Pittsburgh: Stagioni (September 2018)



My spouse and I dined at Stagioni for dinner on a Saturday evening in mid-September 2018. Stagioni is open for dinner only on Tuesdays through Saturdays (closed Mondays). You can make a reservation using the online Open Table system. 

Stagioni, which means “seasons” in Italian, first opened in 2009 as a BYOB restaurant in Bloomfield, but it later relocated to the South Side in 2012, at which time it also acquired a liquor license. The restaurant has consistently been named one of Pittsburgh’s 25 best restaurants for several years running, and its chef has been considered one of the city’s rising stars. 

The restaurant is located on busy Carson Street on Pittsburgh’s South Side, amid other restaurants, bars, and shops. It occupies two levels of a former home-turned storefront in an historic row of buildings. Originally just one shop, the restaurant offered a tiny bar and a few small tables on the street level, with a cozy dining room on the second floor; however, it eventually expanded into the space next door (previously occupied by Le Pommier) to nearly double its space. Open Table reservation confirmations still say, “Please let us know if anyone in your party has difficulty climbing stairs” even though there is now plenty of ground-floor seating. Restrooms are on the upper floor, which you reach via a long wooden staircase. (The single ladies room, while spacious, has a very odd configuration/location for the toilet; you nearly have to squat/sit sideways because there isn’t enough room to fit your legs in front of the toilet.) Decor includes wood floors and wood chairs placed at dark granite-topped tables. The first two-top table that the hostess led us to was positively diminutive in size; it was so narrow that it barely fit the width of a chair at it. We inquired as to whether we could have the adjacent normal-sized table for two, but the hostess told us it was reserved. When we mentioned that we had also reserved a table (weeks before, no less), she repeated that we could not sit there. Then, when we said that we would be leaving for a competing restaurant, she agreed to seat us at the alternate table. (Interestingly, a walk-in couple was then seated at our original table.) The main dining area downstairs enjoys a huge window that overlooks Carson Street; at the rear of the space is white shelving filled with some cookbooks and other colorful and interesting decorative objects to produce a clean look.

As its name (in Italian) indicates, Stagioni serves seasonal rustic Italian cuisine. As appetizers, we shared two dishes: the salt cod fritters and one of their polentas (with crispy Brussel sprouts) that was plated tableside. (The polenta arrived in a small saucepan, with the Brussel sprouts arranged on a wooden cutting board; then our server stirred the polenta and poured it over the sprouts – unique!) As entrees, we ordered two pasta dishes (which are available as half or full portions): the agnolotti (pasta pockets filled with an off-putting pink-colored dry mortadella stuffing, then topped with pistachios and unappealing olive green-colored peas (the color of canned Le Sueur, not the bright green of fresh or even frozen peas). Our other entrĂ©e was the fettucine, long brownish-hued pasta (perhaps it was wheat even though it didn’t say so on the menu) with prosciutto, onion, and egg yolk. We passed on dessert, as there were only three uninteresting choices including tiramisu and Nutella mousse.
Although the food was acceptable at Stagioni, we had some issues with our service. The worst flub was when we overheard our server chastising her shadowing new employee that she almost ran our credit card with some else’s much larger bill. We also had an issue with a round of drinks that we ordered but never received; our [experienced] server was apologetic but didn’t offer any recompense.

We made an investment of time, effort, and money to dine at Stagioni, which we had heard and read good things about. (We were staying at the Hampton Inn in the Strip District, and it cost us nearly 20 minutes and $20 each way in Uber fees to reach the restaurant.) Overall, the experience just didn’t wow us; next time we’ll eat at one of the Italian restaurant options closer to the hotel.











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