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Photo: Lindsey Thompson
Pittsburgh Winter Beerfest
Dinner Bell, a Pittsburgh-based food magazine,
announced the release of a “very special project,” a commissary cookbook.
Not Your Average Noodle by Jon “D-Boi” Brown, R. Ya’iyr Carter, and Pierre “Polo” Pinson is described as “an act of service compiled by prisoners for the benefit of prisoners." For those who “don’t know what it’s like to attempt culinary arts behind bars,” the authors encourage altering and experimenting with the recipes, “which is what we are constantly doing.” Readers can order the full-color, 67-page, saddle-stitched cookbook through Dinner Bell’s
website, with options to send a copy to a prisoner. For every copy purchased, one will also be donated through a Books to Prisoners program, with the remaining proceeds going to the authors.
Apteka
4606 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. aptekapgh.com
It’s not always easy being one of the
top 50 restaurants in the country, so for three weekends this month, Apteka is embracing its alternate identity. “If you don't know – every January, our normal menu takes a break, and Apteka resets as Crapteka – a vegburger and fry pop-up,” the vegan restaurant explained on its
Instagram. During Crapteka, Apteka’s normal menu will be on pause, with diners advised to expect veggie burgers and fries, sunflower seed milkshakes, “cocktails with pineapple n fun stuff that aren’t just little berries,” and other less-than-gourmet treats. Food will still be all-vegan and made from scratch, served during normal hours. Crapteka runs weekends from Fri., Jan. 19-Feb. 4, with pre-orders for
take-out (recommended) open on Wednesdays at noon.
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CP Photo: Jared Wickerham
Apteka in Bloomfield
Pittsburgh Beerfest
Just in time to warm us up, Pittsburgh Beerfest returns on Fri. Jan. 26 and Sat., Jan. 27 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Touted as one of the largest craft beer events in the country, the Pittsburgh Winter Beerfest invites enthusiasts to sample more than 150 craft brews, alongside offerings from new wineries and distilleries. Ciders, seltzers, liquor, NA beverages, and food booths will also be on-site at the two-day event. Tickets (starting at $45 for one of three sessions) are available online.
Community Kitchen Pittsburgh
Community Kitchen Pittsburgh — which claimed the city’s best Lenten fish fry — is now mobile. The Hazelwood-based nonprofit, which offers no-cost culinary training programs and job placement, has stationed a new
food truck at Mill 19 in the Hazelwood Green development. A lunch menu, served daily 11 a.m.-2 p.m., will rotate weekly, with plans to debut breakfast next month. Due to the harsh winter weather, the truck is currently closed with plans to reopen on Thu., Jan. 18.
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CP Photo: Pam Smith
A volunteer wraps up an order at Community Kitchen Pittsburgh in Hazelwood.
Buffalo Sauce Boycott
With a playoff upset in their sights, Steelers fans turned to protest, with local restaurants boycotting Buffalo sauce ahead of yesterday’s wildcard game against the Buffalo Bills. TribLive reported that restaurants across the region, including 22 McDonald’s locations and Bubba’s Gourmet Burghers & Beer in Cecil Township (owned by 100.7 FM’s Bubba Show host Bubba Snider), “yank[ed] the sauce” ahead of the game, even extending the ban as the matchup was postponed due to blizzard conditions. The sauce boycott story has since gone national, picked up by Buffalo, N.Y. outlets and Sports Illustrated.
Amid cutbacks by Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, Hello Bistro’s South Side location closed on Jan. 15. “We are grateful to our team members and guests who joined us over the last decade on East Carson Street,” the combination salad-and-burger restaurant wrote in an email to the Pittsburgh Business Times. The announcement comes on the heels of several other South Side eateries closing, including The Vault Taproom (in the former Beehive space), Stagioni, Doughbar, and Jimmy John’s.
