What to Eat in Pittsburgh

As we’ve noted before, Pittsburgh’s food scene has a gaping hole where amazing bagels should go. This hole has led to some excellent recent innovation. Several months ago, we wrote about Secret Beigel, a one-man operation making small-batch Eastern European-style bagels. Although we haven’t written about it (yet), Pigeon Bagels opened in Squirrel Hill with much-deserved fanfare.

Last week, my lovely friend from @bottomless_pitt forwarded me this intriguing article from Hal Klein at Pittsburgh Magazine. It described a new place on the “Aspinwall Riverfront” (Aspinwall has a riverfront? who knew!)  that opened only last week and ALSO serves amazing homemade bagels. This forward came with an imperative that we go there for brunch immediately. It seemed too good to be true – two new places serving bagels opening within weeks of each other, the second involving waterfront dining. So this past Saturday, the @bottomless_pitt and What to Eat in Pittsburgh crews descended on Farmer + Baker.

Having grown up here, I spent a lot of time on the Highland Park bridge and Freeport Road headed toward the Waterworks to eat at King’s, Damon’s (the place for ribs!), and occasionally Abaté. On this trip, we made a right off of Freeport Road and entered what felt like another dimension.  We left the medical office buildings and Victorian homes and entered a quaint waterfront escape. I had absolutely no idea it was possible to access a river (the map tells me it’s the Allegheny) from Aspinwall. Once you cross over the train tracks and pull into the parking area, you can see lots of green space, a really spectacular playground that doubles as a whimsical sculpture, a dock with lots of small boats, and even a place to rent kayaks. Right in front of the boats sits this shipping container, which the Post-Gazette informs us is the first shipping container restaurant in the area.

On its face one could focus on the bagels, and believe me, it would be justified. Knowing that there is another place to eat noteworthy bagels may have even been why you clicked on this post. But that would be missing the point. Yes, have yourself an amazing bagel sandwich. That was the whole reason I was there, to be honest. But note the rest of the menu:

OK, we’ll have one of everything.

You order at the shipping container, give a name, and sit at one of the cute little bistro tables. The food came out amazingly fast given that 1) everything’s homemade (we’ll get to that in a second), and 2) this was only their second weekend in operation.

Here’s what we got. We shared everything.

First, the much anticipated bagel sandwich. A bagel (we got herb an onion) with bacon, lettuce, and heirloom tomatoes, and of course cream cheese. The bagel was excellent in its own right, and all together, the sandwich was divine.

The brisket sandwich. What’s not apparent from this photo is that the meat practically falls apart it’s so tender.

The ham and biscuit. Having spent 6 years in Alabama, we are very particular about our biscuits. This one was moist and paired perfectly with the salty ham. Oh my.

The shakshouka. What you can’t see is that underneath the greens and pita is a mess of delicious eggs and broccoli.

Every bite my @bottomless_pitt friend took came with a proclamation that this was the best such-and-such ever, and that she wanted to trade one of us at the table for the rights to eat more than her fair share of that dish. I suggested that might be a little premature, and that she sample all of it before making a final decision. We all agreed that everything we ate was the most amazing version of whatever it was. Everything was so fantastic, it would be impossible to choose a favorite.

What made this meal really stand out was how obvious it was that great care was taken to construct every aspect of every dish. For example, when she delivered the shakshouka, our server (who turned out to be the owner, more on that in a minute) casually mentioned that she hand rolls and bakes each accompanying pita TO ORDER.  I mean, who does that? @bottomless_pitt remarked that this is the best pita in Pittsburgh, and I could not agree more.

@bottomless_pitt also pointed out what a great place this would be to take an out-of-town guest: walk along the riverfront, go to the playground or go kayaking depending on whether your guests have small kids, enjoy the stellar view (which of course, includes a bridge), have an amazing meal. All of the best parts of Pittsburgh, all in one place.

Of course, Mr. Foodie and I were already planning our next trip. A quick look at the restaurant’s website (and at Hal’s article) revealed that they are open for dinner, only on Sundays. The website says they open at 5pm. So at 5:30pm on Sunday, there we were, back again. Turns out they don’t actually open till 6, but no problem – we happily waited at the playground with another family doing the same thing.

When we went back at 6, a woman from the back of the shipping container (who I would later learn was Jen, the owner) said, “are you the @bottomless_pitt lady?” I explained that no, we aren’t, and I would send my regards. But, we do have a little food blog and would be writing a post… to which Jen replied gleefully, “hope it doesn’t suck!” Me too Jen, me too.

The dinner menu is different from the lunch menu, but there were some common themes as you can see (note the brisket biscuit).

This is what we ate:

Tomato tart. Very flaky pastry crust, delicious cheese and tomato.

Peach salad. The most tender, warm peaches, shaved parm, vinagrette.

Stuffed eggplant topped with melted cheese. That description just does not do this dish justice whatsoever. When we were done, the only thing left was the stem. There’s that pita again.

 

Of course, I had to go back and order dessert. When I did, I struck up a conversation with all three people in the container – the woman ringing everyone up (whose name I did not catch-sorry!), who introduced herself as a local bartender “just helping out,” and Jesse, formerly of Colonia at Smallman Galley. I asked the crew what they want people to know about the place, in the spirit of the post not sucking. Jen and Jesse were hard at work cooking, so the woman who rang me up started. “She makes everything from scratch,” she said with admiration, including the cream cheese (again, who does that?). Jen and Jesse reiterated that point. Jesse also talked about how he and Jen play off each others’ strengths, making for a really good collaboration.

Lastly, here’s the berry crumble with fresh cream. Again, probably the best we’ve ever had. And incredibly beautiful. The edible flowers match the berries. 

 

So, Jen, I did everything possible to make sure this post doesn’t suck. Honestly, this post can’t suck, because even if the writing and photography sucked, your bagel-featuring everything-is-homemade, on the waterfront nobody knew about (right?), al fresco dining with incredible view restaurant speaks for itself. But hopefully our writing and photography showcase exactly why they need to come to see you ASAP.

Note: open Wednesday – Sunday 9-2pm, and Sunday evening for dinner from 6-9pm