Our Food Editor’s Favorite Stories of 2025

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

I toasted the new year with a beer in Bellevue, a borough that, until 2015, was dry for eight decades.

Lincoln Avenue Brewery has become a community hub thanks to the tasty food and beverages. They’re now open for lunch Tuesday through Sunday. (I recommend the Almost Famous Pickle Dip.) In 2026, the inspiring Saylor family will open their new production facility, a former post office on nearby North Sprague Avenue, so they can churn out even more beer and good vibes.

PHOTO BY LISA RAY

On Feb. 1, I joined Pittsburgh TubClub at Allegheny City Brewing on the North Side. I spent more than five minutes in an ice bath. I highly recommend it if you’re a fellow 40-something woman who gets frequent hot flashes.

In March, Sir Pizza in Ross celebrated 50 years of serving party-cut pies in Western Pennsylvania. I’ve been dining there since I was able to eat solid foods, so I feel like part of the family.

By day, Gene Ney is a business professor at Carlow University. At night, he changes out of his suit and tie and into a T-shirt and jeans to sling drinks at his namesake bar in Oakland, which marked 20 years in 2025. He’s basically the Mister Rogers of Beer.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SILVER PERK COFFEE CO.

I’m a big coffee drinker, so, of course, I’m a fan of Silver Perk Coffee, a 12-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide moka pot that Sue and Art Cohen tow around town with their Ford F-150.

Bigfoot is also an obsession of mine, so Monroeville’s Squatch Brewing is the stuff of legend in my eyes.

During the Lenten season, I joined Eat’n Park veterans John Frick and Joe Hull in the company’s Homestead test kitchen to learn how to make one of the restaurant chain’s iconic Whale of a Cod fish sandwiches. For a lifelong Pittsburgher, it was a religious experience.

Don’t look for Chantal’s Cheese Shop on social media; the Bloomfield business ditched the daily content-creating grind to focus on selling some of the finest fromage in town.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

If cheesecake is more your speed, Millvale’s Kyle’s Cakes N’at will put your appetite into overdrive. Kyle Rozycki makes the best Golden Girls-inspired desserts I’ve ever had. Thank you for being a friend, sir!

I would undoubtedly win a cheesecake-eating competition and Andrew Lazarchik, owner of Wildcat Championship Belts in Latrobe, would undoubtedly make my wearable award. He also makes belts for Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, the Qdoba World Burrito Eating Championship, Toronto Wingfest and the Picklesburgh Pickle Juice Drinking Contest.

Lazarchik’s dad owned Strickler’s Drug Store, birthplace of the banana split, so, of course, he makes mementos for the town’s Great American Banana Split Celebration, too.

Since sweets will be the death of me, it’s nice to know that tombstone designer Dolores “Dee” Carioto is nearby. She’s been making her mark (in stone) since 1949.

Another local institution, Gus and Yia Yia’s, the bright, orange ice ball cart that’s been helping Pittsburghers beat the summer swelter since 1934, had an honorary street named after it.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SHUBREW

Speaking of high temperatures, I spent the Fourth of July dressed as a chili dog in Zelienople’s Independence Day parade. You are what you eat.

I spent an August morning helping a bunch of babushka-wearing women make 400 dozen pierogies in a church basement.

My most moo-ving interview of 2025 was with the owners of Brunton Dairy, whose business was destroyed by a 2023 fire. The family (and their beloved cows) are back producing milk, cream, cheese curds and other products in Independence.

Another Pittsburgh institution that’s experienced more than 155 years of ups and downs, is The Original Oyster House in Market Square, the best place to soak up yinzer culture and Iron City Beer.

I ended the spooky season by attending a pet costume party at The Dog Penn, a bar/dog park that opened in the Strip District in 2024. My bacon costume was a big hit with the four-legged participants. This is my favorite photo from that event. Or, possibly, ever.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

I’m a creature of habit when it comes to salty snacks, so it’s rare that a new munchie enters my longtime lineup of go-to favorites. Northsiders Aric Christensen and Molly Krichten introduced me to their whole fried peanuts you eat shell and all, knocking my perpetual bag of Doritos off its pedestal.

When the Christmas season rolled around, California transplant Nikk Alcaraz became the Santa Claus of Brownsville in Fayette County.

For a journalist who loves to write about the amazing people and places of Pittsburgh, 2025 has been a gift. I’m looking forward to a new year of adventures.