NorthSide

The Science Behind Pixar Takes a Deep Dive into Movie Making

Have you ever wondered how Pixar's popular animated movies are made? The touring show “The Science Behind Pixar,” running at the Carnegie Science Center from May 25th, 2024, to January 5th, 2025, takes a deep dive into this one.

With roughly 50 interactive exhibits, you'll be going down the rabbit hole of all things animated movie production from initial concepts to final renderings before release and everything in between, all while focusing on the science and technologies used along the way.

I was fortunate enough to get a preview of this one for the press conference before the show opened, and wanted to share more about what you can expect from this amazing experience!

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Escape USS Requin – Escape Room on a Submarine

When we heard that our resident submarine, the USS Requin at the Science Center, was getting an escape room, we knew we had to check this out immediately. Although we're not that big on escape rooms overall, we're all about the unique concept of one on a submarine and tried to get a booking right away.

The emphasis should be on tried because this one's limited operating hours meant that the initial tours sold out quickly- within minutes of posting for the first few dates.

It wasn't until the second season of Escape USS Requin that an appreciable number of timeslots were added, and we booked one right away to go with friends. As far as escape rooms are concerned, this one was a real treat!

Note: Photography is prohibited on board the USS Requin during the Escape Room experience. All on-board photos here are from a visit during the conventional tour outside of escape room season. Do not expect hints to escape room games in photos here, because there are none.

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The Museum of Illusions Takes a Deep Look at Optical Tricks

The Museum of Illusions is an international museum chain that shares some of the world's best optical illusions for guests to experience in person.

Although we are not terribly fond of chain museums, we have to admit we were intrigued by this one because who doesn't love a good optical illusion?

While this one most certainly has its target market, particularly those new to optical illusions outright, there is a lot to see in this museum on the North Shore for all visitors!

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Wise County Biscuits & Cafe Review – Biscuits and More

Wise County Biscuits & Cafe is a breakfast and lunch spot serving up their delicious homemade biscuits, breakfast sandwiches, and more in their adorable North Side cafe.

We have long been fans of their biscuits and are regular customers at their farmer's market booths, so we are ecstatic that they now have a brick-and-mortar shop where we can continue to get our biscuit fix all year long!

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Sommerfest at Teutonia Mannerchor for German Beer and Fun

The era of the social club often feels like a distant memory. But Pittsburgh is actually home to many private clubs focusing on heritage, sports, and a whole lot more.

Perhaps one of the most well known is Teutonia Mannerchor, the German club residing in none other than Deutschtown in the North Side. Not only is this one of Pittsburgh's oldest and largest private clubs, it is also somewhat difficult to get into without knowing a member or joining yourself.

Thankfully, Teutonia Mannerchor offers a number of public-facing events throughout the year. For roughly nine days each summer, the aptly named Sommerfest is your chance to check out this beautiful building, listen to German music, eat German food, and, of course, drink copious amounts of German beer!

As we have a soft spot for all things German beer, we naturally visited as soon as possible.

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EYV Review – Vegetable Forward Cuisine in the North Side

EYV in the North Side is a vegetable-forward restaurant that focuses on utilizing local produce from regional farms. On our recent trip, even in the middle of winter, we were surprised and delighted at the use of local vegetables in all of the comforting, delicious plates.

When it comes to dining healthy in the city, we could certainly use a few more places like this one!

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Pittsburgh is Going to the Moon at the Moonshot Museum

Finally, Pittsburgh has a space museum!

If you follow space news at all, odds are good that you know Pittsburgh's robotics companies are at the forefront of innovations for upcoming missions off-planet. One such company, Astrobotic in the North Side, is designing many new technologies that can be used for upcoming missions to the moon in particular.

To showcase their work and the goals of these missions at large, the company has opened a modest educational museum, aptly named the Moonshot Museum, at their North Side production facility in late 2022.

We got the chance to visit this one just before it opened to the public and share a bit more about what you can expect when visiting!

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ShadoBeni Review – Vegan Trinidadian Fare in the North Side

Whenever we think about restaurants we wish Pittsburgh had more of, our thoughts often go to international food in styles that are horribly underrepresented. Trinidadian food is one such country. Vegan food is one such style.

Enter ShadoBeni- a vegan Trinidadian restaurant that has now found its permanent home in the North Side in the Mexican War Streets.

Throw in the fact that this one is delicious, cheap, and rather approachable (for both takeout and limited dine-in seating), and, well, you can see why this one checks the boxes for us!

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Mike’s Beer Bar Celebrates All Things Locally Made Beer

When we go out to bars in the city, we are often dismayed about how little our Pittsburgh brewery scene is represented on draft lists. In the many, many bars we have visited, it seems like local brews are generally overlooked for larger and more nationally known craft brewers.

This is, on its own, not necessarily a bad thing- we still can find a great craft beer either way. But this viewpoint comes about as we live in a region with nearly 100 breweries within an hour of downtown, and with that kind of stock, you would think more places would carry them as a focal point on the menu!

Enter Mike's Beer Bar on the North Shore. This one may look like just another bar near PNC Park, but is one that elevates their offering with over 80 beers on tap, a monster can selection (500+ bottles), and, perhaps the best part, almost all of them are local!

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Acrisure Stadium Concerts – Is The Venue Worth It for a Show?

There are conventional tours at amphitheaters like Star Lake. Then there are larger stadium tours, like concerts at PNC Park. And then there are the biggest, most outrageous stadium tours for the world's most famous performers.

In Pittsburgh, only one venue is large enough for an event of this size, and Acrisure Stadium (formerly Heinz Field) concerts have historically attracted acts like Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Beyonce, U2, and perhaps the most legendary of them all, The Rolling Stones- who we finally got to see at the stadium in 2021.

So in this one, we thought we'd share a bit about what the show was like, thoughts on the seating and sound at the stadium, and other venue-specific points you may want to keep in mind!

Note: Photos in this one were taken at various focal lengths with our phone. True-to-view shots as seen from our seats will be noted in the captions. 

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