Published by Angie. Last Updated on January 7, 2021.
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If you think finding a place to drink on a Sunday in Pittsburgh is difficult, try finding a place that's open on Monday. Harder still, make that Monday a public holiday when the entire city is virtually shut down.
Throw in our desire to go out and have a beer with friends, and that's how we ended up at Industry Public House in Lawrenceville on our recent visit.
Although this intro may make it sound like we were desperate for anything, which is somewhat true, Industry Public House had been on our list of places to try for quite some time and was rushed to the top due to this odd string of circumstances.
Thankfully, it ended up being a great choice for a beer-filled pub meal.
One of the Most Impressive Draft Menus in Pittsburgh
We were first lured into checking Industry Public House out due to the fact that they make their own beer and also have a large number of beers on tap, many of them local.
You'll find Arsenal Cider, East End, Strange Roots (formerly known as Draai Laag), and Hop Farm (you can read our reviews of each Pittsburgh brewery at the previous link), as well as regional beers from Great Lakes, Levity, Lavery, and more. The taps rotate frequently and based on our stalking of the beer menu, they always seem to have a great balance of familiar favorites and unique new ones that we want to try.
Besides beer they also have a huge whiskey selection and an interesting cocktail menu.
Their signature cocktail is an entire experience that involves lighting your choice of wood on fire to smoke your favorite bourbon, and then adding some maple syrup and bitters for good measure. This sounds so amazing we need to make a trip back just to try it!
But on our visit we stuck with some of Industry Public House's beers which were adequate but not very memorable.
One, the Hot Blast Habanero Pale Ale, was talked up by our waiter as being the must try for those who love spicy drinks, but ended up falling flat as the heat does not come close to the level you'd expect from the Habanero moniker.
Instead, Industry Public House is best suited for those trying to work their way around the local and regional beer scene all in one sitting without the hassle of driving around from brewery to brewery.
Thanks to its frequently rotating menu we discussed above, you could easily visit this one once a month (or more frequently) and never run out of local brews to try.
When it comes down to it, that is nothing short of impressive.
Over-the-Top Burgers and Pub Fare
The food menu at Industry Public House has a nice selection of salads and a few vegetarian options like a portobello burger, but the main attractions are things like over-the-top burgers, sandwiches, mac and cheese, fish and chips, and baby back ribs to name a few.
As we're on a quest to find the best Reuben in the city, we had to try theirs. The sandwich definitely needed more sauce to pull it all together, and the meat was nothing spectacular (although gains extra points for being a generous quantity).
Much like the beer, this was another instance where we shot ourselves in the foot as we put our quest to find the city's best Reuben over trying one of the restaurant's much more appealing entrees.
Thankfully, we also tried the Eliza chicken sandwich. We're sauce people, and one of the dangers with chicken sandwiches is that they can get a bit dry.
This sandwich, however, started with deliciously tender chicken and lots of tangy, spicy habanero sauce (which had more bite to it than the above mentioned beer). Add on to that some sweet and savory pineapple bacon salsa, and you've got a sandwich with tons of irresistible flavors going on. The fries were also solid; they had a nice crunch from being fried multiple times.
Overall, although the Reuben and our beer choices weren't stellar, the chicken sandwich and fries were above average and we have a hunch that the burgers and cocktails here are pretty good, too.
Throw in the massive selection of local beer and we will gladly come back in the future to find out if we are right!
Industry Public House is located at 4305 Butler Street in Lawrenceville. They have a pretty great happy hour Monday-Friday from 4:30-6:30 PM worth checking out too! Industry has a second location in Robinson Township near the IKEA.
For more great places to drink in Pittsburgh, check out Bierport or one of our many Pittsburgh breweries!
