The 'burg has been jumping lately.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by squarian

From the comments to that Urbanophile blog entry:

"Pittsburgh looks like it has a real downtown-untill you see that 35% of the buildings are just parking garages."

Is that right? Can anyone fact-check that? There are plenty of garages, sure, but more than a third of the buildings?!

In a word: BS

There are plenty of garages, but it's nothing approaching that number, and some of them are in conjunction with buildings not standalone garages.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by greg42

There are plenty of garages, but it's nothing approaching that number, and some of them are in conjunction with buildings not standalone garages.

Indeed. In fact, I doubt it is close to 35% even if you include buildings with underground garages.

That said, there are still way too many surface lots Downtown (a totally different point, of course).

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

My partner and I walked "Dahntahn" last Sunday afternoon on my day off to take in the free concert of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and to see the sights of the Three Rivers Arts Festival. I had promised him all during the prior week that we were going to try the croque monsieur sandwiches at NOLA on Market Square only to wind up having both of us dejectedly eating so-so subs at Subway, not realizing that both NOLA and our alternate of burgers at Winghart's were closed on Sundays!

I had half of a croque monsieur and a bowl of crawfish soup for my first meal yesterday at NOLA. Very good sandwich, excellent soup. The sandwich was made more like a panini with a very thick slice of ham, probably gruyere cheese, and mustard. It was served with a little ramekin of apple butter and some tasty Cajun-spiced fries. It was a drier sandwich than some croques monsieurs, which are often more a French Toast version of a ham-and-cheese sandwich, so the soup was a good complement. The soup really tasted like Louisiana food I've had in the past.

However, it cost more than eating at either of my other Market Square favorites. It was $18 with tax & tip for the half-sandwich with soup and a glass of iced tea, v. $12 inclusive for the PAFC salad with salmon and San Pellegrino, or $13 (?) for a burger, fries, and a soft drink at Winghart's.

If you like ham I think you'll enjoy the croque monsieur.