Pittsburgh/Strip District-Lawrenceville

The Strip District is a bustling warehouse district just northeast of Downtown Pittsburgh, situated along the Allegheny River from 11th to around 31st Streets. The neighborhood has traditionally been a wholesale and retail place for fresh vegetables, fish, and meat. Today it also has many restaurants and nightclubs. If you like to cook this is definitely the place to go: Everything from freshly made sausage to bamboo shoots to expensive cooking gadgets to cut flowers can be found here. Gourmet coffee places mix with Martini bars and pottery stores and ethnic groceries jumble up together. It's also an excellent place to street watch, what with the mix of businesses, people, and a lot of creative marketeers including streetside accordionists. Some of the streets are paved with Belgian block - stone used as ballast for empty boats coming from Europe up the Mississippi and the Ohio via New Orleans.

Lawrenceville, on the Allegheny River just north of the Strip District, is one of the oldest and largest neighborhoods in the city of Pittsburgh with approximately 11,000 residents and three business districts. Butler Street from 34th Street to 62nd Street contains most of the shops, boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, and neighborhood-serving businesses. Penn Avenue from 34th to Friendship Avenue contains some art studios, coffee shops, funky bars, and ethnic restaurants. Liberty Avenue from 33rd Street to the Bloomfield Street Bridge features some artisan studios and restaurants. Lawrenceville is the most notable example of gentrification in Pittsburgh, as the neighborhood has become known as one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city, with many young entrepreneurs having moved in. There is a large, vibrant art community in the neighborhood, and galleries and studios attract people to art openings and events.

Bloomfield is often referred to as Pittsburgh's "Little Italy." The area was occupied by German immigrants in the late 1700s. Irish immigrants later followed after the civil war. In the late 1800s, millworkers in nearby Lawrenceville constructed small row houses designed for single families and businesses in the style of their homeland. Prior to World War I, Liberty Avenue consisted mostly of German businesses. After the war, however, the neighborhood began to take on its Italian identity. Today, well-maintained rowhouses sit along quaint, narrow streets. Here homes are often passed down through families, and grandchildren usually live just a few blocks from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. By the late 2010s, the neighborhood had been gentrified, and the Liberty Avenue business district now houses trendy bars, shops, and restaurants alongside a few Italian holdovers.

Other neighborhoods in the region include East Liberty, a neighborhood with a prominent business district which gentrified rapidly in the 2000s. This district, contiguous with the affluent Shadyside neighborhood, has become a haven for restaurants and stores (including the only Target and Trader Joe's locations in the city proper). Gentrification has spread west on Penn Ave. to Garfield, whose main business district (contiguous with Bloomfield and Friendship) features a row of art galleries, coffeehouses, and restaurants. Sandwiched between East Liberty, Garfield, Bloomfield, and Shadyside is the tiny, mostly residential neighborhood of Friendship.

Also in the area are Polish Hill, and the affluent Highland Park neighborhood, which surrounds the park of the same name.

• 🌍 The Doughboy. Built by the Arsenal Board of Trade and dedicated May 31, 1921, stands at the intersection of Butler St and Penn Ave at 34th St. It serves as a memorial for the fallen U.S. soldiers of World War I. 
• 🌍 East Liberty Presbyterian Church. Just north of Shadyside in East Liberty, featuring ornate stonework, beautiful stained glass and woodwork. The church features a labyrinth, open Mondays 9AM-1:30PM and Saturdays 9AM-9PM. When walking the labyrinth, you are supposed to pray or meditate. In the past, they served as a substitute for the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. For Christians who have never walked a labyrinth, it's quite an interesting way to worship. 
• 🌍 Highland Park (main entrance at N. Highland Ave and Bunkerhill St). One of the city's largest parks, Highland is home to 2 lakes, Lake Carnegie and Reservoir No. 1, both built for municipal water use and used for recreation. Also features gardens, overlooks, and a network of trails. 
  • 🌍 Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, 7340 Butler St, Highland Park, ☏ +1 412 665-3640. 9AM-5PM daily (until 4PM in winter and until 6PM in summer). A large zoo complex containing a wide variety of animals in big exhibits. There are lots of enclosures simulating natural spaces in Asia, Africa, rainforests, along with the PPG Aquarium. In the "Kid's Kingdom" area you can get up-close with animals like goats, deer, sea lions, bats, and meerkats. Busier on weekends; the zoo is laid out is a very linear fashion, with almost everything aligned along one loop, so expect crowds and viewing waits. $15 adults, $14 seniors, $13 children, children under 2 free. (updated May 2015)
• 🌍 Senator John Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman St, ☏ +1 412 454-6000. 10AM-5PM daily. An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and the largest history museum in Pennsylvania. Featuring 6 floors of permanent and changing exhibitions, this museum gives a very detailed look at the past 250 years in Western Pennsylvania, with displays on Pittsburgh-area innovations, people, and industries. Notable exhibits include artifacts from the French & Indian War, a hall dedicated to the Heinz company, a room full of old vehicles, and the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum - a two-story exhibit dedicated to a wide variety of Pittsburgh-area sport legends. $15 adults, $13 seniors, $6 children/students/military, children 5 and under free. (updated May 2015)

• 🌍 Pittsburgh Glass Center, 5472 Penn Ave, East Liberty, ☏ +1 412 365-2145. A nonprofit, public access glass studio and gallery dedicated to teaching, creating and promoting glass art. The more-than 16,000-square-foot building is one of the top glass art facilities in the country and houses state-of-the-art studios in hot glass, flameworking, coldworking, casting and kilnworking. 
• 🌍 Quantum Theatre, 218 North Highland Avenue, ☏ +1 412 362-1713. A local experimental theater company that puts on regular performances around Pittsburgh, particularly in the East Liberty area. 
• 🌍 Attack Theater, 2425 Liberty Avenue, ☏ +1 412 281-3305. A modern dance company that frequently incorporates original music and multimedia in their performances. They do performances across Pittsburgh, but most are held in their home in the Strip District. 

Some of the city's most active business districts are in this area, attracting shoppers from nearby and all over the Pittsburgh region. The Strip in particular contains a huge number of shops, especially ethnic groceries (Italian, Slavic, and Asian). Street vendors also line the sidewalks, especially on Saturdays, and sell almost everything from cookies to clothes to crafts. Bloomfield, along Liberty Ave., also has plenty of small shops and grocery stores.

• 16:62 Design Zone, Various locations from 16th Street to 62nd Street, jennifer@lawrencevillecorp.com. Stretching from the Strip District up to Lawrenceville, this arts and interior design district is the home of many antiques shops, art galleries, and specialty boutiques housed in restored turn-of-the-century storefronts or repurposed industrial buildings. Many businesses also include working studios, offering visitors the chance to see artists in action. 
  • 🌍 Art of Steel, 2125 Penn Ave, ☏ +1 412 288-9945. Features unusual handcrafted metal and glass works. 

Here you will find a diverse array of cuisines, thanks to the diverse cultural history of the area. Bloomfield, as Pittsburgh's Little Italy, is best known for its Italian restaurants, however expect to find a wide variety of other restaurants to meet your needs.

• 🌍 Roland's Seafood Grill, 1904 Penn Ave, ☏ +1 412 261-3401. 11AM-9PM. 40 beers on tap, delicious seafood. $20. 
• 🌍 St Clair Social Pittsburgh Restaurant and Bar, 302 S Clair St, ☏ +1 412-502-5635. For a place that calls itself a "Beer Emporium", it certainly does not disappoint, with more than 20 Belgians on tap among its offerings. A cozy neighborhood establishment, with a pinball machine to boot. 

• 🌍 Hampton Inn & Suites Pittsburgh-Downtown, 1247 Smallman Street (one block upriver from convention center), ☏ +1 412 288-4350. 

In addition to the many cafes in the area with wifi for their customers, the branches of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh also offer free wireless.

• 🌍 Carnegie Library - East Liberty, 130 S. Whitfield Street, ☏ +1 412 363-8232. M-W 10AM-8PM, Th-Sa 10AM-5PM, closed Su. 
• 🌍 Carnegie Library - Lawrenceville, 279 Fisk Street, ☏ +1 412 682-3668. M-W 10AM-8PM, Th-Sa 10AM-5PM, closed Su.