Published by Jeremy. Last Updated on June 13, 2019.
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Pittsburgh Magazine is known for hosting several events in the city throughout the year. Their flagship event, in our opinion at least, is the Best Restaurant Party which takes place each June. The next biggest, and considerably smaller event, is Best of the Burgh. This one focuses on the best of the city's businesses overall and takes places just a few weeks later each July at Stage AE.
We were invited to check out the Best of the Burgh party by the magazine, and wanted to share a bit about what you need to know before attending the next event!
Featuring the Best Businesses in Pittsburgh
The Best of the Burgh Party by Pittsburgh Magazine honors not only their favorite spots in the city from the previous year, but those selected in a reader's vote as well. The party itself features several dozen vendors ranging from restaurants, to local businesses, attractions, and others in the service industry.
Restaurants included Bigham Tavern, Mad Mex, Nicky's Thai Kitchen, Nakama, and Monterey Bay Fish Grotto (many of these were notably absent from the Best Restaurant Party a few weeks prior). Traditional businesses included Sweat crew, Walnut Capital, Studio Raw, Darlington Polo Club, Benson Lincoln, and Kelly Strayhorn Theater to name a few (plus several sponsors, of course).
As far as businesses are concerned, this is the kind of party you would go to if you have a keen interest in a few of the specific vendors who appear on the guest list.
We found ourselves hitting the restaurants more than the other vendors due to our personal interests, and since these were fairly limited we ended up spending more time talking to other guests more than the vendors themselves.
That being said, when we did talk to businesses we enjoyed relatively uninterrupted access and were able to ask some burning questions- a great win in our book!
A Smaller Event at an Approachable Price
One of the benefits of the Best of the Burgh party is that it is offered at an attractive ticket price as far as events are concerned. The ticket ($35 in 2018) includes two drinks (beer, wine, or well drinks), a t-shirt, samples at the food vendors, as well as premium coupons from many of the featured vendors.
If you break it down by value, after the drinks, shirt, and a few key coupons after factored in the event is more or less paid off. We can certainly appreciate this for a smaller event such as this one even if the party itself was quite small.
Overall, if you are looking for one party to attend in Pittsburgh, we highly recommend saving your pennies to check out the Best Restaurant Party that occurs at a few weeks earlier. It is truly the premier event to attend and will be a new tradition for us (but, naturally, is for those who can eat their way through the nearly $100 price tag).
As far as the Best of the Burgh is concerned, we would recommend this one if you are interested in the list of businesses attending and want to go talk to their owners (or our case, executive chefs) more. They are all easily accessible here and provide a level of interaction that even we as local bloggers do not see as much when going out.
But if we are to be honest, we not-so-secretly wish the two parties would be merged into one, as nothing beats an all out gala of the city's best- food or otherwise.
Pittsburgh Magazine's Best of the Burgh party takes place each July. We'd like to thank the magazine for inviting us out to the event. As always, all opinions are our own.
