Chad and I continued our summer of ballpark tours and went to PNC Park yesterday (actually we went up Wednesday). Sorry Fatboy, but Pittsburgh sucks. Yes, they do follow the Steelers, but god knows they don't know how the hell to find them. Apparently they don't believe in street signs...
After Wednesday night's game, we attempt to go to the Station Square district (drinking place). Well, marking the roads with signs must be above them. We cross over an unnamed bridge to an undisclosed cross street, neither of which is on our map. End up going through a traffic circle with multiple exits, none of which are designated as going anywhere. Finally see the sign as to where we are going to be, but since they don't tell you how to enter the facility, we have to ride around for 3 miles looking for the damn entrance.
Then, on top of that...there are about 4 people drinking in the city. Sure it is Wednesday night, but there are more people drinking in Odenton on a Wednesday night. Anyway, we go to Ref's Sports Bar...which is inside a mall. OK, fine, they have beer, video games (Madden, air hockey, darts, photohunt) and rap music is playing. Perfect. Or so we thought. Wednesday night at Ref's Sports Bar = Karoake Night. I am not sure how many American Idol songs there are, but we heard all of them. Also heard someone butcher "Hey Ya!" and some angry white people yell at us.
Oh, and Iron City Light is an awful beer (think Natty Boh Ice). Iron City wasn't so bad - but the Light was worse than you can imagine.
In conclusion - Pittsburgh stinks. The ballpark was nice though, as was Heinz Field, and you can get lower box tickets for $5 from scalpers outside the stadium. Chad and I were thinking we might write up something about a bunch of different stadiums we have been to. Obviously this isn't done today, and maybe we all could give each other advice on things (parking, traffic, beer prices) in different places for future trips. Just a thought.
Posted by Pat at September 24, 2004 11:03 AMand with that...i've crossed off all residency programs in the greater pittsburgh area. thank you daddy. =) glad to hear you had such a great time! i would have loved to see chad ranting and raving about the unnamed bridge leading to the undisclosed cross street...by the way, i'd like to see your essay on "what i did this summer" when it is finished.
Posted by: michelle at September 24, 2004 11:23 AMOkay, I feel like I have to defend Pittsburgh. But to tell the truth, almost every time I've been there it was to visit family, so going out drinking wasn't my top priority. Come to think of it, every time I've gone out to a bar there has been on a weekend. And they were plenty full, then. Pitt's in Oakland, so the bars there might have been a little more full. I dunno.
I agree- IC Light is a horrible beer. Iron City's not the greatest, either, but at least it's drinkable. They have something even worse than IC Light, I think Old German. It's what's left over in the bottom of all their fermenters, just mixed together. So it's a different beer each time you drink it. And bad each time. But, they've got a new premium brand, Augustiner, that's pretty good. Rolling Rock's from Latrobe- not too far away from Pittsburgh, if you're into that.
But, Pittsburgh on a whole I always thought was a very nice city. Station Square's a nice area to go to in the daytime, maybe not so for drinking on a Wednesday night. Downtown's nice. Oakland's nice. There're the Carnegie museums, Kennywood which always has some of the best roller coasters in the country, a decent water park, not to mention Pitt and all the stuff that goes along with a university.
Posted by: fatboy at September 24, 2004 01:18 PM