National Culinary Review

Bistecca Steakhouse and Wine Bar

South of Pittsburgh in Washington County, a growing population has discovered Bistecca, where Adam Johnston creates dishes for the Italian-influenced menu that include this seared, butterflied jumbo prawn with a limoncello pan sauce and risotto.

Adam Johnston, a graduate of the Pittsburgh Culinary Institute, has worked at restaurants around the country, but enjoys cooking the Italian-influenced cuisine at Bistecca. He crafts Italian “crust” like his grandmother made. Small baguettes similar to breadsticks are fried in a single portion. Rosemary is kneaded into the dough, resulting in Bistecca’s signature rosemary bread. “Pittsburghers like big portions and their dinners themed to holidays, such as St. Patrick’s Day,” says Johnston.

On the topic of portion size, the burgers at the PIPA Group’s Clark Bar & Grill are made from a full pound of meat. Located between PNC Park and Heinz Field stadiums, the restaurant is named for the candy bar originally made in the space. In addition to the pound of meat, the Smokin’ Joe burger is packed with cheese and barbecue sauce.

Caffe Amante

NEIGHBORHOOD EATS The personality of the downtown Cultural District, with its opera and theater venues, contrasts with the scrappy image of the South Side, home to more bars per block than most other Pennsylvania towns. Here, the many steelworkers paused after work for a cold beer and a sandwich. Now the area is full of culinary attitude.

Yo Rita is a fine-dining restaurant disguised as a taquería. With a sleek silver and bronze décor and long bar, the starters and tacos by chef/owner Kevin Sousa surprise and delight the palate. With Sousa’s culinary experience in Arizona and Pittsburgh, the menu features simple ingredients matched in unique combinations.

The jicama chop salad of edamame, corn, melon, radish, mint, goat cheese and pickled pepper vinaigrette is a well-balanced mélange of ingredients. The open-faced tacos, from chicken livers with bacon, lemon/ garlic aïoli, Creole crisp rice and guava to the wild salmon with huitlacoche, horseradish,

Di Mare Amante—linguine with scallops in a white-wine sauce—is on the menu at Caffe Amante in the downtown Cultural District, which draws diners from the business crowd during the day and theater/concertgoers at night.

asparagus, corn, avocado and blood orange, offer exciting flavor combinations. Taco specials may include beef tongue and marrow or foie gras with tomato, radish, watermelon, cabbage and apricot.

Clark Bar & Grill, located between PNC Park and Heinz Field stadiums and named for the candy bar originally made in the space, offers this Traditional ½-Pound Boomer Burger with fresh-cut french fries.

Grand Concourse is a fine-dining restaurant with character. Movies such as Dogma (1999), starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, have been filmed in the expansive space of the former concourse of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad. Against a backdrop of the stately staircase and stained glass, guests dine on salmon Rockefeller and applejack sea bass.

The National Culinary Review | June 2010

The PIPA Group also owns Caffe Amante in the historic downtown Cultural District. With daytime trade from local healthcare and financial-services companies and the evening theater crowd and concertgoers, the restaurant’s kitchen serves up rustic comfort food such as veal parmigiana and Virginia spots, a perch-like fish.