Year: 2016

Johnny Angel’s Ginchy Stuff – A Music Museum for the Ages

If you are a music fan who grew up in Pittsburgh over the last 50 years, odds are good you know the name Johnny Angel. Throughout the decades, Johnny built an impressive career that continues to this very day. His current band, Johnny Angel and the Halos, can be found around the region performing songs from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond.

As you can imagine, throughout his career Johnny amassed an impressive collection of memorabilia from his own shows and experiences in the music industry.

To showcase these, Johnny decided to put everything on display for the public at his store Johnny Angel's Ginchy Stuff – a North Side staple that moved to its new home next door to the iconic Bicycle Heaven in 2016.

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Pittsburgh Airport Marriott Review – Park and Fly

We always dread early morning flights, so when we had the opportunity to stay at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott recently on the night before a 7am flight, we jumped at the chance.

With recent renovations, a restaurant with an emphasis on seasonal and local ingredients, comfortable rooms, and a park and fly option, there's plenty at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott to make your travel less stressful.

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Runner Stone Mill House Review – Seasonal Food and Cocktails

The Runner Stone Mill House restaurant at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott hotel is an excellent addition to the Pittsburgh hotel dining scene. While it's relatively easy to find good hotel dining in the downtown area, as you move outside the city limits it definitely becomes trickier.

Luckily, the Runner Stone Mill House hits all the right points to help fill this void.

It's got a sleek, modern decor with different seating options ranging from high tops to more intimate lounge-style seating, and it's got a great craft cocktail list and a seasonal dining menu that uses fresh, local ingredients with lots of house-made touches.

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10 of the Coolest Pittsburgh Houses You Can Visit

When it comes to unique Pittsburgh houses, be it the historical or downright weird, this city is full of them. Unfortunately, many of these houses are private residences that are not open to the public, which makes fully appreciating them somewhat tricky.

Throughout our quest to experience the many things to do in Pittsburgh, we've visited a number of the unique houses in the city and have fallen in love with several of them.

In this guide we wanted to share some of our favorites that you can also go visit!

This guide only features Pittsburgh houses we've personally toured. If you are looking for more details about each house, click the link inside the description to be taken to our full review. When we find more properties to explore in the future, we will update this guide accordingly! 

Note: Most every house in this guide requires advanced reservations. Many do not accept walk-up visitors.

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A Stroll Through the Thornburg Conservation Area

When I go out exploring in and around Pittsburgh, one of the things I like to do is look at the map and see what kind of public parks and spaces are near me. More often than not these turn out to be simple playgrounds or parklets that do not warrant an article, but every once in a while I discover something amazing that I never knew was there.

The Thornburg conservation area is one of those places, and after visiting this one I can safely say that I look forward to returning many times in the future.

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The Best Pick-Your-Own Fruit Farms in Pittsburgh

One of our favorite summer activities in the Pittsburgh area is to visit local farms and pick our own fruits.

We've visited almost every farm over the years, and learned a thing or two about the best places for picking each type of fruit- and we're here to share these tips with you!

As fruit harvests vary greatly from year to year and picking conditions vary from day to day, we highly recommend calling ahead before you go to double check the farm has what you're looking for. With that being said, if you have a particular fruit in mind, check out these great farms!

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Carrie Furnace Tour – Finding the Steel City’s Roots

Throughout its history, Pittsburgh has been known for a lot of things. The city was host to George Washington on multiple occasions, the departure point of Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition, home to America's early glass industry, and the world's leading supplier of iron and steel- and that is before even getting to the 20th century.

Although these are all incredible in their own right, it is the steel industry in Pittsburgh that made the city famous the world over.

In its prime, Pittsburgh was producing thousands of tons of steel per day- more than half of the entire output of all factories in the United States combined- and boasted a staggering number of mills located along the city's rivers. But by the 1980s this all changed- the steel industry went bust, nearly all of the factories were shut down, and Pittsburgh went through one of the largest depressions from which it only recently emerged.

Since then, most of the factories have been demolished and replaced with new industries. But a small portion of one massive factory, the iron-producing Carrie Furnaces, was rescued by the Rivers of Steel Heritage Foundation and turned into a historical site for future generations to come and learn about how the Steel City got its name.

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Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh Review – Downtown Gem

When I normally think of convention center hotels, my first thought is of a place for business travelers coming in for a conference or large meeting. What I often do not think about is that these hotels can also be spots for visitors coming in for a weekend to explore the city.

My visit to the Westin Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh did coincide with a conference, but the property helped me redefine my image of a convention center hotel. For those who want to be in the heart of it all and even have a great view to boot, regardless of why you're visiting, the Westin Convention Center should definitely be on your radar.

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Sheraton Station Square Review – Go for the River View

Pittsburgh's iconic view from Mount Washington is known far and wide as one of the world's best skyline views. We don't know a Pittsburgher who doesn't love it, and rarely hear of visitors who don't make a special trip to the neighborhood just to check it out.

What this iconic view does not have, however, is a hotel with that same vista. For whatever reason, be it political, monetary, or otherwise, it just hasn't happened.

But there is one hotel that will get you close, and that is the Sheraton at Station Square located at the base of Mount Washington. So when we were invited to this hotel to stay the night, you know checking out the view was high on our list.

So how does this hotel stack up, view and otherwise? We share it all below.

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