Postcard from Pittsburgh

 Here we are in Pittsburgh.  It's beautiful, even though it's cloudy at the pictured moment.  Home of racing pierogies and the most bridges ever.  But first, Monroeville.  We had to stop at the famous Primanti Brothers chain before we even hit city limits.  Maybe it's because we left the apartment at 6:40am (!) on a Saturday to make our 10:30am (amazing) tour of Fallingwater.  Mmm, sandwiches.  We had steak and roast beef (and the requisite fries and slaw inside), and enjoyed it very much.  I've heard complaints about the bread (white Italian bread), but I liked it and it was very fresh.  The service could not have been friendlier--really, Pittsburgh was full of friendly people just itching to tell us where we should go/eat/play next, us young folks.  J felt like it was missing something in the sauce & salt department, but faults his own ordering.  Dirt cheap and filling, we had a great time here.  Even Peter Smith from PS7's is a fan--check out his Primanti-style sandwich-making skills on this video from Washingtonian.

After a trip up an incline we saw a sign that no joke said something like "100 feet until ice cream."  Good warning, people.  Much enjoyed.

After the game that night we needed to have a little makeshift late dinner.  We got pretzels, pierogies, and some other app-type dishes at Eleven.  It was ok--the pretzels were not crispy on theoutside and chewy on the inside.  They were spongy/doughy throughout.  Unexpected!  Everything else was fine but unmemorable.  Apparently J read about the tasting menu there that was supposed to be delish but this wasn't the time for that kind of experience.  We should have just grabbed a quick bite elsewhere, but we weren't quite sure what to do.  We were trying to head to the Strip District for the first time, but the stretch between the park and the Strip got a little dark and empty, and we were weary of forging on. 

Now for the shining star of the trip.  A must-have, said W&CP, Lovely Friend, and others.  Delectable corned beef hash, but the real stars are the hotcakes.  At Pamela's they are crepe style, thin and light while impossibly crispy along the edges.  Filled with whatever or nothing--on this particular occasion, blueberries.  Crunch crispy juicy fluffy creamy.  All good things.  I could do that again and again.  The wait was 20 mins-ish, not epic.