America's Great Cities

Last week I was in Chicago for work and tried out a new hotel. I've stayed at Kimptons before and they are fine, but Hotel Palomar is definitely in a league of its own. Aside from having the great Kimpton standard amenities like free Internet (if you sign up for free for their rewards program) and free coffee/tea in the morning and wine in the afternoon, the hotel in general and rooms were more upscale, the gym was new, clean, and relatively big, and the room service great - thanks to a modern American restaurant, Sable, attached to it - whih had yummy, fresh, food that was not overdone like other hotel restaurants.

From Chicago, I met Josh in Pittsburgh for the Trombley-Isaacs wedding, we were pleasantly suriprised with the city (except for the cabs, more on that below). On Friday night we took the ferry, or as Josh called it, "the pirate ship" to PNC Stadium to watch the Pirates get crushed by the Astros. The pirate ship was such a cheap, cute way to get the the stadium, and the stadium was gorgeous - new and modern with the feel of a more quaint minor league stadium. On Saturday morning we got up early to attempt to eat breakfast at the famous Pamela's, but when we put our name in and saw a swarm of people waiting outside, walked down to Primanti's instead where we split a pastrami sandwich and egg sandwich instead - at 10:45 am. After Primanti's we decided to swing back to Pamela's, and it turned out the line wasn't that long ... so we ate again :)

Primanti Brothers is known their peculiar sammies - they all have cole slaw and french fries on them, and are on thick white Italian bread.

Pamela's is known for its pancakes, which are more like hot cakes or crepes - really thin, a little sweet, and crispy around the edges.

The wedding was at a cool venue called the Mattress Factory, which is actually an art museum. We found ourselves roaming the dark hallways at 11 p.m., a little tipsy, and even days after, I still don't get it :)

So for the cabs - basically, if you call them, they may or may not come. As I learned by standing at a random hotel for 30 minutes waiting for the cab I called, who when I called to check its status said, "sorry, we are backed up now." As our black car driver said, "I could work 24/7, that's how much demand there is for transportation." So if you go to Pittsburgh, make sure to leave yourself extra time to get a cab, because they could come late or not at all, and my advice is to call a car service instead. Or be on the correct side of one of the city's 1,000 bridges.