Providine Goes (back) to Pittsburgh, part 2

I don't generally like to write about restaurants that I only dine at once, but given the lack of bits here recently, and the likelihood of getting back to Bistro 19 in Mount Lebanon any time soon, I thought it would be good to practice my typing. (eating is always pretty well practiced)

Bistro 19 is an upscale restaurant on the main drag of Mount Lebanon, just south of Pittsburgh offering America fusion cuisine. An extensive wine list is available, categorized not just by color or type, but also by dominant flavor characteristics, such as spicy and bold, refreshing, etc. We opted for an inexpensive Spanish Rioja.

Salads were a mix of interesting and standard. For the slightly unusual, a pear and beet salad was offered and good, well balanced with a not overly sweet vinaigrette and candied walnuts. Other salads that we tried were the Caesar, spinach and mixed green salads.

Many items on the menu are locally sourced, where possible, but the menu does not maintain a slavish adherence to this, offering tilapia, basa, shrimp and other items from outside the area. I chose the Black Tiger Shrimp entree, which were butterflied and "stuffed". Served with an excellent Risotto, creamy and flavorful, that coupled extremely well with the rich wilted spinach and sauce of the base of the dish. I thought the shrimp and stuffing to be somewhat bland, with the rest of the dish being excellently prepared and thought out to provide very complementary flavors.

My companions ordered the duck breast entree, pumpkin ravioli and crab cakes. While no one was willing to let me taste their dishes, everyone was extremely happy with their entrees. I could see that the crab cakes were compose primarily of lump crab meat, with very little filler added to their very generous sizes. Easily 3 inches across and over an inch thick and served with smashed potatoes.'

While dessert was on offer, with such options as pumpkin creme brulee, with a pumpkin pie waiting at home, we gave these selections a miss.


Salads; $5, Entrees: $15-$30, Wine: $8-$14/glass, $30+ per bottle.

Read more...

Providine Goes (back) to Pittsburgh, part 1

On a recent road trip, I had the chance to revisit an old standby that any city could not do wrong to emulate. In any market, finding a good bar that offers a generous selections of taps that rotate with some frequency is great for those of us who don't have a standard beer. Providence has several such places in the form of Doherty's and Wickenden Pub, and probably others that I haven't heard of or visited yet. The beer connoisseur's pub, as it were.

What I haven't seen in any city besides Pittsburgh, and apparently now also Cleveland, is a pub that combines that with an awesome menu of creative and consistently well executed pub food. Beyond the basic's of burger formulations, wing sauces from mild to waiver required, and other sandwiches, Fatheads offers what I've found to be the best pub food to be found anywhere I've yet tried. And with over ten years of experiencing their menu and ever changing beer selections and staff knowledgeable about the beers that are on offer, every trip to Pittsburgh for me includes a visit to this place for a Headwich, burger, salad, sub or wings.


This isn't to say that every item on the menu is excellent, and errors have occurred. Once, in the long history of coming here, burgers had to be sent back for being improperly cooked. The vegetarian sub isn't very good. And I still haven't tried everything on the menu. Much more challenging now that I live in Providence and get my favorites on each visit.

Image via Wikipedia

My favorites, in no particular order because it all depends on the day, are the Bay of Pigs, an excellent interpretation of a cuban sandwich, the three pepper burger, the jalapeno cheesesteak, beasty barbecue wings and the taco salad that seems to contain an entire head of iceberg lettuce. Oh, and don't overlook the honey-mustard, a must order side for dipping the generous servings of well cooked chips or fries.

Servers have come and gone, been given unkind nicknames and consistently been knowledgeable about the beers on tap and in bottles and willing to put up with the antics of a table for 12 or 14 out to have a good time almost weekly or a table of 4 with a 6 month old in a car seat.

When I and my friends first started coming to the place, it occupied a narrow first floor of an old row home, and could seat about 40 people, with weeknight waits well over an hour. Back then, in addition to the rotating taps, a very large bottle collection was available. Eventually, the dining room was expanded to a second building allowing for seating for about 100 people, and the beer focus shifted almost exclusively to drafts, with about 40 taps and a cask being offered. Most recently they've redone their outdoor seating area to include a roof, allowing another 20 or so, partnered with Rogue for private label brews, and added one cask selection which rotates just about weekly.

And I hear they have desert. And soup. *

* It wasn't until going here for well over 8 years that we discovered that they served desert. it was over 10 years before we knew they had soups...and they weren't recent additions when the servers told us this.

Read more...