April is a transitional month for dining in Pittsburgh. Some locally grown vegetables are starting to trickle in (and menus are profuse with foraged ramps), but we’re still a few weeks away from truly celebrating the vivid colors and bright flavors of a new growing season.
Outside temperatures can swing wildly from an 85-degree “we must assemble a picnic, immediately” day to yearning for a bowl of stew after hastily covering all the sprouts and seedlings to protect them from a late frost.
What that meant to me was a wide range of meals ranging from al fresco sandwiches to hearty, pack-it-all-in plates. Here’s a peek at my notebook highlighting some of my favorite dishes from dining out this month.
Margherita pie from Alberta’s Pizza
“So careful. So earnest. You love pizza so much.” That’s from a text a friend sent to me after a few of us met at Trace Brewing in Bloomfield to celebrate another pal’s career move. She’d observed how I’d dipped out of a lively conversation as I became increasingly entranced enjoying (and, I’m sure, analyzing) my margherita pie from Alberta’s Pizza.
I do love pizza so very much, but it’s not every day a pie draws me in the way this one did. I was thinking about how Beau Mitall’s mobile woodfired pizza operation, which has long been quite good, had hit a new high, particularly in the mouthfeel of the dough structure. The pie, with its thin, pliant and caramelized base balanced by Mitall’s bright, tangy sauce and creamy-tart fresh mozzarella, had me buzzing for the rest of the night. Alberta’s is often found at area breweries – check www.albertaspizzapgh.com for the weekly schedule.
Kama toro nigiri at Mola
It’s been a treat to observe (and experience) Alex Tang refine his work as a sushi chef at Mola, the East Liberty restaurant he and his wife, Mimi Lee, opened in late 2018.
Over the past few years, Tang has deepened his supply chain and experimented with aging and slicing techniques to bring out the peak qualities of each fish. As a result, he’s now consistently offering the best sushi in Pittsburgh.
One of my favorite bites at Mola is kama toro – a sumptuous cut from a tuna’s collar – which was a highlight when I popped in for a quick dinner last week. Kama toro isn’t as prevalent as tuna’s other ultra-luxurious bite, o-toro, aka fatty tuna belly, because it can have an assertive flavor if not treated correctly. Tang sources his from high-quality fish and ages the collar (conventional wisdom says using the freshest fish is the goal, but proper aging brings out nuances of flavor and texture) to achieve an exceptional bite of nigiri.
6018 Penn Ave., East Liberty; themolafish.com
Snapper from Lilith dinner at The Vandal
Jamilka Borges and Dianne DiStefano took a first step toward launching their new project, Lilith, with a five-course dinner with the team at The Vandal in Lawrenceville on April 19.
There was a lot to love about the dinner, which had a something-special-is-in-the-air feel to it. DiStefano, one of Pittsburgh’s most accomplished pastry chefs, offered a stunning lemon mascarpone and mahlepi layer torte for dessert. Tamarind-braised lamb shoulder with crispy rice cakes, served for the fourth course, was an over-the-top smash.
However, the standout dish was course three: snapper wrapped in ramps and banana leaf served with salsa criolla and sweet plantain. “Ramps” and “subtle” aren’t two words that typically pair, yet fork-tender snapper was bolstered with subtle vegetality from the wild Appalachian alliums. The salsa criolla added a vinegary, herbaceous tang to the gorgeous dish. I’m quite looking forward to what comes next from the duo.
Bandeja paisa at The Colombian Spot
I’m popping in and out of South Side restaurants for the next installment of our Eat Pittsburgh series. There’s been a few welcome surprises in my reporting – the fabulous greens and beans at the under-the-radar Cucina Vitale among them.
The bandeja paisa at the original location of The Colombian Spot (which now has an additional outpost in Oakland) stood out as an enjoyable reminder that it has been way too long since I’d last visited the charming restaurant. That dish comes with thin-cut top sirloin steak, Colombian chorizo, fried pork belly, maduros, avocado, fried egg, red beans, white rice and a grilled arepa.
I loved the contrasting textures and the depth of flavor in the individual elements of the hearty platter, particularly the tender, well-seasoned red beans and the fabulous maduros. Those plantains blended a soft sweetness with booming umami on the caramelized edges. Plantains also made their presence known in another terrific Colombian Spot dish, pernil con tostones, where they added a savory, crispy element.
2019 E. Carson St., South Side; thecolombianspot-pgh.com
stuntpig’s Pitt Beef sandwich
It sure felt nice to have a little preview of summer in mid-April. On a bright and beautiful Saturday, I met with some pals at Old Thunder Brewing to enjoy a celebration of local pale and amber lagers.
I was also drawn to the Blawnox brewery because stuntpig, was rolling up for food service. Arielle Alexander and Cody Maze operate one of my favorite food trucks in Pittsburgh, and I hadn’t had anything from it since the duo took their annual winter hiatus from offering outstanding sandwiches made with house-smoked, grilled or roasted ingredients.
On this occasion, I went for Pitt Beef, a wickedly marvelous sandwich built with slightly smoky cold roast beef, zingy horseradish sauce and a pile of onions. If you look closely at the photo, you can see the near-charring of the seeded bun; that attention to detail adds a welcome deeper dimension of flavor. You can find stuntpig’s schedule through the end of May at www.stuntpigpgh.com.
Hal B. Klein: hklein@post-gazette.com, Twitter @halbklein and IG @halbklein.
First Published: April 28, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: April 29, 2023, 4:50 p.m.
