What to do in Pittsburgh, PA

gibbons

gibbons

En-Route
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
3,385
Location
Rogers, Arkansas
Display Name
Display name:
iRide
I was asked to ride right seat on a flight to Pittsburgh yesterday afternoon (in a Piaggio - eat your hearts out). The pilot and I have today and most of tomorrow here. Are there any active GA airports we need to get to? Any restaurants we don't want to miss? Have car, will travel.
 
AFAIK, not much GA type around Pittsburgh. Bag airplanes for the day and go see the botanical garden over by Carnegie-Mellon University.
 
Chip: I'm not from Pittsburgh but have been there a few times. We flew to KAGC a decent size and busy GA airport. Corporate Air had an awesome pilot lounge with two HUGE massage chairs that make you want to move in. Most of the times I was there for an extended period was for a trial or to visit friends in graduate school so I didn't really do any fine dinning. I do however recommend Primani Bros. in the Strip District. EVERYONE there will know it. I don't think it opens till about 10pm they have awesome sandwiches with coleslaw and Fries right in the sandwich, a little hot sauce and you are set. ( Bring Tums) If you really want to clog some arteries check out the "O" its near Pitt. Basically as I remember its hot dogs and a tray full and I mean a TRAY FULL of french fries.
Check out the Incline or a bucks ( Pirates) baseball game. Nights were pretty dead downtown but an area called Shadyside was pretty cool with a lot of fun restaurants and bars. I'm sure someone from this board must be based out there and they can give you better information.
 
With out a doubt, go to the strip district (no "strip" clubs), it's more of a market district, and go to Primanti Brothers! I worked near there for over 2 years and went there every week for lunch. Oh, and bring a healthy appetite - as the fries and the slaw come on the sandwich!
 
Last edited:
inav8r said:
With out a doubt, go to the strip district (no "strip" clubs), it's more of a market district, and go to Primanti Brothers! I worked near there for over 2 years and went there every week for lunch. Oh, and bring a healthy appetite - as the fries and the slaw come on the sandwich!
Click to expand...

Primanti's is good, Wholeys Fish Market (www.wholey.com) is another good place to eat a quick bite in the strip district.

Christophers up on Mt Washington offers very fine dining overlooking the city. Really, you can't go wrong with any of the eateries on Mt Washington.

A trip up the incline is interesting, Point Park is very nice as well. The Cathedral of Learning out at Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) is interesting as well.

On the northside is the Andy Warhol (sp?) museum, a very strange and interesting place to visit. Also on the northside near the stadiums is the science thing, can't remember the name.

Kennywood Park, across the river in West Mifflin, opened in 1898, and is a National historic landmark. A "traditional" amusement park, it is world renowned for having a good mix of very good "traditional" rollercoasters as well as some very good new steel ones. A good time if your a coaster freak.

More if I think of them, I grew up about 15miles from city center.
 
The Pittsburgh Science Center, located on the N. Side of the Ohio river - take 65 West/South, is a GREAT experience.

Kennywood Park is another great way to spend the day, and pretty cheap for the quality of amusment park it is.

I'd post more but I'm in a conference and need to shut down the pc now. :(
 
Station Square, the restored, old trains station has nice shops, restaurants and bars, but the ones on Mt. Washington, like Christohers are good. Nice views too. I ate at a really old and interesting restaurant many years ago, Arthur's, which is tucked in right next to the PPG building downtown.
 
Anthony said:
Station Square, the restored, old trains station has nice shops, restaurants and bars, but the ones on Mt. Washington, like Christohers are good. Nice views too. I ate at a really old and interesting restaurant many years ago, Arthur's, which is tucked in right next to the PPG building downtown.
Click to expand...

IIRC, the last time I was there Station Square (years ago) was dominated by Hooters.
 
wsuffa said:
IIRC, the last time I was there Station Square (years ago) was dominated by Hooters.
Click to expand...

I haven't been there in years. Probably close to 20 years, ouch. Hooters wasn't there yet, at least not the restaurant.
 
I should have followed up on this post before now....

We went downtown and to the strip district and had lunch at Primanti Brothers (open 24 hours/day). We both had their specialty sandwich which is a combination of unidentified meat, cheese, coleslaw, and french fries. In a word, interesting. We kicked around downtown for a while and then went to PNC stadium to watch the ball game. It's a very nice stadium and just about the right size for my taste. I prefer Wrigley Field but it was a fun place to visit and the game was pretty good too (as baseball games go).

Just a couple of observations about Pittsburgh. It wasn't what I expected at all. It had a more midwestern feel than I thought it would. The people were very friendly and helpful. Lots of smiles from folks on the street. It looked like a good place to live..... in the summer.

The second observation is that I believe it's the last city in the US I'd want to get into a bar fight in. The guys there are BIG. I'm a shade over 6'1" and had to look up to almost all the guys. And at 220 lbs I gave away at least 50 lbs to most of them them. Picture the "Da Bears" skit on SNL and you have it. Everyone was very nice, but I've never seen so many big heads and hands in one place.

All in all I really like Pittsburgh. The pilot I was with said it's the first time he's been there when it wasn't 200 and 1/2 blowing snow, so he enjoyed it too.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.
 
Sounds like it could have only been more complete if you'd thrown back a couple of iron's. (Iron City Beer, which, for the record, I think is nasty!).

Glad ya had a good time!
 
Ah, so you discovered that steelworkers live there ;-) They're big for a reason.

Seriously, Pittsburgh has been ranked among the better cities in the US to live, ever since a lot of the coal-burning factories have been cleaned up. I did enjoy some visits there for work, a few years ago.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top