Followers' Favorites! The Most Popular Posts of 2010

Just in case you haven't had your fill, here is yet another countdown list! Presenting 'Burgh Living's most read posts of 2010.

10. The One Where I Interview a Cartoon Man

9. The One That I Didn't Write

8. The One Where I Talk About Bacon

7. The One Where I Ate Too Much

6. The One Where I Interview a Councilman

5. The One That Made me Hungry

4. The One That Stripped

3. The (Other) One That I Didn't Write

2. The One For the Dogs

1. The One That Talked About Wizards

Now, get crackin' on those resolutions people!

It's a Hockey Weekend in Pittsburgh! Oh Yeah, and Happy New Year Too.

Drumroll.....

Congratulations to Janice! She's the winner of our $25 Sonoma Gift card!
Thank you to all for sharing your favorite 'Burgh Christmas memories, and here's wishing all of you a safe and Happy Holiday!!

Downtown Christmas Date Night: Sonoma Grill

Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership

I don't really keep my feelings for the 'Burgh a secret. I am lucky to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the country. During the Holidays however, Downtown Pittsburgh is really sumthin' special. So, when the opportunity for not just a "date night", but a "Downtown date night during the holidays" arose, slap a star on my head and call me a Christmas tree, I was all over it.

I like to play it off as if I am a wine connoisseur, but I am not. Left to my own devices with a wine menu, I generally choose a modestly priced red and try to look sophisticated. Fortunately, the pairing of fine wine with (delicious) food is a speciality at Sonoma Grille. We started the evening off with the Pine Ridge Forefront Cabernet. Now, I could try and use some fancy-schmancy wine terminology about the smoothness and undertones and what-not, but I would be completely lying. All I can honestly say is that it was a darn fine glass of wine, and it went tremendously well with the entire meal.....and what a meal!

The last time I was at Sonoma, I recall enjoying the dinner, but leaving a tad bit hungry. Given that we were being treated to a "tasting menu", I anticipated the inevitable late-night trip to the fridge. I was totally wrong. This dinner was the perfect cure for a cold winter's night. We left with cheeks flushed from a vibrant and filling meal, each dish of which was thoughtfully presented and delicious from start to finish.

Our appetizer for the evening was the Mediterranean plate with mixed olives. I dove into the dish of olives first, not just because I find olives to be one of the most perfect foods known to man, but because they were so colorful they almost looked like a little bowl of Christmas Ornaments and were therefore irresistible. The plate consisted of Flageolet Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, and Quinoa Taboule garnished with pomegranate seeds. It is worth a mention here that I was certain I would drive the chef to distraction with all of my food restrictions, however gluten-free was a natural for him. In fact my menu did not need to be adjusted at all, save a few minor items that the BF was happy to enjoy, including what he said to be the "superior" flat bread accompanying the Mediterranean plate. We also were presented with the Pork Sliders, an award winning dish from this year's Downtown Block Party. The Sliders are likely to make an appearance on the menu for Nola, the New Orleans themed restaurant from the Sonoma family opening soon (rumor has it in time for Mardi Gras 2011!) in Market Square.

I was already getting giddy from the wine and was preparing to take the belt down a notch, so to speak, when I was presented with the Cioppino, a traditional Mediterranean Seafood Stew. Sonoma's version featured a tender crab leg chillaxin in the spicy and flavorful broth with his friends the Organic Scottish Salmon, Price Edward Island Mussels and Maryland Shrimp. For whatever (misguided) reason, I usually associate seafood with summer dishes, but this was as close as you can get to perfect winter fare. The BF enjoyed a NY Strip Steak, prepared right "on temperature" (meaning not over-done), along with Fingerling Potatoes and Broccoli Raab.


Are you getting the gist that my idea of a "tasting menu" has flown the coop at this point? And then this??? Really???

Not one, not two, but THREE desserts. The homemade chocolate ice cream was delivered to the table courtesy of waiter Michael, who recommended it as the best dessert in the house. The Creme Brulee was velvety smooth and was served with a apple cider reduction, and the BF downed his Firefly Farms (Maryland) cheesecake so fast I didn't even get a chance to see it, although I did get a taste of the Petite Sirah Reduction and Black Grapes (soaked in said reduction) that it was served with and knew why it disappeared so quickly.

No, there were no late night trips to the fridge this night! After Sonoma rolled us out of their front door we went happily into the night. I will say, before the winter leaves us, the Cioppino and I have some unfinished business.

Since you you were nice and not naughty and read this whole post, I have a little Holiday giftie for you! Comment below with your favorite Pittsburgh Holiday Tradition. I will work some random-number-generator magic, and will give away a $25 Sonoma Gift Card on Christmas Eve to the lucky poster! (be sure to include your email address when submitting so you can be contacted).

A Downtown Holiday Date Night, my gift to you! Happy Holidays!

A Virtual Tour of Epic Proportions: 1612 Buena Vista

One of the first questions people ask me when they find out I am a Real Estate Agent is, "So, have you seen that HGTV show...". I must stop them there. I never watch HGTV. They don't often show the ugly but lovable side of the job. Just once I want to see a bleary eyed agent negotiating a deal at 11pm, or the repercussions of an inspection gone horribly wrong. Instead, you get, "Ta-da! SOLD!".

Ugh.

However, like any agent worth their muster, I still would like my own show on HGTV, so I could be all "Ta-da! Look at me! I sold 20 houses today and my nail polish isn't even chipped". So, the opportunity to film this epic, HGTV style home tour of 1612 Buena Vista has ranked pretty high on my "Best Things I've Ever Done" list. Mostly because this house rocks. It is the star of the show. The War Streets are a pretty cool place to live, and this house is one of the best of the bunch. So, if you can get over the host who is trying her best to mimic an HGTV star (sheesh, blink much?), you will totally want to buy this place.

Then I can be all "Ta-da! I sold a house today in the War Streets and I don't even have a hair out of place!"

It is worth a very serious mention that this masterpiece was shot by Ron Modro and his crew from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Ron would completely be my co-star on my own HGTV show. The reason he and his crew shot this for me (and by crew I mean two cameras, a sound guy, a lighting tech and a partridge in a pear tree), is because the owner of this dazzling home allowed him to use it to shoot a TV pilot. I got a sneak preview of the pilot, and it is some juicy stuff. "Desperate Housewives meets Sex and The City" juicy. For now, however, you will all have to be content with this teaser of a video tour, and you can all say "I saw a home tour Ron Modro shot way back before he became a super-famous director!"

1612 Buena Vista is listed by Erin Marton from RE/MAX Select Realty and is priced at $269,900. For more information or to schedule a personal tour, call 724-933-6300 ex. 665 or email erin@burghliving.com.

The "Big" Interview: Chef Bill Fuller

As the holidays begin to peek around the corner of fall, the BF gets a hankering. He's gotta have a Gobblerito. Colorful leaves, crisp air, and a flour tortilla wrapped around an entire Thanksgiving dinner just do it for him. So, when I told him I had plans to interview Chef Bill Fuller, the corporate chef for the big Burrito company and Grand Pooba of the Gobblerito, he immediately asked for free samples. I said no.

Thanksgiving dinner irony aside, I was pretty darn excited to have a sit down with the man who is responsible for some of my favorite restaurants in the 'Burgh. The big Burrito Company has, in the last 18 or so years, opened: Nine Mad Mex Restaurants (including ones in Columbus and Philadelphia), Kaya in the Strip, Casbah in Shadyside, Soba and Umi (also in Shadyside), and Eleven in the Strip District. The newest Mad Max is slated to open on South Highland Avenue (little happy dance!) on March 1st of next year. Each concept has its own special place in the big Burrito family, but whether you're enjoying the Conch Fritters at Kaya or the Sweet Potato Tart at Casbah, you get the feeling something special went into your dinner. It could be the carefully crafted atmosphere that the company has put into each restaurant, however, I think it is more likely Chef Fuller's philosophy. Buying local, according to the Chef, is something that we take for granted these days, as most restaurants seem to be traveling that road (or at least touting that they do). big Burrito and Bill have been doing it for years. Listening to him talk about the selection of products that go into creating a menu was almost like hearing an artist describe a canvas. Each piece that goes into a dish is carefully selected, and if local is an option (meaning in season, fresh and available), that is the direction he will go in. Says Bill, "The food tastes better and is fresher. Its keeps the money in our local economy. It reduces the environmental impact of all that shipping from across the country. And the region loves it. We love Pittsburgh, we love Southwestern Pennsylvania. Probably, when it all falls apart, we’ll be just fine because we’ll band together and build walls around the region and protect each other. That’s one of the really appealing things about local food sourcing. It's all of us working together.". You can get the gist of how our very Pittsburgh-centric conversation was going. Yes, we were talking about Armageddon and how Pittsburgh would survive because we would all band together and protect the city. Talk of Giants came into play too, but more on that later.

There was some national attention a few years back during the Superbowl, when the Today Show and NBC network gurus hosted a cook-off during between Chef Bill and a chef from Arizona, whose name I didn't even bother to look up (responsible blogger that I am)! I also only watched the first half of the video because I found it unlikely anyone could beat Fuller's bacon and fried onion loaded burgers. So who won? Well, they didn't really crown a "winner" per se, but Hoda did seem to take a special shine to Bill. Take a look:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

At this point in the interview, we got carried away (again) in a conversation only a foodie would love. We talked about where to buy figs in Pittsburgh, how to break (not cut) asparagus, and when peaches are in season. I was in heaven and pretty much ignored the complete fail of my recording equipment. This all happened right before my question FTW, "Why Pittsburgh" for Bill? No worries about the technology glitch, because there was no way I could forget his answer (oh alright, I had to email him to get it exactly right). Hands down, the best I've ever received. "When you look around at the huge iron bridges, the stone railroad trestles with trees growing out of them, the massive mills with massive pieces that are silent now, its like there was a race of giants here that built this city and then left mysteriously. When I’m paddling on the river and I am tooling around inside a half-sunk barge of looking up at giant stone abutments, it's like I’m going down the river in Lord of the Rings." Yep, Giants. Best.Answer.Ever.

Cue scene of BF transformed into a slimy little grey dude, clinging to a Gobblerito and hissing "precioussssss, my preciousssss".

Here are interesting factoids about the man behind the (really awesome) food :
1. He majored in chemistry in college. Hey, so did I! Yeah, the similarity ends with the fact that he was actually good at it, and went to graduate school at Berkeley (one of the best in the country) for his Masters.
2. Everyone has their food weaknesses. Mine are whole milk and bacon. Bill, being a little more gastronomically advanced , has a much more extensive list. "Piles of kielbasa, Mallo Cups, Throwback Mountain Dew, cheap sweet white wine, Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwiches, Pringles, Fritos, Ruffles with French Onion Dip from the store, fries with ranch, all wings, Lebanon bologna." Whew! This sounds like my weekly shopping list.
3. He thinks Hoda is a Hottie. For real.
4. He is on a health kick since turning 40. Running and a healthy lifestyle are tops on his list now. Thank goodness, because we need him to have lots of energy so he can keep churning out those delicious dishes!
5. He is "itching" to start the next big Burrito concept. It has been six years since the opening of Eleven! What are his ideas? Maybe something Italian? I get the feeling something may be just around the corner, but if not, who cares! There are plenty of things I have yet to try at the existing big Burrito Restaurants, such as the Feast Navidad at Mad Mex. This is the Christmas version of the Gobblerito, complete with braised spare-ribs, peas, garlic chili mashed potatoes and baby carrots. It even comes with a side of beef gravy! They better install some couches because Momma's gonna need a nap after that one.
6. His favorite child in the chain is likely Casbah. His first stint as Head Chef was here.
7. He's a really nice guy! I've met my share of chefs who have an ego larger than is warranted, and although Bill jokes about his "Chef Ego", I couldn't even see it if I squinted. He had nothing but fabulous things to say about other restaurants outside the "big" family, including Dinette and Round Corner Cantina, and he spent a full 2 hours chatting with me! He also wants to try my Pierogies.....
Gulp!

TO DO's:

• Catch Bill's bi-weekly appearance on Pittsburgh Today Live. The next show airs on Thursday, December 23rd at 9am on KDKA. Watch last week's episode here!
• Follow Chef Fuller on Twitter
• Read this months EatBig Newsletter

A "Big" thank you, thank you, thank you to Chef Bill Fuller for a very long and informative interview, and for putting up with my equipment fail and continuing the interview via email.

Here Comes the Neighborhood! The Otto Milk Condominiums

Jack Benoff is a busy, busy man. Trying to sneak in some time for an interview this past week was a challenge, but Jack has never met a challenge he couldn't conquer. We were successfully able to exchange a quick question and answer session via email, and now he is hunkering down and preparing for a feat that few developers can boast in this climate: 45+ closings on his latest project, The Otto Milk Condominiums.

This isn't Jack's first trip around the development block in the 'Burgh. His first project was the hugely successful 941 Penn Avenue in the Cultural District downtown. Aside from sheer size (941 Penn is an exclusive 17 unit building, whereas Otto boasts 59 units), a new neighborhood and new demographic make the two projects very different. As Jack puts it, Otto presented a new challenge due to "more moving parts" in the large and historic building.

Originally the Phoenix Brewery, Otto's history stretches back to when the Strip District was the main port-of-call for Pittsburgh, with most products, including beer, imported and exported via boat. Unloading and loading on the shores of the river made the Strip a convenient place to set up shop and manufacture many of the goods and services that kept the economy of the city strong. After the Phoenix Brewery closed, the building became the Otto Milk Dairy, which was one of the largest in Pittsburgh. As Jack tells it, he knew the first time he walked through the building that it would make a "great project in a great location".

Great location indeed. My love affair with the Strip District is well known. It seems that every time you blink, something new and exciting is brewing there. The Pittsburgh Public Market, only a few short blocks from Otto, has become wildly successful, and they seem to announce a new participating vendor every week. Right By Nature Market is right across the street, and you can get some of the best, locally brewed joe right around the corner at 21st Street Coffee.

In true ""if you build it they will come" fashion, Jack is bringing the neighbors to the neighborhood. In fact, Kathy Wallace of RE/MAX Select Realty, listing agent for the project, likens the building to a "vertical neighborhood". By February, the Strip will be 50+ households stronger as the new residents close and begin to move in.

What set Jack down the road of developing in Pittsburgh? He is a bit of a renaissance man it turns out. After ten years in medicine, and a stint in software, Jack came to Pittsburgh as an owner of a Max and Erma's franchise. Like so many of us, he fell in love with the city and became convinced it would be a good place to get into the development business. Why Pittsburgh for Jack? "The people", he says. In fact, Jack credits the city itself as one of the reasons his projects have been so successful. An interesting and particularly analytical approach to the business doesn't hurt either. "I enjoy working with people and solving complex problems and situations. Development is just like medicine in that you have the patient and it is your goal to work with them to provide a positive outcome." Speaking from personal experience, I can attest that Jack is a very "buyer-centric" developer. In my day job, I have had the pleasure of working with both Jack and Kathy, and their combined philosophies of honesty, communication and hard work have propelled the project to the success it is seeing today. Of the 59 units, 45 have sold; truly unparalleled. As of this article, three of the remaining 14 are on reservation awaiting signed sales agreements.

So what's next for Jack? "Show me something interesting and I am ready to get going. I would like to do something easy this time such as starting from the ground up."

Prices on the remaining units at Otto Milk begin in the low $200,000's. For more information contact Kathy Wallace or Erin Marton (yep, that's me!), RE/MAX Select Realty, 724-933-6300.

Oh, The Places You Could Go (With Concert-Oh!)

Today I got an early Christmas present. A shiny new tool to use here on the 'Burgh Living Blog, and one that is sure to increase my Agoraphobic tendencies. Concert-Oh is a Pittsburgh based company that offers a (free!) web-based video conferencing tool. This (free!) service allows users to connect and get some face-time with people across the globe from the comfort of your own living room (or coffee shop, or office). Did I mention it was free?

Aimee Miller and Ben Schmitt joined me this afternoon for a chat about, what else, Concert-Oh and all of its limitless uses. The coolest part? The company is local, and we discussed how Pittsburgh has been a great home-base for their effective, grass-roots marketing campaign. Now 600 members and growing, Concert-Oh is amazingly user-friendly, and participants can call in, or chat over the web. If a web-cam is available, users can chat face to face with others in the meeting. Concert-Oh's motto is "Type less, talk more", although if you are a fan of the instant message, the site offers a sidebar for users to type in their two cents. You can even break out into a private chat with another user, which brings a whole other set of nefarious uses into the equation.

As someone who despises the conference call because of its lack of a personal connection, Concert-Oh will be sure to become one of my new favorite ways to conduct an interview. Even better, since the chats can be recorded, I don't need to take notes and decipher my chicken-scratch later. Future victims be warned. You will now have to at least wear a nice shirt. Fuzzy slippers though, are still optional.

Be sure to visit the Concert-Oh website, join up, and explore all of the options available. While you are there, listen in on the 'Burgh Living Blog's interview with Concert-Oh's Aimee and Ben.

Between online shopping and (free!) video conferencing, I don't think I will ever leave my house again. How do you think my mom would feel about a virtual Christmas this year?