DiAnoia’s Eatery
2549 Penn Ave., Strip District. dianoiaseatery.com
DiAnoia’s celebrates the holidays with a returning feast, new pizza, and sweets. The Italian restaurant brings back its Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner through Sun., Dec. 22. In addition to its regular menu, DiAnoia’s offers a $76 prix fixe menu with dishes from the seven-course seafood meal traditionally served on Christmas Eve. The menu includes baccala fritters, scallop crudo, acqua pazza, squid ink capellini, and branzino, and can be shared family-style. Reservations are recommended and can be booked online.
Through Sat., Dec. 28, seafood lovers can also try a Christmas Clam Pizza from Pizzeria Davide, an offshoot of DiAnoia’s. The specialty pie features clams in a white wine and garlic sauce with mozzarella, provolone, and parsley. For dessert, DiAnoia’s sister shop Pane é Pronto bakes panettone, a holiday sweet bread made over three days with candied orange and lemon peel, raisins, and toasted pistachios. Panettone will be available until Sun., Dec. 22, and can be ordered online, along with holiday cookie platters.
Old Thunder Brewing Company
340 Freeport Rd., Blawnox. oldthunderbrewing.com
Old Thunder Brewing celebrates four years in business with a party, beer releases, and new merch. Join that brewery on Sat., Dec. 21 from 12-10 p.m. to try double dry-hopped IPA False Kingdom and the birthday-themed Midnight Candles, a bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Stout with vanilla beans. Taqueria Pastorcito and Black Cat Pizza will be on site with food, while a new T-shirt by Permanent Hangover honors the Blawnox brewery’s origins as a post office.
The Commoner x Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy
Sixth Ave., Downtown. thecommonerpgh.com
If you haven’t seen the new “Aurora” light installation, The Commoner invites you to take it in with hot chocolate and cocktails. On Sat., Dec. 21 at 5 p.m., the Downtown restaurant will host a Winter Warm-up event in Mellon Square. The Commoner will set up shop under the “Aurora” lights, take over the Square’s hot cocoa cart, and offer “inventive eats and avant-garde cocktails,” according to a press release. The menu includes black truffle hazelnut cookies, spiked hot apple cider, and the Challen Ice, a cocktail honoring “Aurora” artist, Joshua Challen Ice, that features Beefeater gin, crème de menthe, Domaine de Canton liqueur, allspice dram, and coconut milk.
Mineo’s Pizza House x Pittsburgh International Airport
1000 Airport Blvd., Moon Township. flypittsburgh.com/dining
The airport takes a bold stance in the Pittsburgh pizza debate by announcing that Mineo’s will open a location at PIT. The Squirrel Hill pizza shop, founded in 1958 — and a two-time winner for Best Pizza in Pittsburgh City Paper’s Best Of PGH Readers’ Poll — will offer its famous pizza, hoagies, salads, and appetizers in the airport’s new airside terminal, set to open spring 2025. Mineo’s also has locations in Mt. Lebanon and Allison Park.
Best Buddies
bestbuddies.org
A group of 35 Pittsburgh chefs partnered with the nonprofit Best Buddies Pennsylvania for its annual Tastebuds banquet and fundraiser. The event pairs renowned chefs and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD or “Buddies”) to create signature dishes. Chefs including Kate Laskey of Apteka, Chad Townsend of Millie’s, Jamilka Borges of Lilith, and many others worked with Buddies for months before the Dec. 9 Tastebuds banquet at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, teaching them how to create “culinary delights” for more than 800 attendees. Pittsburghers can learn more about Best Buddies and its Pittsburgh Tastebuds event, or donate online.
Brewers Bar
3315 Liberty Ave., Lawrenceville. brewersbarpittsburgh.com
Brewers Bar, known as Pittsburgh’s oldest gay bar, will reopen under new ownership after 45 years. Owner Carol Held announced on Facebook that the Lawrenceville bar has been sold and will temporarily close its doors at the end of the year, but promised its legacy as an LGBTQ community space will continue.
“On a positive note,” Held wrote, “it [will] remain a safe space for you all and the new owner has some amazing things in store.” Held also thanked staff and patrons, asking them to “please support your bars — Blue Moon, P-Town, Lucky’s, 5801, and Brewers’ new name soon.”
QBurgh wrote a tribute Brewers, describing it as “a refuge,” historic landmark, and “cornerstone of Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ community.” Opened in 1981 by Held’s father, Andy Usner, Brewers was originally a bar and hotel that housed LGBTQ people displaced by their families and during the AIDS epidemic.
Hard Rock Cafe
230 W. Station Square Dr., South Side. cafe.hardrock.com/pittsburgh
Hard Rock Cafe Pittsburgh announced its permanent closure on Feb. 13, 2025. The Station Square location opened in 2002, operating for nearly 23 years.
According to a statement given to KDKA, the restaurant’s lease expires in February, and ownership decided not to renew. “We are so grateful to our incredible team members and fans in the Steel City for their support and memories all this time,” a spokesperson said.
Hard Rock’s closure follows other Station Square mainstays, including Joe’s Crab Shack in September and Buca di Beppo in June. Station Square was recently put up for sale by owner Brookfield Properties.
City Paper visited Hard Rock Cafe in August shortly before the restaurant’s Pittsburgh Burger won the chain’s World Burger Tour competition. Kitchen manager and chef Matt Byrne shared memories of working at the location for 15 years.
Ruggers Pub
40 S. 22nd St., South Side. ruggerspub.com
Lara Borrasso, a beloved 15-year bartender at Ruggers Pub and visual artist, died suddenly on Dec. 2 at age 38. Borrasso was twice voted Best Bartender in CP’s Best Of PGH Readers’ Poll, in 2019 and 2022, known for her quick drink-making, flair, and friendliness behind the bar. The Pittsburgh native had recently moved to Key West, Fla. with her fiance.
Ruggers manager Alex Gordon posted a tribute on the pub’s Facebook page, writing, “[Borrasso] was intelligent, hilarious, tough as nails, and the fastest bartender I’ve ever seen behind the sticks. She was a mentor, protector, and source of necessary tough love to me personally, and countless other Southside misfits. Ruggers Pub wouldn’t be around today without her, and her memory will live on in our walls forever.”
The Pittsburgh Drinks Facebook group also mourned Borrasso’s loss, describing her as “not only the quintessential bartender, but… a friend to everyone who was lucky enough to pull up a stool to her bar.”
Donations can be made in memory of Borrasso to True Colors International, a nonprofit addressing homelessness among LGBTQ youth. Condolences can also be shared online.
This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2024.
