Saturday, April 19, 2008
Four days in Pittsburgh
I was up just after 5am on Monday to get ready for a 6am cab ride to LaGuardia Airport. $98 in cab fare (fully expensed) and a short flight later, I arrived in downtown Pittsburgh. I can’t figure out why some people say they don’t like that city! It is beautiful.
At lunch, I met my friend Rob for lunch. I had seen him with a few other friends one evening in New York nearly two years ago, but it had been 5 years since we spent any real time together. We go back to 1979, so this trip was greatly anticipated by me. We went to a place where three of the menu items are deep fried (in tempura batter) ham and salami hoagie, deep fried (in tempura batter) meatloaf hoagie and salad with fries and cheese on top. Seems the latter is a Pittsburgh staple! Reasoning that I was tired due to my early start, I ate a salad without the fries and cheese! In the Monday evening we went to see Naomi Klein speak at Carnegie Mellon University, which was interesting but not great.
On Tuesday, I took some pictures from the 54th floor of the Mellon Center. I loved my temporary office. The view from there was great. But it was the other side of the floor that the best views were.
Rob lives in an area called Mount Washington, which is at the top of a hill that falls very steeply by the water’s edge. If you aren’t driving, you need to use The Incline, which is a bit like one of those rides in Theme Parks that plummet on a track, except they take 1.2 seconds and this takes maybe 3 minutes. So the journey to work was a walk from Rob’s house to The Incline, the ride down the hill, then the walk over the bridge into Downtown. From there it was barely more than 5 minutes into the office. But what an amazing and spectacular way to start a day!
I got to my two favourite restaurants in town: Quaker Steak and Lube, the original of which was on the grounds of an old Quaker State Garage in Sharon, PA, near the Ohio border, and Primanti Brothers. The former has great ribs but the absolute best chicken wings, and the good news is, they’re planning on expanding across the US. If they come to your area, you have to go there. When Hannah, th ultimate chicken fiend, heard I was going to Pittsburgh, she got very excited and asked if I would bring her back some wings. Fortunately, I didn’t leave them anywhere.
Primanti Brothers is unique. On whatever you chose for a sandwich, a man grabs a handful of fries and just slams them on there. He then puts tomato (which I took off) in his hand, slaps a large amount of coleslaw on that, then slams that on top of the fries. It is a very fat sandwich and to be avoided by anyone on anything approximating a diet! But a little hot sauce and it is delicious!
I was very sorry to leave there, as I had such a great time. Cabs were few and far between, so when I jumped in mine, a guy asked if he could share. Why not! I live in New York, consult in Boston and was sent to Pittsburgh by Standish Mellon. This guy lives in Chicago, works in New York and was sent to Pittsburgh by Mellon Credit. We were in the same building and on the same flight. And when he lived in England a few years ago, he starting following Tottenham Hotspur! Great coincidence!
(The pictures, in order, are the view from the floor I worked on in the Mellon Center; The Incline; the view from Mount Washington and The Point, where the Three Rivers meet)
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At lunch, I met my friend Rob for lunch. I had seen him with a few other friends one evening in New York nearly two years ago, but it had been 5 years since we spent any real time together. We go back to 1979, so this trip was greatly anticipated by me. We went to a place where three of the menu items are deep fried (in tempura batter) ham and salami hoagie, deep fried (in tempura batter) meatloaf hoagie and salad with fries and cheese on top. Seems the latter is a Pittsburgh staple! Reasoning that I was tired due to my early start, I ate a salad without the fries and cheese! In the Monday evening we went to see Naomi Klein speak at Carnegie Mellon University, which was interesting but not great.
On Tuesday, I took some pictures from the 54th floor of the Mellon Center. I loved my temporary office. The view from there was great. But it was the other side of the floor that the best views were.
Rob lives in an area called Mount Washington, which is at the top of a hill that falls very steeply by the water’s edge. If you aren’t driving, you need to use The Incline, which is a bit like one of those rides in Theme Parks that plummet on a track, except they take 1.2 seconds and this takes maybe 3 minutes. So the journey to work was a walk from Rob’s house to The Incline, the ride down the hill, then the walk over the bridge into Downtown. From there it was barely more than 5 minutes into the office. But what an amazing and spectacular way to start a day!
I got to my two favourite restaurants in town: Quaker Steak and Lube, the original of which was on the grounds of an old Quaker State Garage in Sharon, PA, near the Ohio border, and Primanti Brothers. The former has great ribs but the absolute best chicken wings, and the good news is, they’re planning on expanding across the US. If they come to your area, you have to go there. When Hannah, th ultimate chicken fiend, heard I was going to Pittsburgh, she got very excited and asked if I would bring her back some wings. Fortunately, I didn’t leave them anywhere.
Primanti Brothers is unique. On whatever you chose for a sandwich, a man grabs a handful of fries and just slams them on there. He then puts tomato (which I took off) in his hand, slaps a large amount of coleslaw on that, then slams that on top of the fries. It is a very fat sandwich and to be avoided by anyone on anything approximating a diet! But a little hot sauce and it is delicious!
I was very sorry to leave there, as I had such a great time. Cabs were few and far between, so when I jumped in mine, a guy asked if he could share. Why not! I live in New York, consult in Boston and was sent to Pittsburgh by Standish Mellon. This guy lives in Chicago, works in New York and was sent to Pittsburgh by Mellon Credit. We were in the same building and on the same flight. And when he lived in England a few years ago, he starting following Tottenham Hotspur! Great coincidence!
(The pictures, in order, are the view from the floor I worked on in the Mellon Center; The Incline; the view from Mount Washington and The Point, where the Three Rivers meet)
