👋 Welcome [back]!
🧃 1:11 Juice Bar opens today (April 1) in Southside. The eatery serves smoothies and healthy bites and plans to open a downtown location in May.
📦 Brillobox is back at it in their Bloomfield digs. The bar’s closure was a huge blow to locals at the beginning of COVID, but they’re back and have started adding concerts to their calendar once again.
🍕 Caliente Pizza is opening today (April 1) in the former Sharp Edge Creekhouse in Crafton. Caliente also took over Sharp Edge’s Sewickley location when that chain went out of business last year. (Editor’s note: my first Pittsburgh job was at the Creekhouse! Glad to see it back open in some form.)
🍺 Fermata Brewing Company is now serving ales in Ambridge. They join altered genius brewing co. in the increasingly happening Merchant Street business district.
🌯 The Halal Guys chain of gyro and chicken restaurants has opened their 100th store in the country on Forbes Avenue in Oakland.
🍕 The former Parkway Tavern in Monroeville is now the Brewery at Luciano’s. The brewery combines fresh-brewed beer with Luciano’s Pizza, a combo already familiar to diners in Mars.
🥪 Lucy’s Bahn Mi is pressing fresh sandwiches in the Strip once again. The beloved pop-up spot next to Bar Marco has been in business for over a decade excluding recent closures.
🌇 Over Eden on 40th Street in Lawrenceville is back open. The rooftop spot with a view, which is situated over the TRYP hotel in the former Washington vocational school, is hosting its grand re-opening this evening (April 1).
🍴 Scratch & Co. is taking reservations in Troy Hill again after a brief break.
🎳 Shorty’s Pins x Pints is now open on the North Shore and features duck-pin bowling. This is great news for those (like your humble Incline director) still mourning the loss of Games N’at.
🍺 Tube City Brew Works is now serving beer and food in McKeesport. The brewery and sports bar is one of several causes for cautious optimism in the long-suffering city.
🍩 Valkyrie Doughnuts is now serving huge square doughnuts in Bellevue. The decadent bakery’s menu is entirely egg- and dairy-free, and they’ve stayed busy collaborating with other local businesses like Necromancer Brewing Co.
🍜 Yum Yum Asian Cuisine has announced an April 5 opening date for its location on Castle Shannon Boulevard in Mt. Lebanon.
😀 See you soon
🍺 Arboretum Trail Brewing Co. is set to take over the former Couch Brewing location in Larimer/Highland Park. The brewery started out in a garage in Pleasant Hills and used Couch’s closure earlier in the year to make the jump to a bigger system.
🌯 big Burrito Restaurant Group is opening a second Alta Via downtown in Market Square. The restaurant will feature the same handmade pasta and wood-fired Italian dishes as their Fox Chapel location. Though an exact date isn’t set, big Burrito expects to open the 140-seat restaurant in early 2023.
🍸 Bottlerocket Social Hall, a bar and comedy club, is taking over the former St. George’s Lyceum in Allentown where Arlington Beverage Club used to be. They plan to serve their first drinks May 1.
🌮 Condado, the Columbus-based taco chain, is adding two more stores to Pittsburgh. Their East Liberty location near Target is expected to open in August, with another in Cranberry to follow in September.
🍺 Coven Brewing will soon bewitch the former Roundabout taproom on Butler St. The brewery plans to maintain the taproom’s longstanding food truck program. Roundabout continues to run their riverside pop-up in Chateau.
🍺 East End Brewing is in the process of opening a taproom in Mt. Lebanon. The location will also feature pizzas from East End Chewing like their Larimer location. A date isn’t set yet as the brewery says the Washington Road location is “essentially an empty box.”
☕ Echt (German for “real”) Coffee House is bringing fresh-roasted beans, liquor tasting, and fine dining to Mt. Oliver later this year.
🥗 Eat Your Vegetables “vegetable-forward” restaurant is slated for a 2022 debut in Deutschtown.
🐷 A charcuterie bar, Le Porc, is coming to the Highline in Southside. The restaurant is currently awaiting a liquor license that will allow them to serve wine pairings with their cheeses and meats.
🍺 Lolev Beer is in the process of building out their Upper Lawrenceville brewhouse. No opening date is set for the location as of yet.
👀 Mezcal Mexican Cantina has hung a sign on a storefront near Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville. No word yet on when they’ll be opening.
🇹🇹 Shado Beni has received their permit and will be serving vegan Trinidadian cuisine later this month from their Northside storefront.
🍣 The Terminal in the Strip is slated to get a locally owned Asian food hall. The food hall’s owners Mike Chen (of Everyday Noodles) and Alex Tang (of Mola in East Liberty) have reached a lease agreement with McCaffery. This is likely to be welcome news for locals frustrated by McCaffery’s track record of bringing in businesses from outside Pittsburgh.
🍺 Velum Fermentation is breathing new life into the former Duquesne Brewery in Southside. The brewery has excavated old Duquesne memorabilia and is cleverly reusing shipping materials from their fermentation tanks to craft furniture for their taproom.
😮 Ch-ch-changes
🍷 Allegheny Wine Mixer has new owners whose other projects will be familiar to fellow Lawrencevillains. Domenic Braduzzi, who opened Piccolo Forno, and Roger Li, former executive chef of Tamari, bought the cozy spot from former owner Jamie Patten, who will stay on through the restaurant’s 10th anniversary in an advisory role.
🍕 Garfield go-to Spak Bros. has expanded their menu and now delivers using UberEats. Their delivery menu includes vegan options like their seitan cheesesteak hoagie.
😭 Goodbye
🥪 Longtime downtown institution Sammy’s Famous Corned Beef closed its doors March 25 after 35 years in business. COVID, inconsistent foot traffic downtown and the usual supply chain and staffing issues led the owners to make the difficult decision.
🍜 China Lin in Upper Lawrenceville has been forced to shutter after their landlord refused to renew their lease. Their last day of business was March 25. (Editor’s note: this was our favorite local Chinese place. RIP 😢)
🥗 Viridis, the Southside vegan spot, closed up shop March 27. Based on customers’ reactions, they will leave sizeable shoes to fill for Carson Street foodies.
🍠 Bloomfield’s Bitter Ends Luncheonette is closing at the end of the month and celebrating with one final Clownburger event on 4/20. However, per their announcement, Thyme Machine will be taking over the spot afterward.
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See something we missed? Let us know—send an email to colin@theincline.com and we can update the web post of April’s roundup. We’ll have more food news coming atcha in May!