Category Archives: Coffee Shops

Joy of Cookies Tour

The shops and galleries of Lawrenceville are hosting their annual cookie tour. This is a great place to start your Christmas shopping and to support local businesses. Each business will offer a sampling of different cookies and give away the recipe.

A new bakery, Artisan Harvest, will be celebrating their grand opening in Lawrenceville during the cookie tour.

Lawrenceville Joy of Cookies Tour
Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m
On Saturday there will be a trolley running along the tour route.
More information and map available here.

Super First Friday

The first Friday of every month is Unblurred on Penn Ave – business, galleries, and cafes along Penn Ave stay open late with special events for a big street party.  This Friday is an awesome line up of events.

For a complete list of events click here.  Here are a few of the events that I think are worth a stop.

6PM-8PM | UNION PROJECT – 801 N. NEGLEY AVE.
YOUTH BARISTA PROGRAM RECEPTION Free coffee and dessert reception and the official introduction of the Youth Barista Program to our community. The program, a partnership with Starbucks, is an onsite skills training program for young adults. Over the coming year this program will train 30 young men and women aging out of foster care. Forty percent of foster youth end up homeless in their first 2 years out of the system. Live music and pottery sale too! For more info: 412-363-4550, x37 or www.unionproject.org

6PM-10PM | SPROUT FUND – 5423 PENN AVENUE
OPEN HOUSE The Sprout Fund welcomes friends and supporters to an open house at its new home. Enjoy food generously donated by Whole Foods Market Pittsburgh and entertainment by Dave Bernabo, Ben Harris, the music of the Zany Umbrella Circus, and others. Tour the completely refurbished property from Lawrenceville developer Bill Barron that features the design and custom finishings of South Side designer Matt Clifford. For more info about Sprout: 412.325.0646 or www.sproutfund.org

6PM-8PM | BRILLOBOX – 4104 PENN AVE.
SOFT ROCK HAPPY HOUR Come start your art-world wanderings at brillobox. Special bartender-picked lounge-drink specials, $2 Straub Dark drafts, $2 domestic bottles, with disco balls and 70’s video projections.

“It’s like ‘Cheers,’ without the alcohol,”

That is how Holly Pultz describes North Side coffee shop Beleza in today’s Tribune Review.

“It’s like ‘Cheers,’ without the alcohol,” said Pultz, 64, of Allegheny West. “Everybody knows everybody else, and it’s full of interesting people with interesting ideas on life.”

Congrats to the whole Beleza crew for a successful coffee shop and a great write up in the Tribune Review.  Natalia wrote a blog post about Beleza last year and I have made a few stops there.  Actually, the last time I was there for a meeting it was so busy we couldn’t even find a seat.

The Trib article does a great job telling the story of how the coffee shop was started by sever friends who all moved to Pittsburgh together.

Another Reason to Visit Beleza…

The electric blue bathroom.  I have been wanting to write some blog posts about best bathrooms in Pittsburgh.  So I will start right here with Beleza.  Thanks for taking the time to decorate all areas of the coffee shop.

Photos are from Flickr – thanks to AlphaChimpStudio

Looking for more Pittsburgh coffee shops?  We have added a new category just for coffee shops.  Click here or look for “coffee shops” to your right under “food and drink”

Making a Mark on Point Breeze

This morning I had to find a place with internet to do some work before a meeting. So I walked down the street to the coffee shop Make Your Mark on Reynolds street in Point Breeze. I guess this neighborhood needed a coffee shop – this place is packed and for good reason. Make Your Mark has all of the elements of a great coffee shop…

  • Free Wifi
  • Coffee & lunch menu
  • Vegetarian menu
  • Non-smoking
  • Indoor & Outdoor seating – beautiful courtyard in back
  • Plenty of trees to tie the dog leash too while you run in and get coffee, plus there is a Vet in the same block – very pet friendly
  • Amazing looking mint chocolate brownies
  • Big windows
  • Interesting photography and art work on display
  • Magazine rack with lots of interesting and clean magazines, including multiple copies of Ode.

Make Your Mark calls itself an “art space and coffee house” – so there is a big focus on art. There are sketch books and crayons/colored pencils on the table and big metal board to display your artwork.

There are also 2 great restaurants in the same block – The Pointe Brugge and Pino’s.

You can read the blog Eat It and Love It’s review of Make Your Mark here.

Earthstone Coffee

When faced with the dilemma tonight of which coffee shop to study in, i ended up driving past the long vacated Cafe Bliss in north Point Breeze, right on Penn avenue near the Gatto bike shop and the east end co-op. To my surprise, the coffee shop has re-opened under the new name Earthstone Coffee, at 7332 Penn Avenue. It is right next to a pretty seedy bar, but it is so cute inside, they have tons of books, serve a variety of drinks and desserts, and even sell a couple of clothing items.I know everyone has like four coffee shops that they visit, but i hope you’ll keep this one in mind in the future. They are very DIY, they have supported several progressive political candidates in the past, and the store could help make point breeze a little more hip. So if you live in point breeze (or even if you don’t), stop by Earthstone. Earthstone even stays open later than most coffee shops in the area, 10 PM on weeknights, later on weekends, especially if they have music or something else planned.