Pittsburgh (September 2019)

My spouse and I visited Pittsburgh for the long Labor Day holiday weekend in early September 2019. Even though the Pitt - Virginia football game wasn’t until Saturday evening, we still left early in the morning so that we could make a stop in Lawrenceville (a gentrifying neighborhood adjacent to Pittsburgh that we hadn’t yet visited). We ate lunch at the Merchant Oyster Company, followed by drinks (and some take-away sweet corn ice cream) at SMOKE Barbecue Taqueria (we tried the restaurant’s full menu later in the season). We stayed at the Hampton Inn, where we have stayed many times previously. After the game (Pitt lost 14 - 30), on the way back to the hotel, we stopped in at a new bar called Bridges and Bourbon (where we witnessed the staff making great theatrical drinks). Because it was a holiday weekend and we didn’t have to leave for home on Sunday like we normally do, we instead took the opportunity to go back to the Pitt campus, where we visited the Carnegie Museum of Art (CMOA) and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH), with a stop for brunch in between at the museum’s excellent Café Carnegie. That night, we went back to Lawrenceville for a delicious dinner at Morcilla (a Spanish tapas restaurant that we’ve been trying to get to for awhile). In the morning, before our drive home, we stopped (again!) in Lawrenceville for brunch at the Industry Public House.

Hotel:

• Hampton Inn Downtown Pittsburgh Link to my review

Restaurants:

• Merchant Oyster Company Link to my review
• Smoke BBQ Taqueria Link to my review
• Bridges and Bourbon Link to my review
• Morcilla Link to my review
• Industry Public House Link to my review
• Cafe Carnegie at the CMOA Link to my review

Activity:

• Carnegie Museum of Art Link to my review
• Carnegie Museum of Natural History Link to my review