On The Road. Pizza In Pittsburgh.

I know this is an LA blog. But I also know a lot of people have been asking about my Pittsburgh recs of late. Whether it be for work (a lot of film production nowadays) or whatever, people are going to Pittsburgh. So here's a little diddy...

My wife grew up in Pittsburgh. Which, at first, as a food eater, didn't excite me much. Then, almost out of nowhere, Pittsburgh became a food town. Zagat even went so far as to announce it as the 2015 American Food City of the Year. While I would call that claim hyperbolic -- the city's certainly making strides in the restaurant scene, but still substantively lacks compared to other major cities -- it does highlight my feelings every Christmas break. 

Christmas break means Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh means driving all over the freaking place to eat at the spots I've accumulated on my iPhone "PGH" list. This past break in particular, which brought 50-60 degree weather throughout (perfect for convincing my wife to drive way too far for food!), we decided to dedicate ourselves to Pittsburgh pizza. We were lucky enough to hit up three. Here are pictures...

Fiori's Pizzaria. 

Fiori's is the classic yinzer standby. Open late (1 am on weekdays, 3 am weekends) in Brookline, it's a local townies haunt for sure. The pizza's good enough - and if you want to experience real, old school, over-cheesed Pittsburgh pies, this is the spot. 

Slice Island (within Spirit bar).
Everything Fiori's is, Slice Island/Spirit's the opposite. Located in the back corner of Spirit, a former moose lodge turned hipster dive bar in Pittsburgh's everlasting gentrification project known as Lawrenceville, Slice Island feels and tastes like the city's pizza future. A pan-style with a Detroit-crunchy crust, it's my favorite pizza I've had in my five plus years of visiting the Steel City.

Bread and Salt.

In the process of assembling this post I came upon the very humbling news that PGH's pizza and bread darling, Bread and Salt had abruptly closed for good late last month. The owner claims he's moving to New York. This is a major blow for the burgeoning Pittsburgh food scene as a whole as B&S garnered national attention and acclaim. What exactly what went wrong? No one really knows (note: I actually reached out to the owner to hopefully get his side of the story; I'll report back if he returns my inquiry). 

Not pictured, but worth a visit: Proper (downtown; brick oven; solid beer tap selection), Piccolo Forno (Lawrenceville's pioneering Italian joint).