Category Archives: Visual

“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.

A Great Time had at The Sprout Fund’s Preliminary Design Exhibition

This past Thursday, Concept Art Gallery in Regent Square, hosted The Sprout Fund’s annual Preliminary Design Exhibition. The event was meant to provide a sneak peek into the proposed mural designs for this year’s mural sites. The exhibition showcased 19 talented local artists each competing for one of the eight mural sites. Throughout the evening artists, community members, friends and family came to check out the designs, mingle with fellow community members, and eat food generously provided by the Square Cafe. There are a couple pictures from the event posted below. Keep your eyes peeled for eight new murals sprouting up this summer!

Sprout Public Art Preliminary Design Exhibition

The Sprout Fund announces its 2007 Preliminary Design Exhibition!

Thursday May 17, 2007
6:00-8:00pm
Concept Art Gallery
1031 South Braddock Avenue
Regent Square

This year’s preliminary design exhibition features 20 talented local artists, each competing for one of the 8 community mural sites. The showcased preliminary mural designs were created in response to the ideas of subject matter generated by each community group and act as proposals from each artist expressing how he or she might translate these ideas into a work of public art.

Please join us for this exhibition which represents an exciting step in a summer-long interaction of community ideas and artistic vision coming together to change the landscape of Pittsburgh and the surrounding communities of Allegheny County.

Git Aht! – Things To Do This Weekend

(Things to do while trying to come up with a good slogan for your neighborhood …)

(Work and personal stuff is taking a lot of my time, but I wanted to at least post these things even if I don’t have a chance to really do a write up… So I may get a chance to expand this later, or I may not.)

Friday, May 4
Unblurred , Art n’at… 6:00 p.m., Penn Avenue
Luchador Karaoke Bowling , Sadly, my lucha mask was lost at the cleaners, so I’m suing for $65 million… 9:00 p.m., Arsenal lanes, Lawrenceville

Saturday, ¡Drinko De Mayo!
drinko_de_mayo
 Asian heritage Day, Yes… What better day to celebrate Asian heritage than Cinco De Mayo? 10:00 a.m., Heinz History Center, The Strip
The Hi-Speeds Cinco de Mayo Party , Bonus: They’re giving Spanglish lessons… 10:00 p.m., Gooski’s, Polish Hill
Boca Chica, Not advertised as giving Spanglish lessons, but hey, you never know… 10:00 p.m., Garfield Artworks, Garfield
�����–
Because Knowing Where To Go (and drink) Is Half The Battle
(Further Suggested Reading)
knowing_half – Pittsburgh City Paper
– Pittsburgh Post Gazette
– Craigs List
– This Is Happeningâ€â€?â€â€?â€â€?â€â€?â€â€?–

Got an event planned? Would you like a whole flock* of yinzers with disposable income to show up? Let Git Aht know by sending the electronic mail to gitaht@gmail.com.

(* Note: “Flock� being, y’know.. very loosely-defined…)