Reichholds Cafe - Basic Breakfast in the Great White North

Its been a while since I made a Breakfast in the 'Burgh post.  I just figured out how to turn on photo-backup on my phone, and shazam - I've got a bunch of pictures in my photo account that I forgot I had taken. This is Reichhold's Cafe, on Route 8 near the Allegheny-Butler county line - about 15 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh (map).

A Car Modeler's Breakfast

Its been a while since I wrote one of these articles about where to get breakfast in the 'burgh, but its a lot easier to knock one of these out than actually doing some modeling to write about. The Trolley Barn Eatery on Library Road is a classic breakfast dive; its a single storefront in a block building that holds a handful of other businesses (its too small to qualify as a strip-mall or shopping plaza). Inside are small tables with vinyl table cloths; you order and pay at a counter in the back, then pour your own coffee and wait for the food to be served to your table.  This is breakfast at its simplest: every imaginable combination of eggs, sausage, bacon, home fries and pancakes - but the food is good and cheap.

What makes the Trolley Barn truly special is that 200 feet further down Library Road is the Castle Shannon Fire Hall, site of two big Pittsburgh model car shows: the Three Rivers Automodelers hold their show here in the fall, and in early spring the South Hills Model & Toy Show is held at the same spot. Both shows have an amazing turn out of model car vendors, and most have their stuff priced to sell - I almost always come home with something unusual. My last score was an Aurora Cobra Daytona kit - complete and unstarted - for $10!

I don't have dates for the 2014 shows yet, but I'll update this post when I do.

If you're going to one of these shows, leave a half hour early and stop at the Trolley Barn to carb-up for multiple laps around the vendor room!

Don

Bacon, Eggs and Styrene

One of the more popular places to have breakfast in Pittsburgh is Pamela's Diner.  Pamela's is known for its pancakes - thin and airy and more like a crepe than a traditional flapjack - but there are lots of other things to love on the menu.  In addition to the usual selection of eggs and bacon and sausage, the homefries are a real treat; they're made with just a bit of a cream sauce that you might think would make for a soggy mess but somehow makes all the wonderful fried potato flavors even more so.

There are 6 Pamela's in Pittsburgh; 5 of them in the trendier parts of town - and then there is Millvale.  If you're not familiar with Pittsburgh neighborhoods, Millvale is one of the many small towns lining the river valleys that a generation ago were home to the steel workers who worked in the neighboring mills and furnaces. Probably thanks to its narrow streets and tiny footprint, the big box stores never came to Millvale, allowing lots of small merchants to survive and remind us how good real main street stores and shopkeepers were in the good-old-days.

Located at 232 North Avenue, this Pamela's is in a building with a sign reading "Lincoln Pharmacy" on the outside, and inside you'll find about 1/2 the floor space actually is a pharmacy; the other half holds a classic lunch counter and a goodly number of small tables and booths.  Be forewarned  Pamela's doesn't take credit cards and can get pretty busy on weekends; get there early if you don't like to wait in line (they open at 8:00).

If you want a classic breakfast, I recommend the "Big Lincoln", which comes with your choice of eggs and breakfast meat, plus the wonderful pancakes and potatoes.  Of if you like spicy food the "Tex Mex Omelet" (which also comes with the wonderful potatoes but no pancakes) is a great change of pace from the more traditional breakfast fare.  Both of these were more than I could eat (and I can put away a lot).

If you go early Saturday morning, Jean-Marc Chatellier’s French Bakery  is just across the street - stop and pick up some pastries or croissants (maybe stop there before you get to Pamela's - they sell out fast on Saturday mornings).

But the reason this is the ultimate modelers breakfast is that right next to the bakery is Esther's Hobby Shop.  Esther's is a classic local hobby shop: the aisles are narrow and the products are piled high. Even though the store is clean, somehow the air smells old.  Although Esther's has a reputation as a model railroad shop, they have a fair selection of model kits (the latest releases are stacked up in the big store window - when was the last time you saw that?). They are well stocked with tools, paint and scratch-building basics, and the staff is helpful but won't joggle your elbow if you just want to browse.


Combined with a stop at Pamela's  I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning. If you're a modeler anywhere close to Pittsburgh you definitely want to check it out.

Breakfast of Champions!

The Three Rivers club travels well, thanks largely to Bill and his trusty minivan, which has racked up quite a few miles hauling club members to and from contests, air shows, museums and the like.  These road-trips usually start with the co-conspirators meeting at a Bob Evans or Eat-n-Park well before sunrise for breakfast  before hitting the road.  We've been doing this for long enough that models and bacon-and-eggs are linked forever in my mind.

So I thought I'd devote a few of these blog-icles to places for breakfast in the 'burgh.  I'm starting with a place just a few miles from the Beattie Career Center, and so a perfect place to stop to fuel up for the day on your way to our show.

Chub's Place is located at 810 Ingomar Road, Wexford PA on the edge of North Park.  Hopefully you can tell from the picture that Chub's has all the ambiance of a machine shop; it several notches above "greasy spoon" but definitely on the "dive" end of the scale.  If you're counting calories or grams of fat, your calculator may not have enough digits.  If you like to think your food is being prepared in a kitchen scrubbed operating-room clean then stick to Bob Evans (or one of the other places I'll get around to reviewing later).


But don't let the negative reviews you'll find on the Internet scare you.  The food is simple and tastes good and is cooked on a big grill just behind the counter.  The waitresses are friendly and call you "Hon" and keep your coffee cup full.   I recommend their L-PO - a big plate of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes and sausage that bears absolutely no resemblance to an omelet.  Or have anything with bacon and eggs - you can't go wrong.  If you believe that frying makes everything taste better and think coffee should be strong enough to remove paint, then Chub's is your place!



Directions from A W Beattie:

- turn left out of the parking lot onto Babcock Blvd,
- in half a mile turn right on Kummer Road
- in about 1 miles turn left onto Ingomar Road
- Chub's is about half a mile a head on the left.

I'm always looking for breakfast places - if you've got a favorite, especially in the Northern 'burbs, please leave a comment here telling me where it is and I'll check it out and report back.

Don