Westin Pittsburg

[Daniel]

Will be staying at the Westin in Pittsburg the next few nights.. Can anyone recommend a place for a few nice dinners.. I will go from burgers to haute.. I just want it to be great..

[JasonZ]

Daniel:

It's a wonderful city in its own way, so I hope you'll enjoy it. Re restaurants, I would defer to any Pittsburgh natives who reply, but since I visit the city about once a month (my daughter is a student there), I'm happy to provide my personal favorites.

First, some references, in case you don't like the suggestions you get or want a second opinion. Pittsburgh Magazine's most recent (June 2006) review of 25 Best Restaurants -- 2006 plus an online exclusive on a hot new chef, David Racicot at Aqueous. The link to the most recent issue's Restaurant review section is HERE, but given what you have in NYC, you may want to stick to the more traditional & unusual places in Pittsburgh.

I'd suggest looking at some of the restaurants in the Big Burrito Group, notably Umi (Japanese -- especially sushi), Kasbah, Eleven (downtown, very convenient to Westin), and Soba. These are out in Shadyside, about 15-20 minutes from downtown, near the University and Museums.

I assume you'll skip Lidia's which is very good home style Italian, but you have access to Lidia Bastianich's flagship restaurants at home anytime you want. You may want to consider formal Spanish cuisine, at Mallorca or tapas next door at Ibiza.

For classic American cuisine in a lovely setting, try Opus in the Renaissance on N 6th St. For a lighter version of American, beautifully prepared, locally grown, in a lovely setting, go for the Cafe at the Frick, where you can also spend a lovely afternoon viewing art, an antique auto collection, or a famous industrialist's home FRICK HOME.

There are great places for pulled pork, beef, brisket hoagies, but I'll leave it to the local experts to advise you on that.

Hope that gets you started ...

Regards,

Jason

[Daniel]

Thanks Jason,

That was really nice of you, I appreciate it..

[Daniel]

For any of you watching the news. Dont worry, I'm fine..

Edited February 5, 2007 by Daniel (log)

[jrichman]

Might as well check out Primati Bros while you are there...a classic Pittsburgh place.

[Daniel]

The Westin Convention Center just collapsed.. Going back home.. I will definitely keep this information for the next trip..

[dockhl]

Daniel~

are you serious? I just googled it and can't find anything...........

[Andrew Fenton]

Breaking news (no pun intended)

[phlox]

Oh, no! I'm so sorry this happened while you were here, Daniel!

I work at Eleven and everyone was talking about this today. So weird.

The Big Burrito restaurants are all good, I think, but in my opinion the best ones are Eleven (er, not that I'm biased or anything) and Soba (Asian fusian - my boyfriend is a cook there, and while I make fun of him for working at a place where they deep fry sweetbreads and drizzle some kind of fruity blackberry shit on them, the food is definitely tasty, although not authentically anything). Casbah is good, but I think it's fallen off in quality recently, especially the desserts. They just taste blah and flat to me now.

Le Pommier is a French bistro on the South Side of Pittsburgh, and it is excellent. Seriously, I cannot say enough about what a great job they do. Cozy, casual but nice atmosphere, great service, and VERY reasonable prices for the quality and quantity of food you get. Right now they have this chicken liver mousse stuff they're serving with the bread. Mother of god, is that stuff ever good. I practically licked the little ramekin last time I was there.

I also highly recommend going to the Strip District. There is a gourmet chocolate store there whose selection rivals a lot of stores I've seen in NYC (I work there a few hours a week, too). Of course there are the famous spots like Wholey's and Pennsylvania Macaroni Company, and Enrico Biscotti (basis for the movie The Bread, My Sweet), but my favorite places in the Strip are Cafe Richard (awesome sandwiches and pastries) and La Prima (Italian-style coffee joint; flagship coffeehouse for La Prima roastery, which I always have at home), to make up for the fact that while Cafe Richard has excellent food, their coffee is awful! Seriously bad, like old socks. Oh well, can't have everything.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions or want more details - I am a hostess at Eleven, so I can hook you up with a nice table if you decide to go there!

Edited February 6, 2007 by phlox (log)

[PaniniGuy]

Well, that sucks. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but doesn't sound like the auto show will be able to go on as planned - hopefully the city doesn't lose more shows - but after two collapses (one during construction), gotta wonder about the building's integrity.

Phlox,

Thanks for the write up on Le Pommier. We always forget about it when thinking of places to go. Will have to revisit.

As far as coffee, since you're on Smallman, you owe it to yourself to buy some Intelligentsia coffee at Caffe Intermezzo. Superior to LP in our opinion (disclosure: we own a shop that sells Intelly coffees up in Mt. Lebo). They usually get their weekly delivery of beans on Monday, so Wednesday is a good day to buy as the beans will have degassed.

Regarding Enrico's, there are lots of biscotti and cookie options in Pittsburgh, many sizes, flavors and textures. Enrico's is but one option. But he certainly understands the power of smell in marketing his products better than anyone.