The Blue Line Grille

It’s a hockey night in Pittsburgh! With the NHL playoffs coming up, we figured we would hit up all the bars around the Consol Energy Center to see what kind of options there are for your pre-game drinks, post-win celebration or post-loss commiseration. We started at the newest bar in the area: The Blue Line.

The Blue Line, as the name suggests, is a hockey bar. It is not one of the gritty local hockey bars where locals go to scream at the TV and hit their heads off the bar when Fleury lets in a dribbler. This is a hockey theme bar. The bar itself is made of “boards.” There is hockey themed stuff everywhere and there is even a place called the “sin bin,” which is a mini hockey rink area that can accommodate large groups of people. It is all very shiny and new, and you can smell that it has not settled yet.

The bar is very adequately stocked, with a very nice beer selection. A ordered a shot of Jameson, which was real Jameson, and look how huge this thing was! However, buyer be warned, they charge about $7.50 for the giant shot and a half. So you are paying for that big shot. This is a bit underhanded. We ordered a shot, not a shot and a half.

The menu is full of fancied-up bar food and after much back and forth, we both ordered something small. A got the poutine, which was surprisingly delicious, and J had a chorizo and wild mushroom quesadilla, which got a bit messy and sloppy, but was also good.  The staff seemed young and slightly overwhelmed even though the bar was sparsely populated, which makes us wonder how they handle it when there is a game on. We are sure it is a madhouse in there.  We are also pretty sure they schedule a ton more people on those nights.

Since this is the new hockey bar next to the arena it is probably hard to get a seat if you don’t get there super early on game night. It is an interesting space with surprisingly good food and we definitely recommend dropping in one day if you can squeeze in.

Address:	1014 Fifth Ave, 15219 http://www.bluelinegrille.com/	Games:	None
Façade:	Not Scary	Scene:	Hockey
Parking:	Easy (on non-game nights)	Patio/Outdoor:	No
Kitchen:	Fancy Bar Food	Cleanliness:	Normal
Smoking:	None	Jukebox:	Internet Crap
Hours:	Sun-Wed 11am-12am Thurs-Sat 11am-2am	Cig Machine:	No
Drink Prices:	Average	# taps:	20
Bathrooms:	Sit	Specials:	Early and Late Happy Hour, Game Specials
Live music:	Never	Riley Factor:	$10.00
ATM:	No	Cash Only	No
TVs:	>10	Size:	Normal