(Beautiful pictures by Iva. Words by Sarah and Ray)

In order to bring you info on the best croissants in the city, the I Heart PGH gang went on a croissant tour, sampling four bakeries. (Eating delicious croissants all day was an enormous burden, but you’re welcome.) We chatted with the staff and rated each croissant by buttery-ness, flaky-ness and rip-ability.

La Gourmandine, Lawrenceville

This authentically French bakery has unique pastries and crazy buttery croissants. It’s owned and operated by a French couple who bring their recipes straight from the cafe of Paris. They make their own dough and bake each piece of buttery goodness fresh. They have a few different types of croissants, including a chocolate flavored morsel that perfectly blends cocoa, butter, and bread.

There’s a variety of pastries filled with the likes of pistachio and hazelnut cream and a basket of baguettes. But the real piece de resistance here is the croissants. Make sure the get there early if you want an almond croissant, they tend to sell out.

The space at La Gourmandine is also limited. There’s room to stand and eat your goodies at two tables, but if you’re with a big group, it’s maybe not the best hang-out space.

• Price: $1.90
• Buttery-ness: 8.5 (made with European butter)
• Flaky-ness: 6
• Rip-ability: 4

Crepes Parisiennes, Oakland

The croissants at Crepes Parisiennes are a delish, but a little more bread-y and dense. Their flaky and crisp outside are a nice contrast to some of the other croissants we tasted, especially when paired with a chocolate filing.

Crepes Parisiennes is a perfect place to meet a friend or two in Oakland. Its service was quite fast and its atmosphere was surprisingly relaxing for a busy cafe in the city. Anyone preparing for a French exam would be wise to study in Crepes Parisiennes for a few hours, so long as the delicious crepes don’t distract you.

• Price: $1.75
• Buttery-ness: 5
• Flaky-ness: 6.5
• Rip-ability: 6

Allegro Hearth Bakery, Squirrel Hill

Four words: bigger than your face. That’s how big these mega-croissants are at Allegro bakery. In addition to the lovely breads and pastries, there’s a small cheese case if you want to slap a savory topping onto your croissant.

Allegro is nicely situated in the heart of Squirrel Hill on Murray Ave next to the Pinskers Jewish book store. The staff is really friendly and the open space gives you a great view into the bakery. Anyone passing through Squirrel Hill should stop in to Allegro, even if its just to see the biggest Croissants in Pittsburgh.

Take your goodies to go though, this place doesn’t have anywhere to sit.

• Price: $1.89
• Buttery-ness: 8
• Flaky-ness: 9
• Rip-ability: 6

Paris 66, East Liberty

We all agreed that this was by far the best croissant that we tried all day. Although, we will admit, Paris 66 might have a slightly unfair advantage since they bake your croissants when your order them. Regardless, these babies are good. They’re aesthetically pleasing, in addition to having the most flaky crust and gooey inside we encountered all day.

Inside, the restaurant smells like heaven. Between the fresh bread baking filling the air, the authentic french cuisine, or the beautifully decorated walls, Paris 66 brings the full french cafe experience right to Shady side.  It’s more of a sit-down place, so it might be easier to plan on eating a meal rather than just a cup of coffee and croissant.

• Price: $2.00
• Buttery-ness: 7
• Flaky-ness: 10
• Rip-ability: 3 (it’s soo gooey)

The Release Party is this Thursday (tomorrow), December 15th from 6 – 10pm at Commonplace Coffeehouse in Squirrel Hill.  Tickets are $22 and get you a taster of the Porter, as well as a  gift bottle to take home and a half-pound bag of Commonplace’s Sumatra coffee. Tickets can be purchased at the door.

For more information, please visit:

East End Brewing: http://eastendbrewing.com/

Commonplace Coffeehouse: http://www.commonplacecoffee.com/

Image via Wikipedia

Worlds Weirdest Restaurants, a new show that is being taped for the Food Network Canada, will be at the Waffle Shop tonight (Friday, June 10, 2011) from 10pm-3am.  The public is invited to stop by for waffles and to watch the show.  Can’t make it East Liberty – as always you can watch the Waffle Shop streaming live at WaffleShop.org.

Worlds Weirdest Restaurants will be hosted by Bob Blumer – he currently hosts the show Glutton for Punishment.

WWR’s host Bob Blumer will spend the evening cooking, serving, and participating in a packed night of interactive talk shows. The general public is encouraged to come by, dine, and take part!

The evening’s line up will feature local artist’s talk shows designed to instigate intrigue and spur interaction. In addition to waffle cuisine there will be a variety of live interactive shows including Dave English passing his torch as the host of “The Unemployment Show”, T. Foley performing a talk show hosted by a ventriloquist dummy who’s reticent to perform in public, Terry Boyd’s “Anonymous Costumed Guest Hour” as well as cameos from other local favorites.

What is the Waffle Shop? Do they really serve waffles?

From the Waffle Shop website:

The Waffle Shop is a neighborhood restaurant that produces and broadcasts a live-streaming talk show with its customers, operates a changeable storytelling billboard on its roof, and runs a take-out window that sells food from countries engaged in conflict with the U.S. The shop is a public lab that brings together people from all walks of life to engage in dialogue, experimentation and the co-production of culture. The project functions as a classroom for students from Carnegie Mellon University, an eatery, a TV production studio, a social catalyst, and a business. Our customers are our funders, audience, and participants as we film during open hours, inviting interested patrons to express their unique opinions and personalities.

The Waffle Shop is supported by the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University, The Center for the Arts In Society, East Liberty Development Inc, We Do Property, Sota Construction Services, the Sprout Fund, Whole Foods, and the sale of waffles.

Image by jakeliefer via Flickr

Aldo Coffee is a lovely and local coffee shop on Washington Road in Mount Lebanon.  They are offering an introductory coffee tasting class this weekend.

Introductory Coffee Tasting: This 90-minute course is designed to let you experience multiple coffee growing regions and roasting styles so that you expand your palate, learn more about this important crop and find one or more coffees you truly enjoy.  Our next “Coffee Tasting 101″ tasting class isSaturday, March 26 at 2pm . Register here.

They have some other classes this spring for all levels of coffee lovers – you can see the whole schedule here.

Note from Lindsay: Please welcome Amanda – she is a new blogger here at IheartPGH and she has been very patient while we upgraded the blog.  So now that we are upgraded and settled in at our new host – time for some new posts!  I am so happy she will be writing for us and this post is about a great coffee shop in Pittsburgh that I don’t think we have blogged about yet! Please welcome her to IheartPGH!

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Today, I almost went to see the art exhibit Ordinary Madness, currently showing at the Carnegie Art Museum, which I was excited about. The operative word here is almost. I put my scarf on; I was wearing my coat and my comfortable tennis shoes for museum walking, but I couldn’t make it. I have a number of school related commitments to attend to, and it’s starting to eat away at me in a way that I can’t deal with anymore. But—I loathe the idea of wasting an entire beautifully sunny Sunday working in my apartment. So, I ventured to my absolute favorite coffee shop, Espresso a Mano. (1)

Now, I could gush about the espresso here, and the French Pressed coffee, and the lovely heart shaped swirls Matt can make on your latte foam. But honestly, you can go to Espresso a Mano’s own website and read about much of that—and you should, my dear. I think it will be more informative for me to talk about what I love about this place, because it goes so far beyond the coffee.

If you continue to read my blogs, you will discover that I adore making lists. Thus, the way I can best usher in my love of this place is, appropriately, in list format:

1. Matt, the owner, is terrific. He is affable, funny, and earnest; he cares about getting to know the people who patronize his establishment on a regular basis. When I am in line, I notice that he greets 80% of the customers by name—including me. According to a conversation I accidentally had with his cousins upon my first visit to this place, he also speaks Italian and plays the piano. Clearly, those are above average hobbies.
2. Everything about this place makes me think that spending 5 hours doing schoolwork on a Sunday is reasonable. The exposed brick walls, the well planned location of tables in relation to outlets, track lighting, Ella Fitzgerald playing in the background, the rotating collection of local art peppering the walls…everything about this place is the cream cheese frosting to my red velvet cupcakes.
3. True story: I spent the summer in Chicago, and I love love loved it there. But—one of the things that I sincerely missed about Pittsburgh was Lawrenceville, and this place in particular. Truthfully, the entire attitude of this coffeehouse was the reason I moved to Lawrenceville. It’s 2010, and there aren’t that many places left where the owner will greet you by name and ask you to help him finish his crossword puzzle on a chilly Saturday morning (I did, and the answer was MS DOS). But this is what you can expect from Lawrenceville, I’ve found. Your desire to support locally owned businesses is made exponentially easier by the fact that the owners are so genuinely eager to meet you.
4. There is a man sitting next to me wearing a plaid shirt and reading A Thesis on Human Nature. No further explanation is needed.
5. Revisiting the aforementioned peppering art: currently, the exhibit is Secrets: Nudes from the Muslim world. There also is a charcoal sketch of an old man playing the guitar above the sugar. I am all about the ambiance.
6. Espresso a Mano features an event called Tip Jar featuring live music and local musicians. This event is BYOB if you are over 21. Just about the only thing that could make this place better would be wine, and in fact, it has that option built right in.
7. Oh, I saved the best for last: this place also provided the setting for one of my all time favorite awkward conversations. Last spring, I was sitting in this exact seat writing a paper and drinking a bold Ethiopian blend. Because of the aforementioned friendliness of the patrons here—and the fact that many of them seem to like my librarian glasses, I suppose–I ended up talking to a man named Arthur.(2)  He was sitting just to my left, where pensive plaid shirt wearer is sitting now. I inexplicably had the following exchange with him:

Me: “You know, I really like your beard.”(3)

Arthur: “Really? What do you like it about it?”

Me: “Well, the shape. Also, it’s red.” (4)

Arthur: “Thanks. You know, I—“

Me: “You grew it yourself?”

Arthur: “Well, yes. Yes, I did.”

So, even though a piece of my heart is in Chicago on the L platform at State and Lake, my left ventricle will always be in this place. And really, that is the part of your heart that pumps newly oxygenated blood into your aorta on a daily basis; it is the most important part.

Stay tuned for future postings. I WILL make it to Ordinary Madness, and the following post will surely rivet you.

Also, I wasn’t kidding about that website: http://espressoamano.com/

Footnotes:

(1) I guess this was a fail, though; I’m writing this blog here as we speak, so I mean, I’m not really getting more done than I would be at the museum.

(2) I can’t remember his name, actually, but Arthur will suffice.

(3) For whatever reasons, I have a major yen for redheads. Like a moth to a flame. I also love beards. If there were a dating site called SingleLumberJacks.com, I would surely be engaged by the spring.

(4) Truthfully, I wasn’t prepared to explain what I liked about it. The color was a definite, but I don’t know what I meant about the shape. I mean, how many shapes can beards come in? Although I wouldn’t have liked it as much if it was a Dumbledore inspired beard, so I guess this was a valid point.

There are prizes for best sweet, best savory, and best themed pies. There is a $5 entry fee and a $3 fee to just come, watch, and sample pies.  The winners will receive cash prizes!

Judges include the Beehive  owner, Steve Zumoff; and Dozen owner James Gray.

Friday, November 26, 2010, 3pm-7pm
Beehive Coffeehouse
1327 E Carson St, Pittsburgh, PA, 15203-1509

Facebook Event Page – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=163099107055270

Open Your Own Business – First up, the Union Project is accepting proposals for their cafe space.  If you are a long time reader of this blog you know that I am a huge fan of the Union Project and was a frequent visitor of their cafe.  For a variety of reasons the cafe at the Union Project has been closed for the past year.  Now the Union Project is accepting proposals for a new tenant to run the cafe space.  The Union Project, located at the corner of Stanton and Negley Ave in East Liberty, is a former church that has been transformed into a community center.  The church offices have been rented out to other businesses and artists, the former sanctuary is a large event space available for rentals and the basement is a ceramics studio that offers classes and open studio hours.

For the right cafe this is an ideal space – there is lots of parking on the street, the location is right in the middle of a walk able neighborhood and the coffee shop around the corner is always crowded. More details on the cafe space at the Union Project are available here.  Proposals are due on December 3, 2010 and the Union Project will start interviews in January, decisions will be made in February and you could be running your own shop by spring.

Manage a Waffle Shop/Talk Show – Opportunity number 2 is a little different – maybe you aren’t ready to start your own business but you are looking for a chance to run a creative project and get good benefits.  The Waffle Shop is looking for a restaurant manager.  You get to manage and maintain the restaurant side of things.  The Waffle Shop is a project of Carnegie Mellon University – the waffles and food are part of a project that gets people in the door on a busy corner in East Liberty and interacting with an online talk show.  The students and community are always “cooking up” interesting programming for the shop.  This is a project of Carnegie Mellon University – which comes with health and other university benefits.  Learn more about the job here.

Related articles

• How to Start a Small Cafe Business (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
• Urbanophile, Waffle Shop and NaNoWriMo (pittsburgh.metblogs.com)
• Conflict Kitchen Writing Cookbooks For a New Age (editionsballard.wordpress.com)

The folks at the Waffle Shop are looking for your big idea – really big ideas – and if your big idea is the best idea you could win $250 and Free Waffles for a Year!  You don’t have to be in Pittsburgh to win either.  If you aren’t in town to attend the idea event on Oct. 3, 2009 – they will have an actor stand in for you.

Here are the details (see the Facebook page for the event here):

Call For Proposals!

The Waffle Shop, in conjunction with The Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, would like to invite YOU to pitch your mind-blowing visionary idea for the future for possible inclusion in a live contest on Saturday, October 3, 2009. The winning concept will be broadcast to the cosmos and will receive a year’s worth of free waffles, along with a $250 cash prize.

The Ideas:

We’re looking for really BIG ideas here, not just a run-of-the-mill proposals for a more fuel-efficient car or a better coffee grinder, but visionary schemes for things like: how to survive the end of the planet, a way for animals to run governments, a cloning system that reinvents history, or an entire alternate universe of your own design.

The Event:

Ten participants will be selected from all walks of life, from scientists to bricklayers, children to seniors, to pitch their visionary proposals in front of a live audience and panel of judges on October 3rd at the Waffle Shop in Pittsburgh. Locals to the area will pitch in person and international participants will present their ideas at the event live via a skype-feed body double*. Local experts from diverse fields will act as judges.

Participants will be chosen based on the nature of their idea and their ability to pitch it to a live audience. The idea must be presented orally and without any electronic accompaniment (no laptops, video projections, CD players, transparencies). Each delivered pitch will be limited to a maximum of 4 minutes in length, with 2 minutes for questions from our panel of judges. The top three selected contestants will then defend their proposal against questions from the entire audience.

The Body Double*:

As all participants may not be able to join the contest in person, the event will provide an actor who will pitch in absentia. The actor will wear headphones connected to a live Skype feed of the absent participant. The virtual participant will pitch their idea as if they were present, and the actor present at the event will repeat verbatim the audio feed they receive from the virtual contestant. Materials may be shipped to the event so that the actor may utilize visual aids during the presentation.

Please send a brief abstract of your written proposal, as well as a short biography, to dawnweleski@gmail.com. Abstracts must be 500 words or less and may include visuals. All applications must be received by September 13. All applicants will be contacted no later than September 20.

Waffle Shop is an experimental platform for media production and public dialogue that combines a restaurant with the production of an online TV show directly on the premises. At Waffle Shop, our customers are our funders, audience and participants as we film each night, inviting interested patrons to express their unique opinions and personalities. Our recordings are streamed live on our website during our open hours, and then produced into episodes which are broadcast publicly 24 hours a day in the windows of the storefront, and made available through our online archive. For more information, please visit: http://www.waffleshop.org

The Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University presents 29 Chains to the Moon: Artists’ Schemes for a Fantastic Future, an exhibition that runs from August 28 through December 6. Curated by Andrea Grover, 29 Chains to the Moon features artists who forth radical proposals, from seasteads and tree habitats to gift-based cultures, to make the world work for everyone. For more information, please visit: http://www.cmu.edu/millergallery/exhibitions/29chainstothemoon

Related articles …

• Are you the next David Letterman? Waffle Shop Guest Host Challenge (iheartpgh.com)
• Live from East Liberty … its the Waffle Shop (iheartpgh.com)
• Waffle Shop: Now with live news feeds (pittsburgh.metblogs.com)
• National Waffle Day owes Troy inventor thanks (timesunion.com)
• Waffle Shop Show, episode 6 (pittsburgh.metblogs.com)

Read some other reviews of Big Dog Coffee on Yelp and Urban Spoon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pittsburgh has been getting very serious about coffee in the past couple of years.  The coffee shops around the city are not only great places for coffee but have become hubs of different neighborhoods.  Some of the local coffee shops have come together to form PACA – Pittbsurgh Area Coffee Association.The PACA website is PittsburghCoffee.org, which includes a map of local coffee shops and a listing of coffee blogs.This weekend Pittsburgh will host the Mid-Atlantic & Northeast Regional Barista Competition.  This is kind of like the iron-chef of coffee making.  Baristas from 11 different states will be competiting for fame and prizes.  Check out some of the baristas from Tazzo D’oro who are experience competitors and bloggers.   The competition is free to attend.  They will be selling deserts to accompany the coffee – all proceeds benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Communty Food Bank.Friday, Satruday & Sunday, Feb. 6-8, 2009 11am-5pm daily (Complete Schedule here) @ Pittsburgh Marriot North in Cranberry More on the competition:  

• Espresso Throwdown Preview ’09 @ 21st Street Coffee Blog
• Post-Gazette Article on the competitions @ Tazzo D’Oro blog
• check out their Super Bowl pictures here.
• Are Your Ready for Some Espresso? @ Aldo Coffee Blog
• Watch Ed Wethii from Kiva Han and Ken Zeff of Crazy Mocha talk to John Delano on KDKA here.
• Follow the Barista Competition on Facebook here.