Cafe on Main - Sharpsburg

Without jinxing it, I think I found my new favorite breakfast spot in Pittsburgh! For folks who thrive on searching out new breakfast digs every Saturday morning, it surprises even me that we have visited Cafe on Main Two Weeks in a Row! (gasp!) So what made it so enjoyable??

Before we walked in the front door, I noticed this cute storefront with ceramic roosters and a cute wrought iron cafe furniture, and made a mental note to stop by this quaint shop after breakfasting. Unobservant me soon realized that this "storefront" was actually the main dining room of Cafe on Main.

Our first visit last week entailed a 15 minute wait (around 10am) but this week was much quicker. (Likely due to morning dusting of snow, which often keeps Pittsburghers off the roads.) Inside the dining room the decor is very artistic, and not too crowded. There is plenty of light from the big front windows and a really cool antique tin ceiling with smooth jazz playing in the background. Very dreamy.

As for the food, it did not disappoint. The specials board featured many combinations of delicious omelets, as well as a couple of dessert-style pancakes. Decisions, decisions!

We ended up ordering off the regular menu anyway, which consisted of the Irish omelet for husband (corned beef & swiss) served with amazing chibatta bread & potatoes (oh, with a pancake on the side), and French toast with bacon for me.

I'm so glad we came back a second time. No pics of the food this time, but we tried the southwest omelet, some potato pancakes, and the blueberry cobbler hotcakes just for fun. I was more than surprised that the hostess remembered us from the week before (including our drink choices) and she made a point of asking our names. I have no doubt she will remember them if we return. Extra special service you don't see too many places, for sure.

After breakfast we took a walk a couple blocks down Main Street to visit a thrift shop that had been advertised via flyer at the cafe. Sadly, it wasn't open (maybe because of the snow) so instead we ducked into the gun shop next door. (I know...) In addition to your typical gun supplies, they also had some eclectic items, including these shrunken heads, which I couldn't resist sneaking a photo of as husband chatted with the shop owner. Yikes!

So now I'm happy to report that if ever we can't make up our mind about where to go for breakfast in Pittsburgh during our weekly Saturday outing, we now have a new favorite. Certainly this won't stop the quest to visit as many new as we can find, but it's nice to now have an official "favorite" at last!

Del's 80's Cafe - Carrick

Always on the lookout for new Saturday Breakfast spots in Pittsburgh, when we drove past Del's 80's Cafe in Carrick a few days ago, I was giddy as a teenager again! I mean, what could be better than Saturday Breakfast than flashing back to the decade of the Brat Pack, Big Hair and the Totally Awesome Music :) (The name reminded me of "Cafe 80's" from Back to the Future Part III when Marty has to pose as his dopey son to get him out of trouble, ha ha.)

The Cafe is located right in the heart of Carrick near St. Basil's and has plenty of on street metered parking. The first thing we noticed when we walked in were the album covers hung on the wall - - We had fun counting how many the two of us owned at the time! For me it was Duran Duran, Wham & Tears for Fears - Husband was proud his U2 collection was represented.

The breakfast menu here isn't really much to be excited about. Nothing really stood out, and if I'm being honest, if I hadn't taken a picture, I would have forgotten what I ate. (Cheese omelet for me and scrambled eggs breakfast with a pancake for husband.)

The food became such a side note because the menu also doubled as a jam-packed 80's trivia book!! Movies, music, tv, and all kinds of pop culture that easily kept us entertained. Never has breakfast been this much fun, I gotta tell you!  

Here are some examples of the questions:

1. Name 6 members of the Brat Pack.

2. What was the name of E.T.'s favorite candy?

3. Where did the Super Friends congregate to watch the latest happenings on a big screen TV?

    

Answers: 

1. Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Mare Winningham, Demi Moore, Charlie Sheen, Matthew Broderick

2. Reese's Pieces

3. The Hall of Justice

And more fun with music quotes... Name the song & band!

1. "Buying bread from a man in Brussels, He was 6 food 4 and full of muscles"

2. "At this moment, you mean everything!"

3. "I'm on the hunt, I'm after you"

    

Answers: 

1. "Down Under", Men at Work

2. "Come on Eileen," Dexy's Midnight Runners

3. "Hungry Like the Wolf", Duran Duran

We could have stayed there for hours, just listening to classic tunes and laughing as goofy memories came flooding back with every question. I know 80's trivia can be found everywhere on the internet, but combining it with the best meal of the day... Priceless!

The SpringHouse

Christmas is nearly here! We were able to take some time out of our busy Holiday weekends to take a drive over the river & through the woods (pretty close to literally!) to visit the SpringHouse near Washington, PA. I'm including it on this "Breakfast in Pittsburgh" blog because it's one of the most unique buffet-styled Saturday breakfasts in the area.  I found this on their website which gives an idea of the setup:

What is a springhouse?

Many moons ago, when cows were milked by hand, and a farmer chilled his milk cans in a stone building with a natural cold spring running through it...that was a springhouse!

The whole place is set on a farm along Highway 136, and the main building has the initial feel of a Cracker Barrel restaurant, with carved porch chairs for sale outside and a Country Store on the inside. In addition to selling arts-and-crafts type home interiors, there is also a Market featuring their own milk, and lots of homemade treats like pies, breads, cookies, and a kitchen that features home cooking and hickory smoked hams from their own smokehouse. Wow!

The SpringHouse is too busy to be a sit-down restaurant. There is action everywhere you look. The staff is very friendly and will happily direct first time visitors through the buffet line and to some great seating overlooking the farm yard.

All of the hot food is served up by SpringHouse employees, but don't expect skimpy portions. Items featured today were French Toast, hash browns & home fries, sausage & bacon, scrambled eggs, homemade applesauce, and an amazing ham & egg casserole featuring that smoked ham that literally melts in your mouth. Oh, and did I mention all of this was just $5.95?

And be sure to grab some of their hormone free milk (regular or chocolate!) from the old-fashioned coca-cola cooler.  Absolutely fabulous.

I couldn't recommend this place more for its home cooking. They also have quite the catering business, featuring all their home cooked meals. I sampled some of their Christmas cookies that a vendor had sent to our office which were out of this world. And the lunch buffet looks just as delicious. Today it featured BBQ Ribs, Mediterranean Chicken, Pepper Steak over Rice, Sweet & Sour Chicken over Rice, and more. YUMMY!

CC's Homemade Foods - Mt. Lebanon

Happy Saturday after Thanksgiving! Time for Saturday Breakfast in Pittsburgh! All the leftover mashed potatoes in my refrigerator had me thinking about potato pancakes ... and since I am without a great recipe, what better place to go than CC's in Mt. Lebanon! Located right on the main drag of Mt. Lebanon, CC's is situated between all kinds of cute storefronts, including a stationary shop, a used clothing store, and even a dance studio. This area is full of window shopping and was the perfect opportunity for "Small Business Saturday".

CC's is very unique in it's setup. Normally you expect to walk into the dining room to be seated. Not here. First thing you see is the kitchen/grill area, and some counter seating.

But don't be alarmed - the coziest little dining areas await you upstairs. Small tables, tables for four, and even a full-sized dining room table, in a private room, are what you will find. It feels like the upstairs at one point was setup as an apartment, so rather than tear down walls, the owners just decided to "go with it" and make it all seating areas. Built-in cabinets and all.
 
Everything seems just like someone's slightly outdated home. And if you bring the kiddies, they'll presumably be entertained while you dine with a sizable toy corner (definitely unique to any other Saturday Breakfast in Pittsburgh restaurants we've visited so far this year!)

But the food was what we really came for - and it was the specialties of the house that most intrigued us today. I of course had to order the potato pancakes ("Pittsburgh's Best - Made daily from the finest grated Idaho potatoes and onions, served with applesauce or sour cream"), with a side of "CC's own" baked ham. And husband chose the daily special which was a spinach and tomato frittata with a pancake on the side.

The frittata was definitely the highlight of the meal - very healthy and very delicious. The ham was also exceptionally good, and the potato pancakes were very tasty. The regular pancake was not quite fluffy and not recommended. All in all, CC's is as advertised - a great place for homemade food. They were not at all busy, just the cook and one waitress who were both super friendly.

Now to browse the internet for a decent potato pancake recipe...

The Diner - Oakdale

Jake had a late morning appointment at the vet this-morning, so we decided to just bring him with us to our Saturday breakfast in Pittsburgh. We take him to Banfield in Robinson, and wanted to stay close by.  That's how we ended up in nearby Oakdale at The Diner.

Not a very original name, but kinda classy ... for a diner. (ha, ha)  The Diner has the look and feel of a refurbished street car, with the rounded ceiling. But unlike Johnny's Diner in the West End, this place is newly remodeled, and just seemed generally Cheerful. It's hard to explain - it just had this happy vibe about it. Maybe it's the 50's retro decor and shiny red & white checkered floor, but it worked.

It seems from their Facebook page that breakfast isn't necessarily the big specialty of The Diner. I see them talking about Prime Rib and Fish Fry nights, not brunch type food. They did have a blueberry waffles & eggs special this-morning, which I decided to try. And husband chose the "Diner Two's" which consisted of 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, and 2 bacon or sausage. Though he doubled the eggs, and substituted the 2 meat for 1 ham, so I guess somewhere in there it ceased to be a two-fer special??

The food was okay. The scrambled eggs were a little dry, and the pancakes not too fluffy. But the general atmosphere definitely made up for anything else. And everything was served pretty quickly, so Jake made it to his appointment with no incident. Though he did decide to wait in the car while we ate :)

So kudos to the simple design, friendly service, and generally cheerful atmosphere!

Hitchin' a Ride

The Elvis corner

King's Family Restaurant - Bridgeville

With a name like King's Family Restaurant, I so wanted to love this place! I mean, how perfect would that be if King Saturday's favorite restaurant was King's? But alas, this King's just isn't worthy of such accolades for this Saturday breakfast in Pittsburgh.

King's is a chain of several restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. I've not been to many, but see commercials on TV. Usually when businesses take the time to make commercials, it's so they can show off the best of the best - food that looks so good you just can't help but be tempted to go out and spend your hard earned money eating at their establishment. But I never feel like that when I see King's commercials ... and I end up thinking "Really? Is that the best you've got??"

So perhaps it was with a bit of bias that we began breakfast today. But always up for an adventure, we decided to try and find that something special on the menu. I decided that the potato pancake special looked best of all - which also included 2 eggs, bacon & toast, with a side of applesauce. Husband picked the "Wake up Special" consisting of 2 buttermilk hot cakes, 2 eggs and 2 sausage links with toast and choice of potato (he picked the cheesy ones). Lots of food, with really low prices compared to most places we've visited. (So that's a plus!) Surprisingly, out off all that, the most delicious tasting item was not the potato  pancakes (usually one of my most favorite foods of all time) but it was the cheesy potatoes. (And they tasted like they belonged as a side for dinner rather than breakfast.) Not to go on and on, but the bacon was burned, the potato pancakes were exceedingly dry and the over-easy eggs seemed very small.

I think the highlight of the experience was the dessert menu, which is cleverly published as the placemat. So while you are waiting and waiting and waiting for your food, you can dream about what might happen after your meal finally arrives. King's clearly finds itself in competition with Pittsburgh area Eat 'n Park chains. So in marketing response to Eat 'n Park's popular Smiley face cookies, King's offers the "Frownie". How clever.

 
Maybe one day we'll return for dessert. And maybe not. I hate when I don't love a place, but this one just didn't do it for me.

Carmi Family Restaurant

After a couple weekends away camping and traveling, we're back in Pittsburgh and hungry for some Saturday Breakfast! Today we headed for the North Side for what we *thought* was to be the old Shamrock Inn. But instead, we were delighted to find it under new ownership - Now it's the Carmi Family Restaurant.

I love the restaurant's motto: "If your hungry for some true Southern Cooking, then you don't wanna skip Carmi Family Restaurant." And you know it is when grits come standard with nearly every meal!

 Husband and I chose to order the "Kings Breakfast" and the "Queen's Breakfast" respectively. (How cute, right?) But rather than grits to go with his pancakes & eggs, husband substituted plain ol' toast. But I went ahead and requested cheese be added to my grits to accompany my fluffy waffle and eggs.

Now, as tasty as all that food was, it really didn't give us the true chef's experience we might have had. It was only after we ordered, that a fellow diner approached our table (demonstrating the typical friendliness often exhibited by Pittsburghers) and told us how absolutely amazing the "Shrimp & Grits" as well as the "Chicken & Waffles" apparently are. And later the hostess came by and encouraged us to come back again and try these two signature breakfast dishes. Shrimp for breakfast??? Nothing I've done before, but maybe some day. They sure made it sound good! So even though I wasn't brave enough to order it on my own, I can truly say that it comes highly recommended.

So all in all, the food was really good, and the lunch/dinner menus look to be even better. And the staff couldn't be any friendlier and attentive. I'm not sure what happened to the old Shamrock Inn, but I'm so glad the new owners found a great location to serve some true Southern Cooking. Definitely can't wait to go back to experience more!