Starlite Lounge--Holy Pierogi Batman

Let's say you're driving around Pittsburgh and you find yourself crossing the Highland Park bridge. You decide to take the first exit ramp towards Aspinwall and start cruising down Freeport Road. You pass a few Italian markets, some hockey gear stores, a mall, and then you enter the little town of Blawnox, Pennsylvania. Now you're starting to feel a little hungry, so you decided to see what Blawnox has to offer, it's a nice enough little 'burb, they must have something right? So you start looking around the main drag, and you pass by a pretty square looking building, just painted blue, nothing distinguishable to it, it just looks like well...a bar. A big, blue bar with no sign on the front, it's only once you pass it that you see the little board identifying it as the Starlite Lounge, but the place looked pretty bland right? Nothing too exciting?? Pretty boring...it's just a bar...just booze and peanuts right?? WRONG! You just cruised right on past one of the best restaurants Pittsburgh and it's surrounding areas has to offer...so pull a U-turn, find a parking spot, grab a beer and check out Moondog and the Starlite.

14 years ago a former musician decided to change careers and buy the local bar around the block...the Starlite. Around since '54, the Starlite is a favorite place to catch the Pirates' game, catch up with your buddies, and kick back with a Yuengling. The former owner sold the place to Ron--Moondog to everyone who knows the Starlite--he did so with one rule...the name stays. Moondog wasn't gettin' the Starlite unless it stayed the Starlite, so he kept the name and added his own touch to the menu, turning your typical bar food into one of the best meals I've ever eaten. Now you can definately still get your standard bar food, ya know wings, burgers, potato skins, that type of thing, but if you're lookin' for something more you can get that too from their fettuncini alfredo with chicken and mushrooms to meatloaf to the infamous chicken diablo, a spicy chicken and pasta dish that is a local legend. The one thing everyone says that you've gotta have at the Starlite though is the pierogis. Pittsburgh is a Polish town, and that means they've got some killer homemade pierogis. So whatever else you get on the menu make sure you're addin' on a pierogi appetizer, homemade with every order from the same recipe used by one of the Starlite's waitress' Grandma. These things are flying out of the kitchen so fast that on their website they actually recommend that you call ahead and pre-order them so they can have em ready for you. So when Ben and I strolled out of the movies on a Wednesday afternoon, we called the Starlite, ordered our pierogis and headed into Blawnox to see what else Moondog had to offer.

If you haven't figured it out yet, Ben and I are suckers for some good bar food. We would prefer a big plate of wings to the fanciest meal you could place in front of us, and because of that, the Starlite is in our top three of places we've been from Triple D (they're actually number 2 but I haven't told you guys about number 1 yet). We decided to mix up how we order a little bit so that we could both get a taste of everything, and I think our waitress thought we were a little crazy for it. Plus we were the only people in the bar eating, we didn't go into the actually dining room area where a couple other groups were. We decided to order a ton of food and just split everything and it was an excellent idea. We, obviously, had the pierogis and wow, better than could've been expected. Sauteed with butter and onions, and filled with cheese and potato these things (3 to an order) were huge and hearty. They were seriously a meal in themselves, served up with a side of applesauce, that my apple-hating boyfriend steered clear of. They were dense and fluffy all at the same time, a definate repeat order for the next time we roll into the bar. On top of those, we also got some BBQ wings, which weren't just your run of the mill drummies, no no, these things were whole wings, slathered in Moondog's famous sauce--they were Ben's favorite part of the meal. My favorite part was yet to come though...the Cowboy Burger. A huge burger covered in cheddar cheese, bacon, and BBQ sauce, plus fries that tasted like they were right off the boardwalk. Definately in the top 3 burgers I've ever had, and trust me I've had a lot of burgers, and few compare (again just wait for the number one Triple D joint). Our waitress expected us to need a box, but no way, we were there for dinner and we cleaned out plates and were ready for seconds. Everytime we talked about going out to dinner from this night on the Starlite always came up, but we haven't made it back yet, even though we absolutely will be back soon, and will probably order the exact same thing, because let's face it, why change a great thing???

Check out their Triple D clip and their menu:

http://www.moondogs.us/StarliteHome.html

Crystal Restaurant--Lamb on the Strip

So we've discovered "the run" in Pittsburgh, now it's time to meander to the Strip District. The Strip District runs through Pittsburgh and kind of has little districts even within itself. It runs along the Allegheny River and extends about 22 blocks through the middle of downtown, ranging through Smallman St., Penn Ave., and Liberty Ave. What started out as the home of the steel mills and wholesale warehouses in the 1800's has now become a hot spot for trendy restaurants and antique stores. No matter what you're looking for in Pittsburgh you can most likely find it in the Strip, and that includes Lebanese food. When we checked out Guy's index on Food Network's website, this was one of the few places in Pittsburgh we hadn't heard of or seen the clip for, so initially we weren't really sure what we were going to find. So as we were planning our date night for that week we looked up Crystal's and found the clip of it's food on YouTube and it turned out this place was a bar hidden in the heart of the Strip serving up authentic Lebanese cuisine along with your typical bar fare.

Crystal's has been in Pittsburgh for 5 years, so it's definately the "youngest" place we'd been to thus far on the Triple D road. Most places Guy samples tend to be decades old, and this place may still hold the record for being the place around for the shortest length of time. The restaurant got it's name from owner and head chef Crystal, who, despite never being in the restaurant business before, decided to open up a place where she could serve the food she liked to eat, the food that she grew up on, Middle Eastern fare. She hadn't been able to find a place in Pittsburgh serving up Lebanese food like her mom made so what better way to get that food than serving it yourself? So with the help of her mom--who still helps out in the kitchen (she's in charge of all the lamb sandwiches)--Crystal opened up this little bar on Penn Avenue. She's got a prime location, right in the heart of the stadium district, which serves her business well. In fact, only a few days before we'd wandered in, the place had been packed until 2 in the morning after the Pens had beaten my beloved Red Wings in one of the earlier games of the Stanley Cup finals. With an image like that, Crystal's really lives up to its motto of being a "meeting, eating, and drinking place." The atmosphere of this place is still probably my favorite in terms of an intimate setting--not something you usually find in a Triple D haunt. The place, despite the bar and Steelers' memorabilia, is covered in Christmas lights and each table has a candle on it which definately sets the tone for a date night. Crystal has covered the walls with old family wedding photos, so there's no shortage of things to look at while you're waiting for your meal. We were the only people there, except for a table of 4 regulars and Crystal--who was out and about making plans for the shipment of food she was getting ready to have delivered. Even with only two tables full though, the place looked packed, it's not that difficult when it's only got like 6 tables. Our waiter was really cool and asked if we'd ever been there, and when we told him no, he gave us all his recommendations off of the menu--"everything's fantastic, but go for the Lebanese." That's what we were there for since it's what this place is known for, and hey Guy featured it on a "Taste of Everywhere" so we couldn't just go and grab a burger, if we did Guy would've been disappointed. So what did we grab???

Ben and I are suckers for hummus, so we couldn't very well eat at a Middle Eastern restaurant without getting some, so that's how we started out our meal, and it was insane. Hummus can be a tricky food, some places have it too thick, others too creamy, but at Crystal's it's perfect, just the right combination. Plus, it came with fresh, warm pita, and a garlic dip that is one of the coolest things we've ever had at a Triple D joint. Every Lebanese meal at Crystal's comes with banana peppers, pita, and their homemade garlic dip, which is very cool and refreshing. Get yourself some pita covered in dip and hummus and you're in heaven, trust me. One of the things Guy raved about at Crystal's was the "Lamb on the Rod," and since I'm not big on the lamb (as we discussed at Grampa's) I let Ben cover that portion of the menu. The lamb gets marinated for 24 hours in oil, spices, and peppers, then gets grilled up. Now this isn't your average kabob with 4 pieces of meat, and tons of veggies--no no no not at Crystal's--the entire kabob is lamb. The best way to eat this stuff is make a little pita sandwich with a piece of lamb, garlic dip, and peppers and onions, even I thought this stuff was insane! I went for a more extreme form of Lebanese cuisine, with the combo platter featuring 3 different forms of Crystal's cookin'--grape leaves, tabbouli, and kibbee. I love grape leaves (Ben hates them so I got them all to myself) and these were definately some of the best I've ever had--heavy on the lemon juice and cooked perfectly. The tabbouli was what I dove into first, and it was exactly what you expect from tabbouli, clean, fresh, and bananas, but while the rest of my meal was good the kibbee stole the show. I'd never even heard of kibbee til Triple D, but man am I glad I did. It's ground beef, mixed up with spices and pine nuts then deep fried, and served in a kind of football form. Seriously with some pita and garlic dip, I couldn't get enough of this stuff. After we left Crystal's I said to Ben, ya know it's places like this that are the reason I love Triple D. If it wasn't for Guy, if we'd ever wandered into Crystal's I wouldn't have gone near the Lebanese food, I'd have played it safe with a burger, and never got to experience the reason Crystal opened up this place, her mom's home cookin'. So here's what I recommend, no matter if you love Lebanese food, or have never had it in your life, take a ride down the Strip and check out Crystal's if only to sample the garlic dip!

Check out all the Lebanese cuisine Crystal has to offer:

http://www.crystalonpenn.com/