most Inclusive Bar

Mixtape
We love Mixtape because it’s a cocktail lounge that is good at setting your expectations and then delivering with aplomb. This lounge exudes casual, cool ’90s vibes with its decor; large bean bags and semi-circular couches invite guests to sink into long conversations or enjoy the curated playlists. Bar service is some of the best we’ve had in Pittsburgh, even if you have to leave your table to get it. The attentive bartenders are both highly knowledgeable and fast. After overhearing my lament to a friend that I hadn’t seen the White Russian before I ordered another cocktail, one of the bartenders happily whipped me up one, mid-order, right after offering us some complimentary house-made popcorn. The cocktail menu features both signature and classic drinks, all made with high-quality ingredients at reasonable prices. The bar’s “come as you are” attitude extends to its staff as well, who are offered bonuses and paid sick days. Charity is also an important part of Mixtape’s ethos as seen in its “Tips for Charity” program. Each month, all tips are donated to a featured local charity; recent recipients have included Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, Thomas Merton Center and Level Up Youth programs. Mixtape’s approach of centering the experience of its staff and the community as well as its clientele, while still offering excellent drinks and service, makes it a leader in Pittsburgh’s bar community.

GARFIELD: 4907 Penn Ave., 412/661-1727, mixtapepgh.com

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Best Bohemian Paradise

Apteka
We dig that the vibe at Apteka straddles an uncanny divide between cool-as-can-be and welcoming congeniality. The bar’s minimalist design is accented with just enough pop in the form of dried flowers to keep it lively. The glow from real candlelight sets a vibe that’s both romantic and friendly. During the warmer months, the backyard garden offers a tranquil sense of escapism. We love Apteka’s thoughtful cocktail program, which follows the same ethos as the Eastern European vegan menu offered; it’s a distillation of owners Kate Lasky and Tomasz Skowronski’s rooted-in-place philosophy. House-made tinctures, syrups and preserves all find their way into cocktails such as Slivovitz with apricot, Lillet and scotch and rye shaken with poppyseed and Riga black balsam. The bar program also boasts some excellent non-alcoholic drink options — black pepper soda is a peppy cocktail substitute, Russian kvass is a malty beer stand-in and birch water from Belarus is refreshing. Sunday evenings bring Lonely No More, when guest DJs spin soundtracks that range from mellow jazz to peppy disco to, well, super-weird noise electronics (that somehow work).

BLOOMFIELD: 4606 Penn Ave., aptekapgh.com

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Best All-Arounder

Butterjoint
Butterjoint stands out among Pittsburgh bars because of how seamlessly it synthesizes so many qualities we love in a bar. It’s a lean-forward cocktail bar with an excellent list of classics, spins on classics and original creations — some of which are prepared with house-made shrubs and tinctures. It’s a destination for beer lovers, with a well-curated list that leans heavily local but isn’t afraid of an airplane ride, with a mix of styles that satisfy a range of tastes. The bar team, some of whom have been with Butterjoint since 2014, are knowledgeable, hospitable and ebullient, and they’re quick to make you feel like a regular. With its cozy-academic design peppered with colorful paintings, it also is a perfect spot for smart conversation. There are terrific things to eat at Butterjoint, including one of the city’s best hamburgers, house-made pierogi with a variety of fixings and large, complex salads — the latter still uncommon in pub grub — plus a limited selection from Legume’s menu.

OAKLAND: 214 N. Craig St.
412/621-2700, butterjoint.com

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Best Wine Bar

Allegheny Wine Mixer
When we think of this bar, we feel all warm and fuzzy. Named in honor of the Catalina Wine Mixer in the movie “Step Brothers,” this charming spot doesn’t take itself too seriously but does excellently curate its wine list. Each season brings a different regional or varietal focus into the spotlight, allowing returning clientele to explore wines from all over the world. The small snacks are excellent, such as the dressed-up grilled cheeses they call “toasties.” The walls are loaded with bizarre artwork (and Hal B. Klein’s Los Angeles headshot, hidden in plain sight) and window seats offer a few romantic nooks. The cocktail program is also excellent, folding in some classics, new riffs and a few lower-A.B.V. options. Guest bartenders and occasional events — such as the champagne and hot dog night, Champers ‘N Dogs — help keep things lively and fun.

LAWRENCEVILLE: 5326 Butler St.
412/252-233, alleghenywinemixer.com

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Best Modern Clubhouse

Spirit
Spirit, housed in a former Moose Lodge, has kept all of the charm of a members-only, community-run bar while adding an aura of effortless, DIY cool. The building boasts two large, distinct spaces: a spacious, upstairs room with a raised stage and small bar, and a long, dimly lit downstairs bar with a smaller stage. During the warmer months, the back patio and its charming bar-in-a-school-bus are a popular hangout for an al fresco drink and slice from the in-house pizza shop, located in the back of the downstairs bar. Even though it’s surrounded by cityscape, the patio feels like an oasis of wooden furniture, the occasional campfire and planters blooming with herbs and flowers. With some of the most consistent and interesting programming in the city, Spirit is bound to have something for most people, whether it’s a thrash metal band, Sunday brunch, art installation or indie film screening. As busy as it can get for the staff during events and happy hour rushes, the bartenders remain friendly and attentive, happy to make a quick recommendation or say hello.

LAWRENCEVILLE: 242 51st St.
412/586-4441, spiritpgh.com

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Best Bar For The Ages

Dish Osteria and Bar
It’s no small irony that one of Pittsburgh’s classiest bars is located a block away from the city’s most notable party-bar corridor. Dish Osteria and Bar is pure old-world charm, the antithesis of the cheap shots and loud rooms on nearby East Carson Street. The vibe at Dish is adult, romantic even, but that doesn’t mean it’s stodgy. Michele and Cindy Savoia opened Dish as a neighborhood bar in 2000 and it remains a place where regulars come for a sense of community and amusing conversation. A perfect night at Dish might include hyper-fresh sardines or anchovies paired with a crisp glass of wine at the establishment’s signature copper bar. Or, perhaps, it’s a nightcap that calls for a nip from Dish’s deep amaro collection paired with an outstanding dessert such as a crostata of peak-summer berries. Then again, you could go full tilt and have a Peroni or another selection from the beer list alongside a full meal of Michele Savoia’s best-in-town Mediterranean cuisine. Whichever route you choose, you’ll be in the hands of one of the city’s most hospitable and experienced bar teams.

SOUTH SIDE: 128 S. 17th St.
412/390-2012, dishosteria.com

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Best Spot to be Low-Key and Highbrow

Acacia
Behind its unassuming, newspapered-over windows, Acacia is running a ferocious cocktail program. The simple interior is a breath of fresh air in a strip of bars focused on volume (both crowd-wise and musical) and collegiate revelry. Acacia has kept all positive elements of the speakeasy-style craft cocktail movement but dropped the stuffy pageantry that often accompanies it. The bar is staffed by veteran bartenders who are passionate about the business as a lifetime career; that dedication shows through in the knowledgeable, yet never-pretentious, hospitality. The collection of spirits on the back bar is enough to excite any scotch lover; the menu, a small booklet of carefully curated cocktails, offers pleasurable reading for cocktail enthusiasts. The front room of the bar is quaint and cozy, offering a line of bar seats and a bank of tight booths. The back room provides a bit more space for group socializing.

SOUTH SIDE: 2108 E. Carson St.
412/488-1800, acaciacocktails.com

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Best New Classic

tina’s
A beloved after-shift hang out for Pittsburgh’s service industry employees, we dig this place because it feels like the proverbial “Cheers” of Pittsburgh. Whether you’re in the industry or just enjoy a good drink, this isn’t the kind of place you come to only once; it becomes a part of your routine. The vibe is casual but moody, helped by the free jukebox in the corner, the lone-but-always-busy pool table in the back and the congenial staff behind the bar. A wall of booths and long bar provide plenty of seating although tina’s is often standing room only (but without the jostling and pushiness that plagues some popular spots). The reasonably priced and well-crafted cocktails, running mostly between $8 and $12, live up to tina’s promise of serving “classic cocktails at vintage prices.”

BLOOMFIELD: 4114 Main St.; facebook.com/tinaspgh

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Best Downtown Escape

The Warren Neighborhood Bar
In a town where many bars and restaurants close on the early side, The Warren Neighborhood Bar is always open until 2 a.m. By day, this spot entertains Downtown’s business crowd, serving lunch from the attached Penn Cove Eatery and happy hour drinks. By night, it’s a bumpin’ bar that caters to those up late and ready to have a good time. Seasoned bartenders from all over the city often do “celebrity” shifts, and the regular staff of highly experienced bartenders keeps a tight cocktail menu that blends classic recipes with humor and creativity (priced affordably for both their high-quality ingredients and the area of town). Mismatched glassware, a long row of booths and a large bar with comfortable stools lend a cozy vibe. Oh, and the kitchen is open until midnight during the week and 1 a.m. on weekends.

DOWNTOWN: 245 7th St.
412/201-5888, thewarrenpgh.com

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Best old-school British Pub

Piper’s Pub
Piper’s Pub is as close as Pittsburgh gets to the platonic ideal of a pub you might hope to find on a trip to the British Isles. The selection of beers on Piper’s 38 well-tended taps strikes a broad range of hard-to-find British beers, easy-drinking session brews selections from Pittsburgh-area breweries (a long-standing focus at Piper’s). We love Piper’s low-key, yet extraordinary, Scotch whisky selection; that list is augmented with Irish and American whiskey offerings. Fans of Premier League Football have a home at Piper’s — games air on one of the many screens at the bar. Many regulars, and some of the staff, have been around since Piper’s Pub opened in 1999 — if you spend a little time there, you’ll begin to feel like an old-hat, too. The old-school pub grub, particularly selections such as Scotch eggs, curry and chips and a traditional Sunday Supper with all the fixings, makes visiting Piper’s Pub a tasty experience, too.

SOUTH SIDE FLATS: 1828 E. Carson St., piperspub.com

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Best Bars That Are Neighbors

Poulet Bleu and Morcilla
We dig how escapist bars are a fixture of Richard DeShantz Restaurant Group establishments. Its Downtown ventures, particularly the massive bourbon wall at Butcher and the Rye, are worth visiting — but it’s the upstairs bar at Poulet Bleu in Lawrenceville that stands out as our favorite. The comfortable, tiki- and antebellum-influenced space is transportive, and we dig the rum-focused cocktail menu, which features drinks such as the Jungle Bird and Queen’s Park Swizzle; the service-forward bar team also is ace at preparing other classic cocktails. On top of that, the wine selection, both here and in the elegant downstairs bar, ranks among the very best in the city thanks to the work of Pittsburgh’s Dean of Wine, John Wabeck. Bonus: You can order the full Poulet Bleu menu at the upstairs bar. The bar at Morcilla, meanwhile, provides a different transportive experience. Our favorite spot is by the picture window, which opens to the street in the warmer months. We love Morcilla for the thoughtfully curated depth of choice offered in its beverage program. There is a best-in-town sherry collection and a terrific vermouth list. Morcilla’s gin portfolio is among Pittsburgh’s deepest, and its gin-tonics, each built to match the flavor profile of specific gins, will have you forgetting all the lousy ones you’ve ever had. Morcilla’s cocktail list features drinks that competently and creatively veer from the classics, fitting to the space. There are funky European ciders and smooth Pittsburgh beers and a deep wine list composed primarily of Spanish vintages. Even better — you can pair all of this with a selection of house-made charcuterie, small plates or larger-format dishes from executive chef Nate Hobart’s menu.

Poulet Bleu: LAWRENCEVILLE: 3517 Butler St., 412/325-3435, pouletbleupgh.com

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Morcilla: LAWRENCEVILLE: 3519 Butler St., 412/652-9924, morcillapittsburgh.com

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Best Late Night Bar

Umami
Let’s be honest: Pittsburgh’s late-night eating and drinking game isn’t strong. Thank goodness for Umami, the brainchild of one of Pittsburgh’s top chefs, Roger Li (Ki Ramen, Ki Pollo, Dim Sum pop-up), and one of its nightlife impresarios, Derek Burnell (Round Corner Cantina, Cobra, El Burro). Their Lawrenceville izakaya weaves contemporary-cool party culture with an outstanding menu of Japanese cuisine, including some of the best sushi offerings in the city. What’s more, you can get something to eat until midnight during the week and 2 a.m. on the weekends. You’ll encounter the space’s transformative design elements such as moody lighting and colorful murals as you ascend the staircase to the third-floor room, and you’ll feel it in the soundscape, which is curated by a rotating cadre of Pittsburgh’s top DJs. Umami has the city’s best sake list, as well as a terrific selection of beer imported from Japan, and we dig the Japanese-influenced cocktail list, too.

LAWRENCEVILLE: 202 38th St. 412/224-2354, umamipgh.com

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PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

Best Neighborhood Mainstay

Kelly’s Bar & Lounge
The last 10 years have brought rapid development (and gentrification) to East Liberty. Throughout it all, Kelly’s Bar & Lounge has remained a mostly unchanged oasis, awash in the comforting glow of red neon and fairly priced drinks. Choose from the selection of classic cocktails (there’s a special for every night of the week) or grab one of the rotating draft beers and snuggle into a booth with a few friends. At the bar, you’ll receive brisk and charmingly gruff service from one of the veteran bartenders, many of whom have worked at Kelly’s for years. Summer nights make the back patio a good spot to hang out and drink al fresco.

EAST LIBERTY: 6012 Centre Ave., 412/363-6012, facebook.com/Kellys-Bar-and-Lounge

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Best Historic Bar

Park House
The North Side building that’s home to the Park House was constructed in the 1890s, and ownership lays claim to it being one of, if not the oldest, post-Prohibition licensed bars in Pittsburgh. But an establishment needs more than just a lot of ghosts in the attic to become a beloved institution. The Park House has all the things we love in a neighborhood bar: It’s a longstanding destination for craft and local beer, and the price per pint is reasonable; there’s a good selection of spirits, too. Bartenders are personable on quiet nights and know how to keep things moving on busy nights. There are comfortable booths for games and catching-up chats and larger tables for more boisterous fun. There’s live jazz and bluegrass every week, plus a night for coloring books, as well as other bands and karaoke. Peanuts and popcorn are free, and owner Zamir Zahavi makes a mean falafel.

NORTH SIDE: 430 E. Ohio St., 412/224-2273, parkhousepgh.com

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Best Forever Festivus

Bob’s Garage
Bob’s Garage is a bold peacock. You’ll spot the classic tavern from down the road — all year long it is awash in the glow of colorful lights. Inside is even more of a fever dream, the walls and ceiling festooned with rainbows of vivid bulbs. Bob’s Garage reaches peak-glow during the winter holiday season, but, as they like to say, it’s a celebration all year long; holidays from St. Patrick’s Day to Halloween each get special treatment. Early in the week, Bob’s Garage shows its roots as an outstanding neighborhood bar, with friendly bartenders and relatively inexpensive drinks.

It’s nothing fancy, but you can expect an honest pour and a solid beer list at this long-standing establishment, which opened in 1968. On Wednesdays through Saturdays, Bob’s Garage morphs into a karaoke haven. Expect a mellow-crooner vibe on weekday evenings, while Friday and Saturday nights feature a mix of singers of all ages and styles; it might be crowded, so call ahead if you’re coming with a group.

BLAWNOX: 1372 Freeport Road, 412/963-9552

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Best Hotel Bar

Spirits & Tales
A great hotel bar transcends being a resource for its guests into a space that provides a sense of escapism for its city’s residents. And that’s what we love about Pittsburgh’s best hotel bar, Spirits & Tales. Take the elevator at the Oaklander Hotel to the 10th floor for sweeping views of Oakland’s landmarks. The dimly lit bar is romantic in the evening, making it a perfect spot for intimate conversation. Comfortable seating in other parts of the space makes it a terrific destination for after-work drinks with colleagues. Benjamin McCarney, Spirits & Tales food and beverage director, is responsible for creating a vibrant cocktail list, and the bar team, particularly lead bartender Randolf Boitel-Hance, excels at hospitality.

OAKLAND: Oaklander Hotel, 5130 Bigelow Blvd.; 412/297-4080, spiritsandtales.com

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PHOTO BY BRITTANY SPINELLI

Best Contemporary Tavern

Scratch Food & Beverage
Perched on Troy Hill, Scratch Food & Beverage has all the charm of a neighborhood bar while also having a bar program and menu perfect for a night out with your restaurant-hopping friends. Scratch is the Pittsburgh establishment that is fully embracing the national trend toward vermouth, with more than 20 offerings, as well as flights and rotating special features. Wines and beers are a companion to a balanced selection of cocktails (divided into hot and cold drinks for the winter months) and effort is made to use local brands. The knowledgeable staff is eager to answer questions or introduce you to something new on the back bar. While the kitchen and bar might present serious-minded menus, the atmosphere is as warm as your favorite tavern. The large bar still seems cozy in spite of the actual square footage, making it comfortable if you’re solo or with a larger party. Scratch hosts live music on Thursday nights with jazz brunch on Sundays, while Friday nights are for its popular karaoke nights.

Troy Hill: 1720 Lowrie St., 412/251-0822, scratchfoodbev.com

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Alcohol isn’t for everyone. This package is intended for readers 21 and older and despite some fun prompting, should not be considered a suggestion to over-consume alcoholic beverages.

If you’re feeling unsafe at a bar because a fellow customer or a staff member is behaving inappropriately toward you, talk to a manager or bartender. If he or she is unwilling to assist you, talk to the police. Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (P.A.A.R.) is one of the oldest rape crisis centers in the country and works with the Pittsburgh chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild and directly with bars on Project Last Call, which aims to train staff on issues of sexual harassment and violence in the service industry. Nobody should feel harassed or threatened while out drinking. Ever.

The legal limit for driving in Pennsylvania is a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent, but don’t even take it that far. Arrange for a designated driver, or take a rideshare home. Getting home in your own car isn’t worth receiving a DUI citation, or worse, taking your life or someone else’s life because you were driving while intoxicated.

If you believe that you or someone you love has a problem with alcohol abuse, seek help.

Alcoholics Anonymous (900 Fifth Ave. #500, Uptown; 412/471-7472, pghaa.org) and other organizations are there to aid in your recovery.

PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

Bar Botanico
I was skeptical when I heard about the way you’re supposed to order at Bar Botanico. The idea, more or less, is that you tell a bartender or server what you are in the mood for, and they whip something up based on your stated preferences. It struck me as a little throwback (Bar Marco, among other places, did the same thing years ago with its bar program) and a bit too clever.

It sure is nice to be proven wrong. I’ve been twice; so far, I dig just about everything that’s happening at the hip Lawrenceville establishment. “It’s about getting people to say OK to this. That’s the fun part,” says Kelsie Singara, who owns Bar Botanico with her husband, Jeff Walter.

The longtime bartender started thinking about the concept a few years ago while living in San Francisco. Once back in Pittsburgh, she decided the timing was right to move forward. She and Walter converted an old dentist’s office into a curated space that feels very of-the-moment. “I’ve always wanted that experience that when you walk up to a bar and you have a drink you’re craving but you don’t quite know what it is, and it arrives in front of you,” she says.

I like that the bar staff has an in-depth knowledge of classic cocktails. When I said I was in the mood for “gin” and “slightly bitter,” I was offered a Martinez. It was exactly what I wanted.

Singara went beyond her initial vision; Bar Botanico looks to be a promising restaurant opening, too. “I knew what my vision was for [the bar program], but I never really had a clear picture for [the food program]. And that happened when we met Rafael,” Singara says.

Rafael Vencio is a well-regarded Pittsburgh chef who earned his chops at Legume, where he was the restaurant’s sous chef prior to launching Aubergine in 2016 as part of the first class at Smallman Galley. Following his stint there, he started the pop-up Kanto Kitchen, where his Filipino-focused meals played to capacity crowds, and moonlighted in several Pittsburgh restaurants, including Independent Brewing Company.

Customers choose a primary focus (meat, vegetarian, fish, etc.) and offer a few likes and dislikes, and Vencio builds a custom menu featuring two small plates and a main dish around that request. Vencio has a general idea of what he might offer each day, which is influenced by the season but also by what he’s feeling curious about cooking. Minimizing food waste, something that’s been part of his ethos since his time at Legume, factors into his menu planning.

“It’s going back to culinary techniques. It’s about acquiring the right inventory. And, no matter what I do, I gravitate toward Filipino flavors,” he says.

A recent visit included a meat set that featured pulled pork and hominy topped with an array of herbs that was served with fried avocado and cilantro rice as a main, and butternut squash soup and grilled winter greens as sides. A vegetarian set came with house-made basil pasta topped with chickpea stew, plus grilled carrots, greens and charred broccoli. Both meals were cooked with precision and substantive in a way that felt nurturing.

Vencio hopes that the establishment will become part of people’s routines. “Come with an openness to experience. We want to earn your trust. Eventually, it should feel like you’re coming over to your friend’s house,” he says.

4325 Butler St., Lawrenceville; 412/258-4790, barbotanico.com

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

Iron Born Pizza and Pasta
Peter Tolman opened his flagship storefront for Iron Born in the Strip District in mid-December. He first introduced his spin on Detroit-style pizza to Pittsburgh in 2017 as part of the second class of Smallman Galley chef/owners and opened a small take-out location in Millvale in November 2018.

For the uninitiated, Detroit-style pizza was created in — wait for it — Detroit. It dates back to the 1940s and largely remained a regional style until the early 2010s; the opening of Emmy Squared in Brooklyn in 2016 brought the form to national prominence. Detroit-style pizza begins with a dough baked to a lofty-yet-airy thickness in a slightly angled blue-steel pan. Cheese is spread to the edges of the dough with the intention that some of the cheese bubbles over and bakes into the outside, creating a caramelization similar to one you’d find on the corner slice of mac-and-cheese. Although the pizzas at Iron Born are billed as single-serving pies, they’re rather indulgent. Good thing they reheat well.

Tolman and his team of pizzaioli are offering a menu of approximately 20 permutations, everything from a classic Red Top with pepperoni and garlic oil to more fanciful builds such as Cheeseburger Pie, which even has pickles and special sauce. On an initial visit, I found them to be even more delightful than the ones I enjoyed at Smallman Galley; Detroit-style pizza might not be everyday food, but it sure is a nice treat. Tolman also is offering a Sicilian-style pie in the Strip District location; it’s something I’m looking forward to trying.

Ryan Peters, most recently sous chef of Fish Nor Fowl, joins Iron Born as pasta chef. He has for the past year dedicated himself to the craft of pasta making, preparing at least one pound per day as practice. His handcrafted offerings at Iron Born include rigatoni, orecchiette, penne and spaghetti, all of which can be customized with various sauces and mix-ins. I went classic on my visit, with meatballs and spaghetti that hit all the right notes.

Iron Born’s menu is rounded out with a handful of appetizers, chicken wings and Caesar salad, as well as sandwiches such as chicken parmesan, Italian hoagie and a ridiculously tasty smoked pork, special sauce and pickle situation that I dug as much as the pizza.

Olive Beals, who most recently was bar manager of Union Standard, oversees the front-of-house as well as the beverage program, which includes a handful of pizza-friendly drinks such as Fernet and Coke, Lambrusco punch and an espresso martini.

1806 Smallman St., Strip District; ironbornpizza.com

Pittsburgh’s best restaurant openings of 2019 spanned a spectrum of genres. One of the highlights — big Burrito Restaurant Group, which helped kickstart the city’s restaurant resurgence, opened its first new concept in 15 years. Pittsburgh’s first Lao restaurant, comfort food hidden in a supply chain business, and hyper-local riverfront dining also are welcome additions.

The list:

Click on the restaurant you want to check out first or continue scrolling through the entire list.

• Alta Via
• Kiin Lao & Thai Eatery
• Sålł
• Mola
• Two Sisters Vietnamese
• Love Rocks Cafe
• Farmer x Baker
• Larder of East End
• Della Terra Italian Bistro
• Spirits & Tales

Alta Via

46 Fox Chapel Road, O’Hara Twp
412/408-3816, altaviapgh.com

big Burrito’s Alta Via opened in O’Hara Township in April. In my September review, I heaped praise on Executive Chef Ben Sloan’s vegetable- and pasta-forward menu; with dishes such as radiatori with Elysian Fields lamb, mint, Calabrian chilis and pecorino. The kitchen continues to shine several months later. General Manager Jennifer Johnson oversees one of the region’s best front-of-house teams; service at Alta Via is personable and attentive, but not so in your face as to interrupt the flow of a meal. The establishment has an outstanding bar program, too. I dig the spins on classic cocktails, non-alcoholic cocktails and the wine list, as well as the overall design of the offset bar space. In my opinion, Alta Via is the best suburban restaurant opening we’ve seen in many years.

Moving Forward:
I’d love to see Sloan and his team keep their feet on the gas. It’s easy to coast at a place such as this one, but it would be a shame not to keep pushing forward.

Kiin Lao & Thai Eatery

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

5846 Forbes Ave., Squirrel Hill
412/521-0728, instagram.com/kiineaterypittsburgh

In November, Pui and Norraset Nareedokmai transformed their former Bangkok Balcony space into Pittsburgh’s first Lao restaurant, Kiin Lao & Thai Eatery. Working with Seng Luangrath, the Washington, D.C., James Beard Award-nominated chef and leader of the Lao Food Movement, the couple isn’t holding back when it comes to embracing the pungent, herbaceous and bitter flavors of Lao cuisine. I’m glad. With a menu full of dishes such as laab, naem khao, thum som and orm, Pittsburgh has the opportunity to be at the forefront of a growing food movement in the United States. The vibe is terrific, too — Henley Bounkhong, a Lao artist from Maryland, festooned the walls with colorful depictions significant to Lao culture.

Moving Forward:
This one goes both ways — I hope the Nareedokmais keep up with their commitment to preparing the cuisine as it ought to be made, and I hope that Pittsburgh embraces a restaurant that is serving dishes that highlight Lao flavors and textures.

Sålł

461 Melwood Ave., Oakland;
SALTCAFEPGH.COM

I love a proper hidden gem. Sålł, Blair Hohn III’s lunchroom, located deep inside the global supply chain and manufacturing business TMD Holdings, fits the bill. Hohn opened to the general public in May; he’d previously run the little space on an industrial block in Oakland as a cafeteria for TMD employees. Hohn is preparing stepped-up versions of American classics such as corned beef and pulled pork sandwiches, fried chicken, pot roast and chicken pot pie with the scratch-made love that made them classics in the first place. His rotating menu, which features many recurring specials, is posted online weekly on. (Hohn is refurbishing the space; he anticipates an early-spring re-opening.)

Moving Forward:
I wouldn’t mind seeing a few lighter dishes on the menu. Hohn’s comfort cuisine tilts a little too hard to rich and heavy meals.

Mola

6018 Penn Ave., East Liberty
412/365-6688, themolafish.com

I dig that Alex Tang pays attention to the little details. The chef and owner of Mola in East Liberty cooks his rice — essential to outstanding nigiri — al dente and delicately seasons it with salt and aged vinegar. His fish is well-sourced and served with barrel-aged soy sauce and real wasabi. He forgoes over-the-top rolls in favor of delicate hand-rolls which are wrapped with high-quality nori. All of it makes for a new (Editor’s Note: Mola opened at the end of December 2018, too late for inclusion on last year’s Best New Restaurants list) fish-forward establishment that has me jazzed for sushi in Pittsburgh. Not in the mood for sushi? Mola’s dumplings and bao are terrific, too.

Moving Forward:
I’d love to see Tang offer an omakase option.

Two Sisters Vietnamese

216 N. Highland Ave., East Liberty
412/404-2760, instagram.com/twosisters_pgh

With the opening of Two Sisters Vietnamese in January, the outlook for Vietnamese food in Pittsburgh improved. Run by Trinh Phan (Phan’s sister, Trang Somphomaphakdy, is no longer with the business), the restaurant is a destination for pho, Vietnam’s preimentant noodle soup. I like Two Sisters beef pho for its warmly spiced broth and the chicken pho for its restorative powers. There are some other tasty menu items, too — shaking beef, an easy-eating wok-cooked dish with soy sauce umami and onions, is a crowd-pleaser. Daikon and carrot salad is a peppy side dish.

Moving Forward:
There was talk early on that the menu might be expanded to include more Vietnamese dishes, including desserts. I’d love to see that happen.

Love Rocks Cafe

420 Chartiers Ave., McKees Rocks
412/770-4642, facebook.com/LoveRocksCafe

Jackie Page-Heidelberg grilled hot dogs as a teenager, fabricated automobile parts for General Motors as a young adult and managed restaurants and banquet services after that. When she was 47, Page-Heidelberg attended culinary school then operated a catering service for a few years. In February, she brought a much-needed option for scratch-made food to McKees Rocks when she opened Love Rocks Cafe. Page-Heidelberg serves breakfast and lunch from her outpost in the Sto-Rox Library at the Father Ryan Arts Center. Looks for comfort food such as sandwiches, shrimp and grits and meatloaf and sides such as green beans, macaroni and cheese and potatoes. Page-Heidelberg’s effusiveness is another reason to visit.

Moving Forward:
I’d love to see Page-Heidelberg continue to refine her comfort food dishes such as the Turkey Devonshire.

Farmer x Baker

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

285 River Ave., Aspinwall
instagram.com/farmerxbaker​

Here’s a recipe for a lovely daytime meal: combine a sincere commitment to supporting local foodways and a stunning riverfront view. That’s what you get at Farmer x Baker, Jennifer Urich’s casual breakfast, lunch and brunch eatery in the tranquil oasis of Aspinwall Riverfront Park. Urich’s Root and Heart farm is the source of edible flowers and vegetables, and nearby Tiny Seed Farm, Dillner Family Farm, Frankferd Farms and Freedom Farms products also are used in salads, sandwiches, tacos and more. Farmer x Baker is taking a break for the colder months but will return in April, when dinner service will be added.

Moving Forward:
I’m looking forward to seeing how preparation during the winter hiatus enhances Urich’s establishment.

Larder of East End

147 Julius St., Larimer
larderpittsburgh.com

Pittsburgh lost one of its finest restaurants when Justin Severino and Hilary Prescott Severino closed Cure in March. In July, the duo opened Larder of East End; Severino oversaw the refurbishment of the East End Brewing Co. space, creating a more comfortable indoor seating area and an outdoor patio for the beloved craft brewery. My favorite menu items are those that are in Severino’s wheelhouse, including some of the best wings in town, sausages and vegetable dishes such as smoked beets with goat cheese tahini. Larder also foretells what looks to be the next phase for Pittsburgh breweries: in-house kitchens run by some of the city’s top chefs.

Moving Forward:
The smoking technique for more substantial cuts of meat such as brisket and pork shoulder still needs a little honing-in.

Della Terra Italian Bistro

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

100 N. Main St., Zelienople
724/473-0630, dellaterrapgh.com

Della Terra Italian Bistro isn’t exactly new — Fiore and Michelle Moletz first opened their North Hills restaurant in a low-slung Harmony mini-mall in 2013. For me, the move into a larger space on Zelienople’s main drag in November, as well as the introduction of lunch service, is a significant enough switch to warrant inclusion on this list. Della Terra’s Neapolitan-style pizzas rank among the top in the region, and its expanded selection of pasta dishes is outstanding. Larger-format dishes such as a peppy Lambrusco chicken served with vinegar-marinated potatoes scented with rosemary are a draw at the new location, too.

Moving Forward:
I hope the intimacy found in strip-mall Della Terra transfers to Main Street Della Terra.

Spirits & Tales

Oaklander Hotel, 5130 Bigelow Blvd., Oakland
412/297-4080, spiritsandtales.com

Running a hotel restaurant can be tricky business. It needs to cater primarily to its guests, but the good ones also should be an amenity for the city at large. Spirits & Tales at the Oaklander Hotel got off to an uneven start in March, but Executive Chef Jessica Lewis and her team have done a solid job smoothing over some of the rough edges. Lewis excels at vegetable and fish cookery, and dishes such as radish toast, horseradish gnocchi with mushrooms, fennel and kale and Laurel Hill trout with almond creamed spinach, sunchokes and herb vinaigrette hit the mark. If I ever made a Best Places to Get Breakfast list, you’d find Spirits & Tales on that one, too.

Moving Forward:
Spirits & Tales seems to have turned the ship around, particularly in terms of service and consistency. I hope it keeps moving in that direction.

Keep An Eye On: Night Market Gourmet

PHOTO BY HAL B. KLEIN

Night Market Gourmet, the new restaurant from the owners of Everyday Noodles, takes a deep dive into Taiwanese cuisine. The Oakland eatery features dishes such as Hakka salted pork, Taiwanese crispy chicken and mustard greens with shredded pork and tofu skin. It’s an exciting menu, but, as of press time, it felt as if the staff were still getting their sea legs. Ownership is in the process of bringing a handful of chefs from Taiwan, and I think that’ll prompt something special from the kitchen.
114 Atwood St., Oakland; 412/436-0068, nightmarketgourmetpa.com

For Edward Anderson, better known to colleagues as Chef Ed, a day on the job is like an episode of the culinary competition show “Iron Chef.” There always is a secret ingredient.

“The thing about this job is that when other chefs create their menus, they send out for ingredients. I create a list of ideas and hope the ingredients I need for them will come in,” he says.

In his role as culinary manager for 412 Food Rescue, Anderson oversees the hunger-relief non-profit’s Good Food Project, which is based in Millvale.

Anderson launched phase one of Good Food Project’s kitchen in June, cooking approximately 30 lunches per week for the Millvale Library summer lunch program. As of October, he was preparing more than 200 hot meals a week in a newly built, well-outfitted kitchen inside New Sun Rising’s Food + Energy Hub and slowly scaling up to 300 for the end of the year. Those meals are prepared and delivered free of charge to 412 Food Rescue’s partner organizations. Additionally, the Red Cross has run practice drills with 412 Food Rescue so that it can have fully cooked, prepared meals ready in an emergency.

Anderson sees his role as spearheading a program that, as it grows, will expand access to healthy food, and dignity, for the region’s food insecure population. “A lot of people don’t know what to do with a fresh head of cabbage or don’t have the time to do it. It’s easier for people if I can make them cabbage rolls or coleslaw or cabbage soup. That’s one less meal they have to think about,” he says.

It’s an evolution in logistics for 412 Food Rescue, which until June moved all of its food, which otherwise would have been destined for the compost heap or landfill, as uncooked ingredients to more than 200 non-profit partners such as the Allegheny County Housing Authority, the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh and Community Kitchen Pittsburgh. It’s moved a lot of food, too — the organization has rescued nearly 7.5 million pounds of surplus food since it was founded in 2015.

“Early on with 412 Food Rescue, even before the Food Rescue Hero app [which allows volunteers to immediately connect with establishments that want to donate food] was developed, we would get giant donations of things such as cabbage and tomatoes. As we were trying to place the food, we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have a kitchen?’” says Hana Uman, program director, special programs and projects.

In 2017, the organization won a $110,000 grant as an UpPrize finalist, which allowed it to move forward with a plan to turn rescued food into frozen meals that are an inexpensive, healthier alternative to store-bought frozen food options. When the program is fully running, low-income individuals will be able to use their SNAP benefits to purchase the meals.

Food comes from a number of different places such as Sysco, Consumer Fresh Produce and Giant Eagle. “Even if it’s coming from rescued food, it’s still served with dignity. I wouldn’t serve anybody anything I wouldn’t serve my family,” Anderson says.

Family is where Anderson learned the joy and importance of food. His grandmother was a cook in a school cafeteria, as well as an avid home baker, and his mother also was an accomplished home cook. Anderson learned a thing or two from them and cooks at home for his own family, but he found his first professional calling in social services rather than in a restaurant kitchen. What started as an entry-level job at Auberle, a McKeesport rehabilitation facility for at-risk youths, evolved into a 15-year career in which Anderson eventually became a senior counselor and trainer. Later, he worked for Allegheny County Juvenile Probation CISP program and had plans to open a community center or after-school program.

However, feeling a little burnt out with social services work, he thought he might want to return to his culinary roots and open a restaurant. So he enrolled in Bidwell Training Center’s one-year culinary arts program.

Toward the end of the program, he heard 412 Food Rescue was looking for a culinary manager. “I was interested in the social services aspect of it, but I still was thinking of opening my own restaurant,” he says.

A job placement coordinator convinced Anderson that applying for the job was the right move. The 412 Food Rescue team saw the same thing, that the gregarious cook with a background in taking care of people would be the right fit for the new project. Anderson agrees, too. “This is perfect. I still get to develop my own culinary program. I get to keep my social services hat on. Everything fits,” he says.

Every Friday, Anderson sends out a wishlist of ingredients he’d like to use during the following week. “I have to be versatile. I need back-ups just in case I don’t get what I think I’m going to get,” he says.

On Mondays, Anderson knows what he’s going to have — then he starts brainstorming by combing through cookbooks, the internet and his culinary repertoire. Tuesdays are for cooking, often with the help of volunteers, and food is delivered the rest of the week. One week in September, he received a big shipment from Sysco Pittsburgh of chicken legs and thighs, which he braised with peppers and onions, all served over rice.

“I take great pride in making these dishes. Hearing from people who say they look forward to it makes me look forward to it,” Anderson says.

Serap Uzunoglu, an English-language teacher from Turkey, was leading her students on an educational tour of the United States in July 2016 when there was an attempted coup in her home country. The insurgents failed to overthrow the Erdoğan government. In the crackdown that followed, thousands of the country’s teachers — especially those such as Uzunoglu, who were followers of the Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen — were fired. Many were arrested.

“They were trying to make the educated people silent. The thought of going back was like rolling the dice. What if they took us at the airport?” she says, adding, “There are many people just like me who are now in prisons.”

SERAP UZUNOGLU, A REFUGEE FROM TURKEY.

She, her husband and her daughters were stranded in New York City. All they had with them was what they’d taken for their 21-day trip. New York was much too expensive for them, and, after some discussion, they decided to resettle in Pittsburgh, drawn by its affordability and the potential for their children to one day attend its outstanding universities.

Once living a stable middle-class life in Turkey, Uzunoglu and her husband found entry-level jobs at a Turkish-owned pizza shop Downtown. “Suddenly, you have almost nothing. How do you rent a house? How do you get around to where you need to go?” Uzunoglu says.

Uzunoglu is one of approximately 5,500 refugees — defined as people who have been forced to leave their country to escape war, persecution or natural disaster — who have resettled in the region since 2003; more have relocated here via secondary migration. Notwithstanding living with the trauma of being torn from one’s homeland, Pittsburgh’s refugee population faces numerous challenges adapting to a new country. Yet, slowly, they are building a home here.

The population is smaller than similarly-sized cities such as Buffalo and Salt Lake City. But Pittsburgh, informed by directives from Mayor Bill Peduto’s administration as well as through community involvement, is increasingly visible as a welcoming place for refugees.

“There’s this misinformation they’re just getting a free ride in the United States. That’s not the case. They have to start earning income in four to six months. They pay taxes,” says Leslie Aizenman, director, refugee and immigrant services, of Jewish Family and Community Services, one of the groups responsible for resettling refugees in Pittsburgh.

UZUNOGLU WITH ANOTHER TURKISH REFUGEE, SEDA OZEL. THE TWO OF THEM NOW RUN A CATERING COMPANY.

Uzunoglu, who had a leg-up on many refugees because of her fluency in English, has been able to make the best of a life-altering shift, starting a catering company, as well as leading a support group of other refugees where cooking recipes from their home countries provides a common bond.

“By sharing our food, I feel more like a member of the [Pittsburgh] community,” she says. Food plays a pivotal role in helping Pittsburgh’s refugee communities build a support system. It allows them to hold on to and pass on the culinary traditions of their native countries while at the same time forge a sense of belonging in their new home.

“Oftentimes, you weren’t able to carry your possessions with you. A recipe, in your heart, in your head, on a piece of paper, will make you feel like you’re connected to home,” says Sloane Davidson, founder and CEO of Hello Neighbor, a nonprofit that pairs Pittsburghers with refugee families.

SUJA, ALSO KNOWN AS BUTTER TEA, AT EVEREST KITCHEN.

THE BHUTANESE MEAN BUSINESS

Pittsburgh’s Bhutanese community, according to Khara Timsina, Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh’s executive director, has grown to more than 6,000 over the past decade, with slightly more than half arriving in Pittsburgh via secondary migration. By a wide margin, it’s Pittsburgh’s largest resettled refugee community.

NAMASTE MOMO CORNER CHEF/CO-OWNER DEEPSHIKA GHIMIRE FILLS MOMO

In the late 1980s, the Bhutanese government, as part of its “One Nation, One People” policy, began to force the Lhotshampa — ethnic Nepali who migrated to Bhutan in the 1890s (some as early as the 1600s) — to dress in traditional Bhutanese attire, prohibited Nepalese language training and restricted religious liberty; Lhotshampa primarily follow a form of Hinduism, while ethnic Bhutanese are Buddhist. Arrests and detentions followed, leading to expulsion to refugee camps in Nepal. Following years of failed mediation between the governments of Nepal and Bhutan, the United States offered to take in as many as 60,000 Bhutanese refugees. In 2008, that resettlement began, with 178 Lhotshampa moving to Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh’s topography reminds them of home. “The landscape, the hills, it’s very similar to Nepal,” says Sachin Kunwav, who runs a small restaurant, Namaste Momo Corner, with his wife, Deepshika Ghimire.

A little more than a decade in, the community is still dealing with an as-yet undiagnosed depression disorder that primarily affects elderly Bhutanese refugees; it was a suicide in 2009 that prompted the founding of the community association. At the same time, they are starting businesses ranging from clothing boutiques to real estate offices, and members of the Bhutanese community now are opening restaurants. There are four in the South Hills — Namaste Momo Corner, Everest Kitchen, Himali Kitchen and Nepali Asian Restaurant — as well as Subba on the North Side.

The restaurants primarily serve food that is Bhutanese-Nepali in origin. It’s a crossroads cuisine that’s influenced by the culinary traditions of its large neighboring countries, China and India, as well as its indigenous ingredients. The most popular Nepali dish in the United States is momo, steamed dumplings that are filled with diced meat or vegetables spiced with onion, garlic, ginger and cilantro. Chow mein, Chinese in origin but tilting Indian in flavor profile, is another staple.

NAMASTE MOMO CORNER CO-OWNER SACHIN KUNWAV ENJOYING A PLATE OF C-MOMO.

“People in Pittsburgh are starting to get to know our culture and our food. Our food is getting famous now,” says Bhumika Upreti, the community association’s program administrator.

On a hot August afternoon, Kunwav is tending to the front of the house at Namaste Momo Corner while Ghimire is in the Brentwood restaurant’s open kitchen. Kunwav is Nepali and Ghimire was born in Bhutan but grew up in a refugee settlement in Nepal. They met through a mutual friend and communicated via Facebook Messenger and other services for several years prior to getting engaged.

A VARIETY OF MOMO AT NAMASTE MOMO CORNER

Ghimire is dressing a freshly steamed batch of momos with a house-made sauce of pan-toasted sesame seeds, tomato, onion, chili pepper and cilantro, all ground together to form a fragrant, spicy accent to the juicy dumplings. “It’s very humble food, and our menu is small, but people love it and they keep coming back,” says Kunwav.

Ghimire and Kunwav opened their pocket-sized restaurant, painted lavender and sky blue, in September 2018. As its name indicates, the specialty is various forms of momo. Among them are sadeko momo, which are fried and tossed with vegetables and herbs; jhol momo, steamed and served in a broth reminiscent of pozole; and c-momo, dressed in a fiery chili sauce, heavy on the garlic, that’s served with green peppers and onions. “We’re not the perfect chefs. But we know how to give people a taste of home,” says Ghimire, who learned how to cook in Nepal and worked as a soup-maker at Giant Eagle’s Cranberry warehouse for two years prior to opening Namaste Momo.

Down the hill from Namaste Momo Corner is Everest Kitchen. The banners of Pittsburgh’s three professional sports teams are pinned below the Hindu prayer shawls that rope the restaurant. High-quality Nepali music videos pop on the restaurant’s flat-screen TV. A meal here might start with suja, the savory beverage otherwise known as butter tea. The whipped mix of butter, salt and black tea is comforting.

PUT TOGETHER A FEAST AT NAMASTE MOMO CORNER OR THE THREE OTHER BHUTANESE-NEPALI RESTAURANTS IN THE SOUTH HILLS. THE CUISINE DRAWS FROM CHINESE AND INDIAN INFLUENCES, AS WELL AS INDIGENOUS FOODWAYS. CHOW MEIN (CENTER) IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE CROSS-POLLINATION OF INFLUENCES; THE NOODLES ARE CHINESE IN ORIGIN BUT THE SPICE PROFILE IS INDIAN.

On weekends, there is a limited menu of Bhutanese cuisine. The most notable dish is ema datshi — chilis and cheese. The fire of the chili is tamed by the cheese sauce, which is reminiscent of festival or county fair food, but lighter and more nuanced. Phagha paa adds rashers of soft pork belly and radish greens to the mix.

While shopping for ingredients wasn’t much of an issue early on since Bhutanese and Nepali cuisines share many ingredients with Indian and Chinese dishes — it’s even easier now as there are at least seven Bhutanese-owned grocery stores in the region. “If one store doesn’t have it, another store will,” Upreti says.

Upreti says that children who were too young to remember the refugee camps are forgoing spicy foods in favor of pizza, pasta and chicken wings.

For her generation, which bridges the gap between the more Americanized youth and Timsina’s more traditional culture, the diet also straddles the divide. “People who are my age and younger are more into American food. We love our chow mein and momo, but not all the time. We want to try other things,” she says.

Still, the draw of a home-cooked meal and a taste of heritage is impossible to pass up. “I do love pasta. It’s my favorite of all time. But if I eat American food for a day or two, I need to eat something with spice after that. I cannot go more than a few days without eating our food,” she says.

HELLO NEIGHBOR FAMILIES ENJOYING A MEAL TOGETHER.

WON’T YOU BE …

In 2016, Davidson, who had worked in the nonprofit sector, spent Thanksgiving with a Syrian refugee family as a participant in an AirBnB share-a-meal program. In the months following the meal, she formed a friendship with the family. That, and the conversations surrounding it, sparked an idea — what if she could pair more locals with refugee families? Refugees only get structured social support from the federal government for a short period, and, following that, many find it challenging to navigate American culture.

In 2017, Davidson formed the first Hello Neighbor cohort group — 25 Pittsburgh families were paired with refugee families from Afghanistan, Bhutan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Myanmar, Rwanda and Syria. Now on its fourth cohort, 95 families have been matched with refugees from 12 countries (Algeria, Ivory Coast, Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia having been added to the mix).

HELLO NEIGHBOR FOUNDER/CEO SLOANE DAVIDSON (CENTER) WITH THE ALMASARI AND KOBESKI FAMILIES

Each cohort runs for six months, during which Hello Neighbor organizes activities and outings; paired families are expected to commit 10 hours a month to each other. The bonds that form almost always transcend the organized commitment. They help with activities as basic as figuring out public transit, where to take their kids for an ice cream cone or the benefits of the public library but guidance can extend to something as important as navigating the birth of a child.

Inevitably, things always circle back to food.

NIANG ZA HAU ASSEMBLES A BOWL OF FISH SOUP.

“If they don’t have the language, if you can’t talk about your culture and your country and the things you hold dear, you can show it, and one way you can show it is through sharing food,” Davidson says.

Niang Za Hau lives with her husband, Pum Khan, and their two children, who go by their English names Elizabeth and Sam, in a small apartment in Carrick. Natives of Myanmar (formerly Burma), they resettled in Pittsburgh in 2013. Prior to that, they lived in harsh conditions in refugee camps in Thailand and Malaysia; Hau says the situation in Malaysia was especially brutal. While life was easier in Pittsburgh, it was isolating.

“When I came here, it felt like I didn’t have any friends,” says Hau, through an interpreter.

Two years ago, as part of Hello Neighbor’s first cohort, they were paired with sisters-in-law Barbara and Carol Reichbaum. “We were very disturbed about the way things were going in this country, particularly when it came to refugees. Maybe this was a way we could redirect the anger and do something positive,” says Barbara Reichbaum.

On a rainy autumn evening, Reichbaum, her husband, Lee, and adult son, David, present Hau with a photo album filled with memories of outings from the past two years — plus plenty of empty pages to fill in the future — and David offers a jar of pickled hot peppers from the family’s annual canning party. But today, it’s Hau who is doing the cooking. She learned to cook when she was 12, taking the role of household caretaker while her parents went to work; when she was 15, she found employment cooking as a domestic worker.

BARBARA REICHBAUM SHARES HELLO NEIGHBOR MEMORIES.

Among the spread is fish noodle soup with homemade broth. It’s an aromatic, soulful and restorative bowl that Hau fills with chicken and quail eggs, onion, garlic, cilantro and fishcake; she offers lime, pepper, hot sauce, fish sauce and fried garlic for garnishing. Alongside it is steamed fish, vibrant with the flavor of lemongrass, double-cooked chicken, al-dente snow peas and broccoli dressed with garlic, more greens and rice.

Hau says the fish soup is a special occasion dish. “The way you feed us is a gift,” says Reichbaum.

HAU’S FEAST OF BURMESE CUISINE INCLUDES SNOW PEAS AND BROCCOLI WITH GARLIC, FISH SOUP, RICE, A SEASONING MIX OF DRIED SHRIMP WITH HOT PEPPERS AND HERBS.

Reichbaum and the rest of her family repay that gift repeatedly — for example, with David taking on a role as an older brother or young uncle for Sam, reading books and talking about the Pittsburgh Pirates losing season.

“This is good for my children. This is a true friendship,” Hau says.

“You begin to do these things together, and pretty soon, you realize you have more things in common than you have differences,” Reichbaum says.

Twenty minutes away in Carnegie, another Hello Neighbor duo is having a get-together.

HASHWET AL-RUS — RICE COOKED WITH SPICES AND TOPPED WITH HAND-CHOPPED HALAL LAMB — CENTERS A SYRIAN MEAL.

Seham and Hassan Almasari, along with their children Razan, Ali, Hoda and Omar, are among millions displaced by the ongoing civil war in Syria. They are sitting on the floor sharing dinner with Jeremy and Christine Kobeski, plus their children, Jackie, Katie, Caroline, Mary Ellen and William. Ever since their first meeting in October 2018, meals between the pair of religious families are demonstrative that sectarian divisions are less important than human connection.

“We’re a big family now. Catholic and Muslim. It doesn’t matter,” says Christine Kobeski.

On this evening, Sheham Almasari prepared dinner, and the star of the show is hashwet al-ruz — rice cooked with spices such as turmeric and cardamom, topped with hand-chopped Halal lamb and variety of toasted nuts. Alongside are hand-made pastries stuffed with cheese, spicy ground beef or spinach and cheese, savory lentil soup and salad. For dessert, there is namoura, a Syrian treat made with yogurt, sugar, semolina. And, there’s also something a little more American — Rice Krispie treats.

THE ALMASARI AND KOBESKI FAMILIES SHARE A SYRIAN MEAL COOKED BY SEHAM ALMASARI. THEY JOINED HELLO NEIGHBOR IN 2018.

Almasari started cooking when she was 16, learning from her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. She says ingredients for her recipes are easy to find here, so she hasn’t had to change much. And although her children have developed a taste for dishes such as pasta and pizza, they still crave home cooking, particularly grape leaves. “It will be important for me to pass these recipes on to them,” she says.

Hassan Almasari says his family is settling in, but it was challenging at first because neither he nor his wife is fluent in English. In 2016, when his family arrived in Pittsburgh after living for several years in a refugee camp in Jordan, a better life still seemed far away. “The first month here, I wanted to go back to Jordan,” he says.

He sometimes misses his home in Syria, too. Almassari used to be a travel agent, and he speaks with saudade when recalling his life there. “Syria is such a beautiful country. I hope to see it again someday. I hope you will see it someday, too,” he says.

He says that his family’s Hello Neighbor relationship with the Kobeski family is instrumental in helping them build a new life in Pittsburgh. Indeed, the Kobeskis even went to the hospital for the birth of the newest addition to the Almassari family, Omar, now 10 months old.

It’s the relationship between the children, who have forged a cousin-like bond with each other, that foretells an optimistic vision of what the next generation of Pittsburgh might look like. “There are no barriers between them. It’s a joy to see that,” says Jeremy Kobeski.

BARE BULE, A REFUGEE FROM SOMALIA, WATERS THE CROPS AT MWANAKUCHE COMMUNITY GARDEN. THE LAND IS PROVIDED TO THE SOMALI BANTU COMMUNITY BY THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH’S ADOPT-A-LOT PROGRAM.

GROWING A SENSE OF FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

The oppressive heat of summer has broken, giving way to warm, dry weather that has lingered the entire month of September, a boom to the region’s farmers and gardeners. In a nearly 1-acre Mwanakuche Community Garden in Perry South, the pepper plants, hot and sweet varieties, are robust under the afternoon sun. Corn stalks rise to match the Downtown Pittsburgh skyline visible on the horizon, many with two or three starchy, nutritious ears drying on the plant.

There’s work to do. Today is the day to make room for another round of hearty greens, lettuce and squash. And the crops need to be watered, which must be done by a person with a hose, since irrigation lines have yet to be installed.

That job goes to Bare Bule. He’s one of the seven elders in Pittsburgh’s approximately 700-person Somali Bantu community who regularly works in the field. “We come from people who are farmers. Especially for the elders, this was part of their life when they were younger,” says Abdulkadir Chirambo, president of the United Somali Bantu of Greater Pittsburgh.

ABDULKADIR CHIRAMBO, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED SOMALI BANTU OF GREATER PITTSBURGH

Chirambo remembers the date he came to the United States — he was resettled in Erie on June 18, 2004 — but isn’t sure if he was 14 or 15. He grew up in refugee camps in Kenya. While he didn’t have much access to books, he did his best to read whatever he could, which helped him learn English. In 2011, he graduated from Pittsburgh Technical Institute and returned to Erie. Two months later, he was back in Pittsburgh. “I tried to work there, but I thought it was almost like Somalia. I didn’t want to be there. Nobody cares. Nobody wants to do anything with us there,” he says.

In Erie, he saw more people struggling. “In Pittsburgh, they can find a job during the summertime. And people at the schools make a community to look out for them,” he says.

That community is starting to pave the way to food sovereignty for one of the region’s most food-insecure refugee populations.

The land for the farm is provided to the Somali community by the City of Pittsburgh’s Adopt-A-Lot program, which offers free agricultural space to transform otherwise vacant land. Volunteers produce food for a nearby church, a small farmstand and community elders.

CHIRAMBO WITH SOMALI ELDERS BULE, ULA MUYA AND HASSAN MALAMBO.

“I feel like a very rich person to get to do this and use these tools. In my mind, I go back 30 years and think about what I could have done if I had the tools,” says Ula Muya, who moved to Pittsburgh last year after first being resettled in Rochester in 2008.

Muya spent some time in Arizona with extended family, but, in what could be a first for the city, moved to Pittsburgh for the weather.

“I went there, and it was too hot. So I wanted to choose somewhere with better weather.”

The Somali refugee population is almost entirely Bantu, a compilation of several ethnic groups with roots in East Africa — primarily Mozambique, Tanzania and Malawi. In the 19th century, slave traders brought Bantu to Somalia, where they lived in the southern part of the country, first as enslaved people and, after liberation, compelled into an agrarian lifestyle by native Somalis and the Italian colonial government, which ruled the country from the late-1890s to 1941. In the 1990s, the persecuted Bantu minority was forced to flee, mainly by walking to Kenya, where they lived in refugee camps. In 2000, the United States began to allow the resettlement of Somali-Bantu, with Minneapolis/St. Paul, Seattle and Columbus, Ohio, as the primary points of resettlement.

MUYA ONCE FARMED IN SOMALIA. NOW, HE RAISES CROPS SUCH AS CORN, PEPPERS AND TOMATOES IN PITTSBURGH.

Chirambo says that while Pittsburgh isn’t a major destination for Somali refugees, it’s showing its mettle as a welcoming one. “You have support for what you’re trying to do if you need knowledge or training, or if you need help understanding the rules. That’s all available here,” he says.

That includes food safety training — Chirambo’s goal this winter is for him and others to pass the tests needed to acquire a permit to sell at CityParks farmers markets. Prior to opening the farm, Chirambo says some of the community worked at a local farm to learn how to grow crops such as carrots, onions and potatoes that aren’t typically a part of the Bantu farming culture.

Chirambo says while the community can grow certain foods such as hot peppers and hearty greens that are common in a Bantu diet, spices such as ginger, turmeric, cumin and fenugreek have to be purchased. They’re not as good as they are at home, but Chirambo says they are making do. They’re growing corn on the farm, but not nearly enough to feed a population where dried corn is the foundational starch (alongside spaghetti, also a typical dish following almost 60 years of Italian occupation of the country).

THE GROUP INSPECTING THE AUTUMN PLANTING

Despite the early impact of the farm, food security remains an issue for the Bantu community. “We are still struggling with shopping. Having a sense of place for people is very important, and we don’t have one to share for our culture or the other African cultures in Pittsburgh,” says Chirambo, noting that there are people from more than 20 African countries living in the city.

“One of the challenges they have is they live somewhere in a place that you could call a food desert. No matter what route they make, they need to either have a car or public transportation. And with public transportation, you can only transport so much,” says Michelle Sandidge, Chief Community Affairs Officer of the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh.

To help mitigate the situation, Sandidge, in 2015, began partnering with the hunger-relief nonprofit 412 Food Rescue to send regular deliveries to locations easily accessible to Somali refugees. There’s a mix of ingredients that might already be known to a Somali cook, and others that take some getting used to. “They say over and over again, if it’s edible, we’ll figure out a way to cook with it,” says Sandidge.

Chirambo says that having a local market will help the spirit of the community. “A central spot will let us all share our cultures. It’s a welcoming city right now, but this is the next step to being an even more welcoming city. You can learn from your neighbor, and they can learn from you,” he says.

He’s in the process of learning from his neighbors. Earlier in the month, he visited a Brentwood market run by members of the Bhutanese community and noticed some elders enraptured in a card game. “The cards were the same, but the games were very different,” he says.

Back on the farm, Chirambo says that he’s already drawn up a plan for next year. “This year, we never got the chance to have cabbage and cauliflower. Same with honeydew and cantaloupe. We’re still figuring out how to deal with bugs. But we are learning,” he says.

THE ALMASARI AND KOBESKI CHILDREN HAVE FORMED A COUSIN-LIKE BOND.

MOVING FORWARD

It helps that the City of Pittsburgh has taken initiatives to include refugees and immigrants in its mix. “You don’t have to run. You don’t have to hide. This is your home. A welcoming city puts things in place to make it so you stop feeling like a visitor,” says Feyisola Akintola of Welcoming Pittsburgh, an immigration initiative launched by the Peduto administration.

Over three Friday evenings in September, Welcoming Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership organized “World Square” in Market Square, the most significant event to date to showcase Pittsburgh’s international population, including its various refugee communities. Among the artists, performers, small business owners and cooks was Uzunoglu, the Turkish refugee who has started Kardelens Catering Services with Seda Ozel, a friend with a similar story. She’s cooking gözleme, flatbreads stuffed with spinach and feta or lamb, over a propane-fired baking stone. “This is something that eases my homesickness. It’s something from my country that I’m sharing with people here,” she says.

On the other side of the square, a crowd gatherers around the stage, where a young Bhutanese Pittsburgher is demonstrating a dance from her country. Among the crowd is a teen dressed in traditional African Islamic garb, dancing to the music while taking a video on her smartphone.

“This is a city that was built by immigrants. And that’s something we should keep in mind moving forward. If we want this city to continue to grow and blossom, then we need to embrace all people, regardless of race, religion or what language you speak,” says Akintola.