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Pittsburgh offers many al fresco dining opportunities
Thursday, June 25, 2009
By China Millman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette
The covered outdoor terrace overlooking the Monongahela River at the Hofbrauhaus on the South Side.

Diners in Pittsburgh love eating outside. From the minute the chairs hit the patio (or deck, or porch, or courtyard or even sidewalk), they become the most popular seats in town.

Even for days of rain or even partial sunshine, there are plenty of fabulous spots, from hidden courtyards to decks over the river, some new, some old and some reinvented, to coax us outdoors and into restaurants all over the city and beyond.

Where to eat out
Love eating outside? Always looking for a new place to try? Next Thursday we're launching an outdoor dining map. We'll aim to cover every restaurant with outdoor dining in the city limits, as well as notable spots in Allegheny County. If we're missing a restaurant, e-mail the info to cmillman@post-gazette.com and we'll add it to the map.

This will be the first full summer for the rooftop deck at 2Red, the lounge next door to (and part of) the Red Room Cafe in East Liberty. But the newest addition to outdoor dining in the neighborhood is Paris 66, a creperie and bistro with a back patio that seats 20. Read more about Paris 66 in today's Food & Flavor section.

There are several new places to eat Thai food outside. Pusadee's Garden in Lawrenceville took over the space previously occupied by Sweet Basil and La Filipiniana, including the lovely garden for outdoor dining. Nicky's Thai Kitchen has sidewalk seating in Verona and a secluded courtyard on the North Side.

A number of restaurants have upgraded their outdoor seating this year. The Sewickley Hotel marked the opening of its renovated courtyard June 19. The courtyard, which seats 70, has black wrought-iron tables, red and yellow umbrellas, fountains and trees. The patio will be pleasant through fall, thanks to heating and a fireplace.

Sunny Jim's on Camp Horne Road in Kilbuck has an expanded deck, an outdoor bar and a patio with a huge movie screen. They'll show nighttime sporting events all summer and are considering movie nights. They're also having a luau July 2 with drink specials and live music.

In fact, restaurants are planning all kinds of special events this summer. Every Wednesday, celebrate "The Dog Days of Summer" on the back deck of the Harp & Fiddle in the Strip District. It's bring-your-dog-to-dinner-night, bowls of water and doggy treats on the house. On Fridays, ring in the end of the work week with a musical happy hour. Drink specials are accompanied by live acoustic music from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

One outdoor event guaranteed to draw a crowd is the small-batch bourbon tasting and patio BBQ at Willow in Ohio Township, July 18 at 6:30 p.m. The event, which costs $45 per person including two cocktails, is co-sponsored by Jim Beam, with master distiller Fred Noe (son of Booker Noe and great-grandson of Jim Beam) as a special guest.

Feast on slow-cooked brisket, roast chicken and short ribs, tomato-vinaigrette salad, jalapeno and apple spoon bread and chocolate pecan pie. This Southern-style feast will be accompanied by a range of bourbon-based cocktails, including Black Lemonade and Booker Noe's Mint Julep.

Looking for something a little less formal than a restaurant meal? There's no more romantic picnic outing than the First Fridays at the Frick concerts. Held on the great lawn near the Clayton mansion on the first Friday of each month in the summer, performances begin at 7 p.m. and the suggested donation is $5 per adult. While you can bring your own picnic, you can also pick up a gourmet dinner-to-go from the Café at the Frick.

Even though we've experienced one of the wettest springs in recent memory, there are a number of restaurants that have designed their outdoor spaces to let in the fresh air and sunshine, but to keep the seats and tables dry.

Only a real storm could interrupt the weekly Friday patio parties at Jackson's Restaurant-Rotisserie-Bar in Moon. These weekly get-togethers feature live steel drum music, tropical drinks including caipirinhas, margaritas and mojitos and a Jamaican-themed tapas menu with coconut scallops and jerk pork empanadas. Both the Moon and the Southpointe location in Washington County have covered patios.

In Shadyside, diners enjoy the tented deck at Soba and the enclosed courtyard at Casbah all the more because the breezy feel of eating outside is balanced by the comfort provided by the enclosures. In Oakland, there's Lucca's covered porch and on the South Side, Hofbrauhaus, the newest chain wunderkind, has a covered deck overlooking the river.

The options are many and the rewards tangible. Whether the days are cloudy, rainy or sunny, summertime is passing us by. Let's appreciate it while we still can.



AL FRESCO RESTAURANTS


China Millman can be reached at 412-263-1198 or cmillman@post-gazette.com. Follow China on Twitter at http://twitter.com/chinamillman.
First published on June 25, 2009 at 12:00 am