Joe Bryant said:
Ok Pittsburgh Folks. Let's hear it.
Going to be visiting family and may have some time to get out. What are the must do things in Pittsburgh? Especially focused on local / cultural food / drink / places to see?
Joe - when and where will you be staying? As others have mentioned, Pittsburgh is a city of neighborhoods. With the rivers and hills, it can be tricky getting around.
Primanti's is a staple of Pittsburgh-ness. The original restaurant is in the Strip District but there are others in the region.
Restaurants:
The Church Brew Works - This is a former Catholic church turned into a restaurant and brewery in the Lawrenceville area. The food is very good as are the beers. They repurposed the pews into seating and brewing kettle on the altar.
Penn Brewery - is a brewery and restaurant founded in 1986 in the Troy Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, on the site of the former Eberhardt and Ober Brewery (founded in 1848).
Fat Head's is a bar in the Southside of Pittsburgh that servers regular pub fare and craft beer as well as brewing their own. Know for the Headwich.
Guy Fieri has featured a few local restaurants on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives.
The Dor Stop in Dormont,
Big Jim's in Greenfield area known as "The Run",
Nadine'sin the Southside,
Kelly O's in the Strip District.
Other places would be would be
DeLuca's and
Pamela's in the Strip - these would be breakfast stops, especially if you go to the Strip on a Saturday.
Tessaro's was already mentioned, it is in Bloomfield
Someone else mentioned
The Nationality Rooms in the Cathedral of Learning which you can then hit The "O"
The Original Hot Dog Shoppe, ie The "O"
You also have Station Square which, if you were going to ride the Mon Incline, you would be here. The Duquesne Incline is a little further west of Station Square.
Duquesne Incline or
Mon Incline
On the North Side, not far from Heinz Field and PNC Park is
The Mexican War Streets and
Randyland - this would be for culture and architecture plus
The Andy Warhol Museum
Downtown you have Market Square, which through the winter will have an outdoor ice skating rink. Also, in one of the buildings around Market Square, there is a display of Santa Clauses from different areas of the world.
I know the Carnegie Science Center was mentioned, but at this time of year, they have the
Miniature Railroad display
The Squirrel Hill area has a ton of international cuisine restaurants. This trip advisor page has a good list of them.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/RestaurantsNear-g53449-d272388-oa30-Squirrel_Hill-Pittsburgh_Pennsylvania.html Also, if you are into Vinyl albums, I would highly recommend stopping into
Jerry's Records. Unfortunately Jerry retired this year, but sold the store to a longtime employee.
Here is a good site for
The Strip District.
Maggie's Farm Rum Distillery and
Wigle Whiskey Distillery are both in the Strip District