Pittsburgh Pizza Club wrapped up their second year with a treat of wine, beer, and upscale pizza at Pino's Contemporary Italian Restaurant and Wine Bar. You can find them online here.
They were decorated for the season really helping set the spirit of the holidays.
We lucked out by our meeting schedule being on a Wednesday, as it turns out Wednesday is the night that bottles of wine are half price. The rest of the table split a bottle of Malbec while I enjoyed a glass of East End Brewery's Snow Melt.
Pino's has an extensive menu of "smaller plates" as well as flat bread pizza and traditional pizza. Since we were feeling adventurous, we decided to try one of each.
We started with scallops and sweet potatoes. (because I often forget, I didn't get a picture of this delight). I am in by no way an expert on this kind of dish, but I can say it was a great combination of tastes blending together with a seasonal spiced sauce drizzed on the plate. It was a great start to our meal.
For pizza starters, we went with the Chicken Flat Bread. It had a pesto cream sauce and was topped with roasted red peppers and grilled chick. Not going to lie, it was a great start and I wish there was more of it. Pino's flat bread pizza are 6 slices and 10 inches in diameter.
We finished the night ordering off the pizza menu. We decided to indulge in the Christardi. This is a red sauce pizza with homemade sausage, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, fresh basil, and mozzarella and ricotta cheeses. As you can see, Pino's was not shy about topping their pizza at all. Overall the pizza was good. It was not too saucy, the center ended up a bit soggy because of all the cheese and tomatoes.
Overall, Pino's averaged a rating of 8 out of 10.
This outing was a bit pricier than many of the other pizza clubs. The total bill for a bottle of wine, beer, appetizer, and 2 pizzas was about $76. Including tip the total per person was $31. I would definitely recommend both the pizza and dinner selections for anyone interest in a cozy neighborhood outing with good food, but casual atmosphere.
Happy Holidays from the PPC!
