The Pittsburgh Dish

088 Sarah Loves Yinz

• Doug Heilman • Season 3 • Episode 88

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Craving a guide that actually helps you eat, drink, and explore without the guesswork? We sit down with Sarah of “Sarah Loves Yinz” to map real-world ways to support small businesses. Sarah shares how her journey from running restaurant socials to curating regional getaways taught her what works online: fewer, smarter posts; clickable locations; clean tags; and a human voice that makes people feel welcome. 

Then, our wine detour lands at Spill in Bloomfield, a relaxed corner bar pouring rare Italian wines by the glass. Expect generous tastes, gentle questions, and a path to the bottle that suits your palate. Bring your own dinner from the neighborhood and make it a night.

Rounding things out, Diane and Matt from Two Ugly Mugs drop two soul-warming, low-effort recipes: slow-cooker salsa shredded pork over rice and a five-minute shakshuka riff that turns brunch into a win. 

If you’re ready to find new favorites, support the people behind them, and build weekends that feel full without feeling forced, press play. If you enjoyed the show, please follow, share with a friend, and leave a quick review—what neighborhood gem should we feature next?

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Doug:

Welcome to The Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. What happens when you're obsessed with promoting local and actually lived it in the social media of former restaurant jobs? One of our newest contributors, Sarah of Sarah Loves Yinz, shares her story. Looking for a great local wine experience out on the town, Catherine Montest visits Spill in Bloomfield. And if cold weather has you craving warm and easy recipes at home, the Two Ugly Mugs stop by to give us a couple of their favorites. All that ahead, stay tuned. Well, thank you so much for coming over and for being on the show. Would you introduce yourself to our listeners and what you have going on in the world of food?

Sarah:

Sure. Well, thank you for having me for starters. This is awesome. And I'm excited to be sitting with you outside of chaotic things.

Doug:

Um family life and all. Yes.

Sarah:

Good chaos. Uh my name is Sarah, and I have a page that has recently changed from Yinz Love Local, rest in peace, to Sarah Loves Yinz, which I'm embracing the change. And it was it was a good shift. So what am I telling you?

Doug:

Well, I usually ask the since we're a food-based podcast, correct what you have going on in the world of food, but I do know that's probably a tough question because you highlight a lot of things beyond food and drink.

Sarah:

Correct. Yeah. But I am my mom says I'm a food snob. So, you know, I'm no chef, but if I'm going to spend my money on food somewhere, I want it to be phenomenal because I do feel like I make great meals. Yeah.

Doug:

We were talking off camera about we don't really buy meat or steak out of the house. Correct. We don't know where it's coming from. So I appreciate that so much.

Sarah:

Yes.

Doug:

So for your pages for Sarah Loves Yins, do you describe yourself as a blogger or a content creator? How do what words do you put there for what you're doing?

Sarah:

Yes, I would say content creator because some of the other I which I don't even love that term. I think blogger could be useful if I would start a blog. Which long term term I would love to. It's kind of like a what a vlog of sorts, although it's all short form.

Doug:

So but it is a vlog. You are blogging in video and picture format about all of these local establishments that you love. And we should let listeners know it's not just Greater Pittsburgh area, but a little beyond. You reside out towards Westmoreland County, right? Yes. And so a lot of those restaurants or other places you're going to are highlighting the region, you know, and these like really good folks that are trying to do something great.

Sarah:

And I'm getting more into, I guess you would call it accessible travel. Like what I find you can do truly in a weekend. Right. Even if you work a nine to five and leave Friday, you still have two full days because say it's like three hours away. That's totally doable within a weekend. I'm really loving finding all of these.Anywhere I go, I like to find local business.

Doug:

Yeah.

Sarah:

And it's always just been a part of who I am. So this was a very organic thing that happened, you know, as the internet started to take shape more and more. It was just something that I was doing. And it's a way to spread the word about businesses outside of reviews in a way that gives people a glimpse into the business. It's internet word of mouth, really. Yeah.

Doug:

I think you do such a good job with it. And, you know, I asked you to come over so we could talk about some restaurants or coffee shops or wherever you've been eating and drinking. But I think what I've noticed is you can highlight an Airbnb. And then maybe there's a day spa nearby and a restaurant. So if someone's really following your page, they can get that car ride, drive getaway and have a full experience just by following what you're doing. So thank you.

Sarah:

Well, thank you. Yeah, it's fun. I'm very grateful for the opportunities that have come into my world as a result of doing this and people just following and supporting my little corner of the internet. So it's good. It's fun. And I'm grateful for it.

Doug:

I did want to ask, and you've alluded to it already on you know how the internet sort of just got going and these were things you were doing. Well, when did your blogging sort of start? You know, when did you start taking it seriously?

Sarah:

It's funny because for a long time you couldn't even have Facebook if you didn't have a college email. That's right. I did not. Oh my gosh, I forgot about that.

Doug:

But you're right. I did not have Facebook while I was in college either.

Sarah:

And I I couldn't, I could not even use it for a while because I went to college very briefly. So I had no active college email. So you couldn't even use Facebook. So I was on MySpace, right?

Speaker 6:

Okay, yeah, right.

Sarah:

And then once that kind of fizzled, it was just like, oh, oh, whatever. And I've always worked in local businesses and I was working in a local restaurant, local to me in Greensburg. Um probably like it was like 11 years ago now. And you that's when you were able to access Facebook. So they had a Facebook business page. They started to realize people were also utilizing Instagram. Hey, who wants to run our Instagram? And I said, Oh, I'll do it. I'm already taking pictures of the specials. I'm like, I'll do it. So then I took over their socials and was doing their Facebook. And you didn't even have to have a personal Facebook page at this time. Yeah. I wasn't on Facebook. They were on Facebook. I didn't have to be. Then it shifted, and you did have to have a personal page to run a business page.

Doug:

A business page. So, Sarah, this first restaurant you worked in, what was the name of that place?

Sarah:

The Pepperwood Grill.

Doug:

Oh, is it still around?

Sarah:

It is not. It's now an Apple Bees.

Doug:

Oh no.

Sarah:

So then I started, I was doing their Facebook, their Instagram. And then I just kind of started doing it with four businesses, or like anytime I, you know, I worked at a yoga studio, I made sure they had an internet presence. And then there was a restaurant that I was managing in Greensburg. So anytime I was working within restaurants, I'm like, who's doing your internet stuff? Who's doing your social medias? And I just naturally bebop because I just think that there's so much to explore in this world. If I can get in my car and drive an hour and spend a day anywhere, like and just bebop and visit some businesses and make a day of it, why not? I literally have yin's in that tattooed on my arm. So I was just like, okay. And so Yinz Love Local was born. Oh. And then most recently, as I've just like, I'm not on my page a lot. So it was hard for me to change my name to Sarah Loves Yens because I don't very private.

Doug:

I'm gonna say, I don't think most people know who you are. I know. That's sort of in a fun way, a little bit of mystery. I like it.

Sarah:

Thank you.

Doug:

So thanks for coming over and letting me take a picture of you today.

Sarah:

And I'm not even trying to be like secretive or sneaky. It's just more like my page isn't about me. Yeah.

Doug:

You're highlighting others. Yeah. I feel that way.

Sarah:

Right. Like you were saying about your podcast. Yeah, just wanting to showcase these places, these people, and you know, what makes local economy is so important.

Doug:

So important.

Sarah:

Like so important.

Doug:

Small business actually makes up so much more of the employment throughout this entire country. I think I just saw a stat recently from USA Facts that corporate America only employs 19% of workers.

Sarah:

Have you ever seen the 350 project?

Doug:

I don't know that one.

Sarah:

So like I said, I've just always worked in local business. I think they're like the only place that would hire me anyway when I was young and starting to get jobs. And so then I just always ended up working in local businesses. I never wanted to work nothing against some of the like chain restaurants, but I didn't want to work in chain restaurants. I wanted to work in the local restaurants. Yeah.

Doug:

The mom and pop.

Sarah:

Right. Right. So I've always just been in that kind of mindset. Yeah. Found this 350 project. And the push for that is to spend $50 in three local businesses every month. And it gives you the stats about how much of that money returns to the local economy.

Doug:

Astronomy. Yeah. I love that.

Sarah:

Yeah. And so that's the only reason I'm not on my page, is because I what what do you need to see me in it for? It's not my business.

Doug:

I get it. You know, another good storyteller in Pittsburgh, Rick Sebak, told me that when he's doing his documentaries, he doesn't like being in the shot. He's like, it's not about me. Yeah. It's about the businesses I'm highlighting. So kudos to you. Thank you. You know, you've been doing this a number of years now. Like, what are some of the things you love most about posting these places and blogging about them?

Sarah:

I sometimes get a glimpse into I mean the story.

Doug:

Yeah.

Sarah:

Like how you are with the podcast. I often am able to connect with either employees or owners, or you know, sometimes I get a glimpse into the business on like off hours because they found my account, but it doesn't really time up for me to come in when they're open and they're open to having me come in, you know, on their own. Like, hey, I'll meet you. We're not open this day, but I'll meet you over there. Okay, great. Which is just cool because they see the value in what I'm doing. And then I get to talk to them one-on-one and hear more. I mean, I just posted about a secondhand shop, which is like a perfect example. They're like a boutique style secondhand shop in Greensburg. They met me there over this holiday break on their off hours. And that's a great example of how I got to hear about how it all started, what their goals are, what they're doing. So that's kind of my favorite part is I already want to support local business. And then it just makes it even more fun because it's like, oh, I don't know.

Doug:

You fall in love with them even more. Yeah. I I think it's the parallel to what we were talking about with this podcast. I want to know you. I want to know your story. Uh, I hope that listeners of our podcast want to follow or go to that place or hire that chef or whatever, because I think there's just this cool motivation. I think it's that connection, right?

Sarah:

Yeah, the human connection for sure. Human connection, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. It's easy to like get mad at a billboard or signage of a place. But then when you meet the humans behind it and you're like, oh, they're really trying, there's just a lot of plates that local business owners are spinning all the time. And I think sometimes we lose patience with establishments because we forget that there are real humans behind it. It's not Target where it's like a million people and you've lost that human connection. That human connection is real.

Doug:

Just you going in and interacting with some of these small businesses, you can plant the seed or give them some insights into some things that they could do better with their own social media. So, for instance, if you have a wedding venue or a bed and breakfast, probably shouldn't be your face on your Instagram. It should be a picture of the place. Correct. Yeah.

Speaker 6:

Right.

Sarah:

They do want to see, like, people do want to see the humans behind these accounts. And that's why I've been trying to put my face on there a little bit more or allow people to form that human connection with me because I am still the person behind the page. So I try to take my own advice and show my face or connect with the people following me. Cause I really do greatly appreciate anybody supporting my little corner of the internet. Because none of this would happen if they didn't. So there's just like this fine balance you have to do of balance. You don't need to put all of your stuff on there as a business, but they want to see you a little bit. But yes, you're not going to sell your business by you being your profile picture.

Doug:

All right, Sarah. I would like to uh sort of tap into some of the things you've been doing lately. Could you give us a restaurant or any food and beverage recommendation? Maybe a place you've been to recently that more people should know about, and they just don't.

Sarah:

Okay, listen. So Unity Brewing in La trobe PA.

Doug:

In La trobe, all right.

Sarah:

They are doing themselves a disservice by labeling themselves as only Unity Brewing. They have a scratch kitchen.

Doug:

Oh.

Sarah:

Mm-hmm. It's phenomenal. I got these sweet potato flats. They cut the sweet potatoes right in front of you. Mm-hmm. Their mac and cheese is made to order because they make their own beer cheese. They use the beer cheese with the mac and cheese. Yes.

Doug:

Oh, that sounds phenomenal.

Sarah:

It is really phenomenal. And it is easily going to be one of the places that I go to for dinner. And I think that maybe people are not realizing that they're a scratch kitchen because they're a brewery, right? But they are just they are truly doing food really, really well. It's a smaller menu, but they have specials. The staples on their menu are phenomenal.

Doug:

We should let listeners know because that term comes up scratch cooking, they're really taking whole ingredients.

Sarah:

Correct.

Doug:

And making something out of it. They're not taking the sauce out of the bag or pre-cut something. They're doing it in the kitchen themselves.

Sarah:

So that's why I mentioned the mac and cheese, because it's not just like sitting in a warmer. You order the mac and cheese, then they're making it.

Doug:

Unity Brewing in La Trobe.

Sarah:

Right on Route 30. Yes. Not far from the airport.

Doug:

Sarah, this is why I asked you to come out. I love it.

Sarah:

Hi, this is Sarah of Sarah Loves Yinz, and you are listening to The Pittsburgh Dish.

Doug:

You know, when you've been doing this and we talked about getting to know those business owners and that human connection, it's such a fun part of it. What else has been fun for you about doing the blogging?

Sarah:

I kind of nerd out on the analytics behind social media.

Doug:

Really?

Sarah:

I do. Oh.

unknown:

I do.

Sarah:

I think I need I need your help. I don't know why. It fascinates. Well, my husband says that I'm a strategy game person, which is correct. And so for me, this is just, you know, similar to a strategy game. So I mean, at Unity Brewing, for example, I sat down with the owner and showed him how on Instagram he was missing all of these requests in his messages of people are tagging him. And like you're posting every day. That's the other thing. Don't you don't have to post every day. You're gonna burn yourself out, right? So that has been the fun thing. I mean, it kind of started as doing social media for these businesses, then making my own little corner of the internet, but also still being able to talk to businesses about their social media and hey, your location doesn't come up to tag you. And just little things that seem trivial but can really make a big difference because everybody's we're such an instant gratification society anymore that if there's not a place for you to click on that business and then remember that business, people tend to forget.

Doug:

Yeah, it goes away.

Sarah:

Correct. And if you're not, if you don't have anything clickable, then you don't stay in this person's algorithms because they haven't interacted with your profile in any way. So if you want to be in more people's feeds and as people are tagging you, they just all go hand in hand.

Speaker 6:

Yeah.

Sarah:

So that it's I could just go on and on, but it does. It fascinates me and it's fun. And I love to be able to say to people, hey, link your accounts, post in a smart way. I like to just talk to people about their socials.

Doug:

Are you doing this as consulting? Are you doing some social media strategy? I mean, are you just giving this for free and you're well?

Sarah:

I do have a friend who like scolded me because we were at a place in Ligonier and I did just sit there and talk to the owner for a while and showed her different things. And he's like, Why are you just doing this with people and not charging? And I said, Because if they need help down the line, like I'm and you could Google it all.

Doug:

It'll come back to you. Yeah.

Sarah:

But and you, I mean, yes, I am, I do have the information stored in my brain. It's like just things that I can easily share with people. It's I'm not I don't have like profound knowledge that you can't find, but some people don't know where to start.

Doug:

You have it collected. I'm just gonna say this, Sarah, for 2026. Think about your price and have a little side option for people if they want to hire you for an hour.

Sarah:

Yeah, I'm more than happy to do that. I mean, I do run a couple local business social media accounts. Okay. So I do some social media management, I've done content creation packages, branding packages, just because I am a photographer. I really this all just kind of goes hand in hand. So I do love it all. But I have been thinking about that more of how some people really do want to be directly involved in their socials, which I do understand. And it's if you can make the time for it, your best people to do your socials are in-house for some industries, in-house. Yeah. Because it's real-time content that you're able to have.

Doug:

Yeah. Especially for food, like you were saying earlier, like posting the specials, posting that hot, beautiful dish that just came out. Right. Yeah.

Sarah:

Sure, you can do content days. And I mean, there's ways to absolutely hire somebody and still work with somebody that work like runs your socials for you. But if you have people in-house or you have the capacity, but you just want some extra tools, I love to talk to people about that.

Doug:

Well, there you go.

Sarah:

Thanks for that plug.

Doug:

You're welcome. You know, you also, since you were talking about Unity Brewing, it also sparked another question and I wanted to circle back to. It's a brewery. Do you drink alcohol? I do not. I didn't think so. Because you and Angie Carducci of Angie Loves Pittsburgh did this whole series on the NA and mocktail movement. So Zero proof. Zero proof movement, right? So you can go to Unity.

Sarah:

You can go to Unity and they are making hop water.

Catherine:

Oh, wow.

Sarah:

So that's what that's how I ended up there. I have a friend that works there and she said, Can you come out? Can we host you? And we'd love to have you post about us. Cool. Yeah, fine. I mean, it's literally 10 minutes from my house. But they I was excited to put them on as part of the zero proof because I think that there are people that are not drinking that would maybe miss the brewery experience. Right. And they have options. They always have their own house-made hop water and they always carry one of those athletic beers. Yeah.

Doug:

Okay.

Sarah:

I'm trying to think of other words because I want to swear, but I'm not going to swear. Like mind. It messed with my mind to drink this athletic beer because I'm like, how is this not alcoholic? Beer. Yeah.

Doug:

It tasted good.

Sarah:

Correct.

Doug:

All right.

Sarah:

Yeah, but the hop water, honestly, I just could have just kept drinking. It was like the most delicious fizzy water. It was so tasty. It was refreshing. I mean, yes, and get the sweet potato flaunts.

Doug:

I will.

Sarah:

And call me. I'll meet you up. We'll meet up.

Doug:

Well, I love everything that you're doing. I love what you're doing for these small businesses, the zero-proof movement. Do you have any other goals or plans in the year ahead? Anything new you want to start doing?

Sarah:

I want to highlight more things that are Free. Oh. I feel like there are. I'm not going to assume anybody's financial situation, but I think that a lot of people are just really being mindful of their dollars. Not saying they're not spending their dollars, but I think more people are looking for low and no cost things.

Doug:

Especially if you have a couple kids. It can get really expensive. So what, like parks and day trips and libraries. Yeah.

Sarah:

A museum in Greensburg is free. Amazing. Right.

Doug:

And sometimes certain places are free on a particular day for kids or something.

Sarah:

And Allegheny County has a RAD pass. Yes.

Doug:

It's sort of what you said earlier. It's out there, it's on the web, but no one has maybe collected it in a nice way or promoted it altogether in a nice way. So I think that's a great idea.

Sarah:

I just want to make sure that there's something for everybody. I've done a couple of things that definitely are more higher cost, but I just I would like to be able to reach everybody. You know, taste is so subjective. You might love a place and I might think it's terrible. Right. And so I'm never going to highlight a place in a negative way. And I'm never going to falsely hype a place up either. I think it's pretty obvious in my captions if I really loved a place or if it's just like, hey, this is a place that exists. Because I just I don't have some false sense of who I am. I don't think that my account can make or break a business, but there's enough negativity in the world. I'd rather not participate in that.

Doug:

I'm with you.

Sarah:

And I've sat at a table with my whole extended family where I'm the only place that didn't, or the only person that didn't love a place we're at. So what does that tell you? My opinion is not gold. If everybody else at the table is thinking, oh, I really loved it here. And I would love to come back. And I'm like, it's not fair of me to say something because I've been in those situations. So I just do want to have something for everybody on the page. And I do want to highlight more of like the local people. It's hard to post a business and then say, oh, here's the owner. So I love that you're doing the podcast because you can then shine the light on, you know, the owners. I can't highlight every business owner, but I can highlight some of these really cool local people that are also doing stuff.

Doug:

Yeah. Thank you.

Sarah:

Well, thank you. I think all this stuff is just wonderful and important.

Doug:

Yeah. And I appreciate you joining us for our newest season and being a contributor for some other great restaurants here, right on the podcast.

Sarah:

I thank you for having me. This is fun. I love it.

Doug:

All right, Sarah. So we've been talking for a while about your page. Let's remind folks where they can find and follow you. Can you give us your socials, Facebook, all of that stuff?

Sarah:

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and now YouTube Shorts. Oh. Mm-hmm. Well, Sarah loves yins. Sarah with an H. I spell it the right way. Sorry. Anybody else? I'm just kidding. However, you want to spell your name is fine. It's your prerogative. But S-A-R-A-H loves Yinz.

Doug:

Okay, Sarah. I know you've gone out to a lot of places. I do have one sort of final customary question. The name of the show is The Pittsburgh Dish. What's the best dish you've had to eat this past week?

Sarah:

Does it matter that I made it?

Doug:

No.

Sarah:

Okay, awesome. That's great. Well, then now I'm really so I make bobalki.

Doug:

I don't know what this is. Oh, yeah.

Sarah:

Let's that's gonna be it then. Because my bolbaki this year was killer. Like it it was so on point. We make it for Christmas Eve. It's poor Polish food. It's bread balls with sauerkraut and honey. So you simmer the sauerkraut and honey for a super long time.

Doug:

Okay.

Sarah:

Low and slow, long time.

Doug:

Nice and sweet.

Sarah:

Mm-hmm.

Doug:

Wow.

Sarah:

You know, a good balance. Like not too much honey. Just I do not have measurements for you. I made this with my grandmother. I had measurements. The first year after my grandmother died, I sat on the ground and cried and was like, I'm not gonna be able to make it like she did. I know. Tried to follow this recipe. Now I just do it. Right. But you chop up the sauerkraut really, really fine, strain it. And I saw your stories where you used really good sauerkraut yesterday. That's what I tend to do. There's this kind that I get at the little local grocery that we have, Nature's Way. And they carry really high quality stuff, like organic non-GMO stuff, right? So they have this cooler section sauerkraut called Bubbies.

Doug:

Oh, I think I've seen Bubby's sauerkraut. I think I've seen it.

Sarah:

I love it.

Doug:

Oh.

Sarah:

And so I get that, chop it up really fine, put it on probably an unhealthy amount of butter, but butter. And just simmer the sauerkraut, honey, a little bit of salt. But the bread balls this year, I did not make my own bread dough. I usually do. But this year, we have a pizza joint inside of the shop and save in Greensburg called Slice House. It's funny. I've heard of Slice House.

Doug:

It's so good. So did you get your bread dough from Slice House? I did.

unknown:

I sure did. Yes.

Sarah:

Sounds like it was a winner. It was so good. Because they do a 72-hour ferment.

Doug:

Oh my gosh.

Sarah:

So I made my little bread balls with the pizza dough.

Doug:

So what do you do with the raw dough? Does it go in raw or do you make bread balls by baking them first? Yeah. How does that work? Yeah.

Sarah:

So you I took that dough from Slice House, rolled it into tiny little bread balls. You know, what is that size? Like a quarter?

Doug:

Like, yeah, like a smaller than a golf ball.

Sarah:

Yeah, for sure.

Doug:

Like a marble.

Sarah:

Yes. Yeah. Somewhere between a marble and a quarter. Okay. Or a bouncy ball. A bouncy ball. Yeah, I like that. Quarter machine bouncy ball. Roll them into these little balls, bake them for I think seven or eight minutes until they're done, right? You bake them.

Doug:

Little brown on the outside.

Sarah:

Then you dip them in boiling water for just a little bit.

Doug:

Okay.

Sarah:

And then you throw them in the sauerkraut.

Doug:

Wow. I've never had to say it again. What's the name of it?

Sarah:

Babaiki.

Doug:

Bobalki. And you said it was poor Polish food, which is the best food ever. I know. Yeah.

Sarah:

Yeah. Our Christmas Eve very much looks like a cardboard box. Like nothing has color. You know what I mean? Bobalki, halushki, pierogis, like, well, and you have to roll porohi. Yeah.

Doug:

But we're recording just after the new year. So that's why all this food is still on the mic. Correct. Yeah.

Sarah:

But yeah, that is. That is. And every year when we make this spread, we're always like, why do we only make this Christmas Eve?

Doug:

Right. We say the same thing. Yeah. It's a tradition, though. It has to be.

Sarah:

But the Babaike this year was on point. For sure.

Doug:

Oh, that sounds delicious. Sarah of Sarah Loves Yinz. Thanks so much for everything you're doing. And thanks for being on The Pittsburgh Dish.

Sarah:

Thank you.

Doug:

Up next, Catherine Montest takes us out on the town for a great wine experience. Hey everybody, we're joined today with Catherine Montest, our resident wine expert. Catherine, I was thinking, you know, often you come on and you're giving us the recommendation of what to be drinking. It's more rare that you ever give us a recommendation of a place to go. So I was just wondering, have you visited any good spots lately?

Catherine:

Oh, not a good spot, Doug. A great spot. Oh. Yeah. In Bloomfield on Liberty Avenue. Okay. Um, right on the corner is Spill. Spill. And they are a wine bar. I am not familiar with Spill. Well, you tend to gravitate more toward the food menu. That's true. And they do not offer food.

Doug:

Okay.

Catherine:

It is a bring your own food restaurant. I like this. Or bar, I guess I should say. Yeah. So you bring your own food, and uh it is just the most unique uh wine experience that you're gonna have in Pittsburgh.

Doug:

Really?

Catherine:

Oh my gosh. You don't have to know anything about wine or even what you like in the way of wine because the owners and the staff are going to take you on a wonderful, very relaxed, very comfortable little journey. And that journey is going to take you to Italy, okay, where they have been numerous times and have built relationships with some small growers who are doing some beautiful, beautiful wines. And they are the exclusive importer to the United States, particularly on the East Coast, for most of the wines that they carry. Oh, how interesting. Yes. And so you go in and say, I'd like a glass of wine. They're probably going to ask you a couple of questions. Okay. They are absolutely going to pour you samples to taste because they don't want you to have a glass, a bottle, or a case of wine that doesn't appeal to you. And we all have kind of different things that appeal to us. So they will take as much time as you need to nurture you through selecting a glass of wine.

Doug:

Samples are never a bad thing.

Catherine:

Never a bad thing. When my husband and I went there, they asked what kind of wines we like, and we're like, oh, big reds, you know, Bordeaux, Chateau Neuf de Pap, those kinds of wines. And they're like, okay, we got you. I put a few glasses up, picked up several bottles, and poured us some some samples to try. We both really leaned into Barolo.

Doug:

Okay.

Catherine:

And we each got us a different, different one to drink because there were some things about one Barolo that I liked, and he liked a different one. It was a wonderful experience.

Doug:

And what you're saying is you really can uh across the board many, many wines by the glass. Absolutely. Every wine in the house. Every one in the house. But at the end of the night, could you pick up a bottle to take home or a case? Yes, to both of those.

Catherine:

Oh. Yeah. All right. And in fact, that night we might have been a little indulgent, and we both opened a bottle there and went and got some food down the street and brought it back and really just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves there. It is a very welcoming space. Their whole mission is for you to enjoy some wine.

Doug:

I love this. And you know, at Bloomfield is such a great neighborhood to be able to get food to then take in and have a great wine experience.

Catherine:

Right. Well, I mean, if you're into Asian food, there's Asian food. If you're into pizza, there's one right next door. Um, just everything everything Tesarro's is right down the street, for goodness sake. All of those things.

Doug:

And so we're talking about spill the wine bar. Correct. This is at 4800 Liberty Avenue. Ah, very good. Catherine, thanks so much for giving us a different kind of recommendation, a place to go.

Catherine:

I had such a good time there, and I think everyone will.

Doug:

It sounds like you'll be going back.

Catherine:

Again and again and again.

Doug:

Ah. Well, thanks again, Catherine.

Catherine:

Thank you for having me, Doug.

Doug:

You can follow Catherine on Instagram at your fairywineother. That's U-R fairywinemother. If cold and snowy days have you wanting warm and easy recipes from home, we've got two favorites from Diane and Matt Perella of Two Ugly Mugs. Hey everybody, we're joined today with Diane and Matt Perella of Two Ugly Mugs Salsa. Folks, when you guys were here last, we talked all about the incredible growth, the story of your salsa business. We also talked a lot about food. And towards the end, you were saying how so many folks come up and tell you how they use salsa in a recipe. It had me wondering: do you all have a favorite recipe that you use your salsa in at home?

Diane:

Uh actually, yes, one of them is you take a boneless pork tenderloin. Yes, put it in a slow cooker on a bed of onions, pour an entire jar of salsa over the pork tenderloin, let it go, cook it as you normally would. And then when it's done, take the fork and shred it.

Doug:

Oh my.

Diane:

Make a side of rice and then put the juice on the rice and serve it with the pork.

Doug:

That sounds so delicious. And so easy. It's so easy. So easy.

Speaker 3:

Three ingredients. Set it and forget it.

Doug:

And what do you call it? Like slow cooked pulled pork? Yes.

Speaker 3:

Okay. Right. Matt, is this a favorite of yours? Oh, I mean, I love that one also. I mean, aside from typical tacos or chips and dip, um, another one is shashuka with the salsa mixed in. Oh, yes. Yeah.

Doug:

Shakshuka is uh where you're cooking eggs in like a simmering tomato. Tomato, onion.

Speaker 3:

So you're doing this with the salsa too. Yeah, just salsa first and then simmer the eggs in it and like over bread and a yeah. Great on toast. Yes. Absolutely. And that's like a cool brunchy dish.

Doug:

It makes you look like highfalutin. Right. Right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, right. Add some shredded cheese. Oh. Take it up a nut.

Doug:

Absolutely. Well, these sound delicious. And again, folks can find your salsa. What's the website, Matt?

Speaker 3:

Uh, we are at twougglymugs.com, all spelled out TWO. All right. Thank you guys so much for these recipes. All right. And thanks for being on the Pittsburgh Dish. Oh, thank you so much. Glad to be back. Absolutely.

Doug:

Do you have a recipe? Share it with us. Just head to our website at Pittsburghdish.com and look for our share a recipe form. 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.

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Douglas Heilman

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