Best (and Worst) of Pittsburgh

In our quest for the best Pittsburgh has to offer, we developed some major crushes along the way: Our food editor became enamored of a short-ribs melt topped with caramelized onions and provolone; our nightlife editor went wild for an eco-friendly dance floor equipped with a wall of LED lights; and our fashion/style editor went gaga for vegan fashion. Read on for 75 meticulously chosen editor and reader picks. Who knows? You might find yourself head over heels for the Steel City too.

Illustrations by Jackie Pardo
Photos by Becky Thurner Braddock
Written by the editors of Pittsburgh magazine

FOOD

Best Use of Local Potatoes: You've heard about the benefits of buying local - now it's your excuse to bring home great booze! Newly launched premium Boyd & Blair Potato Vodka (available at Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board stores) is made exclusively with Pennsylvania-grown spuds, so it supports our farmers. It's also hand-crafted here in part of the former Glenshaw Glass Factory, where co-owners C. Prentiss Orr and Barry Young have built the first vodka distillery licensed by the PLCB and Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau since Prohibition. The duo does everything from creating potato mash to tasting the vodka during its triple-distillation process to ensure that only the purest, naturally sweet part of the distilled spirit ends up in the bottle. Info: boydandblair.com. - Kate Chynoweth

Best Reason to Ditch the Kit Kat: The idea that uncooked food retains more of its nutrients and is therefore more healthful is still up for debate in some circles. But there's no harm in doing potential good, right? Not when you can start by trying the delicious raw-chocolate Super Fudge bar (or the addictive Chocolate Spread) from local company Love Street Living Foods. Organic and vegan in addition to raw, the chocolate is sweetened with agave nectar, which has a lower glycemic index than sugar and is made with cacao butter instead of shelf-stable palm oil. Need we say more? Love Street Living Foods can be found at Whole Foods Market, 5880 Centre Ave., East Liberty; Maggie's Mercantile, 320 Atwood St., Oakland; East End Food Co-op, 7516 Meade St., Point Breeze, and at its Web site, lovestreetliving foods.com. - K.C.

Best Post-Yoga Pick-Me-Up: After a grueling hour of sun salutations, even an expert yogi can feel a powerful thirst. Well, nothing slakes it quite as well as the hand-mixed ginger-lemonade from Te Café on Murray Avenue - which happens to be a few doors down from the Squirrel Hill location of Schoolhouse Yoga (schoolhouseyoga.com). If you say namaste elsewhere, don't fret: You can make this refreshing beverage at home. Combine regular lemonade with a ginger-tea infusion, sold in bulk at the café. Yuuuuoooom. 2000 Murray Ave., Squirrel Hill; 412/422-8888, te-cafe.com. - K.C.

Best Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Treats: Have you ever seen someone with food allergies celebrate? It happens every day at Gluuteny, a tiny bakery that specializes in wheat-free and dairy-free goodies - because these treats actually taste good. One bite of the bakery's delicious, decadent chocolate brownie, and we bet you'll be sold. Adorable cupcakes, frosted sugar cookies, pound cakes, muffins and freshly baked loaves round out the offerings. 1923 Murray Ave., Squirrel Hill; 412/521-4890, gluuteny.com. - K.C.

Best Short-Ribs Melt: This spring, chef Matthew Porco of Mio Kitchen and Wine Bar brought his meltingly rich, delicious short ribs out from the dark of the dinner menu into the light of day. The lunchtime version, a Braised-Beef-Short Rib Melt, layers the rich meat with honey-thyme caramelized onions and melted provolone cheese on just-crisp grilled Tuscan bread. 225 Commercial Ave., Aspinwall; 412/781-3141, mio-pgh.com. - K.C.

Best Re-invented Restaurant: At Red Room Café in East Liberty, a dramatic transformation has been under way for months - and now, things are cooking. New chef Kevin Sousa, whose molecular gastronomy-influenced cooking was formerly found at Alchemy at the Bigelow Grille, has created a new menu with a high-tech twist: Dishes such as walleye with chicken-skin crust, rosemary, purple rice stir-fry, smoked manchego milk and lychee are equal parts surprise and satisfaction. The restaurant's expansion includes 2Red, a new lounge adjacent to the main dining room, and a rooftop deck that seats 45. 134 S. Highland Ave., East Liberty; 412/362-5800, redroomcafe.net. - K.C.

Best Sushi Roll: We fully admit that this category might raise some eyebrows - after all, what qualifies a sushi roll as a region's "best" is a topic that could fuel hours of debate. But let's just say that if you taste the Friday Roll at Chaya Japanese Cuisine, you'll understand why this particular roll deserves a shout-out. It sounds simple enough: a tuna or salmon roll wrapped in seaweed-enrobed rice, quickly dunked into tempura batter and fried with a light touch. The result offers a delicious study in contrasts, with a warm, crispy tempura exterior that gives way to sushi rice and cool, delicious gems of tuna or salmon. And who can argue with that? 2104 Murray Ave., Squirrel Hill; 412/422-2082, chayausa.com. - K.C.

Best Meal for Two Under $25: The food of South India is uniquely delicious. And at Udipi Café, you can get large amounts of it - without breaking the bank. There's no way you'll leave hungry after sharing an appetizer of idli, delicious rice-and-lentil cakes served with sambar, a vegetable stew, and a couple of masala dosas, savory pancakes stuffed with spiced potatoes. The low prices come with a no-frills setting, but no matter - your attention will be on your plate. 4141 Old William Penn Highway, Monroeville; 412/373-5581. - K.C.

Best Place to Get Custom Coffee: 21st St. Coffee and Tea's Strip District location was the first place in town to get the famed high-tech $10,000-plus Clover coffee maker. (Now that Starbucks has bought Clover, the gadget may become more ubiquitous.) As at any good farmers' market, you won't find the same thing all year - the coffee choices change with the seasons (in September, look for newly arrived beans from Central and South America). Your barista can adjust the grind, water temperature and brewing time to coax the best flavor from the bean of your choice. Now: Caffeinate! 50 21st St., Strip District; 412/281-0809, 21streetcoffee.com. - K.C.

Best Barbecue Without the Grill: When the rain won't stop coming down - Hello! This is Pittsburgh, after all - and grilling is out of the question, forget the chicken and ribs and think... popcorn? The barbecue-seasoned popcorn at Popcorn-N-That, perfect as a side for a sandwich or on the couch during a movie, tastes a lot like barbecue chips, but with a more subtle flavor. Other seasonings - jalape&mtilde;o, Cajun, salt and vinegar, dill pickle, apple cinnamon, and parmesan and garlic - will make you wonder why you stuck with the standard butter-and-salt combo for so long. And if dessert is what you're craving, the caramel popcorn is unbeatable, especially drizzled with chocolate or sprinkled with coconut. 10263 Perry Highway, Wexford, 724/933-8010; 643 Merchant St., Ambridge, 724/266-4050; popcorn-n-that.com. - Nicole DiMario

Best Cinnamon Roll: Leave it to cupcake aficionados to improve on the cinnamon roll. At Dozen Bake Shop in Lawrenceville (opened by the owners of Squirrel Hill's Dozen Cupcakes), the kitchen has turned up the taste on a favorite morning treat. There's no doubt it's met with success: a delicious homemade cinnamon roll topped with just the right amount of sweet cream-cheese frosting. A vegan version is available on the weekends or by special order. Our advice: Don't split it. 3511 Butler St., Lawrenceville; 412/621-4740, dozenbakeshop.com. - K.C.

Best Pastry You've Never Heard Of: Even though a paczek (pronounced PON-check) might look like an ordinary jelly doughnut, aficionados know that this pastry is much richer - both in flavor and in history. A pastry made for centuries in Poland, paczki (POONCH-key) - the plural form of the word paczek - are traditionally prepared before Lent to use up the lard, sugar and eggs that are to be avoided during the liturgical season of penance. Fortunately, Pittsburghers don't have to go as far as Eastern Europe to enjoy the calorific confections. Local bakery Party Cake Shop offers paczki from January through the start of Lent, with fillings such as apricot, lemon and chocolate butter cream. 706 Brookline Blvd., Brookline, 412/531-5322; 297 Beverly Road, Mount Lebanon, 412/343-0101; partycakeshop.com. - Betsy Smith

Readers' Poll: Best Dessert: At The Cheesecake Factory, you can belly up to the bar for a drink or peruse the (very) long dinner menu, but be absolutely sure to save room for dessert - the restaurant offers more than 30 flavors of cheesecake. Looking for a guaranteed taste sensation? Try the famous Godiva Chocolate cheesecake. 415 S. 27th St., South Side; 412/431-7800, thecheesecakefactory.com. - Kathrine Murphy Readers' Poll: Best Takeout: Sesame Inn has been offering a menu of Chinese specialties ranging from sweet-and-sour chicken to shrimp lo mein at reasonable prices ($7-$9 for lunch; $11-$17 for dinner) for the past 21 years. All of the restaurant's entrees come with fried or white rice and taste delicious reheated - important, because portions are huge. Nothing could taste better in those cute, little Chinese takeout boxes - except maybe the fortune cookie. 61 Station Square East, South Side, 412/281-8282; other locations in Peters Township, Mount Lebanon and Ross Township; sesameinn.net. - Christie Succop

Best Bite-Sized Feast: OK, so, maybe it's not a feast in the traditional, medieval goblets clanking and pig-on-the-spit kind of way. But if you've got a king-sized appetite, the Royal Feast's got you covered. Sir Pizza, owned in Pennsylvania by the Filiaggi family, has garnered a devoted following, and the "feast" is the best-seller. The pie starts with dough made fresh each morning, topped with sauce, cheese, house-crafted sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers and onions. This is as close to "gourmet" as pizza gets, but the most distinctive thing about the "feast" is that it's cut into small squares instead of into traditional slices. Makes for mighty hearty bites - fit for a king. Corner of Sewickley-Oakmont and Rochester roads, Ross Township, 412/367-1333; Franklin Park Village, corner of Brandt School Road and Route 910, Franklin Park, 724/940-7790, sirpizza-pittsburgh.com. - Liz Dice

Best Hippie Breakfast: We all know that food triggers memories. For Proust, it was a madeleine. For anyone who has worn patchouli perfume, has plucked out Grateful Dead tunes on guitar or has worn any form of tie-dye - or still does - nothing satisfies quite like the bowl of yogurt and homemade granola served up at Kiva Han. Best of all, when you walk into this eclectic coffee shop, you know you're surrounded by folks who just totally get it, man. Kiva Han, 420 S. Craig St., Oakland; 412/687-6355. - K.C.

Best Authentic Carbonara: Even people who live on Mount Washington don't know about this place. Maybe it's La Tavola Italiana Restaurant & Pizzaria's unfashionable Boggs Avenue address or the fire-hall wedding ambience. Yes, it's like having dinner in your Italian-American grandmother's scrupulously clean basement. And the food is just as good. So, go ahead, make a reservation. Try to get a window seat. Listen to an absurdly long list of specials. Order two or three appetizers. Then dive into the "traditional" carbonara. There is no cream. No mushrooms. Nothing unessential. It's the real thing: pasta with bacon, onion, egg and cheese. 1 Boggs Ave., Mount Washington; 412/481-3336, 412/481-6627, latavolaitalianarestaurant.com - Betsy Benson

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