LvSun

Going to a concert at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh. Not staying in the area.

Any suggestions on where to eat before the concert? Would like to park car (wherever), walk to restaurant, then walk to Mellon Arena. Is this feasible?

Not worried about price but would like a place where blue jeans would be OK. Will tell sons they have to wear nicer pants than jeans if there are only "no jeans" restaurants near the Arena.

Would really prefer the restaurant have good food and not be a dive. Gotta have mixed drinks.

Also, any suggestions on parking?

Trekker5211

Right next to the arena there really isn't much (by the 'area' i mean two min. away)....but you must understand that you could walk from anywhere in the downtown triangle to Mellon Arena within 15 min. with that in mind....

-Six Penn Kitchen, located at the corner of Sixth St. and Penn Ave., has great American fusion stuff. You could wear jeans...but it may be pushing it. http://www.sixpennkitchen.com/

-Sonoma Grille, at 947 Penn Ave., is EXCELLENT California-esque food, but it definitely would not be considered 'jeans allowed'.

-Seviche, at 930 Penn Ave, has Latin-American-influenced cuisine, and, as the name suggests, excellent seviche. Its also much more casual than the other two restaurants.

I hope those help!

LvSun

That helps a lot. Thank you. We can certainly handle a 15 minute walk.

In case it decides to snow big-time, are taxi's easily available from the street?

tuscanlifeedit

Taxis aren't easily available here, but from the three restaurants mentioned, it is not far to a trolley stop (called the T) that will leave you within a 5 minute walk to the arena.

There is also a nice saloon type restaurant where DH had steak last night, right across from Sonoma Grill. I would wear nice jeans to Sonoma Grill. But that's me. There were families eating there, as they are attatched to a hotel.

So from any of those places, you could take the T from Liberty and Wood, where you can also see art at Wood St. Galleries, up to Steel Plaza. It is a short walk from Steel Plaza to the Arena. You won't get confused, because at night, that's where the crowd will be going.

You could also park and eat at the Station Square complex, take the T from Station Square to Steel Plaza. There are several casual restaurants there.

LvSun

Thank you so much. Glad to know about the T (wondered what the T was when I had heard of it before).

Trekker5211

Also about the T:

Between the four downtown stations (First Ave., Steel Plaza (where you would get off for Mellon Arena), Wood St., and Gateway Center) it is a free zone. hop on/hop off wherever you want.

LvSun

Thank you.

tuscanlifeedit

Good call, Trekker. I forgot about the free zone.

LvSun

Thanks to all for your replies. Where did we end up eating? Well....

at a gas station in Washington, Pa (candy and chips). Took us 2 hours to get through a wreck near the I-79/I-70 split. Clever as we are, we got off I-79 at Rt. 19/Lone Pine (? something like that) because the interstate was at a stand still. BIG mistake - everyone else evidently had that idea also - would probably have been better off waiting it out on the interstate. Then ran into some heavy downtown traffic (expected at that hour) and not horrid.

On the bright side, parked at the Marriot, chugged a drink, and got to the concert just in time to hear the first song. The Eagles were/are totally fantastic and the concert was great.

Next time we go to a concert at the Arena, instead of planning on getting there at 5:30 I think we will plan on getting to Pittsburg about noon or 2pm. Someone said we should have planned on making a day of it - guess they were right.

Thanks again for all your help.