Dig in With Graver: Iron Born Pizza, Fresh Produce and Little Italy Days

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

(Dig in With Graver is a new, regular column featuring small, digestible bites of foodie news from across Pittsburgh’s culinary landscape.)

Iron Born Pizza

I’m always on a quest for spicy food, even in the middle of summer.

Like some kind of foodie postal worker, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this courier from the swift completion of my appointed rounds. For Monday’s lunch, I had a rectangular, Detroit-style Nashville Hot Chicken Pie from Iron Born Pizza in the Strip District. That’s my 2025 vacation.

With cheddar cheese, ricotta, roasted chicken, Nashville hot sauce, house-made pickles and red pepper flakes on a thick, airy, focaccia-like crust this menu item is a heat dome and a cold front in one. Thankfully, Iron Born’s Smallman Street location also has beer on tap, so I soothed the residual burn with a light beer from nearby Cinderlands Warehouse called Lil’ Cinder.

It was a meal to write home about.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

Fresh Produce

Big props to the people picking produce this time of year. Go to a local market and thank a farmer.

On Saturday, the folks at Brenckle’s brought a metric ton of fruits and veggies to Mars for the inaugural Great Pennsylvania Tomato Festival at Stick City Brewing Co. In addition to consuming saucy pizzas, BLTs and Red Beers, visitors were able to stock up on some of Mother Nature’s greatest gifts.

I went home with a slicing tomato roughly the size of my head and a dozen Galaxy peaches, also called donut peaches, because they remind me of little jack-o’-lanterns.

Happy Halloween!

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

Little Italy Days

Summer is synonymous with Little Italy Days.

Bloomfield’s festival has been drawing crowds to the neighborhood for a quarter century.

This year’s event will be held Aug. 14-17 with more than 200 food and craft vendors lining Liberty Avenue. According to a press release, there will be “pizza, pasta, sausage and all the foods, frivolity and flavors that make Italian cuisine and culture favoloso.”

If, like me, you’re a fan of food but not food festivals (too many people, not enough parking), visit Bloomfield now and support its small businesses! Have a chili dog at Dad’s, follow the scent of sizzling burgers to Tessaro’s, get some James Beard Award-worthy deliciousness at Fet-Fisk and Apteka, visit Gina Merante at Linea Verde Green Market, find Bulgarian goodies at Jak’s Bakery, feed the whole family at Baby Loves Tacos and soak up the beer and good vibes at Trace Brewing.