What could be more Maniac, than touring Pittsburgh’s hot craft cocktail bars with none other than The Modern Mixologist, Tony Abou-Ganim? Maniac was privileged to join Tony, hosted by the staff of Steelite International, to tour Pittsburgh’s cocktail scene.
The bar crawl started at Meat and Potatoes, where the crew loaded up on fried pickles, Brussels and taters, along with the 34oz ribeye, steak fries and bone marrow. After giving ourselves a hearty foundation for the evening of cocktails ahead, the crew headed to Soba. Once there, Tony took the chance to get behind the bar and teach all of us how to make a proper Negorni using his premium, custom designed Modern Mixologist™ bar utensils. From there we all headed to Harvard & Highland for some late night fried chicken, bbq pork shoulder and cocktails to complement the comfort food. Finally, the evening was literally capped off at Bar Marco, where Tony and the crew was given a rooftop view of Pittsburgh while sipping Cynar. A truly Maniac evening indeed.
Tony was in Pittsburgh this week to do a photo shoot with Steelite International for his new bar utensils. Tony commented that the mark of a good bartender is that they “make your day better than it was when you got there. Bartending is about hospitality.” Without a doubt, Pittsburgh’s bars showed much hospitality on this evening, and all walked away much better than they were when they got there.
Noteworthy Cocktails
Meat and Potatoes
blood and sand – Dewar’s scotch / cherry herring / sweet vermouth / orange
pimm’s blue ribbon – pimm’s #1 / st. germain / lemon / pbr 9
Soba
soba sazerac -rye whiskey, grande absente, peychaud’s bitters, orange-mint syrup
bee keeper – plymouth gin, barenjager, ginger-honey syrup, lemon, st-germain
Harvard and Highland
chick townsend – wild turkey rye, oloroso, honey, tarragon-apricot shrub
a cure for sleepiness – Don Q. rum, dry curacao, absinthe
Bar Marco
the red wedding – gin / cynar / aperol
gin basil smash – plymouth gin / st. germain / basil / lemon
