Updated 11:55 a.m. Oct. 1, 2019
Four significant restaurant closings and a slow pace for openings marked the month of September in Pittsburgh.
But dozens of ambitious bars, restaurants, and breweries are in the works for this year and next year.
Here’s the complete report on what’s new in the city’s food and beverage scene (and what you might have missed last month).
Hello
🍜 Night Market Gourmet, a Taiwanese street food restaurant, has replaced Top Shabu-Shabu on Atwood Street in Oakland. The owners of Everyday Noodles in Squirrel Hill are at the helm, per the Post-Gazette.
🍰 After several years as a wholesale bakery, Threefiftyº has opened a South Side Slopes storefront. Look for pie, cake, cookies, and all the sweet treats you can handle.
🥛 The Milk Shake Factory added a Cranberry location with its signature hand-spun milkshakes, gourmet chocolates, and decadent sundaes.
See you soon
🍻 A Sly Fox taproom near Point State Park in the space formerly occupied by Stone Neapolitan Pizza is expected to open very soon.
🐉 The subject of years of anticipation, restaurateurs Richard DeShantz and Tolga Sevdik are expected to open Gi-Jin soon. Look for sushi, gin, Japanese whiskey, and a giant dragon mural.
🍦 A Lawrenceville location for Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream is in the works, though it doesn’t appear any work has happened recently.
🍚 Oishii Donburi is coming soon to Lawrenceville from the owners of Oakland’s Oishii Bento, Pennsylvasia reports.
🍺 A new location for Dive Bar is coming to Regent Square in the former Ryan’s Pub location, expected to open this summer.
🍣 A yet-to-be-named 14-seat sushi counter tucked on the second floor between Round Corner Cantini and Umami in Lawrenceville is set to open this summer.
🥗 Famed chef Justin Severino is planning a casual California-inspired cafe near North Park.
☕️ A CBD cafe called Lazydaze is coming to Lawrencville this fall — think of it as “an Amsterdam-style cafe,” the founder says.
🍱 Bae Bae’s Kitchen is working on a second location called Bae Bae’s Cafe with a focus on boba drinks and light bites. Look for it in late 2019 or early 2020.
🍗 Oakmont Barbeque Company is planning a permanent location — not in Oakmont but in neighboring Verona.
🍺 The Woods House, a Scottish pub, is slated for one of Pittsburgh’s oldest houses.
🍺 Platform Beer Co., the Cleveland-based brewery, will open a brewery and tasting room this year in Garfield.
🌯 A Mexican-Italian fusion is coming to the Strip District in partnership with Edgar Alvarez of Edgar’s Best Tacos.
🥞 The Speckled Egg, a breakfast and lunch spot with Belgian waffles, pancakes, bagels, and egg dishes is coming to the Union Trust Building Downtown, but an opening date hasn’t been announced.
🔥 Fig & Ash, a “farm-to-flame restaurant,” is headed to Deutschtown.
🥃 4Four6 Distillery is coming to Sharpsburg with gin, rum, and, eventually, bourbon and whiskey.
🍻 Rogan Brewing Co., a taproom with pints and growlers, is coming to West Homestead.
🍗 The Eagle, a casual fried chicken restaurant, is coming to Penn Avenue Downtown this fall.
☕️ Convive Coffee will open its flagship location in Lawrenceville this fall, joining its original McCandless store, per a press release from Midwood Investment & Development.
🌮 Empanada purveyor Mi Empanada will debut its first retail location in Lawrenceville this fall, according to Midwood Investment & Development.
🍺 BrewDog, a Scottish brewery with more than 50 locations around the world, will open this fall in the Eastside Bond building in East Liberty.
🍳 Lola’s Eatery will open inside Lawrenceville’s Engine House 25 Winery come September, drawing on a love of baking and Mexican-Filipino heritage.
🍕 Iron Born Pizza has moved out of Smallman Galley and is moving into the former Carhops location just down the street.
🎳 Shorty’s Pins x Pints, a new entertainment concept with duckpin bowling, bocce, pinball, cornhole, and giant beer pong, plus street food, is coming to the North Shore by year’s end.
🚀 Grist House Craft Brewery is turning a Collier Township Cold War-era Nike Missile Command Center into another outpost for the popular brewery. But a lot of work is ahead, so be patient. An opening date is expected a year or two from now.
🌮 Gordo’s Tacos & Tequila, with a menu inspired by Mexico City’s street foods, is coming to Mount Washington in February 2020.
🎮 Look for a location of the Punch Bowl Social chain with food and drinks, plus ping pong, darts, bowling, classic video games, and karaoke in the Lower Hill in 2020.
🍗 Chicken Latino is working on a Beechview location, but the Peruvian spot won’t move out of the Strip District until summer 2020.
🏈 A “big, well-known restaurant group” could be coming to the North Shore in what would have been Ben Roethlisberger’s North Shore Seven restaurant until he scrapped the idea, the Post-Gazette reports.
Farewell
🍝 Alida’s Woodfired Cucina along Butler Street in Lawrenceville has closed, the restaurant announced on its website.
🐟 Say farewell to Mitchell’s Fish Market, at least in its current location. The Waterfront restaurant will meet the wrecking ball to make way for apartments, and it’s not clear if it will relocate somewhere else in the shopping plaza.
🍖 After one year in business, Bloomfield’s Sugar and Smoke has closed, the latest in a line of restaurants to close at that same Liberty Avenue spot. Sugar and Smoke was known for its brisket, smoked meatballs, po’ boys, and fried green tomato sandwiches.
🍪 Farewell for now to TBSP, the nation’s first bakery incubator. The Mt. Oliver shop announced it “will be taking a hiatus beginning on 9/1/19, as we work to relaunch with our next phase of culinary business training in Summer 2020.”