We’ve been fortunate enough to call several Pittsburgh neighborhoods home over the years including Squirrel Hill, Mount Washington, and the North Side. The latter is where we are now based—specifically within the neighborhood of Central North Side.
So for this edition of Where Ya At?, we thought we’d take you through to some of our favorite places in our neighborhood!
To start, we always have to share a view from our house. It isn’t the traditional view from Mount Washington, but it is hard to beat seeing our neighborhood and the city from the North Side.
Photo Credit: https://www.aroundtheworldl.com/
We’ll start our tour at Pittsburgh’s most colorful spot—Randyland. This space is the work of Randy Gilson, an artisan who built Randyland starting in the mid-1990s. Since then, he has painted, repainted, and filled the inner courtyard with an array of colorful knickknacks that change just about every time you visit.
After you leave Randyland, we highly recommend you walk along Sampsonia Way behind the Mattress Factory (a gem of a contemporary art museum worth a stop if you have a few hours). Here you’ll find the artist houses from the City of Asylum. The organization helps exiled international writers have a base to work in peace, and now many of the homes feature exterior paintings reflective of the work.
From there, one of the best things you can do in the neighborhood is simply get lost. The reason for this is that the architecture of the Mexican War Streets is stunning and a feast for the eyes. So slowly work your way through the streets heading south to North Avenue.
Beyond art, Central North Side is home to a number of places to grab a bite to eat, like Badamo’s Pizza or Carmi’s Express on Federal Street, as well as an outpost for one of our favorite coffee chains in the city- Commonplace Coffee on Buena Vista. Or, if you’re looking for another kind of snack, Mayfly Market on Arch Street always has some great treats as well.
While you could spend a fair bit of time wandering through the Mexican War Streets and Central North Side, we’d actually encourage you to continue your visit by crossing North Avenue to the neighborhood of Allegheny Center.
Here you can find even more gems like West Park (pictured), the Aviary, the Children’s Museum, Federal Galley, and a whole lot more as well to continue on your day!
Jeremy and Angie run the local Pittsburgh blog, Discover the Burgh, which has the quest to do everything in Pittsburgh and southwest Pennsylvania. Since founding the site in 2015 they have personally checked out over 1,000 unique experiences, attractions, restaurants, breweries, and more and visit new spots weekly. They can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
