I can’t believe it – tomorrow is already the start of the 2013 Winter Pittsburgh Restaurant Week! It feels like it was just the summer celebration just a few weeks ago. But we are pumped to check out a bunch of spots this week, and we got even more excited for what is to come at last Thursday night’s Kick-Off Party.
The party was HOPPING! Held at the Mini of Pittsburgh dealership in that nebulous Shadyside/North Oakland part of town, this party was packed with fellow foodies and lots of gracious restaurant staff handing out preview bites of menu items available this week.
We started off with a glass of Zin from Pittsburgh Winery (formerly Engine House Wines). Somehow I didn’t grab a photo of their full wine selection, just this one from the Epicure’s Palate table (they’re a local catering company who was supplying treats and drinks throughout the evening).
Then the food started circulating. We chatted a bit with Jen from Pino’s, an Italian restaurant in Point Breeze (and the spot of our upcoming Saturday night dinner!). These veal meatballs with foccaccia bread were just excellent, so we are totally looking forward to our visit!
One of our favorite appetizers of the evening was the octopus Takoyaki from Fukuda, the new sushi restaurant in Bloomfield. Let’s just say this: while we couldn’t fit Fukuda into our RW plans this time around, we will DEFINITELY be dining there in the coming months!
We sampled some delicious ‘chips and dip’ from Abay, which were crispy versions of the bread that made me giggle all through dinner back when we visited in 2011.
There was another meatball making the rounds, this one from 1947 Tavern in Shadyside. We’ve actually never eaten there (sorry, when I’m that close to Harris Grill, I tend to just get sucked in, black hole style), but I was impressed by this meatball and will definitely keep them on my radar!
Then we met up with the always-lovely Akirah from Kaleidoscope Cafe, who was bringing around these mini chicken apple sausage saute bites. We LOVE Kaleidoscope (and they’re BYOB!) but hadn’t found a spot for them in our schedule, as we’ve been trying to hit places we haven’t eaten before. However, just one nibble of this little pastry and I decided we have to pop in for lunch on Saturday (don’t worry, the ‘Guins game falls directly between our lunch & dinner reservations!).
We finished snacking for the night with these salmon tartare cones from the Epicure’s Palate. I had never heard of these guys before the party, but I’ll tell you this: if I was having a party that needed a caterer, I would absolutely have them on my list. These were delicious, and I loved the presentation!
So, be prepared for a massive amount of posts coming this week. We have now solidified all of our stops for the week, which are as follows (and I’ll update the links to each of these once the post are written):
Monday: dinner at Bridge 10 Brasserie
Tuesday: blogger dinner at Alma Pan-Latin Kitchen
Friday: dinner at Root 174
Saturday: lunch at Kaleidoscope Cafe / dinner at Pino’s Contemporary Italian Restaurant
Sunday: dinner at Willow
(Yes, I’m going to be SO BROKE at the end of this week. And yes, I am putting in extra hours of exercise like every single day. But it’s going to be worth it!!)
Time to get some rest for pre-RW yoga in the morning, but I feel kind of like a kid on Christmas – if I do get to sleep, I’m going to be dreaming about the delicious dishes to come this week!!
Click on the following for the best catering for Perth.
So glad to hear you enjoyed the party. Looking forward to reading about your tasty restaurant week adventures.