What Businesses Would You Like to See (or See More of) in the Metro Area? (Pittsburgh: subdivisions, prices)

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by squarian

Don't know what you're all on about - there's tons of good Mexican food in Pittsburgh, if by Mexican you mean Polish.

Forget Tex-Mex, we have the best MexiPolski on the east coast.

[hempfield mania]

I almost forgot, for us meat lovers, a Fogo de Chao or similar high quality Brazilian churrascaria steakhouse would be nice to have in the area.

The Green Forest just doesn't cut it. Overpriced for the food, service and atmosphere.

[MovingGal]

I would like to see a tasty slightly upscale Mexican restaurant in uptown Mt. Lebanon, such as El Serape of Blue Bell, PA, or Lilly's Cafe Americana of Doylestown, PA.

[MovingGal]

Ooo, where are the MexiPolski restaurants?

[kab162]

Originally Posted by raubre

To be honest, I'm not really sure since I don't know much of what else is out there (as far as exotic food.) Just something more different I guess.

Cuban, Russian maybe?

I did find this link to an older thread...

http://www.city-data.com/forum/pitts...rants-pgh.html

There is a new cuban place in Oakland on Atwood street called "the Black Bean", I went there once and got beans and rice and a chicken empanada and it was pretty good.

[gg]

I have an idea. Since this thread is so long and I have little time to read it, maybe someone could list all the ideas in one tidy post. Or maybe in a poll forum, so it is easy to read.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

[OilmanMike]

Originally Posted by Rodeno

Middle eastern would be good, specifically Lebanese.

Middle Eastern is always good

[sskink]

Originally Posted by MovingGal

I would like to see a tasty slightly upscale Mexican restaurant in uptown Mt. Lebanon, such as El Serape of Blue Bell, PA, or Lilly's Cafe Americana of Doylestown, PA.

There's a market for that now that wasn't there a few years ago. Aldo Coffee sort of proved that with the latin brunches they were doing before selling the place. But if you're into that kind of food, Verde in Garfield is improving daily - getting away from the compromise dishes and really doing some interesting and more authentic Mexican from all over, not just Sonora/Baja/Chihuahua.

Btw, you almost had your wish as per Lily's. There was a plan to open up a Mexican breakfast/lunch place where The Grill was.

But I'd argue the most urgent need in Mt. Lebo is a greengrocer.

For the rest of the city, I'd love to see more other Latin (Salvadoran, Argentine, Brazilian) and more African restaurants. Alma Pan-Latin is a great start. The Ethiopian places are OK, KousKous for Moroccan is great, but there's much more out there to explore. More Korean, Dim Sum and while we're at it, how about a Chinese restaurant that doesn't survive only on General Tso's.

Something like Dreadnought in the So. Hills would work.

And places that fix Macs but aren't an Apple store.

Agree that the PLCB sucks. You know the PLCB is hard to eliminate when even the Republicans can't do anything about it.

[PeterRabbit]

Years ago when I lived in Shadyside, I went to a pet shop in East Liberty and bought a monkey. Nowadays I'm into saltwater reefs as a hobby and there's almost no competition, maybe no such place in the city to go to?

[greg42]

Originally Posted by sskink

And places that fix Macs but aren't an Apple store.

MacOutfitters is apparently thriving in Cranberry and Downtown (plus opening an additional Philly-area location where they're originally from). The Cranberry location moved and should be kept in business for a while since the plans for the big mall fell through. (Don't know for sure but that sort of project could have drawn an Apple Store to that vicinity.)

Of course, those two locations don't really cut it if you're far enough away from them. But while Apple may insist otherwise, it seems clear that once there's an official Apple Store in an area the independent has to carve out quite a different niche and/or have some geographic separation. You may be the exception but most people don't seem to care really. (FWIW I've had generally good luck at Shadyside and Ross Park for support. Perhaps South Hills Village isn't as good, dunno.) And of course Worst Buy is an option.