Pittsburgh

I've been in Pittsburgh for the last few days for a conference for work. This has had the disadvantage of keeping me out of my kitchen, but the joy of trying many new restaurants with old friends and colleagues, many of whom I've not seen for a year or more. It's been an interesting experience so far. Now, when I think of Pittsburgh, I don't particularly think of a foodie destination city or a lot of high quality dining. So, I've been surprised at the large number of quality establishments in the city, as well as at the sometimes relatively high priced food of the downtown area.

Let me start with the real gem: Bona Terra. It's a 42-seat, BYOB, market fresh restaurant with a menu that changes daily to reflect the freshest available ingredients, an incredibly knowledgeable, friendly, effective staff, and the food chops to back it all up. Three colleagues and I joined up for dinner; I brought some bottles from the cellar at home to share. We were greeted with a complimentary amuse bouche--essentially, micro-diced fried potatoes, done up with some wonderful herbs and spices and peppers and an incredible sauce. Nice start. Meanwhile, we dug into our first bottle--a somewhat aged Duval-Leroy champagne. It was showing nicely, although it did not have the time to chill to "proper" sparking temperature. It's already got a great bottle bouquet of yeast and toast, but it's not covering up fruit. We then moved on to our appetizers--I had mussels with a tomato infused white wine broth that were just amazing, and a nice portion size--even almost large for appetizer, and would have been share-able. Many reflected considerable creativtiy, but all had a nod to classic continental cuisine, and were executed flawlessly. As we waited for our mains, an intermezzo cantaloupe sorbet came out--not too sweet, and in fact, probably without any added sugar. It was frozen perfectly, with no larger crystals. Nice! The mains were the real attraction, though, and each had a creative combination of flavors and ingredients. I had a duck breast, seared and cooked to medium rare. It was covered with a healthy seasoning of salt and pepper, nicely crisped skin, and no soggy fat! It came topped with a cherry compote--so far, a classic combination--but then a curried lentil and zucchini combination to pair with it spiced it up a bit, and moved it to a next level. The combination worked great, in spite of being a bit outside the traditional realm of flavor pairings. A friend had pork chops, a heritage breed--amazingly, cooked to a medium doneness. That was a bold statement of faith of this restaurant in its suppliers and the quality of ingredients, and a respectful treatment of great food. We had both a 98 Fourcas-Hostein Listrac-Medoc and a 99 Rex Hill Pinot NOir with the mains. Unfortuantely, the bordeaux was mildly corked, so suffered from a wet cardboard tinge on the nose, but it was borderline acceptable, and loved by some. The pinot noir was quite a contrast--showing well, aged nicely, but rather New world in its heat, fruit, and flabbiness. If it weren't poured next to the bordeaux, it probably would have been very nice; for me, it simply came off as over ripe and rather one-note. I am again reminded--go to the wines you really love, not just those that are good. Dessert took me back to sorbet--a trio of beautifully executed, not too sweet, rather acidic fruits--a mix of mango, pineapple, and strawberry actually worked well together, surprisingly enough. The restaurant's one potential drawback is its location--it's about 5-6 miles from downtown, requiring me to retrieve my car, and navigate the horribly marked streets of town. We got rather hopelessly lost en route, finding our way through a combination of iPhone and helpful restaurant staff. It's located in "downtown" Sharpsburg, which seems to be a suburb or village taken over by the bigger city. It's a decidedly working class area, but there was on street parking, free, right across the street from the restaurant, and our car was still there, and intact, when we left! This is a place i'd return to gladly any chance I got, and would most highly recommend.

Now, the opposite experience, and my largest "thistles" imaginable go to... the "Original Fish Market" restaurant, located off the lobby of our hotel. OK, I should know better than to eat at a hotel restaurant--but it was where several senior colleagues gathered after our afternoon symposium, so I needed to go. And it was relatively well reviewed. I cannot imagine by whom. From the start, when we tried to get our group seated together, it was impossible to bring together tables. We ended up adding chairs to four tops, but the staff took three tries just to get a silverware roll for the addons. Then, as we prepared to order, one in our party asked how the server recommended preparation of his fish--"Blackened", said the server--for HALIBUT!?!? Really? What were they trying to hide? Sadly, I, too, had ordered the halibut--seared, as it should be to show off the nice, subtle flavors. Except, there were no such flavors. The filet, not only was tiny in size, but it managed to be soggy in texture, falling apart from overcooking and a bit dried out (at the same time as being soggy!!!). It was served with an ice cream scooper full of rice--still formed beautifully into a horribly sticky, glutinous ball of rice (which it was not intended to be), and an overcooked blob of spinach that reeked of spoiled fish. All this for $30! I also ordered a Pennsylvania local wine from the "by the glass" menu--one of few that wasn't from California--it was supposed to be a sauvignon blanc. Somehow, it managed to have no acidity, little fruit, tons of flab, and no varietal character. I think it had been open for a few days, to be honest. How this seafood restaurant has managed to have almost no old world wines escapes me--why were there no Meursaults or white bourgogne? Why no Muscadet? Had I not been sitting with the intellectual leaders of my field, my entire dinner, wine and food, would have gone back. It was that bad. On top of that, service was slow, not terribly friendly, and missed even on the most basic of points. I can only recommend this restaurant for closing.

The other spots have been more mid-stream--neither amazing, nor horrific. Lidia's, a Bastianich Italian restaurant, was a great stop for our first night in town. The food was good, if not spectacular, the wine overpriced, but at least marginally Italian. The service, though, was impeccable. Our waitress knew her food, was spot on in presenting it and describing the menu, and was just amazingly friendly and kind. And, when we inquired about their moderately extensive grappa list, which she didn't much about, she sought out someone who did. The wine steward/sommelier who came over was passionate about the grappas, suggested an amarone based one as a starter--which we did. It was smooth, beautiful, oak aged, easy drinking--none of the rocket fuel that drives a lot of grappa. He brought a 2nd grappa over later for a free taste--the Bastianich brand from a variety of grapes. Honestly, it was probably their baseline grappa--but it had the grappa grip--tons of firey notes, but also nutty, and a bit of olives, and a long wonderful finsih. I actually liked it a bit better than the amarone one. So, for service, five stars, for food, more like 2 or 3. It wasn't that it was bad--it just wasn't all that.

Another night, I ended up at a tapas bar, whose name escaped me then and now. It was rather bizarrely laid out, intneded to be way trendier than I am, and yet failed miserably at that in the end. It was self-seat, and it took nearly 10 minutes to get service in an almost empty restaurant. Once we ordered, we found out that they were out of one of the things we wanted, and soon found out they also didn't have the replacement. Not encouraging. When we inquired about sushi, the waitress highly recommended the spicy tuna roll--enough to send me away from teh raw menu at lightning speed--nothing like spicy sauce to hide old fish. The wine list was decent--had a good white rioja--which is something you seldom see on a restaurant list, or for that matter, anywhere else--and it wasn't even Muga! The dishes were mostly acceptably, competently made, but to be honest, two days after eating there, I can't say that more than one or two sticks with my memory. The serrano ham wrapped asparagus was decent, but who can't make that at home in a flash? The olives were good, the almonds overspiced, the manchego quite good--but probably again, none of it was even made there. I could open those jars and slice the cheese as well as they did. :-) The chorizo was decent, the balsamic reduction a bit of a nice counterpoint to the spicy sausage. the smoked fish wiht strawberries and tomatoes skewered together was just plain weird--especially since the fish was coated with sesame seeds! Who pairs strawberries and tomatoes anyway???

So, I'll leave Pittsburgh with a great food experience, some very nice service, and a real dud of a place. There's one more night in town, so, we'll see what tomorrow brings for food. May it be as good as tonight's was!