Destination: Pittsburgh

We spent the weekend with our good friends in Pittsburgh, and "seeing the city" pretty much turned into "eating our way thru the city," which is just fine with me. 

It's an interesting little city, isn't it? 

I could never live there myself, because those curvy, hilly roads would have me permanently terrified and perhaps vomiting out the car window. 

But.  Man.  We had some good eats.

I'd like to apologize in advance for the lack of photos. I was too busy chatting and chewing and being generally involved with my food to have the time/energy to photograph it. Hopefully descriptions will suffice. Then you must venture out on your own.

• The Church Brew Works: A low-key pub-atmosphere located in a gorgeous converted church. I was feeling meh from a 6-hour drive and wanted to order light. Went with a sald - The Greek: Romaine, radicchio, chilled marinated orzo salad, feta, cucumbers, pickled red onion, tomato, and kalamata olives served with a lemon-olive oil vinaigrette. It was awesome. Also tried the sweet potato fries at my friend's recommendation, and they were disturbingly addictive.

{totally not us. but this was the spectacular view!}

• The Grandview Saloon: Next stop was up to the top of Mt. Washington to take in the gorgeous nighttime city view. It was completely breathtaking. We got a table on the patio at the Grandview Saloon with the express purpose of oogling the view, and did so quite successfully. We meant to get drinks, but no one really came to our table to offer us any, and we were too lazy/tired to hunt them down. But, the view was enough!

•  Pamela's:  Tiny breakfast joint in the midst of the University of Pitt campus. Even though it was summertime, there seemed to be a lot of rumpled, sweatpants-clad undergrads desperate for eggs and pancakes. I had the California French Toast - whole wheat raisin bread dipped in cinnamon-vanilla egg batter, topped with strawberries. Oh yes. Oh oh yes. Jared had the Chocolate Chip Banana Hotcakes - their famous super thin/crispy-edged crepe-style pancakes stuffed with bananas, chocolate chips and whipped cream. Awesome.

• Mad Mex: Let's just say, Jared and I haven't stopped talking about Mad Mex since we left our little table in the restaurant. And now I'm kind of trying to figure out when I can make a trip to the one in Philly. It's a tiny little place with a hole-in-the-wall vibe and I had to use the glow of my cell phone to try and read my menu in the dark - but the food is awesome, tons of vegetarian options, and they're committed to using fresh ingredients. It took me forever to order because I literally wanted every single thing on the menu. I finally decided on the fried fish tacos - cornmeal crusted tilapia, spicy cabbage slaw, avocado slices, cilantro and chipotle aioli, with a side of avocado-tomatillo salsa, rice and black beans. And oh sweet mama it was glorious.Top it off with a glass of red sangria - perfection.

• Dave and Andy's Homemade Ice Cream: It smells like a giant waffle, thanks to the homemade waffle cones. Since we were post Mad Mex, I kept it simple with a scoop of cookies and cream and a scoop of chocolate cookies and cream. It's ultra creamy and thick. I thought the chocolate version had a better flavor than the plain old cookies and cream, which almost tasted buttery.

• Square Cafe: A super cute, totally packed breakfast spot with a simple retro vibe. It's tight quarters inside, with a decent-sized sidewalk-dining-area (we opted out of the outdoors because it was probably 110% humidity and I just couldn't do it). After much deliberation I got the Lemon Ricotta pancakes. They were tasty, but a little heavy for my liking, and after inhaling the entire plate I was reminding of why I do not normally order pancakes. Let the record show that I, Kathryn, shall never order pancakes again, because they make me feel like a giant carbo-inflated blob who wants to vomit for approximately 6 hours.

{Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, my french toast, my giant pancakes}