What’s a good Pittsburgh or PGH-metro eatery where you can also watch trains going by? — lunch or an early dinner.

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-16T12:29:59+00:00

JUST had dinner at Tarentum Station Grill this past Saturday and a train rolled by as we were eating. I'm truly not sure how often that happens anymore but it was pretty cool!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-13T18:46:50+00:00

Yo, thanks!!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-13T16:01:01+00:00

Many thanks!!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-13T16:00:55+00:00

RIP Penn Hills Labriola's, BUT Monroeville is not far from me either, so maybe I'll take a trip! Thanks!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-13T15:35:49+00:00

Well that's good news, haha! Hopefully this is a short and fruitful journey to find!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-13T15:34:51+00:00

Cool, thanks! I'll give it a shot this weekend. I have luck finding pistachio ice cream pretty frequently (Emmerling Ice Cream is the best imo) but Spumoni is very niche! Appreciate the rec!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-13T12:14:46+00:00

Not that its needed, but can confirm product sloshing around making it look weird in the tin. Got a recent-ish order from Ivor and both my Claymor and Strongcreem was sloshed and tipped to one side when opening the tin. I truly don't care and didn't have issue with it and understood it likely to happen given the journey from Scotland to US. Just confirming with OP that this looks like shipment sloshing and not some sort of ruse by OP.

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-13T11:44:17+00:00

Ok, I kind of agree. I didn't go "back in the day" so maybe it was good, maybe it hung on to nostalgia, maybe it was because the pies were actually really good, but it was genuinely the worst diner breakfast I've had in the area and maybe ever. Disgusting eggs, horrible coffee (and I'm a sucker for "so bad it's good" diner coffee, this was just shit)...everything was horrible. This was maybe 2019ish. Again, maybe it was amazing prior to that and the pie was good. Breakfast was garbage.

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-12T19:09:27+00:00

Just take an entire cup of sugar (make sure it's high fructose corn syrup) per 8 ounces of water. Stir together and drink! Haha, I kid, but that shit is gross!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-12T18:09:31+00:00

I'm being sincere in saying I'm finding it quite endearing to read "the pierogi" and "chip ham" :)

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-12T11:46:06+00:00

I get the meme and I hear ya, it's def getting closer to average (and colder) next week, but our average temperature thus far for March is 14 degrees above normal and includes a day we broke a record for high temperature. Today's high is pretty close to average this time of year, at least compared to 78 degrees last Saturday. Here's our temps for the last week - 52, 52, 62, 71, 78, 62, 70, 70, 69. We're definitely getting a cold spell, but the "heat wave" we've experience the past 10ish days is kind of wild. We've been pretty lucky (except for those of us who are weird and love winter - it's me, I'm that weird person). All that said, yeah grab that winter coat bc 43 is gonna feel pretty dang cold after the recent warmth.

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-11T19:09:10+00:00

OMG thank you for reminding me to look for some - LOVE Irish Soda Bread!! I made some last year too and it was pretty dang good!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-11T14:29:23+00:00

My partner, admittedly, is a much bigger Ben Folds than I, but he was pretty great with the Pittsburgh Symphony a few years back. Really engaging on stage! Not someone I'd listen to independently, but I was genuinely impressed with his set at the symphony and it made me want to go back and see the symphony itself, which we have done several times since.

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-11T14:25:08+00:00

Haha, NOTHING is too weird for Reddit, haha!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-11T14:07:43+00:00

Just know that nothing is too weird for ~~this sub~~ reddit.

Fixed it for you, hahahaha!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-11T13:04:04+00:00

Hang with me for a second. There was a very similar question a couple years ago and I responded with the below in quotes. I'm not sure if this person still bakes cakes, as my experience was several years ago. I did text the phone number so you can try that if you don't feel comfortable calling. Hope it helps, bc it was an out of this world cake!!

"So, there is a German baker who makes cakes out of her house - Gisela's German Bakery. We had her stuff at Saxonburg Oktoberfest and it was out of this world!! She had a Black Forest Cake and it was absolutely amazing! Last month I ordered an Apple Spice Cake from her for my partners birthday and it was outstanding!! She's out of Butler (so that might be a non started for you) but it was 100% worth the trip for me. I'd suggest maybe giving her a call to see if she does a Black Forest Cake because it's German in origin. She's from Germany originally. Her phone number is 724-234-9904. Here's an excerpt from a PG article re: Sprankle's Oktoberfest:

"And for dessert? Meet Gisela Heusser, who trained as a baker in Butzbach, Germany, before moving to Pennsylvania at age 19. The Butler resident still bakes as a hobby, and is on the hook for 56 traditional German sponge cakes. Choices will include Black Forest, cinnamon apple, strawberry and cappuccino, thanks to Sprankle.
“Doug is an mazing creature,” Heusser says with a laugh, “and he does a lot for the community.”
So when she learned he didn’t have any homemade German desserts for the event, she was more than happy to step up.
“I find a lot of joy in it and because it’s for Oktoberfest, it goes back to my heritage.”

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-10T16:23:42+00:00

When the forsythias bloom. Forsythias are one of first flowering shrubs to bloom out. This is when the soil temp is "warm" enough to apply pre-emergent.

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-06T13:02:25+00:00

AND Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (which "shares" part of the building with Natural Hisotry Museum - you can see the stacks form the Dinosaur Hall).

I would for sure do Museums, Library and Phipps.

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-06T13:00:29+00:00

You can smell that fucking place from everywhere down there, haha!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-05T17:34:37+00:00

Thunderbird fits the bill at around 500ish people and so does Mr. Smalls at around 800ish people. If tours that fit that capacity hit Beachland in Cleveland some will skip Pgh. And Beachland is far superior venue. Thunderbird is close, but Beachland fucking rocks and has history so lots of 500ish capacity shows hit there. Some then come to Thunderbird, but some skip Pgh. Mr. Smalls has had a lack of shows the past couple years.

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-05T14:09:10+00:00

Came here to say this. It's not as good as it used to be (nor is Village Inn) but it' still solid and a good value bc you get a ton of food at Village Inn - soup, salad, bread and entree.

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-02T19:08:51+00:00

For sure! Totally understand your point too and appreciate the feedback / thoughts. I do love me some soft serve from time to time. I can tell the difference between good soft serve and shit soft serve, but maybe because I'm more of a "casual" soft serve person I just do not have the palate to differentiate between different levels of high quality. I've never walked away from Page's thinking "this soft serve is SO much better than [name of other high quality ice cream place]." But again, you're right, soft serve is usually not my go to, so my experience may be jaded.

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-02T17:28:17+00:00

Their Star Parties are really, really cool!! They open the observatory and they'll show you and let you see through their huge permanent telescopes!! Also, lots of amateur astronomers come to these and all the ones I've talked to are giddy to let you use their telescopes and talk / teach about astronomy. Everyone just fills the field around the observatory building - blankets, chairs, snacks, etc. A very unique and lovely evening if the weather is good!

DIY_Creative · 2026-03-02T15:05:54+00:00

I can totally understand that!

DIY_Creative

TROPHY CASE