For my dad's birthday, Amanda and I got him tickets to see Potted Potter. It was playing in one of the theaters down town so my dad suggested we grab dinner before the show. Pittsburgh has definitely hopped on board with all sorts of trendy restaurants lately, I was really surprised! The only problem is they're all downtown and I'm just not willing to fight the traffic to get down there.
Since it was for the birthday boy we let him pick, and his suggestion was Sienna Mercato! The restaurant is split in to three separate levels. The first is called Emporio and it's mostly meatballs which sounds random but it's really popular! The second level is Mezzo which is the one we went to. Then, the third level is a roof top patio where they serve craft beers and appetizers. Even though all three are Sienna Mercato, they're considered separate. Like you can't just restaurant hop all three levels at once! You pay and order separately at each one.
I'm usually not one to follow trendy restaurants or care all that much. To be honest, that's not my scene at all because I'm the sit-out-on-the-deck and grill type. I'd much rather eat at home than go out to fancy places!
But I was a big fan of Sienna Mercato! My favorite part is it's all farm-to-table where they get all of their produce and meats from local farms around Pittsburgh. They had a whole list of the farms they support at the back of the menu which I thought was neat! It's always awesome to hear of places supporting local farms.
Me and Amanda were also slightly obsessed with the bottles they left on the table for us to refill our waters.
I also like the atmosphere in general, and the decor. It was very rustic with a lot of woodwork, worn bricks, and antique furniture.
I ordered the arugula salad! It looks much bigger in the picture but the portion sizes were perfect! We all split the cheese plate as an appetizer where it's a sample of five fresh cheeses again from local farms in the area. All of the cheeses were amazing! My salad had arugula, little slices of fingerling potatoes, pecorino cheese, and pistachio pieces with a pistachio vinaigrette. The other thing that won me over is they put on the perfect amount of salad dressing. That's huge in my opinion! Every time I go out to eat I order the dressing on the side because I feel as though the lettuce is drowning with the amount they pour on. This pistachio vinaigrette was on the creamier side but it was very light, and I was actually able to taste the arugula and the other parts of the salad!
My dad ordered a pasta dish with braised beef, and it was simply amazing! The beef was so tender, and I loved the sauce. I think it was wine or vinegar based which again made it on the lighter side. I'm not usually a fan of heavy cream sauces so I loved this dish.
The show was absolutely HILARIOUS! Talk about comedic genius! The guys who developed this are probably borderline crazy haha but they sure know how to entertain an audience. There was even an interactive Quidditch came with the audience which was fun. Two little kids were volunteers to be the seekers for each team, and their job was to tackle the one actor who dressed up to be the snitch. He was in a giant yellow ball and ran around randomly flapping his arms while blowing on a bazooka haha!
The best part was it was only two British guys, and a collection of random stage props. I'm pretty sure a lot of it was improvised, too, because at one point the second actor did something really funny that I don't think the first one expected and he nearly lost his cool! He was pretending to narrate from the book at that time so he just held it over his face but I could tell he was laughing from the way his arm was shaking, and how the people down front were responding.
If you're a big fan of Harry Potter and parody then this is the show for you! The cool part is it originated in England but now they play shows all across America, too.
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