This past weekend, we continued our Dive Bar Tour of Pittsburgh with a stop at Ruggers Pub on the South Side. (And yes, I say ‘continued,’ even though I haven’t blogged at all about the dives we frequent on a regular basis – but I will!)
The night went wrong from the start. We were supposed to go to this Italian BYOB joint in Shadyside called Pizzutti’s. We had bought a Living Social for it a few months ago for one reason: we love saying ‘Pizzutti’s’ with a Yinzer accent. Seriously! We were all set to spend the whole night eating pasta and talking like we were from Blawnox except that… Pizzutti’s now has a big ol’ ‘For Rent’ sign in the window.
Still wanting to cross off an Achievement, we scrolled through our list of GroupOns and found out that we still hadn’t redeemed ours for Ruggers Pub (even though it’s past its expiration date, the amount you bought the GroupOn for is always valid). So, we braved the South Side on a Saturday night and headed down.
When we arrived, we realized we didn’t have our camera card. I’d been editing so many pictures from the weekend that I’d forgotten to take my camera card out of my computer, and so we had to take pictures with Michael’s iPhone. So… yeah. Not our finest blogging!
But Ruggers was pretty great. We started with an order of their signature pickle chips. These things were enough to feed the whole rugby team (okay, maybe not, but definitely more than the two of us could eat). They were salty and a little sour and crispy all at once. I thought the ranch was a better match than the spicy mustard, but overall, good appetizer.
For entrees, we both got salads. Michael got the steak salad, which was piled high with ingredients, and super cheap (Ruggers is one of those wonderful dives that has crazy cheap food, so get there while the kitchen is still open).
I got the chicken salad, which was good, but if (or probably more likely ‘when’) I get another one, I’ll get it without onions. These are the cooked onions, not the raw crunchy onions that I prefer. Other than that though, the salad was great: a generous helping of fries, mozzarella (my favorite salad cheese lol), and lots of crispy greens.
One thing that was a really pleasant surprise about Ruggers was the excellent service. There were two girls alternating between bartending and serving, and they were both awesome (and wicked cute too). Drinks were cheap, they run a lot of booze specials, and they’ve got a jukebox. Oh yeah, and did I mention, if there’s rugby on in the world, you can watch it at Ruggers. (I don’t know why I have a serious inability to tear my eyes away from rugby and soccer games. I could be at my best friend’s wedding, and if there was a rugby or soccer game on, I would probably wander away from the ceremony without realizing it.)
I can definitely see us stopping back into Ruggers for another round, especially on a long walk or bike ride (and next time, we’ll have the real camera and take some better shots!).