City Works in Market Square is a massive pub with a huge draft list, and it's perfectly situated in PPG Place for after work happy hours and watching sports games on one of their 15 TVs.
We visited on a recent week night just after happy hour had ended, and it was bustling with large groups of professionals enjoying the deals ($4 rotating drafts and select $4 appetizers). While we were sad about missing out on the specials, we dove in to our meal all the same.
Baby Loves Tacos is a popular taco joint that opened its first brick and mortar store in Bloomfield in early 2018.
The restaurant opening was eagerly anticipated as this one hosted frequent pop-ups around Pittsburgh and gained a legion of die-hard fans along the way. The popularity is worth it, as Baby Loves Tacos makes what we believe are some of the best all-around tacos we've had in the city.
Oyster bars seem to be having a moment in Pittsburgh with spots like Muddy Waters in East Liberty, and Merchant Oyster Co. in Lawrenceville popping up.
We have to say, before this phenomenon we hadn't really been into oysters, but these restaurants are doing their part at convincing us that oysters are delicious and may end up becoming the next big thing in Pittsburgh.
Merchant Oyster Co. in Lawrenceville is the latest project by Chef Dennis Marron, formerly of The Commoner and Or, The Whale in downtown Pittsburgh. It is themed as a northeast oyster and chowder house that also serves up seafood conservas and a small sandwich menu.
Threadbare Cider House in the North Side is the brainchild of the folks at Wigle Whiskey, arguably Pittsburgh's most famous local distiller.
When wanting to branch out into a new venture, the owners stumbled upon the history of Johnny Appleseed (or John Chapman by his real name)- a rather eccentric fellow who, in the late-1700s/early-1800s, wandered around the region, preached conservation and planted nurseries to be tended to by locals (giving rise to the modern legend), and spreading the gospel far and wide.
Some stories of his travels had him based near Pittsburgh for a while (possibly even during the famous Whiskey Rebellion that Wigle proudly promotes), and when the owners realized this the idea for Threadbare came to life. Fast forward a few years, and they are now ramping up production of fine ciders made with locally sourced apples and are serving them at their North Side production facility along with stellar artisan pizzas.
Shortly before opening, our friends at Wigle gave us a call and invited us down to try out their menu- and sample the menu we did. Between three separate visits we had just about everything they offer!
Tequila Cowboy is a country-themed bar on the North Shore that features a mechanical bull, karaoke room, and live country music.
This spot is perfect for those who like to sing and dance to country music when they go out- be it for a birthday or bachelorette party or even for varied drink specials with a lively ambiance.
It's also the kind of place that most people will either love or hate.
And we can safely say that we sway towards the latter.
In our continued search for the best banh mi in Pittsburgh, we recently eagerly checked out a new addition to the banh mi scene – Ineffable Ca Phe in Lawrenceville.
Zen Asian in Lawrenceville is a pretty standard Chinese restaurant with average food. The best parts about this restaurant are the large portion sizes and that they deliver – let's face it, sometimes you just crave a massive Chinese takeout feast.
After buying the house we were renting on our defacto “moving day,” we wanted just that.
Grandma B's is a down home diner located in Pittsburgh's Hill District. Like most greasy spoons, this spot doesn't look like much on the outside. But don't let that fool you – inside is a huge well-seasoned griddle cooking up a menu full of classic diner plates.
On top of all that, the staff are as friendly and delightful as they come.
It isn't necessarily easy to find good tacos in Pittsburgh, so when we heard about Doce Taqueria on Carson St. in South Side we knew we had to check it out.
We jumped into this short order spot with anticipation and were, sadly, fairly let down!