Upcoming {PGH} Summer Events!

We're inching closer to our official move date, but I wanted to take a few minutes to post an update amid the boxes. We've sold so many of our moving sale items {even some I didn't get the chance to list}. Honestly, it's still a little unreal. We've been in Lawrenceville for more than a year and a half now. It'll be fun getting to know our new neighborhood. 

On top of that, there are so many great things going on this summer in Pittsburgh, so I thought I'd do a round up of a few of my favorites. 

Lawrenceville Farmer's Market

We've been a couple of times to the farmer's market off Butler in the Goodwill parking lot. It's super convenient, and always full of the prettiest vegetables. New folks and sometimes food trucks make appearances each week. {Saturdays from 12pm -4pm, now through October.}

{PGH Dining} Tender Bar + Kitchen

Welcome back to Lawrenceville, Readers. I know you've heard about the place, skinny jeans and all, and you may have even been to an establishment or two in the past.  There's a new reason to hang out in Larryville, and it's Tender Bar + Kitchen. I'll affectionately call it 'T Bar'. So, T Bar opened super recently, so you haven't missed a whole lot yet, except for awesome cocktails*.

Previously, T Bar's space had been occupied by a thrift store concept shop from Wild Card and others. Each time we visited the run-down, unfinished space, we'd always get there after the good stuff was taken. At least that's what we told ourselves.

What a transformation this place has made. It's like a sexy cocktail lounge with good wall paper. 

We were seated in the front room, where the library-style wall, complete with movable ladder, was located, where glittering bottles of spirits are shelved. 

The menu page featured food on the front and a smattering of drink options on the back, including wine, beer, Arsenal cider, and cocktails.  Right away, I was drawn to a tiny corner of the menu featuring 30 classic cocktails, which the waitstaff will happy trill off ingredients for you if you need a refresher on a Navy Grog.  It's nice to see something so honest it's hipster. Kidding, but it really was happily 'Mad Men'-esque to have these listed.

Which ones did we order? Well, they came from the house cocktail section and from off the menu.

{PGH Dining} Arsenal Cider House & Wine Cellar

Early Saturday afternoon, we stopped into Arsenal Cider House & Wine Cellar in central Lawrenceville.  We'd been hearing about the cidery {It's a real word, people.} for awhile. It was one of the last stops on our personal Cookie Tour, and I was ready to taste a few of their artisan-crafted hard ciders.

Over the Weekend: Tacos, Target {+ Neiman Marcus} & Tours

After a long week of getting back into the swing of things after a fantastic 4+ day holiday break, I was ready for a cocktail.  A coworker and I planned a happy hour for Friday evening at a favorite of mine in Lawrenceville.  It was a merry group!

Festive wall paper/ceiling.

Cookie Tourism

This is one of the weekends each year that makes me proud to be a Lawrenceville resident. 

It's the weekend of Lawrenceville's "The Joy of Cookies" Cookie Tour!  Last year, we were welcomed by the Tour on our first official weekend as residents of Pittsburgh.  What's really neat about this event is that local bakeries take a shop's favorite cookie recipe and bake dozens and dozens of those cookies, which in turn the shoppers get to enjoy. Our plan is to brew a large batch of coffee to take with us, then shop Saturday morning. We can't wait to get a few extra gift items for folks back home! {And, the cookies...!}

The Tour will run from Thursday through Sunday at 5pm. Many stores will have discounts, so shop early! 

Patisserie Show & Tell

It's Friday!  How did it get here so fast?  I'm not complaining, because this is going to be an excellent weekend. We're planning to go to a college football game, make soup, and generally be lazy.
This morning we treated ourselves to a breakfast at La Gourmandine Bakery.

The love affair continues.

For those in the area, you should know that La G is making pumpkin tarts for the holidays. 

And, they've made smaller, dainty versions for those that won't allow themselves to eat a whole tart. Bless them.

If pumpkin doesn't float your boat, they still have these other lovelies:

No, this is not a sponsored post. I just truly love La G.

We each bought croissants: almond for him and chocolate for me. Such is love.

I gave a parting glance to the raspberry-filled cookies, and sighed. Can I have one? 

Of course!

You guys, I don't know what I'd do if I actually made it to France.  I would probably spend all of my time in tiny patisseries, admiring the delicacies. 

Weekend Recap

Hi!  Hello.  How's it going?  I'm sitting on my couch, having just finished a phone call chat with my parents.  They took a trip to meet my sister in the Lake Tahoe area last week, and were telling me how beautiful it was.  At this point, other than being super jealous, I'm hoping we can make it a future family trip location {when Husband and I have the time to take off from work}. Planning soon, I hope?

This weekend was packed.  Saturday morning, Husband and I volunteered with Pittsburgh Cares and Lawrenceville United to clean up the 10th ward section of Butler Street in Lawrenceville.

Our new t-shirts, donated by Lawrenceville United.

Tree Pittsburgh came to the event to show us how to clean out the 'tree squares' cut into the city sidewalks for plantings. We cleaned the trash out of the squares, weeded, then spread new mulch around the trees for their health in the soil surrounding it. We met two folks at the event who happened to become a part of our small group:  An older guy named J.P., who is an active professional gardener and from the northeast corner of Oklahoma, in Miami {pronounced Mah-am-ah}; and a University of Oklahoma graduate who is also a Braum's fan. Believe me, we had some conversations! From Ginko tree history to peppermint hot fudge sundaes, we chatted while we improved the neighborhood. It was a good time with people from our neck of the woods!

That night, we went over to the newly engaged {!} Vanna's new apartment for dinner.  Husband and I had Swiss Steak for the first time {homey & delightful}, then listened to some Texas Country while eating my mom's recipe for her bride's cake with raspberry filling. Such a fun night!

Today was spent on having a leisurely morning before heading to the Benedum Theater for Pittsburgh CLO's Fiddler on the Roof. I'd never seen the movie read the script, so it was a new experience for me. It's a story of a family and their struggles {and tradition!}, with a touch of sadness. I could say it is a masterpiece, but I'm pretty sure that's been said before. Afterwards, we made a date out of it and stopped into Braddock's American Brasserie {PGH Dining review} for an early dinner.

This weekend was busy compared to our usual grocery shopping, TV-watching affair. What did you do this weekend?

PGH Dining: Church Brew Works

Husband, James and I went to Church Brew Works in late April, on a Sunday for lunch.  You can just imagine the colorful religious jokes that resulted from this. Anyway, we entered the nave {!?} and then the sanctuary {!?}, to be seated in the back.

Church Brew Works 

Checking In {Best Friend Weekend}

Hi Folks!  I'm taking a second to check in after a fabulous weekend with the best friend and Husband.  We missed having her husband here, but that's how the cards fell this time, unfortunately.  We had a relaxing weekend of food, drinks and taking photos as we walked along, seeing the sights of Pittsburgh.  We were lucky to have great weather {compared to the heatwave of a week ago}. I'll share a few photos from our weekend:

Just arrived!

Drinks & dinner at Round Corner Cantina.

Drinks at Bar Marco. 

Shopping on Butler; at Wildcard.

Lawrenceville Farmer's Market; opening weekend.

Picnic in Highland Park. 

Three Rivers Arts Festival

Monogahela Incline; Mt. Washington.

Love Lock in Oakland.

The Cathedral of Learning.

Diplomacy Rooms: Africa.

Bunny Friend at the Stephen Foster Memorial. 

We had such a fantastic time this weekend!  Next time can't come soon enough.

Visitors

This weekend we have our first visitor in PGH!

Bloomfield/Lawrenceville

Bloomfield Bridge

 I'll see y'all on Sunday!

What I Wore {Thursday}

This What I Wore post will be pretty quick, but I wanted to make the time to do it because I was inspired by this post from one of the Delightful Dozen, Kyla of Blue Collar Catwalk. Check her out!

Again, this will be short...mostly because of the terrible quality of my self-taken photos. {Shame.}

PGH Dining: Pusadee's Garden

We dined at Pusadee's Garden on a night it monsooned in PGH. The rain was coming down so hard that it almost bent my umbrella. Seriously.

Pusadee's has a lovely patio, adorned with plants and cozy seating, but we didn't get to enjoy that {OBVIOUSLY}. Instead, we were seated at one of the white-tableclothed tables near the window in the front of the restaurant, with a view of the monsoon. It seemed so pleasant from the inside looking out. We were pleased with the simple, yet complete, Thai menu. There were spring rolls to curries, and tom yum soup to lighter dishes like eggplant basil stir-fry. 

We started with the garden roll, which was filled with vegetables and served with a chili-carrot sauce. The cilantro and mint combination was refreshing in the roll.

 We then moved on to the tom kar, which is a coconut soup. We ordered it with vegetables only, since we had a curry coming. It was delicious! {But then again, we love anything with that creamy coconut milk inside.}

Mushrooms, broccoli and carrot simmered in a coconut broth.

To finish off out appetizers {haven't we had enough appetizing?!}, we had the grilled shrimp salad with chili lime dressing. This salad was nothing like the description on the menu. We never though it'd come with stewed tomatoes on top, and the lime flavor must have been masked by the tomato mixture. It was good, but NOT what we were expecting to arrive at the table. 

 Finally, we shared the pumpkin curry with chicken, kabocha squash, zucchini and carrots. It was a fabulous dish, but we hardly tasted the pumpkin. There was a hint of squashiness, but it came from the kabocha. I missed the pumpkin!

 The meal ended with my noshing down on a bay leaf:

Isn't that a sign for good luck? If so, I'll take it, especially since it was in the shape of a heart!

Pusadee's Garden was good, but not overwhelmingly. I'm sure that if we were to have sat on the patio for dinner, our view of our meal would have been even more enjoyable. Also, the menu was somewhat misleading, and we missed a few of the majorly advertised flavors in multiple dishes {i.e. lime, chili, and pumpkin}. The waitstaff was excellent, and we'll likely be walking over to give it another shot sometime this summer.

Neighborhood: UpLa, Upper Lawrenceville

Good For: Dates, BYOB, Family Dinners

Gems: Patio Seating, Well-Rounded Menu

Drawbacks: Misleading Menu Items

PGH Dining: Piccolo Forno

As soon as we arrived to Pittsburgh and found a place to rent in Lawrenceville, we ate dinner at a little spot that looked lively. It was Piccolo Forno. We had a decent dinner, but left thinking it was "just okay." {Truth be told, we ordered 'healthy' dishes like salads and a light pasta because we were shocked at what I'll call our "PGH 15."} 

We moved on, and ate our way through other fabulous places in our new neighborhood. Still, we kept hearing about how incredible Piccolo Forno was from folks who live all over the Pittsburgh Metro Area. In fact, when we told people we were living in Lawrenceville, 85% of people would say, "Oh yeah, that's where Piccolo  Forno is!"

Last weekend Husband and I were out shopping for the final items for our guest room, and what better place to do it than in the self-named Design District of Lawrenceville? We stopped around 1:00pm to take a lunch break, and we were a block away from Piccolo Forno. It was about time we gave it a second chance.

 The place was {of course} packed, and we had to wait for 15 minutes to be seated at the next available table. Fine with us, because we were seated at a table close to the kitchen {Where the lady in the pink shirt is}, which is always a bonus for me. {I like to see how the food is made.} 

Interior of Piccolo Forno.

We ordered iced tea and Pellegrino, which was offered in the large size. Nice. Love me some bubbly water.

 We shared one of their soups of the day, minestrone with kale, to start. 

 The soup had a slow-simmered taste, and the kale was not overcooked. Good appetizer!

 We then moved on to the arugula pizza, with prosciutto and mozzarella hidden underneath. Lovely option for those that still want to eat some greens with their bready pizza. The quality of the prosciutto was excellent and was sliced appropriately. 

 Our waitress told us they offered scoops of imported Italian gelato for dessert, which wasn't too unheard of. The flavors were meyer lemon, coffee/espresso and cinnamon. Husband opted for the meyer lemon, and I asked for the cinnamon. 

Meyer Lemon and Cinnamon Gelatos.

My flavor won, and by a long shot. I was surprised by the complexity of the gelato, because it tasted like many more spices were present besides cinnamon. It's a must-get!

I'm glad we gave Piccolo Forno another try. We were pleased with the pizza, and the cinnamon gelato was a great finish.