Kicking Off 2016 At Pittsburgh’s First Night

2015 was a great year, but it was time to say goodbye and start 2016 fresh. And there’s really no better way to kick off the New Year in the ‘Burgh than watching the ball go up and the fireworks go off downtown at First Night. This year marked our 8th visit to Pittsburgh’s First Night, and here’s our photo tour of the night’s festivities.

We always start the evening with an ‘early bird’ dinner at Sonoma Grille. They feature a prix fixe menu in addition to some other ala carte options. And we, of course, had to try a little bit from both menus.

We kicked dinner off with a glass of rosé bubbly. Your First Night Button gets you into any of the events of the evening downtown, and it costs only $8 ($7 if you buy it at Giant Eagle in advance).

The highlight of dinner at Sonoma Grille this year was their tapas sampler, served on a wine barrel board. (Fret not: closeups of these majestic tiny plates are coming!)

Left: cauliflower ravioli with celeriac cream, watercress, and citrus. Right: coconut shrimp with red pepper, verde salsa, and orange coconut sauce. (Heavenly. Both, just heavenly.)

Left: sweet crab arancinis with harissa and scallion. Center: pork belly steam bun with kimchi, Indonesian glaze, & cilantro. Right: cured salmon with citrus chili, fennel yogurt, and taro chips. (Also, all dropped delicately onto our table by angels from Heaven itself.)

The pacing of the meal was a bit slower than in past years, but the company was lovely, so we didn’t mind all that much.

When I ask someone to fix me a steak, they *really* fix me a steak.

After dinner, we secured a nice spot on the sidewalk and settled in for one of our favorite First Night events: the FedEx Ground Parade!

We do parades right in Pittsburgh: with really creepy papier-mâché puppets.

Puppet celebrating our awesome families of peregrine falcons.

Our parade also showcases the fantastic Chinese dragon dancers from Pittsburgh’s own Steel Dragon.

The Chinese dragon dancers, always a highlight of the parade.

And of course, no First Night parade is complete without the Furries!! Pittsburgh is host to the annual Anthrocon Furry Convention each year, and our furries love giving out high-fives. I got a new record of six furry-high-fives this year.

I loved the saying on this sign: “With a new year ahead, may good fortune be yours, and may opportunity knock open new doors.”

After the parade, we were more than a little chilly, so we went to visit a couple of our favorite downtown bartenders to warm up with a glass of wine.

Then it was back into the cold to take silly photos on Penn Ave.

But the cold was a bit much, so we nipped into one last stop to have our gemstones read by the terrific Professor Styles of The Miracle Elixir Sideshow. This was SO FUN, creepily accurate about the past & present, and if our future readings are accurate as well, it is going to be a great year for creativity for the 101 Achievements team.

It was time for one more warmup to carry us through the next hour out in the cold. You know you’ve got special bartender friends when they prepare a wine glass just for you… (You lose one cat, you get a reputation!)

And then, it was time to start the countdown. The final hour of 2015 was upon us, so we headed toward the stage on Penn Ave, where the Wailers were playing.

I picked up these awesome glasses from Mike Feinberg’s a few days earlier. We were SO prepared to ring in the new year.

Fireworks! Happy New Year, 2016 is here!!!

It was a little chillier than we maybe would have liked (although I blame the overly-warm temperatures of the weeks beforehand for why we were so poorly equipped to deal with cold, clear weather), but First Night 2016 was a great time.

Here’s to a fabulous year, to each and every one of our readers! We are so excited to share 101 Achievements in 2016, and our year feels off to a great start.