3 Things To Do To Get Ready For Mother’s Day

Beautiful views can contribute to a bueaitful Mother's Day in Pittsburgh!
Photo Credit: wikimedia.org

Believe it or not, Mother’s Day is barely more than a week away. That means now is the time to get ready and to get those big plans finalized if you’re spending the day with your mother and your family! Fortunately, our Steel City has no shortage of options and resources for making Mother’s Day a good one. So as you’re getting the details finalized and completely your planning checklist, take care to ensure that you don’t miss on these great prep steps:

1) Find the perfect gift. Of course, any Mother’s Day gift should be as personal as possible. Do you know that your mother has been debating replacing something of value in her home? Perhaps a gift card to help cover the expense or even an order to Amazon will be appreciated. Does she prefer to buy local? One of these local gifts and shops may be just the touch you need. Whatever you decide, now is the time to begin thinking about it - otherwise, you may not have your gift delivered or purchased in time!

2) Make those reservations. If you’re planning on spoiling Mom with a meal out, reservations are a must. Lots of places are booking up quickly, and we know for a fact that Phipps’ own Mother’s Day brunch is already sold out! Still, there are plenty of places just waiting for your call. A visit to OpenTable can quickly ensure that you have a table ready on May 8th - and if you need some ideas on where to go, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a great local dining guide!

3) Pick the perfect outing (and photo spot). Need one final thing to bring the family together on Mother’s Day? Deciding on what to do together can make the day complete. An outing to Mount Washington is of course always a delight. Though busy on Mother's Day, Phipps can provide beautiful scenery and sights on even the grayest of days. On the other hand, if the weather is nice, a trip to the zoo might be appreciated. If the weather is really nice, the Gateway Clipper fleet is ready and waiting for you (with a Mother’s Day bunch and lunch of their own, no less!) Or perhaps a trip to the movies is more your mom's style. Whatever you decide, be sure to plan accordingly the day of - the last thing you want is for Pittsburgh traffic to completely ruin your plans!

These three prep steps are great ways to ensure you're ready for Mother's Day. Ultimately, of course, we don't recommend worrying about making the day perfect. Remember: it's the thought and appreciation that counts more than anything. Your time, and your attention, will likely be the best gift of all. Still, it doesn't hurt to finalize those Mother's Day plans now - just to help put the cherry on top of your appreciation!

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Find Fresh Produce in Pittsburgh This Spring

Imagine sitting by the river on a cloudless Pittsburgh day. The sun is shining, the warm breeze is blowing through the trees along the Allegheny. What could be better in that moment than a fresh juicy peach? Frankly, that sounds like the perfect afternoon. 

Image: Pixabay

Fresh produce is truly a blessing. In Pittsburgh, many of us are lucky enough to live within walking, biking, and driving distance to a grocery store of some kind. During the cold winter months, these stores are all we really have to choose from, but during the spring and summer, you may want to consider trying some of the many local produce outlets the city has to offer.

It’s pretty easy to see why everyone seems to be hopping on the buy-local-bandwagon. Local and organic fruits and vegetables stay fresh for longer, help keep money in the community by supporting small businesses, and simply just taste better most of the time. There are also plenty of ways to get in on this delicious trend right here in Pittsburgh.

Try a Farmers Market

Farmers markets cut out the middleman in the food-buying equation. These markets are typically held outdoors and feature foods sold directly to consumers by the farmers themselves. During the spring and summer, Pittsburgh actually has farmers markets every single day of the week! One of them even moved to a new location downtown at Mellon Park. Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership also sponsors a farmers market in Market Square which begins next month.


Join a CSA

CSA is an acronym for “Community Supported Agriculture.” This is how it works: farmers offer a certain number of “shares” of their crops to the public. Shares typically consist of vegetables and fruits, but sometimes even include dairy, egg, and meat products. Consumers can then purchase shares and receive a weekly box of fresh seasonal produce each week in return. So, it’s basically a magazine subscription, except for food!

The Pittsburgh area offers plenty of CSAs, usually with pick-up locations located all around the city. This is a great way to support the community, keep your home stocked with fresh veggies, and even save money on organic food.

No matter where you get your fruits and vegetables, be sure to enjoy all of the delicious seasonal treats that nature has to offer. Which classic spring and summer dishes are you looking forward to this year?

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Burning Bridges Comedy Festival

Image courtesy of Flickr

This weekend, 50 extraordinarily funny people will rise from the depths of Pittsburgh’s smoky bars and greasy pubs. Rants, jokes, and straight up ridiculousness will be on display for all to see on stages across the neighborhoods of Allentown and South Side. In other words, it is time for our city’s very first stand-up comedy festival.

Burning Bridges Comedy Festival begins this weekend, and no matter what happens, it is sure to be a truly unique experience. This two-day event will feature dozens of below-the-radar comics alongside some better-known jokers from New York, Chicago, New Orleans, and Boston.

Pittsburgh’s Standup Comedy Scene
In terms of stand-up comedy in the city, Pittsburgh’s Improv and Pittsburgh Comedy Festival feature mostly mainstream comedians. And while venues like Arcade Comedy Theater and various bars around the city often play host to shows, the local comics in the city don’t have a specific place to call home.

This is one of the reasons that John Dick Winters, the festival’s founder, decided to put together this ambitious project. He is confident that these events will allow local comedians to shine and continue to move Pittsburgh’s stand-up scene forward. “I find that audiences are often pleasantly surprised at the overall quality of the Pittsburgh comedy scene. There's a ton of funny people here, and they deserve more credit than they get.”

Getting In On the Laughs This Weekend
Burning Bridges is a great way to get out and support the small businesses that will serve as venues during the festival, like Black Forge Coffee and Drip Lounge. Their website describes the event as a "Do-It-Yourself" festival with very little influence or contributions. Instead of corporate sponsors, this weekend’s events are presented by Race to the Coffin Comedy and The Epicast Network.

Over the next two days, you’ll be able to find local comedy shows scattered all across Allentown and South Side. These 13 shows include local showcases, those with headliners like Geoff Tate, and also a few more uniquely themed shows, like the Worst Tattoo Competition and even some Comedy Debates.

Getting in on the laughs is also fairly cheap! Most shows are individually priced at around $5 and a pass for the entire festival is only $20. The first show begins Friday, at 8pm! See the entire schedule of shows by clicking here.

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100 Things To Do In Pittsburgh

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A new book has come out that shows all the great things Pittsburgh has to offer. From the incline to the Buccos, you could live here your entire life without seeing everything. Pittsburgh native Beth Geisler wrote the book "100 Things To do In Pittsburgh Before You Die". Keep reading and check out the Pittsburgh Post Gazette for more information about this book.

Pittsburgh native Beth Geisler knows how very much there is to do and see here. That’s why she had a hard time narrowing it down for her new book, “100 Things to Do in Pittsburgh Before You Die” (Reedy Press, $16).

If your time is running out so fast that you can visit only one local attraction, the book advises you to make it the Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland — 30 rooms devoted to different cultures in the hemisphere’s tallest educational building.

“I can’t imagine that there’s anything else like it in the world,” says Ms. Geisler, 50, a freelance writer and editor who still lives in the house her father built in Kennedy.

She loves Pittsburgh through and through and has worked for several local institutions, but it was her time as associate communications director at VisitPittsburgh that led to this gig.

The “100 Things to Do” series includes books on several U.S. cities (39, with another 10 in the works) published by St. Louis’ Reedy Press, which knows to look for authors through local tourism bureaus. Ms. Geisler’s resume included hosting scores of travel journalists here from 2000 to 2004.

“I remember clearly what they reacted to,” she says. “In large part that experience framed what I wanted to share.”

Reedy had a template for her to follow, with chapters titled “Food and Drink,” “Recreation and Sports,” “Music and Entertainment,” “Culture and History” and “Shopping.” But what she filled those with were up to her, and so the picks are subjective, as she notes in the preface. Outside of having the big “usual subjects” like the Nationality Rooms and the inclines, “No other Pittsburgher would list the exact same 100 activities.”

She knows some Pittsburghers will wonder why their favorites aren’t included, but she says 100 was not a big enough number to cover everything. That’s why she’s launched a “100 Things to Do in Pittsburgh Before You Die” Facebook page where people can weigh in with their picks. She wishes she could have written more about hotels and bed & breakfasts (but she did work in a couple of references to her beloved Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown, which is celebrating its centennial this year).

The Facebook page will keep the contents current, too, which is one of the challenges of writing such a book. She did last-minute updates, such as adding the phone number for Apteka, the hot new Eastern European vegan restaurant that just opened in Bloomfield, under the chapter heading “Line Up for Pierogies Almost Anywhere.” Otherwise, she tried to pick food and drink choices that weren’t likely to change, and she advises readers to seek the latest foodie updates through online sources such as Zagat, which, she proudly notes, honored Pittsburgh as best restaurant city in 2015.

“I love to see the coverage that Pittsburgh gets,” she says. “I love to see the word ‘hip’ in particular.”

She does provide some old-school context. “I did try in this book to combine history with what is happening now. I think it’s important to give a nod to how industrialists shaped a lot of what we have today. That is a legacy that we can all appreciate. ... They’ve certainly left us with some fine institutions, some arts and culture opportunities, that other cities just don’t have.”

She tried to weave in as much local flavor as possible, from using (and translating) Pittsburghese to introducing heroes such as Mister Rogers and Rachel Carson and recommending reading Thomas Bell’s “Out of This Furnace.” Dave Demarest introduced her to the book at Carnegie Mellon University, where she earned a master’s degree in professional writing.

In her upcoming book signings and other appearances, she wants to stress that it’s not just for out-of-town relatives and other visitors. “I’m encouraging people who live here to do some more exploring.”

That’s how she came to love some of the charms she included in the book, such as Conflict Kitchen as well as Bicycle Heaven and disc golf, two of many free things she spotlights. So that’s why she’ll keep exploring, too.

“It’s fun. I am still getting to promote my hometown. And that’s a privilege.”

The book will be available next week at Barnes & Noble stores and online, and the Facebook page will tell you how to order a signed copy. Her upcoming appearances include:

• April 17, 2 to 4 p.m., Classic Lines Book Store, 5825 Forbes Ave., Squirrel Hill.

• April 23, 1 to 3 p.m., Half Price Books, 4932 McKnight Road, Ross.

• May 7, noon to 7 p.m., Pittsburgh Vegan Festival, Unitarian Universalist Church of the North Hills, 2359 W. Ingomar Road, Franklin Park.

• May 14, 1 to 3 p.m., Half Price Books, 3757 William Penn Highway, Monroeville.

• June 11, 1 to 3 p.m., Half Price Books, 4000 Oxford Drive, Bethel Park.

• Sept. 10, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Beaver County BookFest, Irvine Park, Beaver.

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