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I know this was big news last week (see the Post-Gazette story here). Jake Gyllenhaal has been spoted around Pittsburgh this fall – he has been in town filming the movie Love and Other Drugs. Last week he was on Jimmy Kimmel Live and share some stories about Pittsburgh, the Steelers, Primanti brothers and the terrible towel.

Thanks to you, the readers of IheartPGH and your entusiasm for the nation of  Steeler’s fans I have had the opportunity to meet and watch the Steeler Game with the folks who are traveling the country to make a documentary about Steelers Fans.

They have already been to Steelers bars in Tennesse, Brooklyn and Chicago.  This weekend they are bring their film crew to Western PA.

Ken and Stacey from Steeler Country Productions NYC will be bringing their crew to watch the game at Fred’s Divot in Ambridge.  They are inviting any Steelers Fans who are interested to join them for a tailgate  this Sunday.

Tailgate -  11 am on Sunday, September 27, 2009
Fred’s Divot
816 Merchant Street, Ambridge, PA

Check out the trailer for their film here.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I just wanted to post a brief update about the Steeler Bar Tour before the game tomorrow.  First of all thank you to everyone who has helped to get this project going – when I first posted about this in August I had no idea we would get this much support- I promise I will get lots more links and thank yous posted in the next few days.

A quick recap of what happened thus far:

• Awesome Steelers Bar Map has been added to the site – people have already submitted bars all over the country and even one in London. – http://iheartpgh.com/steeler-bar-map/
• We watched the first game of the season here in Pittsburgh at Sidelines in Millvale – more photos coming soon.  Thanks to everyone who submitted their favorite places to watch the game in Pittsburgh.
• Created our own hash tag for all things Steeler Bar #STLRbar - please share your tweets, photos and blog posts by adding #STLRbar
• Thanks to an IheartPGH reader we learned about Ken Hypes who is making a film about these Steelers Bars.  Last week we used our JetBlue All-u-can-jet pass to meet up with Ken in New York – of course we met him at a Steelers Bar.  Check out the trailer here.
• Had a great conversation with the folks from Iron City about their Steeler Bar website – http://www.onecityonenation.com/ and the Steel City Mafia.
  

Next stop CHICAGO! tomorrow – we are meeting up with Ken and his crew in Chicago to check out the Iron City/Steel City Mafia tailgate and to watch the game at the Dark Horse. If you are going to e in Chicago for the game let us know iheartpgh – at – gmail.com.

Lots more to come!!!!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

UPDATED 9/15 – Added Mullaney’s Harp and Fiddle in the Strip District.

We have been doing a lot of talk about best places to watch the Steelers outside of Pittsburgh – new places are being added to the Steeler Bar Map daily! But we wanted to find out where Pittsburghers in Pittsburgh watch the game. Here are the suggestions we have recieved:

Bellevue

• Rusty Dory

Millvale

• Sidelines

Lawrenceville

• The Thunderbird Cafe – Robert says “The Thunderbird (in Lawrenceville) is a cool place with a good beer selection, a friendly crowd and a huge projection screen to watch on. Good times.”
• Round Corner Cantina – Christina says “their kitchen opens tonight too! Mexican food, yummy cocktails + Stillers = <3 <3″

Mt. Washington

• Redbeards

Station Square

• Steelhouse

South Side:

• Carson City Saloon – Mark says “The scoring specials are second to none!”
• Cupckas 2

Greenfield

• Hough’s

East Liberty

• AVA – Sarah says “AVA for the taco wings”

Shadyside

• Buffalo Blues

Bloomfield

• Matt says “anywhere in Bloomfield, especially at Captain Bloomfield’s sidewalk living room in the 4500 block of Liberty Ave”
• Nico’s Recovery Room – Henry says “I dont live in the burgh anymore, but Nico’s recovery room is defiantly the best place to go in the EastEnd. For one thing you get to whatch the game whist rubbing elbows with people that have been fans since the iron curtain days, and there’s the free Isaly’s BBQ sandwiches (or other regionally appropriate fare) free at the half!”

Strip District

• Mullaney’s Harp and Fiddle – Jamie says “Great food, great beer, and the best bartenders on earth.”

Greensburg

• Primanti’s

Greentree

• Ugly Dog Saloon

I wanted to follow up to yesterday’s post about this project and share some more information about what we are hoping to do.

Where did this idea come from: IheartPGH was started as a joke back in September 2005 – I didn’t even know what a blog was when I set this little website up. In the past four years this blog has become more than a website and it has been amazing to see the community of people in Pittsburgh and around the country come together to share their favorites. One of the places where the Pittsburgh community is most visible is the Steeler Nation. I will admit that when I travel, I look up the closest Steeler bars – even if it isn’t football season – I even tried to convince my mom we should have dinner at the local Steelers bar in Venice, FL when we were visitng my grandparents for easter.

So last week I was booking a plane ticket to visit an old Pittsburgh friend and I noticed that JetBlue is running this promotion All-You-Can-Jet – for $599 you can travel as many times as you want in the month of September. So I have been talking about this idea with some friends and decided to see if there was any support for the project. I sent around some emails and got a good response from some friends. I put up the post and fundraising challenge yesterday to see if there was any interest in supporting a tour of Steelers bar – I never expected to get so much support so quickly.

Supporting the Project: I know there have been some questions about this – we are not a charity – just some bloggers hoping to put together a little project to visit some Steeler Bars around the country. There are lots of great non-profit projects out there that need your support, especially in this economy. So we have tried to come up with a way for you to help us raise some money for this trip in exchange to something of value – your link on the blog roll, an IheartPGH t-shirt or tote bag or a blog post about you/your organization. If there are other ways we can help you and you can support the project – please let us know.

Where Are You Going To Go?: I am not sure yet – I think the best way to figure this out is to ask the Steeler Nation and we have already recieved so many great Steeler Bar recommendations. Depending on costs – we will use the JetBlue Pass to fly to the furthest places. If things go well – hopefully we can continue to visit Steelers bars for the entire football season. There are already some offers for iron city beers in New York City.

Tracking the Tour: Of course, there will be blog posts, tweets and photos. Maybe this could become a book or a photo book. I would love to look at getting a better camera or if we can raise some more money bringing along a cameraman to make a documentary about the Steelers Bar.

Spread the Word, Support the Tour: – click here to learn more about how you can support the Steeler Bar Tour and IheartPGH

UPDATE – We have raised the first $500 – THANK YOU PITTSBURGH LOVERS!!!! Visit the Support Page to learn how you can help support the tour!

Image by macwagen via Flickr

You want to do what? We want to spend each sunday in September and maybe beyond visiting with Steelers fans in Steeler bars across the county.

The Inspiration – JetBlue is offering an all-you-can-jet pass for the month of September. We have been wanting to take a tour and visit Pittsburghers around the country and this seems like the prefect opportunity to start that journey. Since September is prime football season this seems like a perfect time to find Pittsburghers at their local Steelers bars.

Why Steeler Bars and not Steelers games? There are lot more fans out there than have tickets to a Steeler game. We want to meet the Pittsburghers who celebrate together outside of Pittsburgh.

We need your help to get this trip started. So we are reaching out to the Pittsburgh community to see if there is any interest and to help sponsor the tour.

We need to raise at least $500 by August 21st so we can get our JetBlue all you can jet passes. If the tour goes well we hope to continue to visit Steelers bars in Oct and Nov too! And of course we will blog, twitter and flickr each stop! The more we can raise the more people we can bring along – would be great to bring along a photographer and camera man (maybe we can make this into a steeler bar documentary).

Whats in it for you? Here is what we are offering…

• If you donate $10 – your link will be included on the IheartPGH blog roll on the front page and the links page
• If you donate $25 – IheartPGH T-shirt or Tote bag and your link will be included on the IheartPGH blog roll
• If you donate $30 – A blog post about you/your blog/your website on IheartPGH
• If you donate $60 – IheartPGH T-shirt or Tote bag, Blog Post and your link on the IheartPGH blog roll
• If you donate $100 – Blog post, link included on the IheartPGH blog roll, T-shirt, Tote Bag AND a Mrs. D Pierogi Ornament
• If you donate $250 – We will wear your logo on the back of the official tour t-shirt at each stop
• If you donate $500 – We will come to a Steeler Bar in your city (if we can get there via JetBlue) and buy you an Iron City Beer

UPDATE: We raised the first $500 – THANK YOU PITTSBURGH!
YOU can still support the tour Click here to learn more about Supporting IheartPGH and the Steelers Bar Tour

UPDATE: We are using ThePoint.com to collect contributions – you only donate if we reach our goal! So if we don’t collect enough contributions to reach our goal – your card will not be charged.

Please consider making a contribution and help us spread the word! Stop by IheartPGH.com and share your ideas for the trip – favorite Steeler bars, best pierogies outside of Pittsburgh, best fan clubs – we want to know about it!

PS – we are open to other sponsor ship ideas too (no I will not tattoo your blog url on my arm) but I will wear it on a hat.