During the pandemic, bar owners pivoted to offer to-go cocktails and establish mocktail menus for sober-curious customers, ushering in a new wave of hotspots.
Mister Paradise s Party Lobster / Photo courtesy Mister Paradise
Orlando McCray is a White Claw man. “Truly is trash,” says the head bartender at Nightmoves, a sister bar to natural wine destination The Four Horsemen in Brooklyn, New York. “There are faux artisanal brands I have given a chance, but they’re not good.”
In 2020, “when things got real dark,” says McCray, the appeal of easy-drinking, no-thinking hard seltzers was even stronger for him and his hospitality comrades-in-arms.
“What’s funny is that I turned our wine director, Justin Chearno, onto hard seltzer as well, and as soon as I turned a natural wine person, I knew I was onto something,” he says.
Brian McCollum, event director of Pittsburgh Restaurant Week, said nearly 40 restaurants are part of the 20th biannual event.
Participating restaurants are not limited to within city limits. There are options in Monroeville, Glenshaw, Seven Fields and other areas.
“I think diners should be able to find a restaurant close to them,” he said.
At Square Café in East Liberty, there is a socially distanced dine-in option, takeout, curbside pickup or delivery.
“They asked us if we wanted to participate and we jumped on it,” said Square Café owner Sherree Goldstein. “Right now, we just want to be active and in the community.” In October, the cafe moved from Edgewood to the larger location in East Liberty.
How You Can Help Pittsburgh Restaurants
Seven ways to help Pittsburgh’s restaurants and people who work in them make it through the winter.
December 16, 2020
PHOTOS BY HAL B. KLEIN
Gov. Tom Wolf’s Dec. 10 order to prohibit indoor dining in restaurants until Jan. 4 was the right call. Although restaurants aren’t typically the nexus of super-spreader events, and most operators are trying to do their best to keep spaces as safe as possible, serious studies in the United States and South Korea have placed dining inside restaurants as one of the primary vectors for person-to-person spreading of coronavirus.
That’s because the virus spreads through respiratory inhalation, and indoor spaces typically don’t have an adequate airflow exchange to mitigate a build-up of viral load. Eating and drinking are by nature maskless activities and most people use restaurants as social spaces in which they want to linger. This is why, unlike a 15-minute masked visit to a grocery store, the