We lived in Shadyside in the 80s – one of us in a house converted to apartments near Walnut St. (before the days of resident parking permits when on-street parking was nearly impossible to find on the weekends) and the other in the area alternately known as East Shadyside or Point Breeze near the old Nabisco factory on Penn Avenue. This was when the factory was still in operation and the smell of freshly baked crackers filled the neighborhood.
The factory and the area around it have changed significantly over the years as part of the Bakery Square development. Our quest to re-explore Pittsburgh brought us back to this area to visit Choolaah Indian BBQ. We’d heard good things abut this fast-casual restaurant, and we were not disappointed. The food and the service were terrific, and the bright, open decor featuring large tandoori clay ovens provided the perfect atmosphere to enjoy our meal.
The chicken Choolaah bowl with with rice and greens and yellow lentil daal was flavorful and well-spiced. Choolaah offers sauces to accompany the dishes, and the space mango sauce complemented this dish very well. The Halal lamb meatballs with onion, cilantro, and their signature sauces in a tandoori wrap was also excellent. Similar to the chicken Choolaah bowl, the lamb meatballs were perfectly spiced. These dishes were some of the best Indian food we had in years, and we’ve added Choolaah to our regular rotation of restaurants to visit when we’re in the Shadyside/East Liberty area.
When we were done with lunch, we headed over to Zeke’s Coffee for our post-lunch caffeine fix. This is one of our favorite coffee shops in the city. The coffee is consistently well-balanced and the mullet jar always makes us laugh. From there we stopped by the Home Depot in East Liberty and were reminded of the Sears store that used to stand on that property. Nice to see that McDonalds is still in the area; that McDonalds is a special place for us, but more about that in a future post. In a way, it is sad to see Sears gone, but with so many other stores and restaurants in the area, we find ourselves in ’Sliberty often.