The Newtown Pentacle

Wednesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The plan for this walk, from Lawrenceville to Pittsburgh’s Downtown, had a sweet ending planned. Our Lady of the Pentacle and I were going to meet up downtown, and then have a drink at a rooftop bar in one of the big hotels. I’ve developed a list of rooftop bars hereabouts, and plan on checking out as many as I can this summer.

The one we visited on this occasion ended up being a little underwhelming. It sold itself as a ‘beer’ bar, but had a fairly limited menu of options in that category, and the only food they offered was either outlandishly expensive or utterly unhealthy, sometimes both. Also, no umbrellas or other protection from direct sunlight.

They kept on pushing us to order a $28 pretzel.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the U.S. Steel building in the background, with ‘Cherry Way’ in the fore – the last of several alleys I’d checked out on this walk. In yesterday’s post, I included links to a series of roof top tours which Our Lady and I attended last year before all the ankle business happened, scroll down if interested in seeing what this are looks like from up high.

One was about a half hour early at the meetup spot, so I negotiated over to a city park and found a bench to sit upon. I’d been in constant motion for about three hours, and it was warm and quite humid day here in Appalachia. After checking my phone to see if I’ve been cancelled by strangers yet for some newly defined sin, a few things caught my eye.

This is a very busy, and zealously protected by the ‘powers that be,’ section of downtown. City Hall is nearby.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That aluminum gray box with the square windows is the ‘Alcoa Building.’ The corporation had since decamped to a larger, campus style, building on Pittsburgh’s north shore. My understanding is that this Alcoa building is a landmark, but is being converted to some sort of housing.

Me? I was just shvitzing.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Pictured above is the facade of the 1916 vintage William Penn Hotel, which has a storied history including Presidential stays and resident movie stars. The many windows are an artifact of an era before air conditioning, and were designed to allow air to flow through during Pittsburgh’s warm and humid months. There’s also cold and humid months here. It’s always humid.

By the way, the title of today’s post is yet another song reference.

Yeah, I’m kind of thinking I’m back.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

While sitting in the park, I waved the camera about a bit, capturing random shots which it might be handy to have at some future time. A text chimed on my phone, telling me that Our Lady of the Pentacle was nearing. One made his way over to where our predetermined meetup spot was. Happy day! We were reunited and then made our way to the elevators and the bar with the $28 pretzel.

Everything was clean and nice. Most of the seating were bar stools, which were profoundly uncomfortable. As stated, there were no sun barriers, which is puzzling for a roof top bar operating within a pretty swank hotel. Also as mentioned, the list of beers wasn’t anything special or particularly exclusive.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

We decided to cut it short after one drink, and paid our bill. A few blocks away there’s another hotel bar (not a rooftop) whose ‘shtick’ are great burgers. We got there, and they had Guinness on tap! That’s rare in Pittsburgh.

After dinner, a rideshare car carried us back to Dormont, and that was the story of my big day out.

Back tomorrow – with something different, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.