Dig in With Graver: Want to Support Local Businesses? Be a Tourist

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

The 2026 NFL Draft was unnecessarily rough on Strip District businesses.

Just ask Alissa and Travis May, owners of The Dog Penn. The couple believed the hype surrounding the event and anticipated an influx of tourists to their Penn Avenue dog park and bar. But the weekend was more of a whimper than a howl.

“There was really nothing we could do,” Alissa says. “We had some events planned, but were asked to move them because no one wanted to mess with Draft weekend.”

Visiting football fans, even rabid members of the Cleveland Browns Dawg Pound, bypassed adorable pups to stay within the 4 million-square-foot event campus on the North Shore and Point State Park. Meanwhile, locals, intimidated by large crowds, road closures and anthropomorphic Pop-Tarts, remained at home.

Michael Schmidt, co-owner of The Eastman on the North Side, says it was an interesting weekend with strange ebbs and flows. That ended up being a good thing for the fledgling operation, as they were able to go through a stress test of sorts.

2025 PUPPY BOWL AT THE DOG PENN / PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

The Dog Penn — which hosts a Puppy Bowl every Super Bowl Sunday — finally saw wagging tails again after messaging members about ample free parking in the Strip. Like hosting the NFL Draft, finding ample free parking in the Strip is a once-in-a-generation event.

Spaces were surprisingly plentiful everywhere, so I spent the weekend exploring. Playing a tourist in Pittsburgh is one of my favorite pastimes. On my walk from the North Side to the new-and-improved Market Square, I watched the Gateway Clipper Fleet’s Three Rivers Queen pass under the Rachel Carson Bridge against the backdrop of the Steel City skyline.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

“What a beautiful sight,” I thought, as a tear ran down my cheek and Zambelli fireworks went off in my head.

I suggest you give hometown tourism a whirl this weekend — either by going off the beaten path or participating in the Pittsburgh Marathon. It’ll boost local businesses that weren’t Draft picks and make you fall in love with the city all over again. Even with traffic!

Consider it a “second draft.”

On Sunday, my journey started at Coven Brewing, a charming taproom in Lawrenceville with beer names that sound like Slayer song titles.

COVEN BREWING / PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

I sipped a Graveseeker while gazing out the window at Allegheny Cemetery. (Every yinzer bucket list should include a visit to this 300-acre burial ground. It even appears in the Mister Rogers’ biopic “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”)

I finished my beer and made a lap around the cemetery, making sure to pay my respects at the “Jaws” tombstone and the Graver Family Plot. That’s when I noticed a line snaking down Butler Street in front of Solera Wine Co.

After spending so much time in the NFL Draft footprint, it didn’t seem odd to see big crowds waiting to drink booze before noon. Turns out these folks were thirsty for wine and matcha, a finely milled green tea powder. One Sunday a month from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Solera offers matcha-themed cocktails and lattes.

Although I’m a matcha fan (Lolev Beer turned me onto the tea with their matcha lager), I opted for a different kind of green that day: a pistachio sea salt brownie from Evanly Bakes. The bakery is based in New Kensington, a Westmoreland County town that kicked off its popular Fridays on Fifth food truck festival during the Draft.

Evanly Bakes was a vendor at New Amsterdam’s Attack the Block event. The Butler Street bar’s monthly party features a sidewalk sale, a pop-up flash tattoo studio and DJs spinning tunes on the rooftop patio. Bring a receipt from any participating business on the block and you’ll get 10 percent off your meal from Cold Friends Kitchen.

COLD FRIENDS KITCHEN / PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

In addition to a food truck that’s headquartered at Velum Fermentation on the South Side, Cold Friends Kitchen slings hot eats out of New Amsterdam. Chef and co-owner Gabriel Knecht ordered an overabundance of fresh chicken wings, but Draft crowds didn’t show up to chow down.

I did my part by ordering a dozen.

Once they were reduced to a pile of bones, I headed outside to Hammajack Heat Co.’s vendor table, where co-owner Lisa Ray was busy pouring samples of pepper sauce. She says she didn’t generate many sales during the Draft either. Crowds were sparse at Nova Place, even though the event was only a few miles from the football epicenter and included a performance by The Clarks. Giant Eagle should’ve offered transportation to and from Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods in their Giant Buggy!

Consuming a bottle of Hammajack’s Luau Jalapeno Pineapple hot pepper sauce is about as close as I’m going to get to a Hawaiian vacation. One of the ingredients in the new flavor includes kombucha made by Velum.

Opened in 2023 in the former Duquesne Brewing bottling facility, the craft brewery under the Iron City Beer clock is blossoming into a popular event venue. You could probably fit a football field inside of it!

Starting May 10, Velum will host South Side Market every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Sept. 27, rain or shine. It will also be the site of Pittsburgh’s Rivers of Fire hot sauce festival Oct. 9-10.

To spice your day up even more, take a walk down East Carson Street.

While I usually end up at Ruggers Pub or Carson Street Deli, there are plenty of new places to visit, including Bedford House, Capozoli’s Trattoria Ristorante, A Slice of New York Squared and Burghers Brewing.

Teocalli, a Mexican restaurant and bar, is the perfect spot for big-as-your-head Margaritas and a metric ton of tortilla chips. It has an upscale cantina decor with big open windows and a rooftop patio. I’d take a nice breeze over the Draft any day.

If you visited the space when it was a pizza joint called Doughbar, you’ll be happy to know that “The Golden Girls”-themed wallpaper near the restrooms is still there. Thank you for being a friend, Teocalli!

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

Speaking of golden girls on the South Side, a group of my sorority sisters from the University of Pittsburgh recently returned to E. Carson Street to bid farewell to Fat Head’s Saloon. It closed on April 26 after 34 years.

I caught up with the gang at Hemingway’s, one of our favorite Oakland haunts. Last call for that watering hole is May 3.

PHOTO COURTESY OF KRISTY GRAVER

My friends, who had not been to Pittsburgh in at least a decade, were impressed by the city’s glow up — or, in this case, redd up.

With wide-eyed wonder, they explored sites in Allentown, Mount Washington and Squirrel Hill. Their last stop, Greenfield, is throwing a block party on May 16 from 3 to 7 p.m. at Alternate Histories, a purveyor of quirky Pittsburgh-themed novelties.

Even though they missed Kennywood’s opening day by a week, my girls had a blast being Pittsburgh tourists!

Yinz guys will, too!