Please. Pierogies Plus is your answer. And, if you get them at the Squirrel Hill Market, you can choose from two stellar kielbasas from Thoma Meats and Bardines Smokehouse.

There are a few independent stores that deserve recognition here: Northside: Tom Fridays Market; East Side: Squirrel Hill Market; Bloomfield: Line Verde Green Market; West Hills: Sil’s; South Hills: Ruthfred Market.

Then you have Kuhn’s (not a Bodega, but independent); and then smaller places like Mayfly Market (Arch St), Dylmato’s (Hazelwood), Heisler’s McMurray (though the family owns several Foodlands around town), Community Grocery, IGA including Ferri’s, and then there are numerous ethnic grocers like Pitaland, Labriola’s, Little Tokyo, Panda, Lotus, New Young’s Oriental, Salem’s, Patel Brothers, Kiev Market and Nataliya’s European Grocery.

There are numerous other Middle Eastern and Asian grocers, and other neighborhood stores scattered about underserved neighborhoods like The Hill District, Lincoln Larimer, Wilkinsburg, McKees Rocks and more, but many just have snack type foods which are grab and go for those buying cigarettes and playing the lottery.

GE has sadly done a good job shutting down local grocers from both a geographic and inventory perspective, but they’ve also prevented welcome competition like Wegmans and Kroger from moving in.

Luckily, places like the Squirrel Hill Market (from imported butters, local cheeses, to local and regional PA brands including Middleswarth and PSU ice cream), Tom Fridays (last full service butcher/corner grocery in the city), and Linea Verde (only rue green grocer in town) have sufficiently different products (in addition to staples) than GE, Foodland, Shop n Save, et al, and worthwhile seeking out if you want that Bodega-like experience.

Everyone should know that newly elected Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Tiffany Sizemore DISMISSED ALL THE CHARGES against the Alderice students (with lengthy juvenile records) who assaulted and hospitalized an on duty, uniformed city police offer and three others at the Starbucks.

These kids continue their actions because there ARE NO repercussions or penalties.

Now ask yourselves why our police can’t do their jobs. In fact, ask them, though many won’t risk losing their 20 year pension by outing Downtown mandates.

Then look at the people who’ve been elected and their agendas.

Yep, this behavior starts at home, but when parents are children of that system too, they are part of the problem.

Regardless, no punishment makes for the free for all this has become.

Squirrel Hill South is rapidly becoming the Wild West and no sherif in town can run out the bad guys. Er, Alderdice students.

Underrated comment right here.

You know…Representative Dan Frankel has his office in the very building both the karate studio where the owner was accosted/window broken and where the Starbucks is in whose bathroom the underage girl was gang raped/in front of which where all the mayhem takes place.

I wonder what he thinks about all this?

Since he hasn’t weighed in, perhaps we should find out?

(412)422-1774.

Maybe he can impress upon someone to take action.

Young’s Oriental Market. There is a felony case pending.

To be fair, those people wouldn’t know what an invite was, let alone send one out—mainly because they’re skipping school en masse and smoking their way through life and destroying Squirrel Hill South.

But this person does, and welcomes you to come on down from behind your keyboard and experience firsthand what those people are doing.

If you didn’t mean it that way, why would you quote him and then say it was “tone deaf?” His…annunciation??

What else could you possibly be insinuating?

I don’t hold it against you—I was just making the observation that it was, indeed, those people, and calling someone out for a grammatical choice rather than coming out against the behaviors he described is simply ridiculous.

But there is a rule that says they can’t be disorderly. Or assault anyone. Or damage property. Or—wait for it—RAPE someone.

And yep, it was those people—unless there’s another group of duplicitous Alderdice students who regularly invite mayhem while waiting for the bus at Starbucks.

But you’re right—it’s nothing like 80-era Compton.

It’s more like being on its way to 60s Watts.

Yep, take out only thanks to the actions of the those people and Starbucks corporate worried about even more backlash in Pittsburgh what with the ongoing unionization efforts.

To my knowledge, one barista stood up to those people and was reprimanded by corporate, while the rest of the staff took down “one student at a time” signs posted by police on detail, and continued to allow them in despite admonition by said police, and, thus, perpetuating the situation.

Regardless, it is incredibly sad that the actions of those people have, and continue to, make a once peaceful area virtually impassable during certain afternoon hours, make pedestrians cower and avoid businesses because of their actions.

The worst part is that no one is willing to do anything—except for question the vernacular used when referring to the perpetrators, rather than actually punishing them—or at least attempting real solutions to the problem.

“Those” is a demonstrative pronoun. The fact that so-called pc attitudes and cancel culture have made its use of merely specifically pointing something out is ridiculous.

In this case, it isn’t people at large, it’s those people who leave Alderdice and hangout at Starbucks while waiting for the bus who are creating the problem.

You know, those people who shoplift at all the stores in that area and beat up an elderly female shop owner who tried to protect her business.

Those people who assaulted a uniformed city police officer in Starbucks and sent him to the hospital.

Those people who are underage and openly smoke marijuana on Murray Avenue (and in buildings on Murray they break into).

Those people whose daily, riotous behavior scares the elderly residents off the streets, and makes egress into the pediatric orthodontist and the physically therapy facilities within the Starbucks building dangerous.

Those people who leave their garbage strewn about the sidewalks, overturn trash cans and shatter plate glass windows.

Those people who gang raped a 15 year old special needs girl in the bathroom inside Starbucks and at an adjacent vacant Murray Avenue property they broke in to.

Those people who ditched loaded handguns in the surrounding Squirrel Hill neighborhood outside of Alderdice.

Stop getting caught up in this fashionable inclusion rhetoric when “Senei George” is merely pointing out those people responsible for the myriad problems on the block.

In fact, your terminology could be equally construed as a similarly racist comment, except for George is an actual sensei, much like those people are actually directly responsible for the issues (and more) enumerated above.

But hey, why don’t you come down to Murray and Forward around 2-2:30 and see for yourself?

Wrong. Starbucks baristas embrace the Alderdice students and push back against the police that show for the e almost daily calls for fights and unruly behavior.

The police that are already at Starbucks and ignored by these kids or on paid, private detail and have been hired by Starbucks after an UNDERAGED GIRL WAS GANG RAPED IN THEIR BATHROOM. Though they still supposedly must carry out their official police duties, Starbucks has given them a mandate not to mess with the kids. They are, sadly, $90 an hour façades.

Yep, the bus stop should be moved up to the school, but Starbucks’ employees especially condoning—or at the least, facilitating—their behavior is also to blame.

The kind you get at Chantal’s Cheese Shop.

Forget Moonlit. It’s only good because Pittsburgh proper has no similar alternatives.

You want a real smash burger? Then you’ll have to broaden your horizons and expand your search.

Go to Freddy’s Frozen Custard. The closest one is technically in Dover, Ohio, but it’s faster to drive to the Akron location. Great stuff. Stellar fries if you ask for seasoning. Pro tip: their hot dogs are from Vienna Beef.

And, if you do go to Ohio, you can, indeed, hit a Culver’s, but other than their cheese curds and krinkle kut fries, they are inferior to Freddy’s, though still a step above Moonlit.

If it were the Spring, the real answer is Greensburg’s own Tastyland, whose burgers not only fully eclipse Moonlit, but Freddy’s, Culver’s, and crossover to blow cheffy, pub, and other local offerings right off the grill. Pro tip: bacon double with onions, ketchup on the side, with a bag of carnival-like fries and a Dole Whip for dessert.

Can’t wait and don’t wanna drive? Go get a cast iron skillet, commercial flipper, Martin’s Potato Buns, Cooper American, and the best damn ground Chuck you’ve ever had from Bardine’s Country Smokehouse and learn how to make your own.

You can thank me later.

Traditional New Years Eve Santerian animal sacrifice to Oricha Elegua.

They do take EBT/SNAP and no, not all grocery stores do.

Hot foods, prepared foods that can be eaten on premises, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, pet food, paper products, household supplies, toiletries and medicines are generally not eligible for EBT/SNAP, so I’m not sure what Murray Avenue Kosher is doing, if they are actually selling deli foods for immediate consumption.

The Squirrel Hill Market on Murray Avenue takes EBT/SNAP, but they only have packaged foods, nothing ready to eat. That said, they have everything from local and regional favorites to imported and gourmet specialties, so you can explore some new and different foods there, too.

Nope, 25 and clear that morning; partly cloudy later in the day. Light snow didn’t start til later in the week—Sunday.

Source: accuweather, weatherspark, timeanddate, etc.

Begs the question why was there a delay in the first place…

Well, one reason is because schools were delayed 2 hours that morning, despite no inclement weather.

You’re very welcome. I’m glad I could help a fellow burger lover!

Try Burger Hut.

And if you’re willing to drive, Tastyland off Route 66 in Westmoreland County not only fits this bill, but eclipses all others in my post for overall best burger, McDonalds hack notwithstanding as you can do it anywhere. I only excluded it because of distance (and because I’m a selfish f@ck that doesn’t want to give up his best burger secret lest everyone converge and make the lines untenable at this otherwise quiet, bucolic place).

Go-to Tastyland order: double cheeseburger, onions, bacon; add ketchup to taste. Do not overlook the perfectly cooked crinkle cut fries which taste like an amusement park in your mouth and are the perfect fodder between burger bites. Oh, and get a Dole Whip for dessert.

Morton’s steakhouse. The best burgers overlooked because of stellar steaks and perceived high prices. Made with prime aged trimmings and freshly ground by their in-house butcher with a proprietary blend of ingredients and then seared in a salamander just like their porterhouse et al, it is the pinnacle of burgerdom IMO. And yep, you can easily get it to go and curbsided to you. Ask me how I know. Pro tip: don’t forget the French onion soup.

Tessaro’s is always a top answer, despite its managerial flaws and percolating attitude that has ruined it’s once OG bar vibes, but has slipped since its expansion (and COVID)

But: either Burger Hut in Butler are convenient and surprising underdogs.

Applewood Smoke Burger Company, too, but odd hours. Get the onion rings if you go.

Lastly, the Costco pizza of burgers, is McDonalds, especially during the holiday season and their Gold Card McD’s for life sweepstakes.

Lots of people are too swamped to post for burger reccos here on Reddit, let alone go out of their way to search out a particular burger place in the holiday hustle and bustle, but we’re always in the relative proximity of the Golden Arches. This means lots of people are patronizing them, which, in turn, means high turnover and fresher food that hasn’t had the luxury of gracing their holding drawers too long, if at all.

The key is a special grill order (i.e. add pickles, no pickles, extra cheese, heavy onion) on top of that high turnover, which guarantees you a freshly made burger every time. Make it a Quarter Pounder that uses fresh, never frozen beef—preferably a double, no pickles, with bacon if you’re feeling porky—and you’ve got yourself a burger that, believe it or not, meets, and in most cases, exceeds, any cheffy local recco, but at a third the price and time, available with the best fries* on Earth all day after 10:30 (11 on weekends). The triple cheeseburger (no pickles, extra cheese, ketchup, and onions) is also a stellar choice.

Pro tip: use their app for even quicker, more convenient service, gain valuable points and unlock hidden rewards unavailable to mere drive thru denizens, and bonus, you could win McDonald’s for life as every order automatically enters you in that promotion until 11:59PM on 12/26/22.

*you can also special order fries for the freshest, hottest golden sticks of joy you’ve ever had. No salt or extra salt unlocks this deep fried culinary magic.

And hey you Burger Snobitors: don’t downvote me til you try it.

The Squirrel Hill Market has all flavors and sizes of both Gibbles AND Middleswarth chips, as well as Hartley’s (our fave), Zerbe’s, Martin’s, a St. Louis brand called Billy Goat that are killer, and a bunch more we haven’t tried. They actually go to the various factories (plants??) to get ‘em, just like the PSU ice cream. Didn’t know box stores are bringing ‘em in, but we’d rather supports a neighborhood small business. Oh, and they deliver.

Mancini’s in the Rocks.

Came here to say the Squirrel Hill Market. Isigny Ste. Mere roll butter, Rodolphe Le Munier, Plugra, Presidente, a brand from England I can’t recall, and some damn fine Beaver Meadows courtesy of Marburger Dairy.