The first time I laid my eyes on natto was while studying abroad in Japan. To me it was nothing short of disgusting. Fermented soybeans? A raw egg? A simple stir with the chopsticks that made strands that looked like spiderwebs? For breakfast? It was not a pleasant experience, but it was certainly an experience to be remembered.
On a short little day trip to Cleveland, we made our way to Cleveland Heights to grab some Mexican food at Lopez. Not surprisingly, this wasn’t traditional Mexican food, but rather than try to hide behind an auspice of authenticity, Lopez had some unique offerings that I was eager to try. The only trouble was that almost everything seemed to have some sort of vegetable inside.
In Japanese, the word “misaki” means a type of divine spirit. In Pittsburgh, however, it means pretty much the craziest buffet in the world. You see, the Misaki Sushi & Seafood Buffet in Bon Air would seem to be just a Japanese buffet, but it is so much more. For a mere $11.99, Misaki pretty much gives you the world on platter. Or, at least in troughs in the buffet area.
One of my favorite books of all time is The Catcher in the Rye, so when I heard there was a new restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh (as of November 2013) calling itself Butcher and the Rye, I was immediately interested. The place does take its name from the book, but rather than be some sort of gimmick, the restaurant is essentially devoted to meat and whiskey. And it’s from the people behind Meat and Potatoes. So, yeah, this was my kind of place and a perfect spot to take my wife for her birthday.
We all know I’m a sucker for an egg on a burger. So when we headed to Cookshop in Chelsea for a very special birthday brunch, I had but one option for my meal. It was called the Finger Lakes Grass Fed Beef Burger. While the place didn’t get any points for creative naming, the ingredients sure looked good.
Sometimes it feels like New York is an overpriced an uncreative city for food. Sure, there are unquestionably great places, but I am often left wanting more. But for anyone looking for creativity, Stanton Social on the Lower East Side has you covered. We happened to be there for brunch and their menu showed a lot of promise for an unvegan.
Shady Grove is probably best known for it’s messy Wednesday night wine night when they drop their bottle prices by half. But like most other places in Shadyside known for drinks, Shady Grove also sports a sizable food menu and it’s not just bar food. Of course, I still made my way to the menu that was more like bar food and found myself a pretty-looking burger.
Pennsylvania has some crazy alcohol laws. One of these is that places that sell six packs of beer also have to sell immediately consumable food. You know, like a restaurant. Clever, enterprising humans in Pittsburgh have realized that the easiest and cheapest way to do this is through selling hot dogs, so Pittsburgh is full of crappy little hot dog spots with overpriced beer. Despite the name, D’s Six Pax & Dogz is not one of these places.
EDIT: Stack’d II quickly became The Ave which quickly became the Tipsy Cow. Gone are the sandwiches, but you can read about the Tipsy Cow here.
While the list of great sequels is quite short, a few stand out. And joining the ranks of X-Men 2 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze is Stack’d II (hopefully someday they’ll update their site to include this). As you may recall, I once paid a visit to Stack’d in Shadyside, a build-your-own burger concept that found success on sales of beer, keeping their burgers cheap and not by the quality of burgers being pumped out. In fact, this was so successful that they made a sequel that swapped burgers for cheesesteaks.
One might expect a place called Square Cafe to be decorated with all sorts of squares. Perhaps some rectangles or trapezoids to mix things up, but certainly quadrilaterals. Well one would be wrong because Square Cafe in Regent Square is pretty much fully interior-decorated with circles. Alas, when I overcame my confusion I was able to get down to the food.