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We are quite spoiled to have so many wonderful barbecue restaurants in Pittsburgh, and more keep coming out onto the scene with each passing year.

One famous barbecue spot we have been told about again and again since founding this site was Weirton, West Virginia, based Dee Jay's BBQ for their wildly popular ribs.

Admittedly, as our blog here focuses on southwest Pennsylvania, we have to admit we never featured them despite having visited in the past. But now that Dee Jay's has expanded with restaurants in Pennsylvania, now is the time. So on a trip down to Washington, PA, we made a stop at a location there for a brunch full of barbecue!

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Sia's Garden Grown closed in early 2024.

Sia's Garden Grown is a casual vegan restaurant in East Liberty offering counter-service sandwiches, soups, salads, and desserts. Even though we're not vegan, we're always on the lookout for new vegetarian and vegan spots in Pittsburgh as our town could definitely use more options in this category.

Our recent takeout meal from Sia's hit all the right notes for us – sandwiches bursting with flavorful veggies and spreads, hearty soups, and tasty desserts combined to make a healthful and filling meal.

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The Roundabout Popup was taken over by East End Brewing in 2024 and Smoketoberfest is set to return on October 19th in 2024. This review is from a Smoketoberfest hosted by Roundabout. While we expect the upcoming event to be the same, some details may be different.

When Roundabout Brewery announced that they were closing their Lawrenceville location, we were pretty bummed. Thankfully, this one did not entirely cease operations and went to remote brewing to continue hosting its seasonal Roundabout Popup space on the North Shore River Trail.

Naturally, their end-of-season event, Smoketoberfest, also remained to celebrate all things fall with fun, friends, beer, and a whole lot of smoked food from some of the best food trucks in Pittsburgh.

We had missed attending this one for many years due to seemingly always being out of town, but after visiting Smoketoberfest for the 10th annual event in 2023, we can see we made a big mistake missing out all those years!

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The Asian Lantern Festival is not returning in 2024. We are unaware if this one will return in future years.

The Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium is known for putting on many events throughout the year, and in 2023 they are bringing back one of their most popular events- the Asian Lantern Festival running on Thursday to Sunday nights through October 29th!

We were fortunate enough to visit the Seoul Lantern Festival when visiting South Korea in 2019 and absolutely loved the large, ornate, and colorful paper sculptures that lined Cheonggyecheon Stream in the heart of the city (see some of our favorites over at our travel blog at the previous link).

Naturally, when we heard that the Pittsburgh Zoo was going to host their own lantern festival, we knew we had to attend. We love this one so much that we return back to check out every year's show right after opening in early August.

In this one, we thought we'd share a bit more about what the Asian Lantern Festival at the zoo is like in 2023, share a few of our favorite pieces, and give some tips to help you plan your visit for this limited-time show.

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Fat Cat closed in March 2024.

Fat Cat Lounge in the North Side is a new concept from the owners of fine dining spot Fig & Ash next door. With a retro vibe, casual food and drinks, and a second floor music venue, Fat Cat adds to the growing list of destination eating and drinking spots on East Ohio Street.

Fig & Ash is one of our favorite restaurants in the city, so when we heard the owners were opening up the Fat Cat concept we were thrilled. On our recent visit shortly after their opening, we were instantly amazed at the transformation of the space.

The front door opens into the bar space with a retro vibe including 70s-style couches and old cartoons playing on the TVs. To the left of the bar is a separate dining area that continues the retro theme, and upstairs is an open space that serves as a music venue, complete with another bar.

Yes, this space will do just nicely, and thankfully the experience got even better from there!

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In 2024, Brown Bear Bread Cafe closed their Mt. Oliver location and moved to New Brighton in September. We are unsure if they are opening with a full restaurant menu at this time as outlined in the below review from their Mt. Oliver location.

Brown Bear Bread Cafe is a bakery located in Mt. Oliver offering up sourdough bread, English muffins, pastries, and more to go, plus a small cafe menu for dining in. If there's one thing we think Pittsburgh can always use more of, it's excellent bakeries (especially bread-focused bakeries)- so we are ecstatic that this lovely new spot has found a home in Mt. Oliver.

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Sweet Rust is now closed.

Sweet Rust is a Vatting House concept that bottles and sells single-barrel, cask-strength spirits from Pennsylvania and around the world. While the company doesn't distill their own spirits, they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience from their Pennsylvania Libations business to offer high-quality spirits in and around Pittsburgh.

Sweet Rust also operates a restaurant of the same name in Ligonier, located inside the historic Thistledown Hotel. We recently visited as guests of the restaurant to try their farm-to-table cuisine, plus a few cocktails made with Sweet Rust products, of course!

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Gussy's Bagels has been listed as temporarily closed for several months without updates. We believe this one is unlikely to reopen.

Gussy's Bagels & Pizzeria in Oakland is one of those business stories we loved to see unfold. 

During the pandemic, chefs around the city were pivoting to provide food to hungry Pittsburghers and keep the lights on at their restaurants. Chef Scott Walton of Acorn in Shadyside (now closed) started making bagels, an exciting departure from the restaurant's normally fine-dining-oriented menu, and met near-instant acclaim with a die-hard following.

Cut to 2022, and Chef Scott left Acorn to open Gussy's Bagels & Deli in Oakland and expanded in early 2023 to become Gussy's Bagels & Pizzeria. 

Incredible bagels, stellar (and massive) slices of pizza, and a central location in bustling Oakland? Gussy's truly is starting to put some of our favorite spots on the east coast to shame.

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This one should go without saying, but we love lamb. It is one of our favorite meats, and we are spoiled here in western Pennsylvania to have so many fantastic producers that raise lambs.

As such, it should be no surprise that there is a festival that celebrates all things lamb, and the Western PA Lamb Fest does that and then some at the annual event!

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Alchemy seemingly closed in 2024.

Alchemy Bar + Kitchen brings fine dining and craft cocktails to an intimate space in downtown Pittsburgh's Market Square. We're always excited when new businesses open downtown, so we knew we had to make it in shortly after Alchemy opened to check out their offerings.

While this one brands itself as a molecular gastronomy-themed fine dining restaurant, we left a bit unsure of the molecular gastronomy element but big fans of the food at large all the same

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