Tag Archives: Pittsburgh

Finding Pittsburgh BBQ and Motor History Along Baum Boulevard

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Pork, brisket, collards and local root beer at YinzBurgh BBQ on Baum Boulevard on Pittsburgh's historic Auto Row, part of the original Lincoln Highway. (Photo by Michael Grass)

Pork, brisket, collards and local root beer at YinzBurgh BBQ on Baum Boulevard on Pittsburgh’s historic Auto Row, part of the original Lincoln Highway. (Photo by Michael Grass)

PITTSBURGH — For my Lincoln Highway journey, having Internet access via my smartphone and computer has been and will continue to be a great tool. Although I’m going across country without turn-by-turn GPS navigation — why pay for it when I have it in my brain’s spatial orientation and navigation skills for free? — I have the Internet to help me research what I want to see and where I want to go. This includes eating along the way.

When I wanted to find a good local spot for lunch on Thursday while checking out Pittsburgh’s historic Auto Row along Baum Boulevard — which is part of the Lincoln Highway’s original route — I turned to Yelp. Crowdsourcing local knowledge has been critical to the success of Yelp and similar user-generated tools.

In this case, I ended up at YinzBurgh BBQ, a 16-month-old Southern-style barbecue joint in a city not known for its barbecue.

It was a great find and something I likely would not have checked out if I was simply driving by. (I probably would have gone around the corner to Chipotle.) I spent some time chatting with YinzBurg BBQ’s owner, Richard Coursey, about my trip and his place, which offers up some great food, I might add. (YinzBurgh’s smoked meats come sauceless. Coursey’s philosophy is that sauce should be on the side and not overpower the meat itself. He has a variety of housemade sauces inspired by different barbecue traditions and he’ll be more than happy to give you a thorough introduction to YinzBurgh’s offerings.)

As I was eating some delicious barbecue and collards, I was thinking about how anyone traveling on the Lincoln Highway when it opened — or for that matter until the recent proliferation of smartphones and crowdsourcing tools like Yelp — were at a disadvantage when they drove into an unfamiliar place. Their options were limited to what was easily accessible along the road.

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Pittsburgh Is a Paradise of Infrastructure

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Pittsburgh's Point Bridge, seen here in 1900, was the first of three bridges to span the Monongahela River right before it meets the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River. (Photo by the Detroit Publishing Co. via the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Pittsburgh’s Point Bridge, seen here around 1900, was the first of three bridges to span the Monongahela River right before it meets the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River. (Photo by the Detroit Publishing Co. via the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

PITTSBURGH — When Fort Duquesne was situated at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers by the French, this area was obviously strategic. It protected the gateway to the Ohio Valley and was fought over during the French and Indian War. But as cities go, the spot where modern Pittsburgh would eventually take shape wasn’t necessarily an easy place for future growth.

Most cities thrive on level ground, something that is a scarce commodity here. Constrained by its rivers and hemmed in by mountains, Pittsburgh had no such level-ground luxury.

San Francisco faced similar issues with its hilly terrain, but instead of growing organically with its setting, its street grid system brazenly defied it, creating the often steep streets that have become one of San Francisco’s signature urban elements.

While San Francisco conquered its topography with a uniform street plan, Pittsburgh conquered its difficult terrain with its infrastructure, allowing the city to expand into its higher elevations, across its rivers and other areas where the terrain would normally limit any ordinary city.

Pittsburgh functions because of its bridges. They’re everywhere.

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