Dive Bar & Grille

Yet another new bar where an old bar used to be; the ill-fated Alchemy and Ale is gone and in its place is a new bar called Dive. They gutted the old space and made many really thoughtful and interesting improvements. They added a beautiful new tin ceiling, a completely new bar, separated the bathrooms from the dining area and added very creative chandeliers. They also added a “fire feature.”

We felt very, very welcomed when we sat down. The bartender was excited and seemed to have a vested interest in the new bar’s success. He spent a lot of time with us explaining everything that had changed and discussing the menu with us. We eventually decided to try a mac & cheese quesadilla, because, well, it was a mac & cheese quesadilla. There were a bunch of other delicious looking items on the menu and our food was very good. Their focus seems to be on serious comfort food. Almost every item featured some combination of being fried, having mac & cheese, or having pulled pork. Some items included all three.

They had the obligatory chalkboard painted wall with their well selected draft list, illuminated by  a lighting fixture made from PBR cans. Their drink prices were reasonable and the bartender had a nice pour.

Dive is a cool new bar. Our only concern is the location. We are hoping this is not one of those doomed locations that changes every couple of years and fails for no apparent reason. We suggest checking it out and supporting them so it does not turn into a doomed space.

Address:	5147 Butler St, 15201 http://divebarandgrille.com/index_LAW.htm	Games:	None
Façade:	Not Scary	Scene:	Comfort Food^2
Parking:	Easy	Patio/Outdoor:	No
Kitchen:	Come hungry	Cleanliness:	Normal
Smoking:	None	Jukebox:	Internet Crap
Hours:	11am-2am	Cig Machine:	No
Drink Prices:	Average	# taps:	12
Bathrooms:	Sit	Specials:	Happy Hour 5-7pm
Live music:	Never	Riley Factor:	$7.50
ATM:	No	Cash Only	No
TVs:	2	Size:	Normal

Doubleday's

Doubleday’s is another bar that ended up being much better than expected thanks to a great bartender. We weren’t anticipating much from this downtown sports bar, but, much like Enigma, the bartender won us over. Enigma and Doubleday’s are two very different bars with two very different bartenders, but both bartenders shaped our opinions of their establishments more than anything else.

To look at it, Doubleday’s isn’t very special. It’s a sports bar along the major pedestrian thoroughfare from downtown to the North Side. There was your requisite sports memorabilia and a mix of local, craft, and domestic beers on tap. It’s also on the cheaper side for downtown. All of these things would put it in the OK category for us.

The first thing that started to win us over was the delightful puppy hanging out, Kundu. Once you have a puppy in the bar, the rest is easy. But what really sealed the deal for us was the bartender. He was an older, bearded, gruff- looking guy who told us funny and engaging stories about taking the puppy out on motorcycle rides and funny things his cat does. It was an unexpectedly adorable conversation and we left with smiles on our faces.

When we say that a good bartender can make or break our experience at a bar, we mean it. We expected this to be one of those perfunctory “it’s a bar” experiences, but the bartender made it memorable.

Address:	121 Sixth St, 15222 http://doubledayspittsburgh.com/	Games:	Magic Touch
Façade:	Not Scary	Scene:	Sports
Parking:	Wear Walking Shoes	Patio/Outdoor:	No
Kitchen:	Bar Food	Cleanliness:	Normal
Smoking:	None	Jukebox:	Internet Crap
Hours:	M-F 11am-2am Sat 2pm-2am Sun 4pm-12am	Cig Machine:	No
Drink Prices:	Average	# taps:	18
Bathrooms:	Sit	Specials:	During Games
Live music:	Never	Riley Factor:	$8
ATM:	Yes	Cash Only	Yes
TVs:	7	Size:	Normal

Enigma

Walking up to Enigma, a new bar in the cultural district, seemed like a terrible idea. It is purple. Really purple. There are purple-lit question marks on the walls. There was a band finishing up a set and the place was pretty dead. Then we found out that it’s owned by the Grille on Seventh people where we had such a weirdly bad experience. Can we hold all of this against them? Yes. What we can’t hold against them is their choice in bartenders.

Enigma is half bar, half lounge with a lot of tacky mismatched couches that no one was using, all awash in purple neon light. We decided on one quick drink; it didn’t seem like our kind of place. Then our bartender poured our Jameson shots in a waterfall and charmed the pants off us, figuratively. We have said it over and over: a bartender really makes the bar. He was charming and charismatic, making us feel much better about the place and its chance for success. It was the exact opposite of the bartender experience we had at Grille on Seventh. Also, their bar stools have hydraulics. Which, no lie, amused A for a good 5 minutes. He is unashamed.

Will we ever go here again? No. Should you ever go here? We wouldn’t make a spectacular effort. Do we want to hang out with that bartender? All the time.

Address:	130 Seventh St, 15222	Games:	None
Façade:	Scary	Scene:	?
Parking:	Wear Walking Shoes	Patio/Outdoor:	No
Kitchen:	Bar Food	Cleanliness:	Normal
Smoking:	None	Jukebox:	None
Hours:	4pm-2am Closed Sun-Mon	Cig Machine:	No
Drink Prices:	Richie Rich	# taps:	6
Bathrooms:	Sit	Specials:	Happy Hour and Late
Live music:	Sometimes	Riley Factor:	$14
ATM:	No	Cash Only	No
TVs:	0	Size:	Normal

Ten Penny

In our experience, everything downtown is a little more expensive than it should be. Nothing to be outraged about, but you’re likely to pay a dollar or two more than normal for your drinks. Ten Penny is no exception to this rule. Their cheapest beer is a $4.50 Yuengling. That’s right, $4.50 for one Yuengling.

They need to charge that much so they can pay for their fancy, expensive light bulbs. You know what we’re talking about, the ones with the pretty filaments. They look really cool but must cost a pretty penny (Get it? Penny?)

The bar is huge and it’s very pretty. There are gorgeous grey leather booths along the back wall, lots of high tops and a large rectangular bar with service on all sides.  They have a really nice assortment of beers on tap and their liquor selection covered all of our favorites. We didn’t eat anything, but the menu looked very appetizing. They have happy hour specials Monday through Friday and late night specials Wednesday through Saturday, but that only manages to bring their drinks down to a reasonable cost. When your happy hour special is $5 draft beers, you’ve effectively priced us out.

Don’t let our comparative cheapness deter you, though. If you have the money to throw around, this seems like an OK place to do it.

Address:	960 Penn Ave, 15222 http://www.tenpennypgh.com/	Games:	None
Façade:	Not Scary	Scene:	Pittsburgh Yuppies
Parking:	Wear Walking Shoes	Patio/Outdoor:	No
Kitchen:	Come hungry	Cleanliness:	Nice
Smoking:	None	Jukebox:	None
Hours:	11am-close	Cig Machine:	No
Drink Prices:	Richie Rich	# taps:	24
Bathrooms:	Sit	Specials:	Happy Hour and Late
Live music:	Never	Riley Factor:	Too Much
ATM:	No	Cash Only	No
TVs:	6	Size:	Friggin' Huge

Grit and Grace

We didn’t think there was a chance that we would be able to get into Grit and Grace, since it is one of the new hot-spots downtown. But, after realizing that Perle was closed due to fire and there were no other bars we hadn’t done in Market Square, we started heading towards the Cultural District and figured, eh, why not give it a try. If you don’t know where Grit and Grace is, let us give you instructions in Pittsburghese: it is where Taste of Dahntahn used to be.

There was no space at the bar, which is our preferred review spot. We desperately needed to eat before our night of bar blogging. As luck would have it, we got there right as some space opened up and we were quickly seated along with another group at a large high top in the front. We got our fancy cocktails, ordered some food and settled in.

At first we were not blown away. The little mouthfuls of “American dim sum” they come around with were mediocre. The atmosphere seemed stuffy and pretentious. The drinks were too expensive for what they are. Your cheapest drink option is $3.50 for a Miller High Life. That’s not too bad, until you realize that it’s for a 10 oz. baby bottle.

However, the longer we stayed there, the better we liked it. From the hostess who cared more about her job and her guests than anyone we have ever seen to the truly inspired entrees we enjoyed, by the time we left we were sold on this place.

A got a super fancy version of Ramen noodles, and they were amazing. J got a Crispy Pig Face Roulade that was so good she sang a song to it. The words to the song were “Mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm.” However, we digress; this is not a food blog.

It is worth checking out, but not for drinking. If you are not good at making reservations or hate very crowded spaces, we would wait till the buzz around this place dies down. It is definitely worth adding to your list of places to eat. We are looking forward to stopping in one day and sitting at the bar proper, maybe in autumn.

Address:	535 Liberty Ave, 15222 http://gritandgracepgh.com/	Games:	None
Façade:	Not Scary	Scene:	Fancy small foods
Parking:	Wear Walking Shoes	Patio/Outdoor:	Yes
Kitchen:	Come hungry	Cleanliness:	Normal
Smoking:	None	Jukebox:	None
Hours:	Mon-Thurs 11:30am-12am Fri 11:30am-1am Sat 4pm-1am Sun 4pm-10pm	Cig Machine:	No
Drink Prices:	Richie Rich	# taps:	8
Bathrooms:	Sit	Specials:	Happy Hour Mon-Thur 4-6pm
Live music:	Never	Riley Factor:	$14.00
ATM:	No	Cash Only	No
TVs:	0	Size:	Normal

Bobby Hendrix

This place is the nouveau riche of bars. It wants to look quite fancy and posh, but it’s actually kind of crappy and tacky. It’s all artifice, no substance. There’s our weird snobbery for the day out of the way.

Finding the bar is a chore to begin with; they’ve got almost no signage and no outside lighting. They’ve only been open a few months, so we’ll assume they’re working on that. When we asked the bartender about the goofy name she told us, “One of the owners is named ‘Bobby’ and the other…maybe likes Jimmi Hendrix?” So, there you go.

It’s quite dark in the bar with lots of shiny bits and purple accent lighting. There are some poor, sad fish in an aquarium above the bar. They have a fairly limited liquor selection and a list of cocktails that no sane person should want to drink. If you’re looking for an insane sugar rush, they’ve got it for you. They’ll also serve your Miller Lite in a frosted glass so cold that it gives your beer a slushy head. Fancy.

We’ll give them that their sliders were good. Their menu says that they won Best Burger in 2012 and 2013, but they’ve only been open a few months according to the bartender. Shenanigans! They were quite tasty, though, with buns slathered in delicious butter. Insert your own butter slathered buns joke here.

We are probably coming down harder on this bar than it deserves. If you want the pretense of being fancy and a super sweet cocktail, this is a great place. The bathrooms are a pretty great example of the place, though. When you walk in, they look really nice. Then you try to use them and find that the stall door doesn’t latch at all and the fancy glass vessel sink shoots water all over your crotch.

Address:	2019 East Carson St, 15203 http://www.bobbyhendrixpgh.com/	Games:	None
Façade:	Scary	Scene:	Upscale D-bag
Parking:	Wear Walking Shoes	Patio/Outdoor:	No
Kitchen:	Fancy Bar Food	Cleanliness:	Normal
Smoking:	None	Jukebox:	Internet Crap
Hours:	6pm-2am	Cig Machine:	No
Drink Prices:	Richie Rich	# taps:	6
Bathrooms:	Sit	Specials:	None
Live music:	Never	Riley Factor:	$14.00
ATM:	No	Cash Only	No
TVs:	5	Size:	Normal

Carmella's Plates and Pints

South Side is proving to be hard to “finish.” With so many bars closing and opening all the time, we need to keep going back over and over. We were so proud when we thought we had been to every bar on Carson Street. That lasted for about a week.

In that vein, Carmella’s is the new bar where Inn-Termission used to be. It’s still under development. They are redoing the back room and they are very serious about NOBODY entering it ever. If NOBODY can enter ever, then it is going to take them a long time to get that work done. They should rethink their plan. Once they let people in to finish the renovation, there will be a dining area in the back and they’ll be serving small plates.

The front space is largely unchanged from the previous bar aside from the massive amount of taps that have been added. The bar is very long and polished, and the stools are comfy. We liked the space before, but it has a much homier feeling to it now. 

We were lucky enough to have a long conversation with the owner while we were there. She is great and we enjoyed talking to her. We are optimistic about the renovation. She was really welcoming and warm, and we figure she will make her space feel the same way. We look forward to heading back there in a couple of months to see what she does with the place and try out some food.

Address:	1908 East Carson St, 15203	Games:	None
Façade:	Not Scary	Scene:	Undetermined
Parking:	Wear Walking Shoes	Patio/Outdoor:	No
Kitchen:	None-Coming Soon	Cleanliness:	Normal
Smoking:	Some	Jukebox:	Internet Crap
Hours:	1pm-2am	Cig Machine:	No
Drink Prices:	Average	# taps:	25
Bathrooms:	Sit	Specials:	Late Night 8pm-10pm specials
Live music:	Never	Riley Factor:	$10.00
ATM:	Yes	Cash Only	No
TVs:	2	Size:	Normal