The Bucs, A Burger, and Buddy

It has been a busy week since our return from vacation, and in many respects, we still haven't recovered from that middle-of-the-night drive from Corolla to Pittsburgh last Saturday, so let's cover some selected short subjects, all beginning with the letter B....

BUCS

It was a wild week for the Pirates, who jumped into first place with an amazing four game winning streak against the Cardinals, and the fact that they have now lost two in a row, one to the Cards and one to the Rockies, in no way  diminishes that accomplishment.  As this is being written, the Pirates have a 1/2 game lead over the Cardinals in the NL Central, and are 21 games over .500.  A long, hard road lies ahead, but the goal now is to win the division.  Finishing with a winning record is all but assured and the odds of securing a wild card spot are almost overwhelmingly in the Pirates' favor, but winning the division, well, that will be a long hard slog right through the end of the season if it is to happen.

I was fortunate enough to be in attendance at the Wednesday night 5-4 win over St. Louis, and it was an amazing atmosphere at PNC Park that night.  I am hoping for many more such evenings between now and September 29.

As for the trade deadline that passed without the team making any moves, I am OK with it.  I would not have wanted to see major pieces of "the future" traded away for marginal players (Alex Rios, Bud Norris) or short term rentals (Raul Ibanez), and, as I mentioned in a post a few weeks back, I believe that Neal Huntington has earned a benefit of the doubt for the time being.  Also, what has been credited as one of NH's best deals over the years was acquiring Derek Lee in 2011, and I believe that that move was made at the August 31 waiver deadline, so I am guessing that some move will be made between now and then to shore up what is a glaring weak spot in the batting order at the 1B and/or RF position.

BURGERS

It has been a while since I have written of my Quest to find the best hamburgers in Pittsburgh, but this week, I found an outstanding burger in a surprising place:

Yep, the hamburger at Manny's BBQ in PNC Park has moved into the Top Five among Pittsburgh Burgers.  First off, the burgers is cooked on a charcoal grill right before your eyes, you can choose your toppings, and it is relatively inexpensive for PNC Park concessions: $8.50, and for an extra buck, you can get a side of cole slaw and baked beans.  Of course, you  have to pay for a ticket to actually get into the ball park, so that does add to the cost.  Still, if you are planning on eating at the game anyway, go for the burger at Manny's.

Current Top Five Burgers in Pittsburgh (listed alphabetically because it is becoming too hard to list them numerically!):

• Manny's BBQ (PNC Park)
• McFadden's (North Shore)
• Rochester Inn (Ross)
• Tessaro's (Bloomfield)
• Union Grill (Oakland)

BUDDY

We took in our final CLO show if the season on Thursday at the Benedum, "Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story".  Based on the life of Buddy Holly, this was as much a rock & roll concert as a musical play, and it was really a fun show.  Great energy and musical performances by the actors, particularly by the actor portraying Buddy Holly.

This is actually the second time that we have seen this show, and it is one that I would not hesitate to see a third time as well.  The way the show starkly ends at the Clear Lake concert on "the day the music died" is shocking and most effective, and the encore performance that serves as a curtain call is absolutely fabulous.

In the course of this two and on-half hour show you can really see how Holly's music and Holly himself evolved over the course of his very, very brief career.  It makes you realize that the "what ifs..." and the "could have beens..." that surround the death of Buddy Holly are very real and very sad.

A great, great show. 

The Great 2013 Hamburger Quest - Part 7 - A New #1

It has been a while since I've talked Burgers here, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy scarfing them down.  

Two weeks ago, after a matinee at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, we stopped at the Atria's at PNC Park.  As it happened, the Pirates had played an afternoon game that day as well, so we  ordered from the special "Game Day Menu".  Of course, I went for the burger and it was terrific.  In fact, the only thing that keeps me from rating this higher is the fact that a week later, i happened to dine at the Atria's in Mt. Lebanon, and the burger there was not nearly on par with the one at the PNC Park location.  I give no separate rating for it, but it may have hurt the franchise when I came to rank them.

The big news, though, is that there is now a new Number One, and it is the Union Grill on South Craig street in Oakland.  Big Brother Bill Sproule has been touting this one ever since The Quest began, so earlier in the week, Marilyn and I met Ann and him for lunch.  First off the burger is HUGE.  They say it's a half-pound, but I don't believe it. It's gotta be bigger than that.  Cooked to order and with your choice of toppings (I went for cheddar, bacon, and sauteed onions).  It was delicious, and I didn't have to eat for the rest of the day.  If there is a criticism to be made, and this sounds crazy, it's that the burger is too big, to the point that I almost felt that I was forcing myself to finish it.  Marilyn was smarter than me: she took half of hers home, reheated it, had it fur lunch the next day, and assures me that it was just as good on Day Two as it was on Day One.

For now, at least, we have a new champion.....

The Rankings:

1. Union Grill (Oakland)
2. Tessaro's (Bloomfield)
3. The Rochester Inn Hardwood Grill (Ross)
4. McFadden's (North Shore)
5. SoHo Restaurant (North Shore)
6. Atria's (PNC Park)
7. Bella Ria's (West View)
8. Valiant's (Ross)
9. The Tilted Kilt (North Shore)

Unranked:

• BZ Bar and Grill (North Shore)
• Sunny Jim's (Emsworth)
• TGI Friday's (McCandless)

When I began this series, I deliberately chose not to include the burgers from fast food places such as McDonald's, Burger King etc.  This is not snobbery on my part, because, trust me, there are times when nothing hits the spot more than a Big Mac.  I just felt that those kinds of burgers should not be included in The Quest.  That said, let me plug the burger at Flamer's Hamburgers.  When I was still working,  Flamer's in the Fifth Avenue Place Food Court  was at least a once a week stop for me for lunch.  There is a Flamer's in the Ross Park Mall Food Court as well, and when we do go the the Mall, Flamer's is my burger of choice, even preferable to the very good burgers that you can get at the Five Guys store in the same Food Court.  Give it a shot if you haven't been there.

The Great 2013 Hamburger Quest - Part 6

Over the past several days, I have added three new places in my Quest for the Best Hamburger in the Greater Pittsburgh area, Valiant's Diner in Ross, TGI Friday's in McCandless, and McFadden's Pub on the North Shore.

Of these, the most disappointing by far was TGI Friday's.  Since this is part of a nationwide chain, I can visualize their hamburgers being spit out into uniform size and shaped patties by some robotic mechanism in a giant factory, being flash frozen, and shipped to their restaurants across the country.  This produced a tasteless and very disappointing hamburger.

Valiant's is a great diner on Babcock Boulevard, the kind of place that Rick Sebak would put on one of his shows.  The burgers are hand formed and grilled right in front of you as you sit at the counter.  Valiant's is probably an even better place to visit for breakfast (perhaps the subject for the 2014 Quest, although Sebak has that one pretty much covered), but the burger wasn't bad, and I saw them serving up some hot turkey and roast beef sandwiches with gravy that will probably prompt me to visit again soon.  Thanks to pal Bill Harvey for putting me on to this place.  Oh, and, Harv, in case you are wondering, I did not have my hamburger there on a Friday!

The real surprise was the burger at McFadden's. Seeing as how beer and sports on TV (I was there for March Madness on Thursday) is pretty much what this place is about, I wasn't expecting much, but the burger was really good. Fresh and tasty and cooked to order.  I highly recommend this one.

The Rankings:

1. Tessaro's (Bloomfield)
2. The Rochester Inn Hardwood Grill (Ross)
3. McFadden's (North Shore)
4. SoHo Restaurant (North Shore)
5. Bella Ria's (West View)
6. Valiant's (Ross)
7. The Tilted Kilt (North Shore)

Unranked:

• BZ Bar and Grill (North Shore)
• Sunny Jim's (Emsworth)
• TGI Friday's (McCandless)

"1776" and a Burger to Remember

A busy bitter cold afternoon for Marilyn and me.

First, a visit to the terrific O'Reilly Theater for a matinee performance of the tony Award winning musical play, "1776".  This was the first time we had seen this play, and it was really, really good.  The title tells you what it's all about, of course, and the Pittsburgh Public Theater's production was first rate.  A wonderful theater going experience.

We topped off the day by having dinner at SoHo (home of the MOASP Draft and the SABR Hot Stove Nights!) right across from PNC Park.  This was my second visit to SoHo in three days, and I decided to make this visit a part of the Great Hamburger Quest of 2013.  I ordered a Mushroom-Swiss Burger and was not disappointed.  In fact, So Ho has reached Top Three status in the rankings:

The Rankings:

1. Tessaro's (Bloomfield)
2. The Rochester Inn Hardwood Grill (Ross)
3. SoHo Restaurant (North Shore)
4. Bella Ria's (West View)
5. The Tilted Kilt (North Shore)

Unranked:

• BZ Bar and Grill (North Shore)
• Sunny Jim's (Emsworth)

Marilyn had a tuna melt and raved about it, and combining this with the excellent chicken parm dinner I had at the MOASP Draft on Tuesday, well, I would say that SoHo becomes a highly recommended place to dine.  We have also enjoyed many quick meals there before Pirates games over the years.

The Pope, Hamburgers, Nucky Thompson and Other Items From a Mixed Bag

Some disparate thoughts....

• Like so many of you, I found the news of Pope Benedict XVI's decision to retire to be a stunner.  I also found it to be an incredible act of courage in the Pope recognizing and admitting that he no longer has the "physical and mental strength" to continue in the job.
• The specificity of the time of the Pontiff's abdication - February 28 at 8:00 PM - was curious.  Why eight o'clock at night?
• I am stunned by the International Olympic Committee's decision to drop wrestling from the Olympics beginning in 2020.  Not that I was a huge fan of the sport.  If I watched it at all, it was during the Olympics (if you could find it on TV during any of the recent Olympiads), but if there is truly a classic Olympic sport, it's got to be wrestling, right?  I don't think you'll find many ancient Grecian urns depicting rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming.
• I am too cheap to subscribe to HBO, but I think nothing of buying boxed DVD sets.  As such, we just finished watching Season Two of "Boardwalk Empire".  Great series, albeit  quite violent, with good acting and writing, compelling story lines, and, in true HBO fashion, a healthy dollop of gratuitous nudity.  Can't wait for the Season Three DVD set to be released, which will happen about the time that Season Four begins on HBO.  It is almost a full time job trying to avoid Spoilers.
• The Great Hamburger Quest of 2013 continued yesterday with a visit to Sunny Jim's on Camp Horne Road in Emsworth.  Sunny Jim's is known for it's terrific wings, so I figured the burgers had to be good, right?  Wrong.  The burger was large and filling, but my request for a "medium" burger came out resembling something the Penguins would use during their shoot-arounds.  I guess any kitchen can have an off day, and maybe that is what I encountered yesterday, but them's the breaks.  Until I am again inclined to order a burger there, Sunny Jim's burgers fall in the "Unranked" category.  To be fair, Marilyn's Cheese-steak hoagie was good, and SJ's wings ARE very good.
• Ash Wednesday today.  Lent is here, and The Grandstander will, for the next 40 days, be switching from the Hamburger Quest to Friday Fish Fries!  Who says that Lent is all about sacrifice?

The Pope, Nucky Thompson, and Sunny Jim's all in one post.  If that doesn't define "disparate", I don't know what does.

The Great 2013 Hamburger Quest - Part 5 - The Rochester Inn

Lunch today at The Rochester Inn Hardwood Grill, the very popular North Hills tavern in Ross.  This is a true neighborhood establishment, as it sits a little more than a mile down the road from The Grandstander's home, and is a place that we frequently patronize, but today it was on the clock for the Rochester Inn formally became a part of the Great 2013 Hamburger Quest.  Perhaps I am guilty of pre-judging, for I was well aware that one could get a quality burger at the Rochester Inn.

I was not disappointed as the cheeseburger I had seriously challenged Tessaro's for the #1 spot on the list.  The half-pound burger is cooked to order over a hardwood fired grill and is excellent.  I have ranked it #2 on the list, but it is a razor thin margin that separates the Tessaro and Rochester Inn burger.  In fact, I rank Tessaro's ahead of it only because the bun at Tessaro's was better.  Can't get much closer than that.  I'm almost tempted to rank them 1 and 1-A, but that would be a bit of a cop out.

I have to point out that I  cannot recall ever being disappointed at anything I've ever ordered at the Rochester Inn.  Pizza, wings, various sandwiches (Marilyn had a Reuben today that she said was excellent), and their fish sandwich is among the very best in the City  Hey, finding "Best Fish Sandwich" could be the subject of another Quest.

You can learn more at www.therochesterinn.com

The Rankings:

1. Tessaro's (Bloomfield)
2. The Rochester Inn Hardwood Grill (Ross)
3. Bella Ria's (West View)
4. The Tilted Kilt (North Shore)

Unranked:

• BZ Bar and Grill (North Shore)

The Great 2013 Hamburger Quest - Part 4: Bella Ria's

One of the neat side effects of me writing about my Hamburger Quest has been the suggestions that I have been receiving from people, and today's visit was a result of one such suggestion.  The suggestion came from one of my former Blue Cross colleagues, Jerry Bergman (The Official Head Linesman of The Grandstander), and the place is Bella Ria's Restaurant in West View.

Bella Ria's is located on Perry Highway and overlooks North Hills High School's Martorelli Stadium, and it is more of a diner than a restaurant, and it is exactly the type of place I am looking for in this quest - small, local, and independently owned and operated.  The kind of place where, as the song says, everybody knows your name.  It is also a place that I have driven past probably hundreds of times over the years and never stopped.  My mistake.

I met Jerry there for lunch today, and, of course, I ordered the bacon cheeseburger - an 8 ounce hand made burger cooked to order, and only $5.99, if you can believe that.  My only criticism is that my burger was more on the well done side than the "medium" that I ordered, but what the hell, it was delicious.  So was the chicken dumpling soup that I had that was perfect on a 16 degree afternoon.

There is nothing fancy about Bella Ria's.  If it's fancy atmosphere and plush surroundings you want, try somewhere else, but the "ordinary-ness" of the place gives it a local neighborhood charm all of it's own.  According to Jerry, they also serve great salads, and a pretty mean breakfast.  You can learn more about the place by visiting www.bellarias.com

The Rankings:

1. Tessaro's (Bloomfield)
2. Bella Ria's (West View)
3. The Tilted Kilt (North Shore)

Unranked:

• BZ Bar and Grill (North Shore)

The Great 2013 Hamburger Quest, Part 2 - The Tilted Kilt

My Quest to find the Best Hamburger in Pittsburgh continued yesterday when, upon the recommendation of Fred Shugars (The Official Actuary of The Grandstander), we visited The Tilted Kilt on the North Shore.  Now, I now that the cynics among you are thinking, "yeah, sure, he was going there for the burgers".....

.....but I can assure you that the visit was really all about the burgers.  Hey, my wife was with me!!

As for the burger, it wasn't bad.  It was big - a 10 ounce patty.  I got the "classic cheeseburger" while Marilyn got one called the "French Dip Burger" that came with a cup of au jus  for dipping.  I never saw this offered with a hamburger, and I have to tell you, it was very tasty.  

Still, I think that chain restaurants, which by necessity are slaves to uniformity and mass production, are at a disadvantage to local, independent establishments.  So, after two visits in this Quest, the rankings are as follows:

1. Tessaro's (Bloomfield)
2. The Tilted Kilt

As for the the restaurant itself, this was my first visit to The Tilted Kilt.  Like many of those restaurants between the ball parks on the North Shore, it's huge, and caters to the sports crowd with about a thousand flat screen TV's throughout.  (We watched the first half of the Pitt-UConn game while dining.)  At lunch time on a Saturday with no ball game at PNC or Heinz, it was fairly empty, maybe a dozen or so patrons, with Marilyn being the only woman there.  The waitstaff were attired as pictured above, although not with quite the pulchritude as seen in the publicity photos.  Lots of tattoos, though.  I think that many of those young ladies are going to have a lot of regrets when they hit age 40 or so. 

The Quest continues and will be documented here.  Next in sight: Wingharts in Market Square and the Murray Avenue Grill in Squirrel Hill.