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The Spurgh (Part II)

April 29, 2009 12:17 AM

efore so much as one other person tells me how much I should go to Primanti Bros., let me just say this: I fucking went, ok?

Anyway, our second day in the Spurgh started off pretty lazily. We got up sometime in the mid-morning. After a quick bagel, we were off. And in style, too. The weather was perfect: sunny and mid-80s, so we drove around in a convertible Wrangler the whole day. Awesome.

We got on the highway and then headed towards the city. I knew I was in for a great day as soon as I saw the city. See, we took this tunnel through a huge hill, which I later learned was called Mt. Washington. One minute, you're driving around in a rural-looking countryside. You see a looming mountain which is sparsely covered with old homes. Then you're in a tunnel. Next thing you know, the tunnel is opening up on the gleaming skyscrapers of a giant city. It's pretty much the most abrupt change from rural to urban I've ever seen. And it was awesome.

Our first stop in the city was the Strip District. It's basically an area populated by touristy stores, awesome food stores that the locals shop at, and street-food vendors. It actually reminded me a lot of the touristy sections of Nogales, Sonora, although it wasn't as sketchy and there wasn't nearly as much cheap handmade crap. There was a fuckload of Steelers (pronounced "Stillers" by the locals) paraphernalia.

We walked around in some of the shops, and there really was a lot of unique stuff in there. The food places were friggin' amazing. The coffee place made me wish I liked coffee, it smelled so good. The fish market was a spectacle. Penn Mac smelled better than almost any other place I've ever been. There was a giant cheese section, literally barrels of olives you could buy by the pound, and kegs full of olive oil that you could fill your own containers out of.I wanted everything.

But the highlight of the Strip District was Primanti Bros. There might be a way to screw up a sandwich with coleslaw and french fries right there between the bread, but I can't imagine how you could do that. And Primanti Bros. does the opposite of ruin it. The guy comes out, stares you down, you tell him what you want--no substitutions!--and he brings it out, slices it, and leaves. No places, no utensils. Just you and your sandwich. And the sandwiches are amazing. You gotta go there if you go to Pittsburgh.

After the Strip District, we drove around a little more. Some of the neighborhoods in the Spurgh were really, really awesome. The Carnegie Melon and Pittsburgh University campuses were beautiful. We walked around in Phipps Botanical Gardens, which were impressive, but I think they'll be even more so later in the season.

In the afternoon, we went to the top of Mt. Washington to see the Duquesne Incline, which chelsadilla and her brother and sister-in-law insisted on incorrectly pronouncing as "doo-CAYN" instead of the obviously correct "doo-KWES-nee." Idiots. But despite my company's problematic phonetic predicament, we enjoyed a beautiful view of downtown Pittsburgh and the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers. Seriously awesome.

Then we were hungry. So we went to church. More specifically, we went to Church Brew Works, a brewery and restaurant built into an old Catholic church. Aside from the dining tables and bars instead of pews, the brewery equipment instead of an altar, and the desanctification which apparently took place, the thing looked exactly like it would have when it served as a place of worship, right down to the stained-glass windows and the pipe organ. It was sort of a mind-fuck, but the food was good, the beer was acceptable, and the company was fun. Plus I don't think that any of chelsadilla's family members hate me, so we're gonna count this as a win.

We went back up to Mt. Washington with the entire group after dinner to get a good view of the city at night, then headed back to our home base for more relaxing on the porch. After a few more beers, we all went to sleep, satisfied with another excellent day.



1 Comments


chelsadilla said:

the sandwich man, while wielding his sandwich-cutting knife, told me he was going to cut me. of course, the sandwiches are worth the empty (but creepy) threats.

April 29, 2009 7:07 PM



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