Returning the favor and partying hard in Pittsburgh
February 27th through March 3rd
It seems only fair that I celebrate my travel partner’s birthday after they endured the Miami Polar Vortex Party with me on my birthday. So after work on Thursday it was a fairly uneventful drive to one of my favorite cities to visit, Pittsburgh PA! I end up here at least once or twice a year and is slowly becoming a second home for me. I have commented before if I had the cash I would actually have a second home here. I really like it. So I was great to have an excuse to head back (not that I ever need one).
When I stay here, I have consistently stayed at The Industrialist Hotel
It may be a little pricier than other places downtown but it’s a great location (for me). I love the rooms and the interior and so far most of the Valet’s can drive a stick shift. (All my vehicles are manual transmissions. It’s a thing).
I arrived and met up with the travel partner, then a quick check in because it was getting late and I needed to eat. I kept catching the food vendors right as they were closing on the turnpike. No worries, we headed over to The Warren Bar & Burrow (no good pictures available)
To fulfill the main reason for this travel log, noting that I got the Warren Burger with fries there and whatever amber beer they had. I don’t remember what beer I got, I just asked for something amber. Based off the online menu it was likely the Tröegs Double Nugget Nectar. Very drinkable and I remember thinking that I would recommend this if I was with someone that drank beer. The burger was a solid burger and got the job done. Wasn’t bad but wasn’t like something you would drive across town for. AFter hanging out for a bit we headed back and got some sleep.
Friday February 28th
The plan was always that I would work from the hotel. So after waking up and checking the morning noise, we head out to my favorite (our favorite) coffee shop, The Nicolaus Coffee & Tea Co.
After grabbing some coffee we headed back to the hotel so I could do some more work with a little goofing around in between.
It was starting to get to be around lunch time so we headed out to do a little errand work.
The first stop was a CVS to restart a weird tradition of having to stop there when traveling. I just picked up some Kind bars to act as lunch so we could keep moving.
The next errand was stopping at the Pittsburgh City Counsel Building to check out the building. An older, beautiful building.
With some fantastic elevator doors!
After this it was back to the hotel to finish up the workday and to get ready for the dinner reservations that night. Each night had an exciting dinner reservation to create the Great Feast Birthday Extravaganza. Well, at least that is what I am going to call it.
The reservation for this night was at Umami Izakaya. Now, for starters, I was completely flaking on the photo work of this place and the food. So most of this is from online. The first thing I noticed, before we even got there was that the doorway to the place was a fairly non-descript door in a side alley. If you didn’t know what you were looking for, you would probably miss it.
Once through the door, the restaurant itself is on the third floor of a steep walk up. The bathrooms are on the second floor. Keep that in mind if you ever plan to go there as access may be a factor.
They have a “Traditional Seating” room on one side and regular seating with a bar on the other. I actually found a picture of our table. It’s the more forward table in the shot
As stated, I forgot to get pictures of the food. I did find one that is similar to what I ordered. I was feeling in the mood for Ramen since they had it and it is one of those “anchor items” I use to gauge how good the food is somewhere.
Saturday, March 1st
The day started as it normally does, getting a great cup of coffee from The Nicolaus Coffee & Tea Co. After picking up the coffee, we headed back to the hotel to plan the day.
Looking through things, we say that the World Oddities Expo was happening at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. So we went there. The best part is I got to see a good friend Hakan Dances! after this it was heading back to the hotel to prepare for this night’s birthday dinner reservation Altius!
There is no denying that the views from Altius are some of the best in Pittsburgh and this night was no exception!
As an appetizer, we got the Maine Lobster Ricotta Gnocchi which was fantastic!
As for Dinner, I had the Chilean Seabass, and the travel partner had the Footprints Farm Chicken Supreme
The Chilean Seabass is served with Sicilian pistachio hollandaise, vermouth butter & leek confit, Yukon gold, cauliflower purée, duxelles puff pastry, winter citrus pesto, cremini mushrooms. The Footprints Farm Chicken Supreme is served with bacon cheddar pierogies, smoked gouda fondue, crisp Brussels sprouts, maple chili Calvados gastrique.
For Desert, we got the Reaching Green. Which may not look like a desert but was actually quite good. It is served with matcha sponge cake, Riesling poached Asian pear, sesame brittle, yuzu cremeux, cardamom creme fraiche ice cream.
After dinner, it was to a favorite live music bar with friends, Poetry Lounge
Unfortunately I didn’t write down all the bands that we saw that night. But I got a sticker and therefore remembered Akronauts! And they were awesome, so click that link and check them out!
After that we decided to grab a nightcap at Verdetto’s | Bar & Resturant. Mostly to play pinball and goof around with the TouchTunes. A personal favorite thing of mine is to try to play songs that don’t fit the mood of the joint at all.
Sunday, March 2nd
Got up this morning and couldn’t go to Nicolaus Coffee as they are closed on Sunday’s. So we headed down to La Gourmandine to snag coffee. We have been watching “The Queen’s Gambit” on and off all weekend while chilling in the hotel which prompted the idea, “Hey! Let’s get a chess set!”. So we jumped in the Jeep and headed to the outskirts of Pittsburgh and first checked out The Exchange which had a lot of cool shit including tabletop games. They had a Chess set but we figured we would check out some other place first before settling on something. So we went up the street to Games Unlimited and ended up finding a nice wooden set to work with. So we went back to the hotel and I proceeded to get my ass kicked before dinner.
Now dinner was a Reservation at One by Spork – This meal was so significant and awesome (and expensive) I am going to do a separate blog post on the meal. This was an 9 course meal with appetizers, 7 main dishes and a desert. This is Michelin grade dining!
The only thing after a huge meal like that was to go back and lay down and not move for awhile. lol
Monday, March 3rd
The final day and time for the sad drive back home. Although this was a phenomenal weekend, it is always a very hard thing to leave. Before checking out of the hotel, we had to (obviously) make one more stop at Nicolaus Coffee. Then back to the hotel to check out and pick up the Jeep. Then it was time to drop off the travel partner and head back to the mitten
Nothing of great excitement on the way back. Ate Popeyes at a Rest Area for lunch and then once I got back into Lansing, I knew I wasn’t going to be in the mood for cooking so I stopped and got Qdoba for dinner. It was eat, play some video games and then to bed.
Back to a “normal” life…