Cover Story
Best of Pittsburgh 2011
{PHOTO/ART CREDITS} ART GALLERY PHOTOSHOOT Photographer: Heather Mull Makeup: Bethany Montecalvo Stylist: Michelle Pacis MODELS The Artist: Gregory Johnstone Art Gallery Attendees: Michael Artman, Jasmine Hearn, Daniella Mehalik and Andy Mulkerin “The Girl With the Black and Gold Earring”: Nikki Allen Subject of “The Turnover”: Steelerbaby ADDITIONAL ARTWORK “South Side at Night” illustration by Rhonda…
Short List: December 8 – 15
Inspired by the frenzy associated with the holidays, Attack Theatre’s dance work Holiday Unwrapped follows four characters caught up in the madness of holiday consumerism, and how they come to realize that what is inside the gift box is not what is most important. The 40-minute family-friendly show, now in its third season, is set…
Re: alpolitik
To: Jeffrey RomoffFrom: Public Affairs Re: Status of our messaging efforts w/r/t Highmark transition There is much to tell you, O Great One. To begin with, hiring former KDKA anchor Patrice King Brown to produce our commercials was an inspired move. It was most fortunate that Ms. Brown, who spent decades becoming a trusted name,…
State of Inertia
Harrisburg is to politics what the Pirates are to baseball: No matter who’s in charge, the performance never seems to change. And often, the only way for an onlooker to stay sane is to mutter, “There’s always next year.” Did you hope Gov. Tom Corbett and the Republican legislature would privatize state liquor stores? Looking…
Rumors that Edgewood is a “dry” municipality are all wet
Regent Square’s Root 174 restaurant has a small nook reserved for a bar … even though patrons sometimes tell general manager Will Groves that it will never be used. “Everybody thinks Edgewood is dry,” he says. Which isn’t surprising. The neighborhood’s Braddock Avenue business district straddles Edgewood and Swissvale, and as Groves point out, “You…
Move Over Yogurt, It’s Kefir
Kefir is a healthful fermented milk product, a cousin to yogurt. And keeping the cultures to make your own is a little like having a pet. Kefir (Keh-FEER) grains suggest tiny, rubbery cauliflowers all massed together, but the bacteria and yeast are quite alive. Plop them in a jar and add whole milk (they thrive…
Alchemy N’ Ale
The recipe for the newest concept in dining, the gastropub, is simple: Take a traditional bar — the neighborhood-pub model where gossip and opinions on current events are exchanged over pints — replace the Guinness posters with some updated décor, and instead of greasy, fried ballast, serve a salutary menu of gourmet comfort food. In…
Savage Love
I’m a happily married woman. I have a great sex life with my husband of many years. The problem: Three years ago, my first love contacted me after 23 years. He was married at the time, although he didn’t want to be, and told me that he never stopped loving me. We have been having…
As temps drop, Occupy Pittsburgh tries to rekindle hope
With police dismantling Occupy Wall Street encampments across the country, protesters in cities like New York and Philadelphia are shifting their focus: Instead of being rooted to a specific site, activists plan to protest corporate greed through rallies and other mobile actions. Occupy Pittsburgh, by contrast, is still headquartered Downtown at Mellon Green, a parklet…
Political Capital: City officials weigh how much to spend on city infrastructure
Pittsburgh Public Works Director Rob Kaczorowski can’t figure out why anyone would oppose the city borrowing $80 million to help shore up its crumbling infrastructure. “I just don’t get it,” says Kaczorowski. “Let me assure you, I can spend $80 million all by myself on things that need done, and then get back in line…
CD Reviews
Slim Forsythe & FriendsDown on My Knees at Nied’s Hotel Again(Self-released) Lawrenceville’s singin’ cowboy returns with a new release, thanks to help from scads of friends. Elliott Sussman, The Nied’s Hotel Band, The Turbosonics and plenty of others help out on the 13-track offering that winds through surf-rock, old-time-radio spoken-word and, most of all, old-style…
Critics’ Picks: December 9 – 14
[INDIE ROCK] + FRI., DEC. 9 Former Elefant frontman Diego Garcia stepped up this year with his first solo album, the beautiful Laura. The new record recalls the softer, prettier side of Garcia’s old band, with fewer post-punk nods and more acoustic-guitar-driven pop gems. (He’s living in Madrid currently, and Spanish guitar flourishes figure into…
Best New Bar & Best Bar to People Watch
Local Bar + Kitchen 1515 E. Carson St., South Side 412-431-1125 or www.localpgh.org You might think the last thing the South Side needs is another watering hole, but Local isn’t just another Carson Street bar. The recently opened bar/restaurant offers a lively and attractive spot for pints and pizza, bourbon and burgers. And its interior…
After some delays, The Red Western and Delicious Pastries release debut albums
When a band is born, it’ll usually release some sort of recording not long after it starts playing shows. But this weekend sees the release of debut albums from two local bands that have been around a while — and had some issues that prevented them from releasing anything sooner. For The Red Western, the…
Paradise Gray on conscious music and Jasiri X
When we interviewed Paradise Gray, he had this to say about conscious music and its history in relation to Jasiri X. When you talk about conscious music, that’s what black music always was. From the essence of what music is, when the Africans played their drums they didn’t just play them to shake their asses…
Jasiri X goes from MC to activist to activist MC
I was at Jerry’s Records in early 2009, sifting through one of the dozens, if not hundreds, of crates of hip-hop records. At a time when Rostrum Records and Wiz Khalifa were starting to put Pittsburgh on the national radar, I began my quest to re-discover the earlier music that shaped hip hop in Pittsburgh. …
Best Pittsburgh Zoo Animal
Polar bear Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, Highland Park 412-665-3640 or www.pittsburghzoo.com The polar bear is a big animal — and a big star. So it’s no surprise that City Paper readers voted the polar bear their favorite animal at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. When voters cast their ballots, the zoo actually housed…
Best Alt-Folk/Alt-Country Band
The Armadillos thearmadillos.bandcamp.com Austin Vanasdale’s folk influences are as plain as the handlebar moustache on his face. While his entrée into alt-folk music came through interest in contemporary bands — The Decemberists, for example — the sounds that color his work with The Armadillos are more classic. Bandmate Matt Rychorcewicz is quick to point to…
Best Burger
Burgatory 932 Freeport Road, Aspinwall (Waterworks Mall) 412-781-1456 or www.burgatorybar.com “Burgatory”: It sounds like where hamburgers are sent if they haven’t been good enough for burger heaven … or bad enough for burger hell. But the amusing name might be the only thing ambiguous about this new hit local restaurant, tucked rather modestly into a…
Best Bakery
Oakmont Bakery 531 Allegheny Ave., Oakmont 412-826-1606 or oakmontbakery.com When Marc Serrao opened the Oakmont Bakery with his wife, Susan, in 1987, he wanted it to become more than a memory for customers. He wanted it to become a Pittsburgh destination. By all accounts, it has done just that. Oakmont Bakery won 2010 “Retail Bakery…
The Women on the Sixth Floor
Jean-Louis (Fabrice Luchini) lives an exemplary life for a Parisian stockbroker, circa 1962. He lives in a fine home, goes to his dull job, and has a well-groomed wife (Sandrine Kiberlain) who lunches. Then, the family’s longtime maid leaves, and the household gambles on new sort of domestic, a young Spanish immigrant named Maria (Natalia…
Film Kitchen
Filmmaker Will Zavala met artist Virgil Cantini just once after receiving a Pittsburgh Center for the Arts commission to make a short film about him. The 2009 meeting came shortly before Cantini’s death, at age 90. While Zavala never interviewed Cantini on camera, his “Virgil Cantini: The Artist in Public” is a lovely tribute to…
Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
The “Toynbee tiles” have been an enduring contemporary mystery. In the late 1980s, the tiles began appearing in city streets throughout the Northeast and the Midwest. Each was slightly different, but all appeared created by one artist, and most bore the cryptic phrase: “Toynbee Idea in Movie 2001 Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter.” (Four remain…
Choreographer Mary Miller’s latest work accompanies an art exhibit about war’s aftermath.
War’s aftermath is a legacy of broken buildings, broken lives and broken dreams. In Out of Rubble: The Phoenix Rising, choreographer Mary Miller creates a dance work inspired by her reactions to selected artworks in the exhibition Out of Rubble, at Downtown’s Space Gallery. Curated by artist and Carnegie Mellon University art professor Susanne Slavick,…
Best of 2011: People and Places
Best TV Newscast KDKA Channel 2 2nd: WTAE Channel 4 3rd: WPXI Channel 11 Best Local Radio Personality Mikey & Big Bob, KISS-FM 2nd: Jim Krenn, WDVE-FM 3rd: Tim Benz, WXDX-FM Best-Looking Pittsburgh Celebrity (male) Hines Ward 2nd: Sidney Crosby 3rd: Troy Polamalu Best-Looking Pittsburgh Celebrity (female) Darieth Chisholm 2nd (tie): Sally Wiggin / Wendy…
The Mask of Moriarty
For those of us who have misspent much of our lives wallowing in the Golden Age of British Crime — both fiction and fact, paper and celluloid — Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre’s production of The Mask of Moriarty is an unbridled romp of knowing chuckles, nodding guffaws and the occasional horselaugh. Hugh Leonard’s 1985…
Best of 2011: Food and Drink
Best New Restaurant Meat & Potatoes, Downtown 2nd: NOLA on the Square, Downtown 3rd: Burgatory, Aspinwall Best BYOB Dining Piccolo Forno, Lawrenceville 2nd: Root 174, Regent Square 3rd: Pusadee’s Garden, Lawrenceville Best Outdoor Dining Pusadee’s Garden, Lawrenceville 2nd: Round Corner Cantina, Lawrenceville 3rd: Double Wide Grill, South Side Best Chef Kevin Sousa, Salt of the…
Mad Forest
There are always two emotions running side by side whenever I see a Caryl Churchill play. And the Carnegie Mellon Drama production of Mad Forest, her examination of the 1989 Romanian revolution, is no exception. The first reaction is always shame. Churchill is blessed with one of the most awesome intellects of the 20th century,…
Fat Beckett
Quantum Theatre has embarked on another maiden voyage. It’s world-premiering Fat Beckett, created by Pittsburgh’s Gab Cody with Portuguese/Luxembourger Rita Reis. They chose to spin off Samuel Beckett’s bleak conundrum of futility Waiting for Godot, given that Beckett’s estate prohibits women from playing the roles. They also express a fondness for “the French language…
Best of 2011: Goods and Services
Best Local Bookstore Caliban Books, Oakland 2nd: tie: Half-Price Books, multiple locations / Eljay’s Used Books, Dormont 3rd: Beyond Bedtime, Dormont Best Store to Buy Comics Phantom of the Attic, Oakland and Monroeville 2nd: Eide’s Entertainment, Strip District 3rd: Copacetic Comics, Polish Hill Best Local Store to Buy Music The Exchange, multiple locations 2nd: Dave’s…
Famed book-designer Chip Kidd, department-store historian Michael Lisicky and poet Naomi Shihab Nye visit Pittsburgh this week
Chip Kidd made his name as a groundbreaking designer of book covers for works by a Who’s Who of authors — from Cormac McCarthy and James Ellroy to Haruki Murakami and Oliver Sacks. Kidd, 47, is probably the best-known book designer around. But the Reading, Pa., native is a man of words as well as…
At the Mattress Factory, American and Egyptian artists put a fresh spin on global politics.
“Africa Magazine,” by Amado Al Fadni, is a group of digitally reproduced monoprints that imagine what the covers of news magazines might look like if Africa were the “first world” and the West the “third world.” This piece, included in Sites of Passage at the Mattress Factory Annex Gallery, is all the more intriguing in…
Best of 2011: Culture and Nightlife
Best Local Theater Company City Theatre, South Side 2nd: Stage 62, Carnegie 3rd: Attack Theatre, Strip District Best Local Stage Actor/Actress Becki Toth 2nd: Christopher Martin 3rd: Patrick Jordan Best Museum in Pittsburgh The Andy Warhol Museum, North Side 2nd: Carnegie Museums, Oakland 3rd: Mattress Factory, North Side Best Gallery for Local Artists ModernFormations,…
Best New Restaurant
Meat & Potatoes 649 Penn Ave., Downtown 412-325-7007 or www.meatandpotatoespgh.com As its name suggests, chef Richard DeShantz’s Downtown restaurant is a tribute to simplicity — and to the things that stay the same, even as dining habits continue to change. “I really wanted a neighborhood place,” says DeShantz, who also owns the upscale Nine on…
Best Local Twitter
In September, Pittsburgh rejoiced when Evgeni Malkin, the Russian-born Penguins forward who in recent years popularized phrases like “My mom is good food” and “I’m score,” showed up on Twitter (@malkin71_). Though he was a late entry in this year’s “Best of” race, it’s little wonder our readers voted him Best Pittsburgh Twitter User. Aside…
Best Thai Restaurant
Nicky’s Thai Kitchen 856 Western Ave., North Side, and 321 South Ave., Verona www.nickysthaikitchen.com I’ll admit I was skeptical when my girlfriend suggested a year ago that we eat at Nicky’s Thai Kitchen. I already had a favorite Thai restaurant, and going to Nicky’s, located on the North Side, would mean … crossing a river.…
Best Bar to Karaoke
Nico’s Recovery Room 178 Pearl St., Bloomfield 412-681-9562 Andy Lucci is something of a karaoke connoisseur. He’s karaoked in eight different countries, including Bulgaria, where the only song available in English was Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.” And for the past half-decade, the Lawrenceville resident has been a semi-regular at the karaoke gathering hosted every…
Best Museum
The Andy Warhol Museum 117 Sandusky St., North Side 412-237-8300 or www.warhol.org City Paper readers who voted The Warhol Pittsburgh’s “best museum” might like it even better next year. Eric Shiner, the museum’s director since July, has big plans for the institution’s layout and programming. “I’m really thinking about ways to reimagine the visitor experience,”…
Best Place for a Wedding Reception
Phipps Conservatory 700 Frank Curto Drive, Oakland 412-622-6914 or phipps.conservatory.org If you’d like to have a destination wedding but can’t quite convince your loved ones to spend hundreds of dollars just to watch you exchange vows on a tropical beach, Phipps Conservatory may offer the perfect solution. The conservatory has been showcasing the world’s flora…
Best Hotel
Omni William Penn, Downtown 30 William Penn Place, Downtown 412-281-7100 If you’re visiting the city, Pittsburgh boasts several fine hotels to choose from. And if you already live here, there’s one you probably keep coming back to: the William Penn. That would be the Omni William Penn, though the hotel has changed hands numerous times…
Best Local Salon
Pageboy Salon & Boutique 3613 Butler St., Lawrenceville 412-224-2294 or www.pageboypgh.com For many of us, finding the perfect stylist can be as difficult as finding the perfect babysitter or therapist. In such circumstances, we turn to our friends for help. So when Robin Stanga Monroe needed a haircut, she asked her Facebook friends to offer…
Best Store to Buy Comics
Phantom of the Attic 411 S. Craig St., Oakland 412-621-1210 Thanks to pop-culture representations in shows like The Simpsons, you probably have a mental picture of the average comic-book customer. But Jeff Yandora says there’s really no such thing. “We get a pretty eclectic group in here,” says Yandora, who owns Phantom of the Attic,…
Best Frozen Treats
Razzy Fresh 1717 Murray Ave. (Squirrel Hill) 3533 Forbes Ave. and 300 S. Craig St. (Oakland) www.razzyfresh.com Razzy Fresh’s Craig Street location looks like an exclusive gym for fruit. It’s bright, with floor-to-ceiling windows, big photographs of strawberries being doused in crystal water along one wall, and peppy dance music. But no, this is not…
Best French Restaurant
Paris 66 6018 Penn Circle South, East Liberty 412-404-8166 or www.paris66bistro.com Had local history played out differently — had the French somehow kept the city’s Point from falling into British hands roughly 250 years ago — we might all be speaking French today. And after visiting Paris 66, as many City Paper readers have done,…
