Year: 2017

Lawrenceville Neighborhood Guide – Attractions and Dining

If there is any neighborhood in Pittsburgh that would be the perfect case study for a revival, Lawrenceville would be it. In just under 10 years the neighborhood went from being one you likely never stepped foot in (let alone drove through), to becoming a hipster mecca, to being so trendy it is beyond hipster, and is now one of the most popular neighborhoods in all of Pittsburgh for visitors with all interests.

As Lawrenceville has grown to be a shopping, eating, and drinking hot spot, our neighborhood guide was created to cover our very favorite spots in each category!

As with all of our neighborhood guides, this is not a complete list of everything in Lawrenceville. It is simple a guide to places we personally visit when exploring the neighborhood. If your favorite is not included, it is likely that we have not checked it out yet. If this is the case, please comment at the end of this post and we'll happily check it out on our next visit!

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Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival – A Trip Back in Time

The end of summer is marked with several annual events in the Pittsburgh region, and one that has been a favorite in the Laurel Highlands for many years is none other than the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival!

We have been to many Renaissance Festivals elsewhere in the past, but our recent visit to Pittsburgh's festival was a first- and it delivered the nostalgic experience we were looking for.

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Open Streets Pittsburgh – A Different Way to Experience the City

Open Streets Pittsburgh (or OpenStreetsPGH, as the organization is called) is an outdoor event that has a very simple premise- to encourage you to get outside and be active!

The event is part of a global movement called Ciclovia which is said to have begun in Bogota, Colombia, in the mid-1970s. Here, the main roads of the city are shut down for several hours on Sundays and public holidays in order to open the roads up to pedestrians and bikers- thus giving people a safe space to get out and exercise in the city.

This trend caught on, and the Open Streets movement is now found the world over- including in Pittsburgh!

Although our Open Streets options are limited to select weekend days of the month from May to July, the organizers ensure different streets are open in each event, giving you several miles of open space to get out for a walk, run, bike, or more.

Naturally, we wanted to try out Open Streets both on foot and on wheels, and in this one wanted to share our thoughts on attending the event in each case!

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Giovanni’s Pizza Review – Pizza and Delicious Garlic Rolls in Dormont

When it comes to Giovanni's Pizza in Pittsburgh, we have to take a step back and make an important distinction: there are actually several Giovanni's in the region.

In fact, there are three very close by- two in downtown proper and one in Dormont, and they all appear to be independent of each other.

So it should be no surprise that when we ordered our pizza from Giovanni's, we assumed we were getting it from one when it in fact came from another. Oops.

As it turns out, we ordered from the Dormont Giovanni's which boasts that it is home to a winner of “Pittsburgh's best pizza” and “famous” bread twists- two claims we wanted to find out about first hand.

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North Side Music Festival – Three Days of Music

The North Side Music Festival takes place each July in Pittsburgh's North Side and features hundreds of bands, dozens of stages throughout the region (most in Deutschtown, giving the event the former name the Deutschtown Music Fesitval), food trucks, art and other vendors, and so much more.

In fact, there is so much to see in this three-day event you really plan to spend the entire day down at the festival to get the most out of it!

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Barb’s Corner Kitchen Review – Massive Breakfasts in Lawrenceville

Barb's Corner Kitchen closed in October 2025.

Barb's Corner Kitchen has been around for years in Lawrenceville, serving up a mix of homestyle and diner food like grilled sandwiches, pastas, and wings.

But given their early morning to mid afternoon hours (and limited late night hours on weekends), perhaps what they're most known for is their breakfast food- consisting of omelettes, eggs benedicts, waffles, pancakes, and more, all served up in a very eclectic diner-style atmosphere.

We heard many good things about Barb's from friends, and most had fond memories of eating there back when there really weren't that many other dining options in Lawrenceville. So we visited this one with a fair bit of excitement as we continue our quest to find Pittsburgh's best breakfast spots.

Maybe we were just there on an off day, or maybe we had one truly awful waiter, but we felt the quality and service was lacking a fair bit and we cannot let it go unsaid.

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Flight 93 National Memorial – A Somber Memorial to 9/11


Sometimes as travel writers there are just a few spots we visit that are impossible to put into words. Destinations so sobering about the low points in human history that I simply cannot do justice in any one article.

I've found myself in this particular spot in many places around the world- be it Dachau in Germany, the ground zero spots of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, and the 9/11 Memorial in New York City to name a few.

In these particular cases I've tried time and time again to write about them, but end up being at a loss for words. Rather than ignoring the topic altogether, I ultimately end up only sharing photos as a means to try and provide a visual understanding of the experience.

So it should be no surprise that my visit to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, is no different. Today, I wanted to share a few photos from the memorial to encourage everyone to visit.

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The Quest for the Best Tacos in Pittsburgh

If we made a list of all of the foods we could eat day in, day out and not get sick of, tacos would be high on our list. In fact, when we spent about four weeks in Mexico I ate well over 100 Mexican tacos on my own in addition to a plethora of other delicious and local foods- much to my stomach's delight.

If I saw a street cart serving tacos I would order at least one, if not three, even if I had just ate a meal. It was kind of like that.

In Pittsburgh, the topic of authentic Mexican fare is a hotly contested debate. Some will tell you our Mexican cuisine is terrible. Others will argue we have great Mexican but will pull out many examples that are, sadly, not Mexican. We have mixed thoughts on the topic, but generally think that you can find good Mexican fare in the city if you look hard enough.

Our quest for the best tacos in Pittsburgh is not that. While we will say that most all of the best tacos are authentic Mexican, we do recognize that you can make a stellar taco without it being traditional in the slightest.

In this quest, we want to find some of the city's best. Are they good because they're authentic? Are they good because they're unusual? Are they so cheap they command attention? Or are they simply good and we need not say anything else? All of these are on our radar and can be called a “good taco.”

Note: In the past, our quest style articles organized tacos in various categories from below average to excellent. Since then, we have decided to remove any category style tier. That said, tacos in this article loosely ordered by increasing preference in this article. So if you want to see our very favorites, scroll to the end!

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