Stop #42; Carrick

Date: November 21
Neighborhood: Carrick
Pitt Stoppers: Jimmy D., Noreen, Pteri, Gino, Kristen, Tommy, Bobby D., Moon, Holly, Hank, Lisa, Nick.

Bar: Whoville.

Pluses: They are in reconstruction mode in Whoville. The place has 12 bowling lanes on two floors of the building. When they're done, it will be tremendous place to go bowling. The currently have a selection of shuffle bowling, pool, and pinball.

Weirdness: Based on the posters, they used to host Bowling for Dollars. They have the swankest toilet seat in the city.






The view of the soon-to-be-dandy bowling lanes from a window in the bar.











Kristin and Pteri enjoying the swank powder room seating.
















Speaking of swank powder room seating...
















Bowling for Dollars!

Bonus points for those who watched.










Holly shooting some pool.

Notice the cool bowling alley-style seating on the left.









They are serious about their bowling at Whoville.











Bobby and Tommy are entranced by drinking dogs. Moon and Noreen, not so much.

Stop #41; St. Clair

Date: November 21
Neighborhood: St. Clair
Pitt Stoppers: Jimmy D., Noreen, Pteri, Gino, Kristen, Tommy, Bobby D.

Bar: Roadside Saloon.

Pluses: The cheap cover.

Weirdness: St. Clair is a dry neighborhood, so we walked over the border from Mt. Oliver into St. Clair, busted out some flasks, and made the neighborhood official.





Coming down from Mt. Oliver to St. Clair.











Don't worry, officer. It's just Kool Aid in that flask.










Kristin hiding behind the happy flask.

Stop #40 and a half; Mt. Oliver

Date: November 21
Neighborhood: Mt. Oliver
Pitt Stoppers: Jimmy D., Noreen, Pteri, Gino, Kristen, Tommy, Bobby D., Moon

Bar: Moon's Place

Aside: Between Stop #40 (Mt. Oliver) and #41 (St. Clair), we needed a place to charge our flasks. Moon kindly opened his doors to us for a pit stop between Pitt Stops. He was a tremendous host, offering us beer and giving us a history of the area. He pulled out some antique maps and showed us how the area used to be called Lower St. Clair. Since there's an Upper St. Clair, I always did wonder where Lower St. Clair had gone to...





The crew rests their feet in Moon's living room.










The dangerous, rare, and beautiful Lower St. Clair Alligator. It is poisonous, climbs walls, and eats babies.

The glowing Hashers license plate.











A shot of our gracious host.

Stop #40; Mt. Oliver

Date: November 21
Neighborhood: Mt. Oliver
Pitt Stoppers: Jimmy D., Noreen, Pteri, Gino, Kristen, Tommy, Bobby D.

Bar: Lauterbach Cafe

Pluses: The friendly folks, the beautiful marble bar. They also have bands in occasionally.

Weirdness: Lauterbach's has a clock that runs backwards, which is very jarring the first several times you look at it.

The back of Lauterbach's set up for a band.

Goodie slings beer and good cheer from behind the bar.

For the love of God, keep Nancy.

The philosophy at Lauterbach's.

B: Pull my hoodie's drawstring.

N: Oh, hell no.

Gino is suave and in charge.

A beautiful Mt. Oliver church at night.

Stop #39; The Bluff

Date: November 15
Neighborhood: The Bluff
Pitt Stoppers: Jimmy D., Noreen, Carol, Jonathan, Toddy, Rita, Tommy, Brendan, Bobby D., Laurel, Richard, Pteri.

Bar: Shale's Cafe
Pluses: They serve beer in 1 liter mugs. They also have a fussball table. The bar supports a festive pre-hockey game crowd.
Weirdness: Some of the largest urinals in Pittsburgh.

Aside: The Bluff was once called Soho. I never knew why. Chris Potter over at the City Paper did the research and here's the answer.




Shale's St. Patrick's Day features.

Perhaps for the last couple of decades.








Jonathan's talking about "lasers."






Paul Jones was tough.

Paul Jones was a cowboy.








Cookie Crisp. Yep. That's right.






T: Pull my thumb.

N: Oh, hell no.








Jimmy and Tommy sketching out future Stops.






Shale's staff puts shamrocks in the top of the Guinness.









The glasses with a cigarette pack for scale.






T: Mine's this long.

J: Well, mine's this long.








POW. Cherry Master!