skroah

Hmm. Downtown is hard I don't know what is down there anymore. Mostly hotel restaurants are your best bet. Most of the places down there were way over priced. 1902? has passable food but is very expensive for what you get. If I recall correctly. Hopefully someone who lives there can offer more current options. I have to add regarding breakfast that Pamelas is not a good breakfast place. People drive to the walnut street location from the burbs on the weekend and really slam the place. I used to love Pamelas until I started going to real and healthy breakfast places the last time I went we ended up leaving w/o finishing our meal. Being surrounded by smokers didn't help things though. Opinions on this Pittsburgh breakfast legend?

Heh he. Brutal. Primantis is an institution of course in the burgh. I think they have one in Ft. Lauderdale as well. I would call it 2am food mostly but people eat there all day. This might help to explain the incredible obesity rate in the burgh. Not proper to bring that up in a food forum I know but I don't think the general population eat well or healthy in Pittsburgh. It was a rare day when I could finish a burgh sized meal. I generally had food for two more meals. Go to the byo la tavola on mt. washington to see what I mean. Fat heads is another example, Burghavore heaven. Portions were massive. The beer selection is pretty good at fatheads, better than most places in Philly. I went to Namaste and Il piazolla regularly, mentioned above, they are certainly pretty good. Dish is also good and unusual for the area. If they get more places like that they will be fine. I hope they are doing well.

Well this will rub many wrong but IMO quantity is king in Pittsburgh. I can't recall having a really really good meal anywhere in the city. Well once I had a memorable meal at the Steelhead grill but I think it was more ambience and company that made that. I don't make it out there much anymore but I have eaten all over the town from carson street to mount lebo to shadyside to the strip and even up to mount washington. Food is important in the burgh but like I said it's quanity that is most promoted and appreciated. I was at the Hyholde recently for lunch, which I think they don't do anymore, and was underwhelmed. I've also heard that restaurants have been closing downtown at a rapid rate, is that true? The southwest bistro was a good lunch spot once. It is gone now I believe. Is it just me or has the strip really gone downhill lately as well. There is only one decent baker there selling bread, their bakery is out in the burbs I think. The rest of the shops have cut way back on specialty items and while I got some really good spanish soft cheese, montenebro, at one of the places the other cheese I bought was off and they wouldn't take it back saying I was off. If a new restaurant opens, especially byo's, please let us know here as I'll try it when I am in town. Gracias.

1. The clerks are well paid professionals in a union. They should either get training and pass some tests to move up or move on. And I don't mean tests on how to balance the register at the end of the night. 2. The "sterno stop" aesthetics are a real turn off. State stores are just plain ugly. I feel like I'm shopping in east germany. The selection reinforces that as well. 3. People in the suburbs have more access to good wine than people in the city. I was at a specialty store in pittsburgh recently that had a much larger selection of wines than anything I've seen in center city. 4. Stuff is always mislabled, unlabeled or just sitting in the window under direct sunlight. No care or concern for the product. It might as well be a feed store. 5. Why can't I just order wine from my homestate, Oregon, and have it delivered to my house. Why do they have to be all in my business? 6. The website always lists wines/specials that never actually ever appear at stores in CC. They also don't respond to questions or complaints submitted on their website. Honestly I can't really think of one good thing about the state system. They are the largest purchaser of wine in the country and they can't even leverage savings to wine consumers here. They rarely if ever have any kind of wine tastings or try to educate their consumers. To them education means abstinence I guess. The entire concept reminds me of a SOMA distribution center in Brave new world. I know the new guy has made changes but from someone coming out of state I have to compare it to what I know.

Fork likes reservations. They have been on my list for awhile but I just haven't made it there. They have special dinners once in awhile, they just had a spanish/portugese wine dinner that I really wanted to go to. This thursday is book and the cook with Gordon Hamersley. Here is the menu for that. http://www.forkrestaurant.com/specialevent2.htm http://www.forkrestaurant.com/ Looks like a great place though. I need to work it into the budget or hit its late menu one night. You will miss this place unless you keep an eye out. I walked by it many days before I realized where it was.

This site has some reviews of a lot of places in old city. http://home.earthlink.net/~oldcityreviewed/toc.html There are a ton of places obviously so it really matters what you want. Most of them are pretty much the same though, "up scale" cocktail bars that I wouldn't really pay the money to eat at. In a lot of cases it's more style than substance. I don't think the best bartenders are working in old city. For example, I recently paid 11 bucks for a makers mark manhatten at bleu martini which was made by a half dressed young lady who probably never had one. Another night I watched the bartender at cuba libre train the hostess on making drinks. Hmmm. I like serrano, the bar is ok, don't sit across from the fire if it's blazing. Eulogy used to be fun but I'm a little burnt out on it. Great beer to be had and the mussels are good. Mexican post I would not eat at but their margarita pitchers are very cheap and can be "customized". Paradigm is ok, mostly env. which you pay for. Same goes for Novelty. Cuba libre is ok and they have an ok selection of top shelf rums. The food is cubanesque. The list goes on. I would just troll around until you find what your looking for. Enjoy the show. Is it Proof or did I miss that?

We go to RTM every weekend sometimes during the week as well. Generally we walk, but for some reason i've been driving there a lot lately. Parking is to be had if you keep heading north past the vine. Maybe a little shady for some of you and a bit of a haul with heavy bags but i've always found space up there and I enjoy the walk. I generally stop into a few of the grocery stores in Chinatown on the way. Iovines is my favorite spot as well as a few of the cheese places and the cook book store. We get there early and the crowds are non-existent even on the weekends. If you do decide to park up past vine and have a lot of heavy bags I suggest a couple beers at the independence brew pub before you start. ;)