Recently we got back from a quick trip to Pittsburgh, PA. Neither of us had ever been before and we were ready for a different scene not too far away. We had also read that there was a flourishing foodie scene in Pittsburgh and decided to see for ourselves.
The rumors were well-founded. Pittsburgh today is all about Med, Ed, Tech and Food. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is a massive presence, other universities like Duquesne and Carnegie-Mellon also call Pittsburgh home and multiple tech companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft have Pittsburgh offices. All of that creates lots of people hungry for fine dining.
We had an outstanding meal at a place called Spoon. The sommelier introduced us to a new Chateauneuf-du-Pape, the 2016 Domaine Pierre Usseglio. The wine opens with a neutral nose and then delivers nice clean fruit on the palate, dark cherry with a slight underlying citris hit. There was a bit of barnyard but not too much for my new world wife. The finish was long and mellow for a C-N-P. It was a fantastic recommendation and helped make the meal which was excellent in its own right – pork lo mein and halibut for me, octopus and hanger steak for Gabriele.
After dinner the sommelier brought over something different gratis – an English sparkling wine called Bolney. It was off the palate very quickly with a bit of chalkiness at the finish. It wasn’t something we’d get again but was a nice gesture that gave us the opportunity to try something very different.
The other special meal was at Morcilla, a Basque tapas (pintxos in Basque) place headed by renowned chef Justin Severino. A few weeks before our trip we told a local friend and restaurant owner we were going to Pittsburgh. She suggested we make reservations immediately, having been there earlier in the year.
We put ourselves in the hands of our server for menu guidance. Standouts were a scallap crudo in cabbage juice, a very different and light tuna tartare, an acorn squash like none we’d had before and cod croquetas that were barely fried and delicious. We also had a Mas Donis Granache/Syrah blend from Montsant that went well with the meal but wasn’t as special as the food.
Morcilla Bar Scene
We also had an excellent lunch at Kaya in the Strip District, and the friendly staff at the Gateway Grill in Monroeville allowed me to watch the Cowboys game on Sunday when every other televison was showing the Steelers. We’ll be back again. If you’ve enjoyed fine dining in Pittsburgh share some of your favorite places via a comment.