Station Square is one of Pittsburgh’s older buildings, having formerly housed a train station and currently housing some of the nicest stained glass in town. It also houses the Gandy Dancer Saloon, which should not at all be confused with the Gandy Dancer in Ann Arbor that was also connected in history and proximity to a railway. This Gandy Dancer is certainly nothing fancy, a bar with mostly seafood options, but since I’m not exactly a fancy man this seemed right up my alley.
After a failed attempt to visit a Detroit Coney-style restaurant in Phoenix, we made our way to The Chuck Box in Tempe. This was by no means a lesser choice because The Chuck Box is a local legend, just an unanticipated one. When we arrived, the place was nearly empty. Although being as early as we were this was not a surprise, yet there was still a smell char-grilling in the air and a ragtag group of guys looking to take an order.
When on a quest for more food in Phoenix/Scottsdale, we unsurprisingly found ourselves at another Mexican restaurant. This should not come as a surprise because nearly every restaurant in Phoenix is Mexican, but this was another classic: La Fonda Del Sol. The name means something or another about the sun, and once again I found myself face-to-face with burros instead of burritos.
While Phoenix has Pizzeria Bianco, it isn’t exactly a city known for its pizza. This may be because pizza isn’t exactly what you crave on a super-hot day, yet Phoenix has managed to import Chicago-style deep dish through Oregano’s and New York style pizza with Grimaldi’s. Grimaldi’s does coal brick oven pizza and actually started out in New York so I was expecting it to be pretty good.
As one might expect, Phoenix is known for having some delicious Mexican food. One of these supposedly good Mexican spots is Tee Pee, which opened in 1958 and predates approximately every resident of the state of Arizona. Having been around since forever, Tee Pee not only has a wide variety of Mexican food, but also some American mixed in. None of these is more American than the Cheese Crisp.
After a fruitless attempt to grab happy hour down in Scottsdale town, we consulted a nifty little thing called NoWaitApp and found out we could get seated immediately at The Vig in McCormick Ranch and made our way there. The Vig seemed to be a combination of trendy and sports bar-esque food that was right up my alley. So far up, in fact, that I had to consult the waitress before choosing what to order.
After a summer spent in beautiful Western New York, it eventually came time to return to Pittsburgh to finish out my MBA. Per usual, the first thing I wanted was meat, and lots of it. Without Korean BBQ or Fogo de Chao (that I know of), I turned to Texas de Brazil for my all-you-can-meat fix. Having never been to one of these, I expected much the same as any churrascaria. What I found was, well, yeah…that.
From the people that brought you Bar Bill in East Aurora, comes 189 Public House literally right next door (with the address of 189 Main Street). This Southern-influenced jazzy gastropub is a far cry from its neighbor, which might be ill-advised considering the perpetually long lines for tables at Bar Bill. On the other hand, it’s perfectly positioned to pick off those who don’t want to wait so long and want something a little bit different.
Curly’s in Lackawanna is a restaurant and a banquet center. It’s also American and Caribbean. Oh, and they have grill food. It’s kind of confusing, but somehow it works. The tables have fancy tablecloths and likely because of this we got some delicious bread to start off our meal. I flipped through the pages from the grill food to the fancier banquet food and because of some things I heard, decided to go with the grill.
Throughout my time in Western New York, I saw a great many signs for “Chicken BBQ.” They would often appear on weekends as fundraisers for churches and the like. Eventually I learned they were using Chiavetta’s Marinade and while the chicken itself was ordinary, I found the existence and cultural phenomenon of Chiavetta’s strange enough to turn Chiavetta’s Chicken into a strange meat.