‘Bar Food’
The custom burger popularized by The Counter seems to be present nearly everywhere these days, and Pittsburgh has not escaped the trend. Burgatory is one of those places, which I was introduced to my first night in Pittsburgh, and another is Stack’d in Shadyside. The options aren’t quite as extensive as Burgatory, but the burgers are priced a bit friendlier.
My first foray into Pittsburgh’s Mexican food scene brought me to Round Corner Cantina in Lawrenceville. I really had no idea what to expect, but I found a nice outdoor patio area and a good selection of tacos. I ordered myself some Yuengling and then took a look at the taco menu for a while before landing on their Puerco Tacos.
Legend has it that once upon a time in the town of Aspinwall there was a dive bar and grill creatively named The Aspinwall. Folks from all over the local suburbs flocked to The Aspinwall for the food, drinks and atmosphere. Slowly, though, the place fell into decline. The service slacked, the food became less appealing and the atmosphere was no longer enough to keep people coming back. Recently, the place has been revamped as Sam’s Tavern in the Wall, maintaining that same atmosphere and attempting to bring back everything else that made The Aspinwall great.
On the Island of Mackinac in Lake Huron, it’s a bit hard to get over the smell of horse poop and concentrate on the need for food. But, an 8-mile bike ride around the entire island is enough to allow hunger overwhelm that smell of life before the automobile. The restaurants of Mackinac Island pretty much have a captive audience. Sure, they compete with each other, but once you’re on the island you’re pretty much stuck eating at one. Without knowledge of the food we consulted our bike rental guy who not only pointed us towards Goodfellows, but gave us a 10% off coupon as well. Kickbacks be damned, we were happy for the discount.
While in Boston (Brookline to be exact) for a vegetarian wedding or something like that, I found myself at Coolidge Corner Clubhouse in greater need of meat than usual. Fortunately, this sports bar was more than willing to help me with my needs. Having eaten an absurd burger the night before at The Standing Room, my meat needs this time moved more toward the chicken side of the menu.
Torrance is simply full of surprises. Just when I thought I had exhausted all non-Japanese, non-Hispanic options, along came Buffalo Fire Department, a place that specializes in burgers, but still has a good deal of other options. With burgers like the Mac & Cheese and Burger Stack and the Thai BBQ and Wasabi Sauce Burger, they quickly earned points in the creativity department.
Rick’s Tavern on Main has historically been a divey, somewhat gross college bar. And let’s be honest, on a typical Friday or Saturday night it still is. But after a long bike ride, I found myself at Rick’s for lunch with astronomically low expectations. Don’t get me wrong here, I love me some dive bar food and I’ll take it over a snooty restaurant any day, but I literally knew nothing of Rick’s aside from its ability to cure sobriety.
Having a new bar open up in walking distance is always awesome. Even if it is terrible, it is comforting knowing you can get drunk locally and stumble home. And if it doesn’t suck, it can be a place to become a local. So when The Garage opened up in Palms, I was so damn excited that I went pretty much immediately, but being opening weekend I gave them some time to work out their kinks before a real judgment. This is the real judgment.
Remember when Hooters was as exciting as restaurants got? Not food-wise, of course, but ummm boob-wise. Well, those days are as dead as the Cold War. Last year I learned this firsthand at the Tilted Kilt and on my recent visit to Las Vegas the point was driven home, hard, at Twin Peaks. It was at Twin Peaks that we basically established our base camp for our time in Las Vegas. The only trouble was it was hard to concentrate on the basketball games with so much else to look at.
Deep in the recesses of my To-Do Lists, I maintain a list of places I want to eat if I find myself in a particular city. Of course, the list doesn’t get much play, but when I found myself in Atlanta for the Final Four, I whipped out the list and found some delights I had only dreamed of. The first place I went to was the Edgewood Corner Tavern. I didn’t go because of some suggestion that they might have good food, I was there for one thing only.