The Strip District is one of the most fun places in Pittsburgh, and one of those places where you feel such a sense of community with your fellow Yinzers. Just outside the edge of downtown, the Strip District is one of the best places to shop on the weekends, for groceries, meats and fish, candies and treats, specialty foods, and of course, Pittsburgh sports gear.
The Strip is home to Wholey’s, the best fish market in all of Pittsburgh, and also the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company, one of the best cheese places. There are little independent shops like Penzey’s Spices, which sells every imaginable spice and seasoning, and Mon Aimee, which sells every imaginable type of chocolate, from around the whole world (French bacon chocolate? got it!). There are amazing bakeries, like Mancini’s famous bread shop, and specialty ethnic foods available from Asian and Mexican markets.
We love going every so often to stock up on these things, but also to just take in the bustling market atmosphere. And of course, there are tons of different restaurants where you can enjoy a breakfast or lunch. When we first started dating, our Saturday mornings in the Strip were a regular event. Now, we don’t get there quite so often, but we try to make the trips well worth it.
This time, we started at our regular breakfast spot: Enrico Biscotti. It’s a tiny little place, tucked away on a back street (the main bakery part is front and center on Penn Avenue, but the restaurant is behind it), but it is one of the most unique places. The menu rotates, and they’ll give you the updated sheets when you take your seat. And get there early, because they will run out of things on busy days!
We started out with one of their yummy biscottis. We love the pumpkin flavored ones, and eating one made us feel like fall was really here!
Here is Michael, with his coffee cup. We have pictures of us having breakfast at Enrico’s in January 2007, and we compared the two together. 🙂
Here is what we ate! Michael got the poached eggs and Italian sausage, and I had ‘the original sangaweech,’ which is like an Italian hoagie on pizza crust. Yum!
The sign outside of Enrico. The door to the left here is the bakery, where you can get your biscotti!
Next we stopped off at PennMac (that’s the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company) to pick up some goat cheese and olive oil. They have some of the best prices in the city, especially on things like pasta, olive oil, and canned seafood.
And outside of PennMac each Saturday, they sell yummy baked goods! Crepes and cannoli and cookies and brownies. Mmmm!
We popped in to Wholey’s to get some lox and frozen calamari rings (we also use them for our fresh seafood), and they were giving out free samples of their lobster and crab bisque. It was sooooo good, so we naturally had to buy some. We had that and a lobster roll for lunch, along with some Marburger Farms iced tea (it’s my favorite, and aside from my old high school, Wholey’s is one of the only places I can find it for sale).
Here we are at the edge of the Strip! Ready to head home and enjoy our purchases.
And while this wasn’t taken at the Strip, the bandana our sweet Lucy is wearing was purchased there. If you’ve ever been in need of a Terrible Towel, or an obscure Steelers jersey, or Penguins socks, or a Buccos waterproof shower radio, the Strip is the place! And if it’s around playoff time, you can expect to find the very finest sports stuff around. Lucy needed to get into football season spirit, so we brought her home this cute little bandana (which she would rather chew than wear). 🙂