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Kabab & Curry Review – A Feast of Indian and Pakistani Fare

Is there anything better than home-cooked family recipes from around the world? We can think of no greater joy than finding an international restaurant in the city with homemade dishes using traditional recipes.

As far as Pakistani and northern Indian cuisine is concerned, you'll get just that at Kabab & Curry on Banksville Road. And apart from feasting on their massive menu, you'll do well to talk to the owners here to get to know a bit of their family history as well!

But before diving into the food, we have one word of warning here- the menu is massive. You're going to need several visits to this one to try it all.

Note: I visited Kabab & Curry as a guest of the restaurant with a few fellow food bloggers/Instagrammers in the city. As part of this, we were able to taste our way around a good cross-section of the menu with far more dishes sampled than in our normal restaurant outings. As such, this one is oriented a little differently than our traditional reviews as we have about three or four meals' worth of food to discuss here.

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Over Eden and Brick Shop Review – A Multi-Stop at the Tryp Hotel

The Tryp Hotel opened in Lawrenceville in 2019 and had a few unique features about it. First, it is found in a former school. Second, it is the first hotel to open in Lawrenceville (something that was much needed). Finally, it is home to not one, but two on-site restaurants and bars with one having an incredible rooftop patio looking out over the city!

We were fortunate enough to be able to stay at the Tryp Hotel as guests of the property, and during the course of our stay got a chance to try out the rooftop bar (Over Eden) as well as the first-floor restaurant (Brick Shop).

In this one, we wanted to share a bit about what you could expect with these as they can truly be paired up for a one-two punch.

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Tryp Hotel Review – Affordable Rooms in the Heart of Lawrenceville

When you think of popular Pittsburgh neighborhoods, you may instantly assume that any given one is home to several hotels for visitors. For a few, you'd be right. But there are many neighborhoods in the city that do not have hotels at all, and up until mid-2019 Lawrenceville was one that sorely needed a property.

It wasn't until the Tryp Hotel opened that Lawrenceville got its first proper hotel, and this one fits right into the trendy neighborhood perfectly thanks to its beautiful restoration of a former school building right on 40th Street.

Throw in a rooftop bar with a stellar city view, a nice restaurant on the first floor, and some modern amenities and you have enough to make us happy.

We got the chance to check this one out as guests of the hotel and share more in this full review!

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Phipps Conservatory’s Summer Flower Show – Hidden Life of Trolls

There are good shows at Phipps Conservatory and then there are great shows at Phipps Conservatory.

Before checking out the 2021 Summer Flower Show, I wasn't quite sure where it would fall on the spectrum. But “The Hidden Life of Trolls” is not only one of the best summer shows that we can remember but one of the best they have ever done of any season!

Be prepared for some amazing animatronics, interactive experiences, and of course gorgeous flowers in this one!

Note: As with all of our museum posts, we do not like to give away every exhibit. In this one, we're only going to share a few of our favorite rooms and encourage you to visit to see the rest! We were guests of Phipps for this review.

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The Eagle Pittsburgh Review – Fried Chicken and a Relaxing Vibe

Whenever we think of dining in the Cultural District of downtown Pittsburgh, our thoughts tend to go to the high-end restaurants that have a reservation waitlist on the order of weeks or months. 

While there are restaurants in the area where you can walk in and get a seat with ease, these are becoming less and less common as higher-end restaurants open in the area. As such, we always think this part of downtown could use more approachable spots to balance out the options for those who do not want to plan that far in advance or pay an arm and a leg in the process.

Thankfully, the Cincinnati-based fried chicken restaurant known as The Eagle opened up in the heart of the Cultural District and checks a lot of boxes for us- most notably that, at the time of their grand opening at least, 50% of their seats are kept open for walk-ins!

We had the chance to check this one out at their soft open for friends & family night (thanks to our friends Bold Pittsburgh) and share more in this review!

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Take a Trip Around Lake Arthur on Preston’s Pearl

Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park is one of our favorite outdoor spots in southwest Pennsylvania. It is hard to ask for more than a beautiful lake with a number of fingers and inlets that just beg being explored.

We've featured many ways you can explore the lake including taking out kayaks from Bear Run Campground, standup paddleboarding with SurfSUP Adventures, and even enjoying Moraine State Park's bike trail which runs along the shoreline. But all of these activities required some degree of effort in order to enjoy. For something a bit more leisurely, the park offers boat tours on the resident pontoon boat from late spring to early fall. 

For many years, guests would enjoy the waters via the resident boat Nautical Nature, but in 2021 the Moraine Preservation Fund launched a new pontoon boat that offers 90-minute sightseeing tours, dinner/brunch cruises, and more.

I was fortunate enough to get out on the water for the ship's inaugural sailing as part of a media preview and share more about what you can expect on this one here!

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Experiencing Socially Distant Skiing at Seven Springs

We were hosted by Seven Springs when visiting for this story; however, all opinions are our own.

Much like everything else in 2020 (and onward into early 2021), the current environment has resulted in a number of changes for experiences throughout the region. The ski season at Seven Springs in the Laurel Highlands is no different.

While skiing is inherently an activity that can be enjoyed at a distance, the ski resorts in the Laurel Highlands have made many changes for the 2020-2021 season to ensure guests are safe when off the slopes. Naturally, we wanted to see what it was like towards the start of the season and share some things you can expect if visiting Seven Springs this year!

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Empanada Fusion Review – Empanada Pickups Around Pittsburgh

Empanada Fusion is a bit of a different food concept for Pittsburgh – instead of having a brick and mortar restaurant or a food truck, Empanada Fusion offers its empanadas at weekly drop off spots in and near the city. All you have to do is pre-order your empanadas online and pick them up at the spot you specify (with locations changing weekly).

The empanada fillings are a mix of traditional and fusion flavors, with an emphasis on non-traditional flavors. The menu changes weekly but typically you can find about four meat options, four vegetarian options, and two sweet dessert options.

We were contacted by Empanada Fusion and received a complimentary order and wanted to share more about it in this review!

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Phipps Conservatory for the Orchid and Tropical Bonsai Show

The Orchid and Tropical Bonsai Show, aptly themed “Out of This World” for 2020, brings these two beautiful plants (both favorites of ours) to the forefront of the Conservatory.

As always with our show features, we wanted to share a few of our favorite rooms from this show and hope you'll make it out to visit for yourselves!

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