Pittsburgh Bits & Bites tour: Brookline

 Dear Husband and I finally found a chance to use a Pittsburgh Bits & Bites gift certificate My Awesome Parents had given us for Christmas 2019 when another couple offered to go on a tour of the Brookline neighborhood of Pittsburgh with us. Named for the town in Massachusetts, it lies south of the Monongahela River, 8 miles due west of us in Munhall. The land was taken from the Native Americans living there by land grants after George Washington had some military victories in the 18th century. In the 19th century an incline made it easier to get to the jobs in the city, and then the Liberty Avenue tunnel opened in 1924 to ease travel. At its height, 30,000 people lived there. Lots of steel workers then lost their jobs with the mill closures in the 1970s, and today there are about 15,000. Brookline's motto is "Charm, Character, Convenience." We walked up and down Brookline Boulevard and enjoyed some of the businesses there in sunny early fall weather.

First stop was Pitaland, a Middle Eastern bakery and cafe founded by Lebanese immigrants 50 years ago, when they came for a 3-month honeymoon and got stuck in the United States when civil war broke out back home. Uncle Joe (pictured) grew the business into a local supplier of pita, and his wife, whom we met, still works in the kitchen making both traditional and new products for the cafe and grocery store. The oven gets 1000F inside, so the dough only passes through for 3-4 seconds before cooling on this mobile track and being packaged by hand. It was fascinating to watch the flat discs pop up into spheres under the extreme heat. They're shortly going to replace it with a larger oven to meet the demand. We tried fresh pita with hummus, and I bought some humus and tahini for home.

This is Engine House 57, built in 1908. It has beautiful architectural details. The tower on the left is not for watching for fires or ringing bells but for hanging the fire hoses, back when they were made of cotton and rotted if put away while still wet!

Next stop was the original Las Palmas location, where we each got one, super filling taco.

In the alleyway behind La Palmas, our guide, Emma, showed us the mural that local high school students painted to cover anti-immigrant graffiti from 2016.

The Party Cake Shop is an old standard which closed but then re-opened the weekend prior, which is why there wasn't much stock on the shelves yet. We were there to pick up burnt almond torte cupcakes. I learned that this staple Pittsburgh dessert was apparently the winner in a competition in the 1970s to use up surplus almond stock. They also claim to have the longest sprinkle ("Jimmie") according to the Guinness Book of World Records. And get a load of the stained-glass art on the walls!

We stopped in the local Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh--"free to the people"--and DH rented a couple of DVDs for TV shows that aren't available from our branch. Then it was on to Sal's Barber Shop, a time capsule of sports memorabilia and antique hair cutting paraphernalia, like ceramic shaving cream mugs. It's received a historical designation; he's just waiting for the plaque to arrive, although I'm not sure where he'll hang it!

"Little Sal" now runs what his father, "Big Sal" had started in 1947. After hearing stories about him cutting celebrities' hair when he worked in Los Angeles, we took over the back deck of 802 Bean Company, which served us coffee, tea, lemonade while we chatted, looked at old advertisements for housing kits from Sears & Roebuck, and enjoyed the view.

Then it was a hot slice of cheese pizza from Antonio's Pizzeria, which offers standard, vegan, gluten-free, and keto options. In addition to pinball machines, this poem by local legend Rachel Ann Bovier was hanging on the wall, "Antonio's":

Whatever you order

Pizza or Salad

Gonna take you back

To a wonderful ballad

That'll have you humming

Like a bird that sings

Because of the taste

That their menu brings

No comparison

To any other place

Because they put

A smile on your face

Thank you Antonio's

For being the one

Who has the best pizza

Under the sun

We ended the tour at Scoops Brookline, part of a local ice cream chain, where DH chose Banana Cream Pie, and I opted for Cider Mill, a cinnamon-apple seasonal flavor with donut chunks. Next time I want to try the triple chocolate Pittsburgh Pot Holes!