by Erin Hutton
Pittsburgh--city of rivers, bridges, neighborhoods, steel, and coffee. Yes, coffee. Though it maintains its reputation as a smoky steel town in much of the US, the 'Burgh is a progressive city with a vibrant coffee culture. In getting to know PGH, I found my best way in was coffee shops. The independent and local chains alike are exalted as coffee havens and community gathering spots, each offering something a little different, just like each of Pittsburgh's neighborhoods.
One of my first discoveries was 21st Street Coffee and Tea. While the downstairs might seem crowded and uninviting for more than downing a shot of espresso or ordering a coffee to go, the upstairs loft serves as a place to sip for hours while people watching from the picture windows. One window faces ACME Banana Company and a series of warehouses that tell the story of the Strip as a marketplace (including the warehouse of La Prima Coffee Company, another Pittsburgh staple). Through the other, I can study the golden crosses and bright red brick of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, which has stood at 21st and Smallman streets since 1892.
21st Street's focus, despite the opportunity to look out, is looking in at the coffee they serve. Their coffees come from Intelligentsia, a Direct Trade coffee company. Intelligentsia works directly with farmers by visiting each farm where they buy their beans. They know the farmers and the growing seasons of each coffee variety and sell primarily the beans that are in season. 21st Street respects the carefully harvested coffee beans by brewing each cup of coffee to order, therefore serving it at its most flavorful.
A short drive away, Quiet Storm is quietly contributing to the East End renaissance. Quiet Storm is vegetarian, vegan, and local. Located on Penn Ave. across from the offices of non-profits the Sprout Fund and Grow Pittsburgh, this eclectic café attracts neighborhood residents and curious outsiders. A gray-haired man walks in smoking his pipe and the barista scolds him, tells him he can't smoke here. He pretends not to hear and selects what is, presumably, his regular table.
The barista looks across the counter at another customer sitting on a stool, "He doesn't care. He used to be able to smoke here, not anymore though." He laughs and goes over to the man, politely but directly asking him to finish his pipe outside. A first-timer peruses the menu and settles on an espresso shake: vanilla ice cream, milk, and fresh espresso ? perfect for a hot day. Grow Pittsburgh employees discuss strategy over apple panini on their lunch break while young writers dominate tables with cups of black coffee and their notebooks.
Tucked between residential buildings, Tazza D'Oro is an Italian American hybrid café in Highland Park that plays host to a crowd easily as diverse as that at Quiet Storm. It's easy to drive past it shooting up Highland Ave. between East Liberty and Highland Park, but somehow it's always busy. The combination of high quality coffee, a menu featuring local produce, and the community atmosphere make it worth the wait in line and competition for a table. There's not a stereotypical Tazza D'Oro crowd ? everyone is welcome. Parents bring their kids for chocolate chip cookies or apple fritters. Physician's Assistant students discuss schizophrenia and prostate cancer over mochas. Men and women conduct business meetings over cups of single-origin coffee.
Tazza D'Oro (or Tazza for short) features different coffees each month. Recent offerings include--a personal favorite--heavy bodied Kenyan coffee: Kianjogu AA, which is surprisingly citrusy for its weightiness on the tongue. Tazza also serves a fantastic macchiato the traditional northern Italian way: a shot of espresso with just a touch of milk. The word macchiato comes from the verb macchiare, to stain, so a macchiato is literally an espresso stained with milk ? just how it's served at Tazza. The baristas here are purists, but unpretentious. They respect good coffee and traditional Italian espresso, but add a dash of small-town American friendliness even at the busiest moments.
On the other side of Pittsburgh, there's a new Crazy Mocha at North and Federal, the first Crazy Mocha location on the Northside. It opened in January as part of a series of projects to revitalize the neighborhood. Less than a block away is the Garden Theater, which opened in 1915 as a family-friendly movie theater, and then, after closing its doors in 1970, re-opened in 1973 to show adult films, which it did until 2007. Now the Garden Theater is the center of the Garden Theater Block project to bring a downtown community feel back to the Mexican War Streets.
Inside Crazy Mocha and on the corner outside, it's evident that the community is bubbling with new life. Construction workers hanging new signs for Federal Street and North Avenue pop inside for coffee on their breaks. A local comes in for his daily copy of the Post-Gazette and bypasses the six-customer deep line by dropping a dollar on the counter--seventy-five cents for the paper and a quarter for the busy barista. An older man in a red cap does the crossword puzzle with a teddy bear in his lap. I settle in with my usual, a white mocha--just as sweet but with a lighter taste than a milk chocolate mocha, in a new environment that calls for further exploration: Pittsburgh's Northside.
It's easy to sip the three rivers--there are coffee shops on so many street corners even the most seriously caffeine addicted yinzer would have trouble trying them all. Point Breeze's Make Your Mark is a family-friendly spot with children's drawings on the walls. Plus, there's Kiva Hahn in Oakland, 61C and Arefa's in Squirrel Hill, the Beehive in South Side, and Oh Yeah! in Shadyside, and many neighborhoods host a Crazy Mocha with smiling goat signage. But don't let the long list discourage you--take the opportunity to find your favorite taste of Pittsburgh.
Erin Hutton
