On the Menu

Order Around

We mix summer drinks into a food group all their own in Quick Bites and then feast on our new favorite summer salad with local catering celeb Rania Harris in Chef. This month’s Recipe is sweet, sweet lovin’ — in a honey cheese pie from Mirabelle, and in Whirl After Midnight, we sip a cocktail that’s smokin’ (literally) at Cioppino. Our fruit flag is waving patriotic and proud in Edible Allegheny Excerpt, as we pledge our allegiance to summer’s bounty of berries.

pittsburgh, pa dining restaurants

Yes, Ve-Gan!

This month, we start our venture on Mt. Washington for chilled asparagus soup with seared tofu, sunflower seeds, and fresh horseradish at Isabela on Grandview. It’s a short gallivant to LeMont Restaurant for dinner: roasted red and yellow peppers with grilled zucchini and tofu on a bed of radicchio salad, and topped with fried Bermuda leeks. There’s a fiery drizzle of roasted red pepper coulis and a pretty piping of basil redskin potatoes. Cupcakes — the personal pan pizza of the dessert world — are our sweet treat of the night, and CoCo’s Cupcake Café in Shadyside does a vegan chocolate coffee variety that’s downright decadent. We wash it all down at Pangea, where Chef Ron DeLuca is starting a new Latin-inspired happy hour. The plum and dark cherry sangria is so good it’s got us singing Los Lobos in the shower for a week.

QUICK BITES: Drink Menu

This month, some of our favorite courses are the cocktails, wine, mojitos, margaritas, and even after-dinner teas. Here’s what to order in July — and what to drink with it.

By Victoria Bradley

Strawberries and basil: a mojito match made in heaven and Six Penn Kitchen.

My Drink n’ My Two Step

The only thing we like better than a rooftop deck is a rooftop garden, and Six Penn Kitchen’s got both — which means their Strawberry Basil Mojito is the best in town, surpassed only by their Pineapple Sage Margarita (it tastes like a bikini on ice). And, Bartender Jessica Sabo might be even hotter with her sunglasses on. Six Penn Kitchen, 146 Sixth St., Cultural District. 412.566.7366.

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CHEF: Kitchen Confidential

Behind the scenes with one of Pittsburgh’s best-loved caterers.

By Victoria Bradley | Photography by Megan Wylie

Hanging out in Rania Harris’s catering kitchen in her Mt. Lebanon store is an electrifying experience. Half a dozen red-aproned helpers scurry around, snatching up ingredients and tools for the celebrated cook. (“Maddie, bring me a blender. Okay, that’s not a blender — that’s a mixer — a blender’s the one you make margaritas with!” … “Debbie! Can I have a KitchenNet cutting board? A colorful one. I need one really quickly. Thank you!”)

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RECIPE: Sweetie Pie

If summer spilled itself into a crumbly crust, it would taste something like this: thick, creamy, and honey-sweet, with a citrus kick.

Edited by Victoria Bradley | Photography by Megan Wylie

Cheese and
Honey Pie

Mirabelle, 215 Allegheny Ave., #106, Oakmont. 412.517.8115.

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WHIRL AFTER MIDNIGHT: Smoke on the Water

Cioppino shakes it up with a misty martini and a swanky cigar bar.

By Lauren Mifsud | Photography by Megan Wylie

Mango Madness martini

Iturn onto 23rd Street in the Strip District, and at first, I think I am lost. But there, nestled between the back streets and the railroad, shines Cioppino.

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EDIBLE Allegheny Excerpt:
Red, White, and Blueberry

Discover local food markets and regional restaurants in the current
issue of Edible Allegheny Magazine, on newsstands now.

Photography by Megan Wylie

Flag-waving Fruit Salute

By Nicole Barley

Experience berry bliss this summer with Edible Allegheny Magazine. Stop by Soergel Orchards to pick your own blueberries and strawberries. Susan Lynn at Sand Hill Berries agrees with our enthusiasm. “I hardly know anyone who doesn’t like raspberries. Oh yes, they are my favorite,” she tells us. Soon after the Fourth of July there will be boatloads of blueberries of the Blue Ray, Blue Crop, Elliot, and Duke varieties. Not only do they have plenty of the fruits, fresh and frozen, they also bake up lots of berry-filled desserts, including a three-layer cheesecake pie.