A Peek at Life as a Natic

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our Fourth Day in Pittsburgh at pictures.neilnatic.com or here

East End Brewing Company

On Saturday Alisha had plans to meet up with her cousin Denae to look at bridesmaid dresses down in Pittsburgh.  Since they were already going to be down there Alisha’s mom wanted to take us to a new German restaraunt that just opened up in the city afterwards.  We figured that I would go with her mom do check out a few places and then meet up with Alisha when they are done shopping and eating lunch. 

Alisha left early to head to Pittsburgh with Denae and her mom and I left shortly after.  We went to East End Brewing Company first to check out a local brewery.  East End Brewing is a fairly well known small brewery in Pittsburgh that makes some pretty damn good beer.  They only sell to bars and restaurants in the Pittsburgh area as they are a small brewery but their beers are rated very well on beeradvocate.com.  Being used to seeing Terrapin, it was interesting to see how small the brewery was (and also makes me want to open my own).  As you walk in they have a small area with many of their beers on tap.  During posted hours, they do brewery tours and sell growlers of beer to the public.  After tasting all of their beers they had I decided to pick up a growler of their Big Hop IPA.  It was a great IPA!  The growlers are half gallon glass containers poured directly from the taps at the brewery. 

Church Brew Works Sampler

After tasting all of their delicious beers we headed off to lunch.  Since we were in the area, we decided to head over to another brew pub called Church Brew Works.  Church Brew Works is a brewery that took over a Catholic church and turned it into a brewery / restaurant.  Great idea!!  It is a gorgeous place!  The pews are being used as booth seats, the confessionals are being used as a part of the kitchen, and the brewing equipment is setup on the alter.  The food is excellent there and the beer as well.  I ordered a jambalaya and a sampler of all of their beers and by the time I left, I was damn near hammered.  After eating and drinking we headed outiside to their hop garden patio.  They have their hops growing up the walls of the church and a nice outdoor area to eat and drink. 

Pittsburgh Trolley

After Church Brew Works we headed over to the Heinz museum to kill some more time.  We spent about an hour or so looking at all of the Pittsburgh, Sports, and State history.  They had about 4 floors of stuff to look at many of which were really neat. 

Hofbrauhaus

After the museum we picked up Alisha and headed down to a newer area of Pittsburgh called South Side.  It is a newer area that used to be where the steel mills were and has many nice shopping areas and restaurants to go to.  They were also doing a street festival when we got there which was pretty cool.  We spent an a few hours looking around and shopping before heading to our dinner destination.  It was a new German restaurant called Hofbrauhaus which is also a brew pub.  They brew about 5 beers or so on location and also do it the typical German way.  Long tables with people sitting together, music, beer, and fun!  People were all standing on their chairs (benches) with their beers in hand chanting and singing along.  The place was PACKED!  we got there and there was a 15 minute long line to even talk to anyone about the wait.  The verdict:  2.5 hours to be in the main dining area or over an hour for first available.  We decided to go with first available and were seated in right about an hour maybe even less.  Once we did we enjoyed a great meal.  Alisha and her mom got a sausage of some kind… for me… I ordered the oh so German – fettucini alfredo and potato pancakes LOL.  The food, beer, and atmosphere were excellent! 

We had a hell of a time in Pittsburgh!  It was perfect!