Joe's Rusty Nail

Anyone who has done research on the "Best Places for Breakfast in Pittsburgh" will undoubtedly run across the Rusty Nail in Bellevue, just north of the city. So it was just a matter of time before we ventured up there for a Saturday morning adventure. Unbeknownst to us, we also picked the weekend Bellevue has their annual sidewalk sale, so we were treated to all sorts of activity along this classic Main Street-type neighborhood.

We arrived around 10am, normally a busy time, but according to our waitress even busier thanks to the extra traffic outside. The dining area is very small, with no waiting area (we stood outside for a few minutes) but inside is jam packed full of tables and mix/match wooden chairs and a few benches thrown in for good measure. I really liked the giant wooden buffet at the back of the room.

We ended up seated at the very front of the restaurant, near a bright sunny window. The breakfast menu was not very large, likely because you are encouraged to order from their daily specials offerings - so that is just what we did. Husband was sensible and picked the mushroom, spinach, and asiago cheese omelet special which came with "black oak ham" & toast (though he also added a stack of pancakes!) and I was bad and picked "The Stacker" special which consisted of 2 potato pancakes topped with 2 sausage patties, scrambled eggs and sausage gravy with a biscuit & cantaloupe. (Hey, at least it involved fruit!)

There was so much food, but it was all really delicious. A little too much gravy, but everything else tasted amazing, and was presented beautifully. After the mad rush died down, the owner came out and spoke to as many tables he could, several who were obviously Saturday regulars. Nice to see hometown service. Oh, and the Rusty Nail is cash only - not too many of those places left either!

O'Leary's Southside Cafe

Another Saturday in Pittsburgh! Just down the street from where we had breakfast last week is a tiny little storefront on Carson Street called O'Leary's Southside Cafe. And when I say tiny, there are only 5 tables and 5 counter stools. Small as it was, we didn't have to wait in any line, which is always good when you're hungry! We've walked/driven right past this place many times, but it just seems to be one of those shops that blends right into the scenery. Although it does have a funny exhaust fan that sticks out above the door, so you would think it would be more noticeable.

The inside wasn't much more to look at. There is a really cool old, tin ceiling, but not too many pictures or decorations on the walls, and just bare minimum on the "cafe" tables & chairs. 

Like the decor, the menu was really minimal as well - just one page for breakfast (served exclusively on weekends) and one for lunch. My favorite menu item is "VAY". Never heard of anything like this before - just described as "peanut butter, bacon & mayo" ????????

Sadly, the VAY was only on the lunch menu, so from the breakfast side, I ordered the ham omelet, which was made using provolone & really delicious ham we watched her carve off the bone, and 3 big eggs, served with potatoes & an English muffin. Husband picked "The Big Boy" consisting of eggs, bacon & 2 pancakes. 

Now if I'm being honest, the food wasn't much to look at when it came out, but the taste of it all completely made up for it. There really was a lot of it, and the quality was all to me very good. Nothing fancy, but better than lots of places we've been. The menu also brags of homemade soups, so some weekday we'll have to drop by and check them out. Maybe with a side of VAY?

Penny's Diner

So our original plan today for Breakfast in was to eat at a Pittsburgh "classic" called Tom's Diner. Located on the Southside, in an awesome old building with high ceilings and lots of city diner charm. Much to our surprise, we arrived only to find the name had been changed to "Penny's Diner". Luckily the new ownership still serves breakfast, so enter we did.

Seems Penny is actually Tom's daughter, and when Dad Tom retired, Daughter Penny made the place her own. According to the menu, Penny already owns 2 diners in the area (in WV & Southwest PA) so the diner business really runs in the family.

I love the decor - particularly the awesome old red vinyl booths. There's also outdoor seating for nice weather like we had today, and there were plenty of waitresses and other help running around like crazy. Unfortunately, we didn't seem to understand the method to the madness and ended up having quite a bizarre experience.

When we first walked in, the hostess, a younger girl, offered to seat us and was leading us to one of several open booths when suddenly, the older woman in charge diverted us to a table in the corner, next to some sort of doorway the staff would rush in and out of. Super strange, not sure if we had a funny look on our face or what, but I would have considered this table to be the last place you would want to seat folks - like only if the rest of the place was completely full and rather than send customers away, consider it the "last" seat in the house. Anyway, it wasn't awesome.

Our waitress, bless her heart, was one of the people always rushing, always forgetting something, always apologizing - what I consider "working hard, but not smart".

As for the food, it was just okay. The menu definitely made it sound much better than it actually arrived. I chose the "Eggs-in-a-basket" which was toast with eggs fried in the middle with bacon and cheese sauce for potatoes. (I think the cheese sauce might double as nacho sauce at lunchtime, but I can't confirm.) And husband ordered the "Farmer's Omelette Special" with sausage, ham, bacon & 2 pancakes, toast and potatoes. (The pancakes arrived halfway through the meal, and the omelet had a really odd taste to it - maybe some apple smoked sausage?)

So all in all, it was a really bizarre experience, that I don't think I can recommend. Maybe it's just that awkward transition time between owners??

The Empty Booth

Frank & Shirley's Restaurant

Once upon a time, before the ban on smoking in restaurants was decreed in the land of Pennsylvania, husband and I visited the haze that was know as Frank & Shirley's Restaurant (and "drive-thru lottery"). We decided to go back again, hoping that this time we would be able to actually taste and enjoy the food we ordered.

As you can see, Frank & Shirley's is not a large place. So when I say haze, really there was nowhere for the smoke to go but everywhere. So this time, knowing the laws would make it different, we headed down Saw Mill Run Blvd. in the Carrick neighborhood of Pittsburgh for our Saturday Breakfast. The place is small and really feels like a classic roadside diner, with two rows of booths and a galley kitchen/grill.

And yes, that is a lottery machine in the corner. So seems like it is locals/regulars who frequent here, and they come for the greasy fixin's and the lottery tickets. There were even blank forms on the tables - so apparently, you can make your picks right at the table and hand them to your waitress to process.

As for food, the menu was pretty limited, just two minimal pages of breakfast and lunch. I picked just 2 eggs with ham & potatoes, and husband chose the western omelet with a side of silver dollar pancakes (yee haw!)

Definitely home cookin' selections. Visit Frank & Shirley's if you're looking for that classic diner experience (I love the blue booths.) Play the lottery if you're so inclined ("Benefits older Pennsylvanians" so they say). And you can even buy a T-Shirt in that diner-blue for just $8!

Jo Jo's Place

Not to be confused with Jo Jo's Restaurant to or even J&J's Family Restaurant, Jo Jo's Place was where we decided to stop for Breakfast in Pittsburgh today. 

This place is about a mile or two past the busy shopping area out at Robinson, and if we didn't already know about it, there's not a chance we would have found it by just driving by. Seems there's some renovation plans with the front of the building, compared to what you see on the front of the menu. Perhaps some expansion is in the plans??

From the road

Front getting some TLC? 

The inside decor wasn't much better, the tables are old and strangely arranged, presumably in an attempt to squeeze as much seating in as possible in a small space. Apparently this is a great local favorite, because the tables were filled with families, couples, and bigger groups of folks just getting together for breakfast and bottomless cups of coffee. A sign on the wall said it was voted a reader's choice for some kind of favorite restaurant. So even in its odd location, it seems to have a big following.

The menu is filled with clever names for typical greasy spoon breakfast combos, like "Cassie's Quickie" (1 egg, cheese, and your choice of bacon or sausage on a toasted English muffin, served with a hash brown patty) and a house special "The Mr. Jo Jo" (1 egg, 3 bacon or 2 sausage patties, lettuce tomato, onion, and cheese on a bun, served with a hash brown patty). I was unoriginal and picked "Pappy's French Toast"  described as "3 slices of thick texas toast dipped in our own French Toast batter and grilled to perfection, served with hot syrup, butter and powdered sugar" and Husband had the "Big D Defense" which was 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, home fries, and pancakes.

A lot of food, yes, but it nearly all got eaten! The delectable descriptions absolutely matched the deliciousness of the food - I especially enjoyed the home fries. Not too greasy and just the right amount of onion for breakfast. And the service couldn't have been friendlier. You just got the feeling that people were happy to be here, either as customers or employees. 


Even though this place isn't all that far from the big mall, it really feels like it's off the beaten path. But a better tasting breakfast has yet to be found in this neck of the woods. 

LaBella Bean Coffee House and Eatery

Well, we got a little lost today, and that's how we found ourselves in Bridgeville for what we'll call a "healthy" breakfast.

Bacon Quiche & side salad

So we had a great idea in mind for Saturday breakfast, a place we had been several years ago and really enjoyed. It had been a while, and this restaurant was several miles out of Pittsburgh on the Parkway West. It was a cute little place, out in the middle of nowhere, at one of those intersections with not much else around. We took a couple wrong turns with our fuzzy location memory, but enjoyed a nice country drive in Collier Township (see some pics below.)  When we finally found our intended destination, we were sad to see it had been converted into an Irish pub. Not that there's anything wrong with an Irish pub, of course, but just not for breakfast!

Disappointed, but getting pretty hungry, we headed straight to the closest center of population which happened to be Bridgeville. And in their main street business district we found LaBella Bean Coffee House and Eatery.

Now clearly LaBella Bean does not claim to be a breakfast place, but we're always flexible. So we picked the most breakfasty food on the menu, which was quiche - choice of ham, veggie or bacon. (Of course when we got our food, we laughed to realize the only difference is in the toppings - same quiche, just topped with either ham, bacon or veggies.) Since it's really intended as a brunch menu item, it also came with a tasty side salad with balsamic dressing. (A far cry from our typical greasy-spoon, pancakes & french toast Saturday breakfast!) Husband also ordered a banana mango smoothie to go with a chai tea, and I couldn't resist a sampler of homemade cookies with my walnut flavored green tea.

I really liked the character of the shop. It's rather spacious, with many seating areas, including some over-sized chairs along with tables and some bar-type seating. And being right on the main drag it really has that city-coffee-shop feel.

Here's the peaceful little place we stopped while "lost" this-morning.

J&J's Family Restaurant & Catering

Another beautiful Saturday in Pittsburgh! Somehow our morning was so busy with errands and appointments, we weren't able to head off to breakfast until nearly NOON! So we decided to stay close to home to somewhere we Know serves "Breakfast Anytime" - and there is no closer place to where we live than J&J's Family Restaurant & Catering which is a really long name for a small little one room restaurant on the corner of Virginia & Shiloh on Mt. Washington (long, not unlike this sentence). It is a cute little place with all kinds of pictures, photos and knick-knacks hanging on the walls. And it's within walking distance of our house.

As the name suggests, it is run by some sort of family, whose photos are proudly displayed on the front of the menu, hanging on the walls of the restaurant, and even posted on their webiste. There aren't too many tables, and the place wasn't really busy. A good sign, or so we thought. Unfortunately, although we sat down at noon, we weren't served for nearly 45 minutes after we ordered.  Zoiks! (More on that later...)

waiting....

The breakfast menu here is very typical of Pittsburgh, with nothing too exciting to recommend itself. So husband and I stuck close to what is familiar, being so hungry by this time of day. He picked the from the menu the "Big Country" consisting of 3 pancakes, 3 eggs, sausage patties, homefries & toast. This pretty much covered everything on the menu and certainly would have been enough for the two of us! But I had to have my French toast...

The Italian toast came several minutes after the rest of the food, but it was absolutely delicious, melt in your mouth, all kinds of goodness. Yum, yum.

So here comes my mini-rant about the timing of the meal...

Since this place is so close to our house, we used to come here all the time - often weekly. Until one morning the service was so incredibly slow, we realized it just wasn't compatible with our typical busy weekend plans. The food is really good, don't get me wrong. But apparently "these things take time." And it seems we aren't the first ones to think so. I found this telling statement posted on their website :

I'm a big fan of shopping locally, and I appreciate that they acknowledge the fact that they aren't at all a fast food restaurant. So I guess the next time we visit, I'll remind myself that this is a "family" restaurant - not so much because it is a place to Bring your family, (though that of course is welcome), and not because you Feel like family when you are there, (though certainly most folks do), but it is Run by a family. So it is like being invited to another family's place for a home cooked meal. No assembly lines, everything's just made one plate at a time, as the cook pleases. Probably as quickly as I myself might cook breakfast for people walking in and out of my kitchen. But then again, I'm not a restaurant owner... and I'm sure many are happy about that!

I have no doubt we'll return again. Good food and good location will do it every time.