Variety is on the menu at Squirrel Hill’s first Night Market, which will pop-up Saturday on Murray Avenue between Forbes and Barlett streets.
The market will feature 40 vendors, glass products, jewelry, art, musical and artistic performances, a fire-eater and plenty of food, said Alec Rieger, founder and executive director of NextGen:Pgh.
Food vendors will include Berlin Street Food, which sells sandwiches the Berlin way; Driftwood Oven with its wood-fired pizzas; Pittsburgh Smokehouse, known for its barbecue sandwiches and smoked kielbasa; Savoy, which has bragging rights to award-winning chicken and shrimp satays; The Pop Stop, which sells hand-crafted ice pops such as Strawberry Lemonade, Banana Coconut, Pineapple Basil and Mango; Miss Meatball, which sells meatballs made with ground beef or ground chicken with a choice of sauces from classic tomato to Buffalo Bleu; Second Breakfast, which is all about waffling it up anytime of the day or night; and Gaby et Jules, whose macaron of the month is Le Pittsburgh, which is flavored with Baileys Irish Cream.
Cost of foods will be affordable, and the price point is $10, Mr. Rieger said. “We want to bring the best of Pittsburgh to one block of Murray Avenue.”
The idea of a nighttime open bazaar was inspired by the night market scene in Asia. Mr. Rieger had his first taste of it in Thailand. “An entire street was transformed into a wonderful, wonderful night market where you could find jewelry, art, food,” he said. “The next morning it was all gone, and it went back to being a regular street.”
It’s not the first time a night market has popped up in Pittsburgh; there have been ones held in Garfield and Downtown. But Mr. Rieger said the Squirrel Hill Night Market will offer a different type of experience. “There is not enough idea flow in Pittsburgh, and it will create a platform for people to talk,” he said. “It’s first step toward building a cosmopolitan, global experience and an opportunity to connect with people from different backgrounds.”
Arthi Subramaniam: asubramaniam@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1494 or on Twitter @asub
First Published: August 26, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
