| rev:text
| - I've been here twice now with the full intent of going back for more, once for a Yelp event on their second official day of operation, and for their NYE's party. Both parties were good. The concept is unique and fantastic, a great way to expose new chefs to the area [more visa a versa] or tide your 18 months while you prep to have you own larger space.
I love the exposed brick and long communal tables that are on both ends of the space. There are two main entrances and an additional set of doors by the bar area, which i assume to open up when it starts to get warm again later this year. There are a few tables that are tucked away in the corner that are a little hard to get to, but it's new and they may still play with the set-up. My favorite part is that they have a few seats that dangle from the bar area into the long connector pass where you can look over the different incubator spaces.
A really neat features that I like of the different spaces, other than the exciting menu concepts, is that they text you the wait time and when your food is ready. This way, you have some opportunity to either grab a table to get a drink at the bar and be efficient with your time.
The bar itself is sleek and neat, primarily stocked with different local and countrywide microbrews. They definitely have a lot Pittsburgh name brands which is exciting.
A few things are a little bit frustrating but they do the best they can. In our case we were dealing with full houses, so this will probably not always be the case on a normal night, but people are pushed around trying to get back and forth between standing in line for beer, to getting your food, to getting to your table and getting to the restrooms. It can get a little cramped and there is a curb and a ramp, so watch your step.
Also, there is no way to check into the individual incubator spaces to give individual feedback and I feel awkward giving it here to reflect the space itself. However, I will.
I have tried two of the current restaurants, Carota Cafe and Provision Pgh. A quick highlight of both:
At Carota I have tried the Carrot soup which was delicious and I practically drank it rather than spooning. I enjoyed the texture, which was very good and creamy [without cream of course]. The Octopus was amazing, I am impressed at her ability to sear it so well give such a small space, paired very well with the collard chimichurri.
We also tried the horseradish gnocchi with black pepper ricotta and hen of the wood. [I love mushroom] However, The gnocchi were too sweet and unimpressive and holy crap on the horseradish pepper ricotta. It sneaks up on you, but your mouth then is burning, and not in a good way. I was perplexed, because the other dish was so good! I suspect it was made in advance to easily smear when needed, and the pepper intensified by the time 8 o'clock rolled around.
At Provision I had a hit and miss experience. The Burger is OUT OF THIS WORLD, delicious. We ordered it medium but it definitely came out medium rare. I personally like it medium rare but my friend got it. Neither of us were disappointed. The Umami Aioli is fantastic and the greens give it a good bite where it mingles with the smoked mushroom. [Jesus, I love mushrooms]. Also the burger is topped with sesame seed which is a nice twist and delicious. The fries are fantastic, but only the side of fries. They are perfectly crispy and the aioli you get to dip it in is awesome [it's a peanutty aioli]. Delish!
Now, going downhill, the Bahn Mi, while delicious on it's self has too much bread overshadowing it. I eventually made it open faced on my own and enjoyed it more. The side of greens was a flop for me. While delicious on the burger, it's has a pungent, bitter taste to the salad dressing and the raw potato slices in it make it even more so. No Bueno. The smothered fries were a mixed bag. Starting with those awesome fries from before, the lentils are good but there are way too many of them, the goat cheese again is excellent, but the squash at the bottom was practically chilly. So when you went from top to bottom it went from hot to cold and ruined the dish, mushing up the texture of the fries and making us leave it mostly standing. A shame.
As said before I will definitely be back for the other two and to try some more dishes from the first two. I'm so happy this space exist in the city.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)