The café and coffee shop scene continues to grow, while a longstanding fast food place downtown is closing. As always, there will be some fun new options to check out soon, plus, an Eat’n Park staple was a casualty of the same bakery closure that 86’ed Lemon Blennd. Without further ado, here is your restaurant roundup for April!
👋 Welcome
🍺 Back Alley Brewing brings beer to Dormont. The long-planned beer operation out of the borough’s former municipal building opened their doors in time for St. Paddy’s after a year of can sales, and they’ve built a friendly relationship with area restaurants like Moonlit Burgers. (Dormont)
🍳Everyone gets a diner! The Finer Diner that recently opened in Mt. Oliver can best be described as “elevated diner food.” Open Wednesday through Monday, breakfast, lunch, and pie will be served. (Mt. Oliver)
📚 Check out a drink or two from the Library. This Carson Street watering hole closed in 2021 but is back under new ownership. The new proprietors have put in some time renovating the establishment and opened a second floor just last month. (South Side)
🔪 A café gains “momentum.” Café Momentum held its grand opening last month. Customers have an up-front and personal view into the place’s open kitchen. More importantly, they are focused on lifting the community upwards by employing young interns who have dealt with challenging life situations, showing them how to prepare simple yet scrumptious meals. (Downtown)
🎖️ A veteran has opened the Vault. Military veteran Milo Speranzo recently opened Vault Coffeehouse. In an interview with KDKA, Speranzo talked about not being much of a coffee drinker growing up. It wasn’t until his military tour in Colombia that he became fixated on drinking coffee. If you have a chance, check it out, and continue to support the coffee movement. (Pitcairn)
😃 See you soonish
🌮 Another Mexican restaurant will be hitting the streets. The Houston-area Tex-Mex restaurant Fajita Pete’s will open in Ross Township sometime this coming August. Brittny Mabry, a business developer for the restaurant, describes Tex-Mex as “a cultural mix of Texas style Mexican food — fajitas and frozen margaritas, refried beans, [and] the style of rice and style of protein.” (Ross Township)
🍣 Southside sushi bars, anyone? Kura Revolving Sushi Bar will occupy a space in the SouthSide Works office building. Food will be presented on a conveyor belt system and customers will have the chance to interact with drink-delivery robots. (South Side)
🍜 This summer, Novo Asian Food Hall will open in at 1931 Smallman St. The place will serve up diverse flavors in Asian culture. (Strip District)
Dangerously cheesy. (@itsgoudafooda)
😲 Ch-ch-changes
🔥 DeBlaze has a new home. DeBlaze Grill in Bridgeville has moved to Carnegie after owners Doug and Kelsie DeBlasio stated that they had outgrown their old location. The restaurant specializes in Italian food and seasonal dishes. (Carnegie)
😢 No more grilled stickies: With the recent closing of one of Eat’n Park’s bakery partners, the staple food item at the restaurant will be missing from menus for the foreseeable future…
🍞 Pigeon Bagels is now accepting pre-orders. The store announced on Instagram that they would now take pre-orders at least two days ahead for orders by the dozen. Beside bagels, they also sell cookies, scones, babka, and more. (Squirrel Hill)
😭 Goodbye
🍻 BrewDog has officially closed its doors. The brewpub closed last month after opening back in 2020. In a statement, the company stated that several locations would be closing due to the bar underperforming. Pittsburgh just happened to be one of the locations. (East Liberty)
🍔 The last McDonald’s in downtown is leaving. The McDonald’s on Liberty Avenue will be closing next month. The restaurant chose not to renew the lease even though two five-year options were on the table. The location is currently the last McDonald’s within the city, as others have closed in recent years. There is not much known regarding what will take its place. (Downtown)
🍲 Onion Maiden officially bid farewell to loyal enthusiasts of the heavy-metal themed restaurant last week. As a final hurrah, the restaurant held a pop-up kitchen over the weekend. (Allentown)
🤫 Whisper Nest in Millvale has closed despite interest in a new buyer. The hip, cozy establishment had operated for just over two years and built a devoted local following. (Millvale)
—
See something we missed? Respond to this email and we can update this post. We’ll have more food news coming your way in May!