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Monday, September 28, 2015

Lucky's/Gaucho Parrilla - Strip District


They don't really make a "Sorry your dodgeball coach just got crushed by two tons of irony" Hallmark card.
I have been walking by Lucky's for several years wondering what goes on under the giant green shamrock.

Let me give you a quick rundown of what Lucky's was like during the early evening on a sunny Thursday. The bar was scarcely populated, the bartender was fantastic, the room was smokey but permeated with late summer sun and drinks were priced for consumption! (Well drinks and draft beers were both $1.75 from 5:30 to 7:30)

Now I've come to expect the occasional $2 well drink special in this wonderful city I call home, but that extra 12% savings is quite the selling point! For an establishment located within city limits of a moderately large city, I would estimate that this deal is in the 95th percentile of all time happy hour specials available nationwide.

While I loved Lucky's, I could not properly recommend dining there. This toaster oven pizza was quite a steal, but, after all, it was cooked in a toaster oven and sadder than a dying grandma on her birthday. Great news though! You can walk right down the street to one of Pittsburgh's best restaurants, Gaucho Parrilla.

The saddest pizza of the lands.
I've dined at Gaucho a number of times, but only recently did I have the opportunity to meet the charismatic owner, Anthony Falcon. In addition to being a total badass, Anthony is a real salt of the earth guy. When I ran into Anthony at the King of the Wing Festival he was talking about how disappointed he was that he had to wait in a huge line at Gaucho the night before. What a great guy he is to wait in line at his own restaurant! (The line can be pretty substantial, but it moves quickly.)

BURGER

Every meal I have had at Gaucho has been world class. I was extremely excited for the burger due to the high rating from Pitts-Burgers, but I feel that in the future I will opt for my favorite Gaucho dish. The meat platter! You can never go wrong with a meat platter featuring steak cooked over oak wood and a plethora of fantastic homemade sauces. Always go with the steak, eat bread at home.

The burger was just a bit too pedestrian for my tastes at a restaurant specializing in steak.

MEAT
Don't skimp on the chimichurri and never forget that Gaucho is BYOB.

Gaucho Parrilla Argentina Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Saturday, September 5, 2015

MUSIC TO MY BEERS!!!

Remember earlier this year when Stage AE and Coors Light teamed up to give away tickets to every show at Stage AE. It is happening again! Just enter to win at http://musictomybeerspgh.com/, let them know where you are partying and be sure to use #MusicToMyBeers. Winners will be announced September 25. Let me know if you win so I can demand that you take me to see String Cheese Incident! My #MusicToMyBeers pick is the Pretenders with Back on the Chain Gang.


Bettis Grill




The pierogie flatbread at Bettis is certainly something different. Who would think of using mashed potatoes as a pizza base? What clever bastards. They list this appetizer  as one of their signature dishes and I understand why.  If you aren't from Pittsburgh, pierogies are entirely a novelty. This is easy to overlook once you have lived in this city for several years. I would say that at least forty percent of bars in Pittsburgh have pierogies on the menu. We might have more places to get pierogies than some large cities in Poland. This is very shocking when you consider the word pierogie has no entry in most spell check dictionaries and indeed no standard spelling at all. See perogi, pierogy, perogy, pierĂ³gi, pyrohy, pirogi, pyrogie, or pyrogy.

 In my opinion the dish was more like eating a potato skin than a standard flatbread. However, I appreciate the novelty and I found the flatbread quite enjoyable with the addition of sour cream. If you stop by Bettis Grill, be sure to visit the men's room. There is a one way mirror that allows for a pleasant view of the dining room while you relieve yourself at the urinal. Bon a petit!



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