The Pittsburgh Dish
Do you really know the food scene of Pittsburgh?! The Pittsburgh Dish introduces you to the people, places, and recipes that make our regional cuisine so special. By sharing personal stories, weekly recommendations, and community recipes, we aim to inspire you to connect with local taste makers and experience the unique flavors that shape our city.
The Pittsburgh Dish
051 Panuozzo Passion with '77Club
(01:02) Dive into the delicious world of '77 Club, Pittsburgh's rising wood-fired sensation transforming the city's food scene with Italian street food and community spirit. Founders Brittani and Dustin Boutilier share the journey that brought them from California to Pittsburgh by way of Brazil, driven by their passion for authentic cuisine and bringing people together through food.
The star of their mobile kitchen? The panuozzo – a pizza sandwich originating from Campagna, Italy that delivers all the flavor of pizza in a portable, quick-service format perfect for brewery pop-ups. Each sandwich pays homage to songs they love, from the "I Am Blue" with its surprisingly addictive mustard cream to the "Blockhead" featuring crispy potatoes and caramelized onions.
(09:40) What makes '77 Club particularly special is the vibe they've created. Named after 1977 – the iconic year that birthed punk rock – their business embodies that DIY ethos while inviting everyone to feel part of something special. Their regular residencies at local breweries like Four Points, Leaning Cask, and Eleventh Hour have built a devoted following, with catering services expanding their reach.
Their partnership with Bunker Projects highlights their commitment to supporting Pittsburgh's arts community, including an upcoming block party in June 2025. Whether you're a foodie seeking authentic Italian street food or simply looking for your next favorite local business to support, '77 Club delivers quality, creativity, and community on every plate. Find them on Instagram at @77club_pgh to discover where they'll pop up next!
(26:49) Later in the show, we take a trip 'dahntawn' with Autumn Pawelec to experience the chic looks and equally stunning bites of Ritual House. And if your staying in, we have a home-cooked chicken recipe from Meghan Pohl of Batch that will please the whole family. Hope you're hungry!
Welcome to The Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. Do you want to be a member of a club that specializes in eating pizza sandwiches? Well, count us in with this week's guests. What downtown spot is bringing top-notch taste with chic Instagram looks, Autumn Pawelec clues us in and, searching for another weeknight meal that's a hit with the whole family, Meghan Pohl offers up a one-pot chicken dish that's sure to please All that ahead. Stay tuned Thanks to Chip and Kale Plant-Based Meals for their ongoing support of the Pittsburgh Dish and, as warmer months approach, check out their true side hustle Side Hustle Pizza popping up in friendly neighborhood spots. You can find more information on their Instagram handle at Side Hustle Pizza PGH. Now on to the show. Thank you, guys, both for coming over and for being on the show.
Doug:Would you introduce yourselves and what you have going on right now in the world of food.
Brittani:Yeah, I'm Brittani Boutilier. I'm working a full-time job while also doing pop-ups with Dustin for 77 Club. We have a lot going on. We have a full year booked with a lot of fun stuff.
Dustin:Yeah, I'm Dustin Boutilier. I am not working a full-time job, I'm full-time 77 Club and we're just getting through the wintertime excited for spring. We have a lot of stuff going on.
Doug:I would love to define for our listeners, if they haven't discovered you yet, Dustin, what is 77 club?
Dustin:yeah, so 77 club is a wood fire kitchen, I guess we could say um, in the grand grand scheme of what a kitchen is and what we put out, we put out food. So, yeah, I mean we're, we're fully mobile. We come with wood fire ovens. We pop up at breweries. You know, yeah, we catering. Our main thing is definitely breweries and art galleries and you know these sorts of things. You know community engagement and good pizza and Italian food.
Doug:Yes, yeah, I definitely have some questions. So well, number one just out of curiosity what kind of wood fire oven are you using?
Brittani:right now we are using a gozney dome it's the big one yes um, and we use that to fire our panuozzos. This is our interim oven for right now. Um, right now we're planning on purchasing a large oven through breadstone breadstone ovens Brittani.
Doug:there's other things that you guys do Like. The day I saw you, you had made some bread ahead of time. Is that a focaccia? Tell me again, what was that?
Brittani:Yeah, we do a focaccia Focaccia sandwiches. Working with wood fire can be a little challenging at times, so we definitely had to figure out ways to make a pivot. Dustin's mastered focaccia um, some of the best and we get this all the time some of the best focaccia that people have tasted.
Doug:Um, so we had to make a make pivots in order to, if it's a cold day or you just can't fire that oven up on site, right?
Brittani:yeah, if it's too windy, it's raining, um, it's a little too cold to be outside, so we're able to make these pivots, to make these delicious focaccia sandwiches and you did say something earlier.
Doug:I also want to define for folks what is the pizza sandwich called? It's called a panuozzo is this something that exists already, that I just never heard the word? Or is this something you guys are creating and should be trademarking?
Dustin:uh, no, we we're not creating our own. Um, funny italian words. Some people do so, you know. That's good to know. Maybe in the future we'll do that and um it'll be a fun game.
Brittani:So yeah, they're from uh, they're from Campagna.
Dustin:Okay, yeah, I don't think they're on a lot of menus that I've seen in Pittsburgh anyway.
Doug:yeah, I, I'm not sure. I mean, you know, everything's on the internet, everything's on, okay, yeah, I don't think they're on a lot of menus that I've seen in Pittsburgh anyway.
Dustin:Yeah, I'm not sure. I mean, you know everything's on the internet, everything's on Instagram and you know we made the pivot originally. You know we were selling pizza out of our house and the quality suffers. It's time and quality. You know you go to a pop-up and someone orders a pizza and then that pizza in these small ovens takes so long you have five pizzas on back that fifth pizza is going to be 40 minutes. The quality is not there. So we're like let's pivot. So these little pizza sandwiches work perfectly for us.
Doug:Yes, are they like literally like a pizza crust folded over? Is that what we're talking about too?
Dustin:Yeah.
Doug:Because the day I was there it was a little cold and you didn't have the wood fire, so we had the focaccia, all right. So people need to go and find you and grab one of these for sure, because I don't see anyone else in the city doing what you're doing.
Brittani:No, we're the only ones in Pittsburgh doing a panuozzo. They're so much fun to eat, and Dustin's really came up with some really unique and delicious creations.
Doug:I want to get into that. Let's talk about some of the names of the sandwiches, or the big hitters, so to speak.
Brittani:So the names of the sandwiches when we were working out of our house doing the pizzas. We really wanted to focus on our love for music and all the names we've came up with are names of songs that we love and we actually have a whole playlist that's on our link tree that you can click off of our Instagram. That shows everyone the songs. But, we have a lot of staples and again, all of the names of them are after songs that we love.
Doug:Okay, well, let's go through a couple of these. So let's start with I Am Blue. What's on the I Am Blue?
Brittani:Yeah, that's, I think, one of my favorite and one that people are surprised how much they love I Am Blue is Fontina local ham, local smoked ham. We do a mustard cream and that's what makes it special is the mustard cream. We've heard from many people well, I don't like mustard. And I often tell them, like you know, please try it. It's really delicious and I tried to get them to try it and when they try it, they're like I don't like mustard, but this is so good.
Doug:Yes.
Brittani:And then it's topped with thyme and fresh cracked pepper, and then all of our panuozzos are topped with Parmesan.
Dustin:So good it's a mountain of. American Grana, I do.
Doug:Oh, so good. Grana Padana is one of my favorites. That's what you're doing. You're speaking my language too. I think I had the Luana.
Brittani:Yes, you did.
Doug:And who's that named after? If you don't mind, we can cut it if you don't want to know that that's named after our daughter she is 20 months old.
Brittani:She's so sweet. Congratulations she's um, you know, a classic everyone loves her. So you know everyone loves a margarita. So we figured that would be a perfect one to be a staple, to be a staple for us. I.
Doug:I loved it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. That's the one I ordered the day that I saw you guys.
Brittani:Yeah.
Dustin:Just to clarify the I Am Blue that's named after a Grover song. Grover, from an old Sesame Street sings the blues vinyl. He sings this tragic song called I Am Blue. I think I actually have that vinyl. By the way, dude, you really have that vinyl. I mean, I'm a 1974 club person here, so I think I have that vinyl. It's a beautiful song. Grover, you got me, oh my gosh, that is so great.
Doug:What a story. Okay then, what about Blockhead? Where's that from Devo? Okay, yeah, and what's on the blockhead?
Dustin:So the blockhead is cream frieze with some crisp potato yes, oven crisp potato, good deep caramelized onions, thyme and some more delicious grana.
Doug:Oh, so good. I've seen that crispy potato. I'm like I think I need to have that. You don't get that on a sandwich very often, so why not Better than putting the potato chips on my lunchtime sandwich?
Brittani:in school or something. I mean that's good too. It's not bad.
Doug:All right, the one more that I wanted to hit if you guys don't mind entertaining me is TV party yeah.
Dustin:TV party is a black flag song, uh-huh yeah. So we thought it was fitting to just kind of have the classic pepperoni jalapeno.
Doug:A little hot a little spicy.
Dustin:So kind of have the classic pepperoni jalapeno a little hot a little spicy, so good, yeah, we use, and that's with um mozzarella for the cheese.
Doug:Mozz from Caputo brothers I can't tell you from like, from my perspective, the vibe that you guys are putting out, not only on your instagram, which instantly captured me, and then these names with your product and the songs, and even the songs you pick and some of the short videos you do. It's amazing. I think you were just we were close to around Valentine's day when we're recording this and you were handing each other what was a bouquet, but it wasn't a bouquet. What was on the bouquet?
Brittani:This was such a fun video to do for us um it's a bouquet and it has paper flowers that I made, and then it has two panuozzos in it. Yes, um, and then, in the end, Dustin's topping the Panuozzos with grana padano it is raining, it's raining down and I'm just looking, so in love don't stop, and I'm like Dustin's, like say when, and I'm like never People have to check it out.
Doug:There's the other one where, Dustin, you put a little olive oil in your hair to start the day, or something I love that one too. I'm like the creativity is there and I think that's—.
Dustin:I woke up late, it's so good.
Doug:I think what's capturing Me is that overall vibe that you've been able to create in kind of a short time. When did you guys start doing 77 Club?
Dustin:October 14th was when we sold.
Doug:October 14th 2023 was the first pizza we sold at our house, so you're just in this over a year now, yeah, and you've made a lot of good connections at the breweries. Where are some of the places that you often are popping up right now?
Brittani:Yeah, we have quite a few residencies currently.
Doug:Brittani is just pulling up her Rolodex on the phone of all of their partnerships. Go for it. Let's hear like the top three to five, right?
Brittani:So we have first Sundays we're at Leaning Cask. Second and fourth Sundays we're at Four Points Brewery.
Doug:We are on second Wednesdays at 11 11th hour. That's where I saw you all.
Brittani:Yes, third and fourth thursdays we're at l'olive, uh. Second fridays we're at Coven. And fourth Saturdays we're at Jackworth ginger beer so we have those guys too yeah, we're at quite a few places all around town. These residencies are great and we love our partnerships.
Doug:I love that you have these residencies, because it gives you just more of a consistency too. I'm like, hey, we're doing this, we know we're doing that. You're not sort of struggling to find a place and you can probably at this point gauge how much traffic you're getting, since you've done it a few times. Is that right?
Dustin:Yeah, projections are, are, you know tricky things? I'm sure especially in this time of year yeah, but a little colder months yeah, yeah it's. It's more about defining hopefully like a floor yeah exactly, I don't know if we know the ceiling yet, but we're always, you know, every time we get pushed, you know we try to change up how we do our setup and make things more efficient. But I also wanted to note that um, we're also partnering with bunker projects oh, I think I saw something recently with bunker projects, right?
Dustin:so we're part of their bunker commons program okay, yeah, tell me more.
Doug:What does this mean?
Dustin:well, we're just. You know we're going to be doing some events with them this year. Okay, and um, some of their members of their Bunker Commons program get to get a little discount from us at our pop-ups.
Brittani:So just to add further about the Bunker Commons Bunker Projects is actually a really great art gallery in Garfield. They provide a space for artists to come from all over the country, and Bunker Commons is a program where people can donate a certain amount of money to them to allow them to pay their artists to be residents in their space. With the Bunker Commons program, you get different discounts to many different companies around the city, including us. We give $3 off of your first purchase. Then you also get 10%.
Brittani:your first catering, and then 10% off of your first catering with us.
Doug:I've been following Bunker Projects for a while, but I don't think I've fully understood what's going on there, so I love that. Thanks for enlightening us a little bit more.
Brittani:Yeah, really great organization to donate to. They really focus on women, people of color and people of LGBTQIA plus community.
Doug:Love it. Before we move too far away from the food, I did want to ask a little bit more about the catering that you do. So you do offer like sandwiches and salads, and do you do the panuzzos Like tell us how catering works for you guys.
Dustin:Yeah. So I mean, we offer on-site as well as off-site catering. So for the off-sites, that is going to be like the focaccia sandwich drops you know things like that veggie platters, yes. And for the on-sites, we do all that as well, but we, you know, we light up our ovens.
Autumn:You know we're out there smoking.
Doug:We'll be at your house, at your business, wherever so fun, especially as we get into some spring and warmer months. I would love to have you out in my business parking lot like cooking up things for my crew.
Dustin:Yeah, we did one this morning, you did.
Doug:Yeah, an off-site. Oh my gosh.
Dustin:And it's like 34 degrees outside. That was an off-site, it was up in Sewickley.
Brittani:Okay, yeah, wow, I'm Brittani.
Dustin:And I'm Dustin of 77 Club.
Brittani:And you're listening to The Pittsburgh.
Doug:Dish. Well, I did want to take a bit of a pivot and just learn a little bit more about the both of you We've talked before. When we first met, when did you move back to Pittsburgh? I know, brittany, you said you were born here, but you didn't live here your whole life. Give me a little bit of that timeline.
Brittani:Yeah, so I was born in Sharon, which is north of Pittsburgh. I lived there until I was 13, and then my parents and I moved to California. I lived in California for 17 years. That's where I met Dustin. I met Dustin actually in high school. In high school, in high school, yeah, and from there we moved back here about three years ago, and from there we moved back here about three years ago, okay.
Doug:And Dustin, you were like Orange County native Is that right? Or LA native?
Dustin:Yeah, so I'm originally from. I was born in Pasadena.
Doug:Okay, it's so lovely. Pasadena is such a great town.
Dustin:Yeah, yeah, it's pretty wild coming from there and growing up in Los Angeles. And then, yeah, I did pivot to Orange County in high school. Yeah, I mean, we got married and we're like what are we doing in California? So we actually lived in Rio de Janeiro for our honeymoon we had plans to move to Chile and actually open up a restaurant out there, but that was all during COVID. So Brittani is a Chilean citizen. And is that your mom, Brittani?
Dustin:yeah, my mom yeah, she has dual citizenship, I do not. So there was some affidavit, some government paper that I did not sign correctly and I was barred from the country, and that's what prompted us not going further deeper into South.
Doug:America.
Dustin:Brought us back up to the States, brought us to Pittsburgh.
Doug:Wow.
Dustin:And such a big pivot, but it's been amazing since then. I mean such a community out here. Well, I'm so glad you're here.
Doug:I hope folks continue to discover you. How long did you spend in Rio?
Brittani:We were there for nearly three months, okay, yeah, and we did it besides Rio. We were there for nearly three months Okay, yeah, and we did it besides Rio. We were in a state called Bahia and most of our time we were spent in Búzios. Okay, we had like a little bungalow right by the beach in Búzios, so we were mostly there and then went to Rio. We were in Rio about a month.
Doug:I have to ask what did you all think about the food experiences in Brazil?
Dustin:It's wild, it's much different. I mean the meat's awesome. You can get burnt out from the meat. But then there's seafood.
Brittani:It's great we had honestly, probably some of the best sushi I've ever had in my life in. Rio de Janeiro. I mean it's right by the ocean, it was so fresh. They had traditional, and then they had some that was a little bit different, one roll that had truffle in it, but it was so good, wow, yeah.
Doug:Well, I love, I always love hearing, like food, experiences and influences and stories. I kind of want to come back to the, the panooza, I say in that way Pan the the. Panuzzo. I want to come back to the Panuzzo and everything else you're doing. Tell me where this idea of a pop-up and the Panuzzo and the Italian sort of vibe comes in here.
Dustin:Yeah, so I've worked in wood fire ovens for years. You know, I've been working in kitchens like 14, 15 years. I love wood fire pizza ovens. I just want it to be back in that. So our daughter was born and we're like how can we spend more time together which is a funny thing because I mean we're so busy now, but we are together. So we just bought the ovens and just said let's just go for this. And then that led to a second oven, which led to the upgrade oven, and now we're going to upgrade again.
Doug:Wow, what about food in your formative years? So, dustin, you're saying you were working in wood-fired ovens. I guess in other jobs, right, but what about at home? Were there influences that really propelled you into like passion of food from an earlier age?
Dustin:Yeah, I'm half Mexican, so, yeah, like my grandma would make tamales and stuff like that. So I just grew up eating really delicious foods and hanging around the kitchen. I was a kid that was in the kitchen like all the time.
Doug:Yes, I love that. I love this whole like mix of influence, like bringing you forward. And what about you, brittany? What was food like in your house or growing up?
Brittani:I think similarly, like I think a lot of people get this from family. But my grandma on my mom's side was a, was a cook and you know I just remember watching her cook all day after she retired and she would just literally stew meat, not in a crock pot, just stew meat all day. The house would just be filled with love and the best sense ever.
Dustin:Cutting onions in her hand, yeah.
Brittani:Dustin used to cook with my grandma when she was alive. They had a lot of great times cooking together and I'm so glad that they were able to spend time together, but she would cook all day literally 12 hours cooking a meal. And that was a part of my life, all my life.
Doug:Wow, it's just the way it is, you know, and it's a passion or love, all the things.
Brittani:Yeah, yeah, food is love.
Doug:And the slow food. So help me trace the steps. What brought you back to Pittsburgh?
Brittani:Well, you know, when we came back from Brazil, Dustin's parents were actually in Tucson.
Doug:Okay.
Brittani:And so we actually lived there for about six months and Tucson's beautiful great hiking, but it didn't really feel like the spot for us.
Autumn:It didn't feel like home.
Brittani:And you know I actually have cousins that live in Pittsburgh and I've always loved coming to Pittsburgh and I would visit just to see my cousins. Didn't feel like home. And you know I actually have cousins that live in pittsburgh and I've always loved coming to pittsburgh and I would visit just to see my cousins. And you know, from there I was like, hey, dustin, like why don't we try going to pittsburgh? You know it's affordable, you know great city and um I said okay yeah, he said okay have you ever been, dustin?
Brittani:never okay he came blindly. He was just like, okay, let's go, and we have found a beautiful, beautiful community here. I love this.
Dustin:I tell you what driving in not knowing what Pittsburgh looks like, with a 16-foot U-Haul hauling your car behind it on those tight streets, I was like oh, this is Pittsburgh.
Brittani:Dustin called it his rig the whole way here from.
Dustin:Tucson. We moved into the South Hills and I was like this rig is big for these streets.
Doug:That was crazy, but you, Brittany, you hit it. Check, check, check, Affordable great communities and I just have to say I think it's a great place to raise kids.
Brittani:It is, and I actually have like an amazing mom's group here that I'm so thankful for, and we all feel connected and feel like we're going to raise our kids in a good community. Yeah, yeah.
Doug:I love it. All right, I have one more question before it gets away from me. Tell me the origin story of the name 77 Club.
Dustin:Yeah, so we were coming up with a lot of different names but none of them sounded right and I just kind of blurted that out. Yeah, I mean, 1977 is just an iconic year in art music fashion. That was the birth of punk. And just growing up being a skater punker kid, I just really identify with that DIY spirit and it really just spoke to us and we're like that's the name.
Brittani:Yeah, that. And then, like the club, we talk about how we want people to feel like they're part of something with us, and having the club thing is like well, you're part of our club, now You're part of our family. So yeah, I'm bought in.
Doug:As soon as I saw you guys hitting on Instagram, I'm like what?
Brittani:is this.
Doug:What is this club? I must understand and, like, the food is just amazing, and so you've hooked me, and I hope you keep hooking everybody else to join into that community. I want to ask, dustin I think you sort of hinted at it You've been at this for a little bit more than a year now what's ahead for the both of you? You've got these residencies at all of the breweries that we listed earlier and that'll go on through the entire year. Is that right?
Brittani:Yeah, yeah, the whole year.
Doug:Other goals, other things you want to be doing or expanding to.
Dustin:Yeah, I mean.
Doug:I don't mean to get you choked up.
Dustin:Yeah, I mean, we want to expand our catering. Okay, you know we want to. You know one day. Have you know a small group of well-paid assassins? You know that we can have you know our co-conspirators in this club. And you know, obviously we'd love a brick and mortar space, at least our own space. Even if we're just prepping out there, we're still doing the catering. You know, it's just a place to call home, I think, more than anything.
Doug:Did you hint at you want a bigger oven?
Dustin:Yeah, okay.
Doug:Maybe two, all right, so this is like the birthday holiday. These are my presents, please.
Brittani:I think that the first oven we got was literally like a birthday gift to ourselves, because our birthdays are six days apart.
Dustin:Oh, she's older. She's two years older. I'm two years older.
Brittani:But yeah, we got our first oven as like a gift to ourselves for our birthdays two years ago. We were like, let's just do this thing.
Doug:If you listen back, I talked to John and Zita and they do side hustle pizza and she bought him a Gozney and he created side hustle pizza.
Dustin:Yeah, it's infectious. Yeah, it is infectious. You can find him over in the Mount Lebo area a lot. But yeah, we'll have a full size size kind of mid-size, not full size with our pizza trailer in late april, early may and that's from breadstone ovens out of dallas wow, yeah, I can't wait to see that.
Doug:Hope it shows up on some instagram stories yeah, we'll have a whole thing, I'm sure in addition to growing the catering and getting a bigger oven, um any other big events on the horizon, anything happening like maybe later in the spring or summer?
Dustin:yeah, so we'll actually be co-hosting a block party with bunker projects that's going to be featuring a lot of you know great vendors. You know maybe some records, maybe some food, some booze vendors and you guys will be serving up your stuff there. Oh yeah, oh yeah, we're gonna have some other uh pizza friends there as well, so where is the block party up in garfield?
Brittani:yeah, it's gonna be on garfield um gonna be right behind bunker projects, um behind an avenue okay I love.
Doug:Well, since we've been talking a bit about you, and if folks are not following you, where can they find and follow you in terms of your social media or anything else you have out there?
Brittani:We are on Instagram and you can find us at 77 club underscore PGH.
Doug:All right, dustin Brittany, it's been such a pleasure getting to know you more. I do have one more question for you, both today, and you can answer together or separately. The name of the show is the Pittsburgh Dish. What's the best dish you've eaten this past week?
Dustin:Probably a pizza we got from our friends at Black Cat Pizza. Oh yes, yeah, they're delicious.
Brittani:Yeah, it was delicious. Yeah, we paid them a visit at Four Points Brewery.
Doug:What did you have? Tell us more? Dustin's pulling out his phone. He's like did I take a picture?
Dustin:What was on the?
Doug:menu.
Dustin:They gave us two, so one was like a margarita and one was. You know, these are like the grandma slice. I'm not sure what they call them. What they're calling them, it's a Sicilian, a grandma slice. Whatever Square pie, whatever Square slices.
Doug:Yeah yeah.
Dustin:Delicious squares.
Brittani:And yeah, I mean they had the burrata hot honey.
Doug:They had the margarita with the peso. It was delicious and that dough is awesome it's amazing.
Brittani:Yeah, is this your best bite as well, Brittani, I would. I would say so too.
Doug:Okay, yeah all right, Black Cat Pizza, Black Cat Pizza, and you can find them around town. Kind of like you guys. I sort of love the story that you're doing a thing, they're doing a thing, and there's still in this community there's always camaraderie over competition and I love that. Oh yeah.
Brittani:Very true, yeah, we try to it's. It's very tough but we try to when we can to support other pop-ups. It's a little tough, but we do try as much as we can.
Doug:I know if you're doing them, it's hard to get there, but I love pop-ups too, and there's so many that I actually have on my list I'm like I think I want to talk to them and I think I want to talk to them, and it's just hard to get to everybody. Yeah, Brittani Dustin, thank you both so much for being on The Pittsburgh Dish.
Brittani:Yeah, thank you.
Dustin:Thanks for having us, Doug. Welcome to the club. Thank you.
Doug:We can't wait to grab another Panuozzo from 77 Club and if you're interested in that block party that Dustin and Brittani were talking about with Bunker Projects, it's currently slated for June 2025. Up next, looking for a chic dining spot downtown that tastes as good as it looks. We check in with Autumn Pawelec. Hey everybody, we're joined today with Autumn Pawelec, a model and content creator. Autumn, I know you've been doing a lot more with restaurant spots on your feed. I was wondering, when you go out, say downtown in Pittsburgh, is there a spot that's really something on your radar right now that you love?
Autumn:Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Autumn:Ritual House.
Autumn:It's my go-to. If you want to go downtown get a little fancy schmancy, ritual House is my spot. I literally am there, maybe like twice a month.
Doug:Yes, and it's in the Union Trust building, which also has the Speckled Egg, yeah, and Del Frisco's. That's right. So there's a few things in there. I know I haven't had a chance to visit ritual house yet, but it looks beautiful inside, oh my gosh, it's stunning.
Autumn:When I tell you it is like a bougie Instagrammable spot. Yes, that's exactly what it is. If you walk in and then you go up to the bar, there are just tons of chandeliers hanging from the ceiling with this like awesome, funky wallpaper it is, it's just a vibe.
Autumn:That's all.
Doug:I can say it is just a vibe. It's so pretty. Well, it does have those multiple levels and layers, so to speak, but the food itself also doesn't disappoint, oh my gosh, Everything there is so, so good.
Autumn:Shout out to Chef Ed and his awesome wife Amanda. She's a manager there at the Ritual House and Chef Ed is the head chef and they do an incredible job there.
Doug:Let's talk about a couple of the bites that you've enjoyed, or maybe some of your friends have enjoyed, while you were there.
Autumn:So every time I go there I have to get the bruleed oranges, and whenever, yeah, it's really good. Whenever I first saw the menu and I was like brulee oranges, like I don't know, we'll see. No, I have to get that dish every single time. It's slices of oranges with a little bit of that crystallized brulee topping on it with goat cheese and a little bit of micro greens. Oh my gosh, I could literally eat the whole dish myself.
Doug:All right, so you took me for a turn. At first I thought you were going to talk about it as a dessert, but it's more of like a starter. It's an appetizer. Yes, it's an appetizer.
Autumn:It's so good.
Autumn:Like a goat cheese yeah, goat cheese, and like those burnt sugar, micro greens, so so good.
Autumn:Another appetizer that I absolutely love is their shrimp and crab cocktail, and they serve it in like a martini glass. So you get the lemon wedge, squirt it over. And it's, it's like it's so cool because you feel really cool eating the shrimp and crab cocktail out of it, cause it's like in a martini glass, so that one's really good too. It's real light.
Doug:If you don't want anything heavy, you know, before your dinner this is next gen shrimp cocktail that we used to serve, you know, in martini glasses many moons ago but it's, they have it in like a special way and it's just, oh, it's so good yeah and their fried burrata too, is incredible.
Autumn:Oh, it's so good. They have it like they have two balls and then when you spread it open, it kind of just like the cheese oozes out into like this olive oil, kind of saucy, like it's. It's just so good, it sounds delicious, it's so good.
Doug:Now it's fried first, so is it. Is it breaded in any way? It's breaded, yes.
Autumn:So when you're cracking, it and then when you crack it open the cheese and like this olive oil, kind of like red vodka sauce mix it. Just all seeps into it and it's so freaking good.
Doug:It's so good, I'll have that right now.
Autumn:Yeah, me too.
Doug:Is there any like main dish that you've had? That really stood out.
Autumn:Their short rib dish is so good it literally melts in your mouth. It's a big, big, nice, juicy piece of short rib on top of I want to say it's like a polenta mash.
Doug:Oh that's nice.
Autumn:And then these pearl onions on top with this, like demi glaise sauce. It is so good, it's one of my go-to dishes every single time.
Doug:Again, this is like a grandma's Sunday day roast, but on steroids. Yes, yes.
Autumn:It's so good I love that. I'm trying to think of another dish. There's so many on the menu that I absolutely love. They have a fabulous steak there as well.
Doug:And you're a steak girl.
Autumn:I am a steak girl. Yeah, I usually get that Oscar style Very, very good. But yeah, I mean you can't go wrong with any sort of dish at all.
Doug:I think the thing that I've noticed most when folks have gone there are some of the desserts.
Meghan:Oh, the desserts are so fun and they're super, super tasty. One of my favorites is it's called Not your Grandma's Pretzel Salad and it's almost like coated strawberries, but they're not strawberries, you kind of like whack them to to have them open up? Yeah, and it's like this, like really jelly mousse texture, but it comes with a sparkler. So whenever it is presented to your table, there is a sparkler going off on one side of the board and then you get a giant stem of cotton candy on the other side, so it's kind of like.
Meghan:you get a little bit like two desserts in one. It's so good and the presentation there is just phenomenal.
Doug:This is performance art.
Autumn:Yes, Like I said, it's very Instagrammable, for sure.
Doug:But still delicious, yes, and has those flavors that we're so used to of strawberry jello pretzel salad.
Autumn:Yes.
Doug:But so not.
Autumn:Yeah, it's truly a work of art.
Doug:Yes, All right, Ritual House right downtown, yes, in the Union Trust building. Yep Autumn. Thanks so much and thanks for being on the Pittsburgh Dish.
Autumn:Thank you for having me.
Doug:You can follow Autumn on Instagram at Autumn Pawelec. If weeknight recipes are sometimes a struggle, we've got you covered with a new one from our friend Meghan Pohl of Batch LLC. Hey everybody, we're joined today with Meghan Pohl, one of the owners of Batch LLC. Meghan, when we were here last time, we were talking about all of the good stuff that you can find at your shop batch up in Saxonburg, but I was wondering if you have a recipe or a dish that you're making outside of the shop that you could share with our listeners?
Meghan:Yeah, so as much as my daughter complains about how much chicken we eat, it is a versatile food, so I make it a lot, but one of my favorite things is I love chicken thighs and I'll do like a dark mustard, maple syrup, brown sugar marinade on it and I'll do like a lot of cracked pepper in there too.
Meghan:I'll marinate it for, like you know, an hour or so, brown it off. I have like the big Dutch oven, like cast iron Dutch oven, brown it off in there, take it out and then add onions and garlic and carrots, simmer those for a minute, put the chicken back in and let it all kind of cook and add a little bit chicken broth, and then I'll add rice in.
Meghan:So it's almost like yeah, like a one pot yeah, like a one pot thing and it just braises the chicken and it all gets like caramely from the syrup and the mustard and it's just like one of my favorite like comfort foods oh my gosh, it sounds so delicious.
Doug:Yeah, you can't go wrong with chicken thighs, because you can, like, almost hardly overcook them anyway. Right, when you make that marinade, are you taking the thighs out of the marinade and leaving some behind, or are you using the marinade?
Meghan:I just dump it all in. The whole thing goes, yeah, from marinade into the pot the chicken gets like caramelly. When I braise it like that, you know so it's. It has like the little bites of like that flavor on there.
Doug:Oh, my gosh, it sounds delicious. Yeah, it's my favorite.
Meghan:Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you.
Doug:And thanks for being on the Pittsburgh Dish.
Meghan:I love it. On the Pittsburgh Dish.
Doug:Meghan Pohl, along with Jessica Brewster, are the co-owners of Batch, located in Saxonburg. If you enjoyed the show, consider buying us a coffee for this episode or supporting the show monthly. You can find links to those options at the bottom of our show description, and if you want to follow my own food adventures, you can find me on social media at Doug Cooking. That's our show for this week. Thanks again to all of our guests and contributors, and to Kevin Solecki of Carnegie Accordion Company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned.
