Pittsburgh Hockey Trip

This past Friday I headed to Pittsburgh for my annual Hockey road trip. It was a challenge to get six tickets to a Friday night Pens – Rangers game so we ended up with Standing Room Only tickets. There was little info on what that actually meant so we went into the game thinking we’d basically be watching the game at a bar from within the arena. It turns out that Consol Energy Arena has specific spots for each SRO ticket and we had a great view of the game except for the Shootout when everyone in the arena stood.

This was by far the best game we’ve attended on any of these trips. Fleury had an amazing game, Jussi Jokinen scored his first goal as a Penguin, there was a fight and the Pens beat the Rangers in a Shootout. The beer selection at Consol was solid.

D’s SixPax & Dogz

On Saturday we headed over to D’s SixPax & Dogz for lunch and drinks. D’s is known for their hotdogs covered in basically anything you can imagine and their massive Beer Cave. Their Beer Cave consisted of a walk-in cooler and a back room that is the size of most liquor stores. They also had a great tap list including Tröegs Nugget Nectar which was one of the better beers I’ve had in a while. In addition D’s had 1919 Draft Root Beer which was fantastic.

East End Brewing Company

After lunch we stopped by East End Brewing Company for a tasting. The night before, Tom, our host set us up with two pony kegs of Big Hop IPA and Black Strap Stout. We didn’t purchase any beer but we did make our way around the sample list. They also had a Root Beer which was good.

Arsenal Cider House

In the afternoon we stopped at Arsenal Cider House where I proceeded to make rarely funny jokes about their rules. The setup is a small bar were you buy growlers and there are some tables in the back, all amongst civil war paraphernalia due to the close location to site of the Allegheny Arsenal. We had a great selection of cider, my favorite was the Honey Crisp.