After a somewhat disappointing visit to Spak Brothers in Garfield, we've been taking pizza recommendations in Pittsburgh with a grain of salt. It wasn't until we met up with a group of acquaintances who shared our opinion of Spak Brothers (and Pittsburgh pizza as a whole) that we started to get excited about another option they were raving about.
That pizza joint was Slice on Broadway in Beechview, and it wasn't but an hour later that we were in our car driving out to give it a shot.
One of Pittsburgh's most popular museums is the Kamin Science Center (formerly the Carnegie Science Center) on the North Side. This massive complex is home to several wings featuring displays of unique sciences including aerospace, water, sports science, physics, medicine, and more.
As engineers and self-described science nerds, this was one museum we have been very eager to check out.
The craft brewing scene is currently taking Pittsburgh by storm. Not a month goes by where you don't hear about a brewery opening up in the region or a staple making news nationally for their products.
It is our lofty goal to visit all of the southwest Pennsylvania breweries popping up, and in this guide we'll be sharing our thoughts on all the breweries we've visited to date.
So if there is a brewery out there producing something unique that you need to check out, you can be certain we will feature it here!
If you've been in Pittsburgh for any appreciable time, you probably have noticed how awful our roads are. The highways make no sense, roads are stacked one over the other, and there are potholes just about everywhere.
For a long time this was a frustration we simply put up with because, well, it is Pittsburgh.
It wasn't until recently that we discovered Pittsburgh's 311 service, and this new found knowledge changed our opinion of the city's operations altogether.
I'm going to guess that you've never had food from Uzbekistan. I know I hadn't until our visit to Kavsar on Mount Washington, and I consider myself to be quite well traveled.
In fact, if you would have asked me what Uzbeki food was prior to our visit, I probably would've fumbled in an attempt to make something up. Now that I have tried it for myself, I can try and give describing it a shot.
I am a staunch critic of the pizza scene in Pittsburgh.
It seems like there is a standard recipe that every pizzeria in the city uses when making their pies. The crusts are all the same, the sauce is the same, and the preparation style is virtually all the same.
The pizzas are all good enough when you want a quick meal, but when you go to different shops you really can't say much to distinguish them from each other.
Sure, there are places to get a good pizza at a restaurant that isn't a pizzeria (La Tavola, anyone?), but when it comes to takeaway from a dedicated pizza shop the options for something astounding are few and far between.
It is because of this reason that we don't write about most of the pizzas we order in Pittsburgh on this site as most all of them would have the same exact summary.
For us to talk about pizza it needs to be something special, and we thought Spak Brothers in Garfield would be just that.
Where do home furnishings go when they die? Well, in Pittsburgh if they have any remaining value and have the potential of being salvaged, it is highly likely that they'll end up in Construction Junction in Point Breeze North.
I ended up in Construction Junction the same way I visited Artifacts in the West End a few weeks prior. Angie and I were on the hunt for some home furnishings and were checking out the odd stores in Pittsburgh to see if we could find the perfect pieces we're dreaming of.
But where Artifacts caters to high-end items imported from around the world, Construction Junction's showroom is all reuse items that could use a little love and attention.
If there was a store that could save me from the seemingly inevitable trip to Ikea, it had to be this one.
Tako in downtown Pittsburgh is a modern taco restaurant with elevated and unique takes on this classic food. We hadn't been to tako (Japanese for octopus) in several years, so we thought we were long overdue for another meal at this hot spot.
Pittsburgh is a hub of unusual museums, and The Center for PostNatural History in Garfield is no exception.
For those who are not familiar with the term, PostNatural describes living organisms that have been modified by man through everything from selective breeding all the way to genetic engineering by accredited scientists, mad scientists, and everything in between.
As an engineer this museum sounded perfect to me, and I was incredibly excited about visiting during their limited Friday and Sunday opening hours to check out the exhibits.
When it comes to barbecued meat, the country of Argentina could really teach the world a thing or two.
During our travels in Argentina we devoured the country's famous barbecue and were so enamored with it that we frequently highlight the dish of Patagonian lamb as one of the best things we've ever eaten. (…and if you read our full travel destination list, you'll understand that this is truly saying something).
That being said, crafting an authentic Argentinian barbecue is not easy, and we can attest to being disappointed in most Argentinian restaurants that try to produce this country's iconic food outside of South America. As you can imagine, we had mixed emotions going into our visit to Gaucho Parrilla Argentina.
On one hand the reviews we've seen were all fantastic, but on the other hand we have a long history of being disappointed by restaurants in other parts of the country that simply do not stack up to the real thing.
Luckily for Gaucho Parrilla, they are absolutely spot on and routinely deliver what could be our favorite meals in all of Pittsburgh.