There’s a particular pleasure in stepping out for coffee on a bright October day: the cool air, crunchy leaves skittering across the sidewalk, the first warm sip. At Delanie’s new Oakland café, make that sip a tiramisu latte with mascarpone sweet cream, cacao bitters and dark chocolate.
With Pittsburgh enjoying a sunny stretch, new openings give you plenty of places to pause and enjoy: a bookstore café in McCandless, a boba truck in Oakland and a SouthSide Works bakery serving matcha chocolate croissants. Hungry for more? There’s mortadella with stracciatella on Badamo’s freshly baked bread and Turkish mantı with garlic yogurt at Agora in Lawrenceville. Two familiar restaurants are back, too, though the season also brings some difficult goodbyes.
Here’s what’s new, what’s back and what’s closing around Pittsburgh.
Openings
The bread gets as much attention as the fillings at Anthony Badamo’s new sandwich shop, bakery and Italian grocery beside his Dormont pizzeria. House-baked focaccia and Sicilian mafalda rolls anchor a menu that includes mortadella with house-made stracciatella and pistachio crumble, porchetta with broccoli rabe and sharp provolone, and Calabrian tuna salad.
Fresh loaves and rolls are also sold to take home, along with lasagna, meatballs, soups and the shop’s olive-and-pepper condimento. Italian sodas, pantry staples and moka pots round out the grocery shelves.
Photo courtesy of Agora.
For nearly seven years, Halime Deniz drove past this Butler Street space and imagined making it her own. “It was my dream place. I can’t believe it is mine now,” she says. This fall, she moved Deniz Mediterranean Cuisine from McKnight Road to Lawrenceville, giving her Turkish cooking a new name and more room for the gatherings customers had been requesting.
Originally from Turkey, Deniz moved to Pittsburgh in 2017 and later opened her first restaurant in Oakland. Agora is her third restaurant, and running it is a family undertaking. A single mother of four, she works alongside her children, two sisters, nephews and nieces, with her sisters and a nephew cooking.
The Agora mixed grill for two combines beef shish, lamb Adana, chicken Adana, chicken shish and lamb köfte with rice, salad and bread. The menu also includes stews baked beneath a dough seal, Turkish mantı topped with garlic yogurt and pide filled with spinach and mozzarella.
Breakfast, served Friday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., brings menemen, fried eggs, cheeses, olives, vegetables, honey, butter, pastries and pots of tea. Deniz says customers are already asking for weekday breakfast, which she hopes to add once she hires more staff.
Photo courtesy of Vicky Zheng.
Oakland’s latest tea stop comes on wheels, with handmade boba and plenty of options beneath the foam. Owners Zak Szulc and Vicky Zheng launched Koreyinz’s regular Oakland truck location on Oct. 3 after three years of markets, events and catering. Customers, they say, wanted their favorites “without having to chase us around the city.”
The Pittsburgh-grown brand wears its hometown affection in its name, borrowing “yinz” to emphasize that tea is for sharing. Highlights include the Brown Sugar Classic Boba Milk Tea, featuring pearls they’ve been making in-house since 2023. The menu branches into jasmine green, osmanthus, lychee, peach oolong and Da Hong Pao milk teas, alongside snowy whipped cream and cloud-foam varieties. Fresh milk teas use organic milk; tea espresso, cold-brewed and nitrogen-infused teas give curious drinkers more routes through the leaves.
Photos courtesy of Delanie’s.
Coffee ice cubes are a small detail with a devoted following at Delanie’s. They’re the finishing touch in the House Favorite, cold brew shaken with condensed milk and brown sugar. For something more indulgent, don’t forget the tiramisu latte.
Owners Lavinia Ivanica and Moss Clark bring those longtime favorites to their new café inside Pitt’s Big Idea Center. Clark attended the University of Pittsburgh, and the partners already served plenty of students at their other two locations. When they toured the campus space, “we fell in love right away,” Ivanica says.
Photo courtesy of Opafe.
Opafe brings buttery layers and a playful streak to SouthSide Works. Matcha chocolate croissants, house-made doughnuts and sweet-and-savory pork floss pastries share the spotlight with an edible optical illusion: fruit-shaped desserts hiding mousse and fruit compote beneath thin chocolate shells.
Created by Opal Group founder Andy Qian, the bakery celebrated its grand opening Oct. 22 after a soft-opening run. Vietnamese coffees, fresh-fruit teas and house-made matcha drinks offer plenty to sip while you survey the sweets. Croissant-inspired décor, lounge seating and claw machines make a persuasive case for staying past the last crumb.
Photo courtesy of Wengmu Ciren.
At Chi Le Ma, the name asks “Have you eaten?” It’s a familiar Chinese greeting that expresses care through food and asks the same question as Pittsburgh’s famous “jeet jet?” Wengmu Ciren, who is half Tibetan and half Chinese and originally from Ganzi in Sichuan, brings both traditions to this family-owned noodle shop. Travels with Wengmu’s husband provide further inspiration, while Wengmu’s father contributes 30 years of experience as a restaurant chef.
Ba Tang Noodles trace directly to Wengmu’s home region; other highlights include crawfish mapo tofu noodles, curry beef noodles and pork rib noodles made using traditional Chinese red-braising techniques. Start with lang ya tu dou, spicy crinkle-cut potatoes.
Riverstone Books has added coffee to its shelves of reasons to visit. The new Greenhouse Café serves espresso drinks, drip coffee and teas, with beans from Mechanic Coffee Co. and pastries from One Sweet Cookie. Owner Barbara Jeremiah’s interest in gardening inspired the café’s design.
Photos courtesy of Grain and Berry.
Açaí bowls lead the lineup at Grain & Berry, which celebrated its Pittsburgh-area debut Sept. 19 at Pine Tree Shoppes.
The namesake bowl piles fruit, granola, coconut, peanut butter and Nutella over your choice of base. The Healthy Elvis smoothie blends chocolate protein, banana and peanut butter with honey and almond milk. Prefer something savory? Go Fig or Go Home flatbread pairs brie and fig spread with arugula and balsamic, while Thanks a Brunch sandwiches scrambled eggs, plant-based sausage, mozzarella and chipotle aioli in flatbread.
Photo courtesy of 7 Brew.
7 Brew
1425 Freeport Road, Natrona Heights
Natrona Heights has a new stop for the morning caffeine run. Drive-thru beverage chain 7 Brew’s opening festivities delivered $5,977.68 to Highlands Partnership Network, raised during a preview weekend of free small drinks and optional donations. The contribution supports The SPOT, a gathering place for local teens.
Photo courtesy of Islanders.
Islanders Kitchen serves Caribbean and Haitian dishes from a food trailer on Forbes Avenue. Its founders moved from Miami to Pittsburgh, bringing recipes from home. The menu includes oxtail plates, jerk chicken bowls and pate kode, crispy fried patties filled with chicken, sausage and eggs.
Back in business
Rockaway returned Sept. 26 after owner Josh Sickels’ summer recovery from a spinal injury. Alongside its New York and Sicilian pies, the menu now features the South Loop, topped with Fat Butcher fennel sausage and Chicago hot giardiniera, and a sausage-and-broccoli-rabe pie finished with lemon.
A monthlong makeover brought a new name and Southern cooking to the former Shorty’s at the Waterfront. The reopened restaurant serves fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese, catfish and short ribs over cheddar grits. There’s a revamped bar, too, plus weekend brunch with pound cake French toast.
Closings
The Galleria’s Bravo location closed abruptly in September, with employees receiving little notice of the permanent shutdown.
KLVN closed in September, but coffee will return to the address: Dynamic Coffee Roasters plans to take over the café.
Minerva Bakery closed after 103 years. Known for its cakes and buttercream icing, the family-run bakery announced in September that it would not reopen following staff injuries and illnesses.
Pleasure Bar remains closed, leaving a familiar gap on Liberty Avenue. Since 1941, generations have gathered here for drinks, wedding soup, lasagna and homemade manicotti. Founded by the Collinger family and later run by the Mariani and Campau families, it even drew Pittsburgh Hornets hockey players in the 1960s, when the bar was often standing room only.
Lawrence Hall will close at year’s end, citing rising costs and other setbacks. The food hall remains open for regular service and events through December.
Dining and Cooking