Gandy Dancer Saloon - Pittsburgh (Station Square)

So what to do on a January Friday night when the sun is shining and it is 54 degrees? Get in the car for a road trip to Pittsburgh, the greatest city in the world. Alright, a tad hyperbolic, but it is a great place. Tonight we went to one of my regular Pittsburgh hangouts, the Gandy Dancer Saloon in Station Square on Carson Street.

We have gone to the Gandy Dancer for years. It is, for all practical purposes, the bar for the beautiful Grand Concourse restaurant next door. Both are "owned" by the Muer Restaurant Group which owns restaurants in diverse areas of the Midwest and carries a heavy emphasis on seafood. One notable is Charlie’s Crab in Cleveland and two other locations. It used to own the defunct Engine House No. 5 in Columbus. The waiters slid down the fire poles!!!! The Muer folks have been around for awhile, and if you remember Engine House No. 5, you know just how long!!!!  Muer Restaurant group is now part of Landry Hospitality which owns more than three hundred Class 1 restaurants throughout the United States.  I have provided a link because it is kind of neat to see which restaurant is related to what other restaurant…and you would never know unless I told you.  There are some big names in this group.

At any rate, we started going to the Gandy Dancer when we couldn’t get into the Grand Concourse for dinner. I suppose I could say that the décor is faux old…but it has been there for so long the décor may actually qualify as genuine period!!!! It is an explosion of brass and and dark wood with an extremely ornate bar. There is some high top seating next to the bar, and up a level are some booths and tables. In the summer it has one of the better patios, and you can sit and watch the world go by while sipping your $12.00/ glass wine. Here’s a tip: they have great Happy Hour prices for both booze and food: 4:30-6:30. Here's another tip...the valet parking doesn't cost anymore than the regular parking.  Why walk?

Its claim to fame is its raw bar with all sorts of shrimp, crab and oyster goodies if that appeals to you. The menu is also casual with sandwiches such as a Chicken Carpese and Prime Rib French Dip with caramelized onions. That’s we had tonight, and both were ample in size, taste and preparation! In addition, it offers one or two steak choices, some dolled up pasta dishes and several fish sandwich and crab cake selections. Tonight it featured a “to die for” Mushroom and Andouille sausage soup. It was OUT OF THIS WORLD. I am a soup fan, and this goes to the top of my soup nazi list along with the sausage soup from Pittsburgh’s Dish Osteria and the chicken pastine soup from New Castle’s Chuck Tanner’s.

Prices are moderate…with a couple of drinks, two huge sandwiches, and soup, we were out of there for fifty bucks including tax and tip. Not McDonald’s…but then again they don’t have the soup!!!!!!! Here’s another tip: they don’t bring rolls as a matter of course. You have to ask for them. Be sure you do because the rolls are very good.

It draws a nice crowd of folks primarily over 30. It has a relatively classy clientele. Wait staff wears crisp white shirts, black vests and ties. (Is this 1955?)  Things seemed a little slow tonight, but then again we were there very early and it is the weekend after the New Year's Holiday.  Then there is that ecnomy thing.

The problem is the service is sketchy. I felt sorry for the bus boy who I overheard asking who was the boss for tonight. There seem to be people running all over the place, but it disorganized to a fault…and it has always been that way. The wait staff can be brusque and unattentative. We hadn’t been there for awhile for that reason…and it wasn’t much better tonight.

So…for location, décor, and quality of food Gandy Dancer gets four meatballs. For service, it gets 3 meatballs. That averages out to 3 ½ meatballs.  But like I said, we go there alot, and it is our default hangout of choice.

 1/2

One more comment on Station Square. That development has been there a long time. I have a special affection for it because the Grand Concourse and Gandy Dancer are in the old P & LE Railroad terminal. When I was small, my folks would often to take me and my brother into Pittsburgh on the train, and I remember many times running across the Smithfield Street Bridge to catch the train back home to Youngstown after shopping all day at Kaufmann’s. My Dad went to the University of Pittsburgh for his graduate degree and did his oral surgery training at UPMC back in the late 1940’s and early 50’s.  That's how I got to know my way around the city.

While the restaurant/nightlife side of the development remains very strong. The “shops” side is sadly diminishing. There really isn’t anything in there anymore other than a huge Steelers sports store and a few restaurants such as the Sesame Inn (outstanding Chinese) and Houlihan’s . Much of the retail space has been taken over by a technical college. I am sorry to see this happen to this development which blazed the trail for the likes of Legacy Village in Cleveland, the South Side Works in Pittsburgh and Easton in Columbus.

The good news is it has a killer view of beautiful downtown Pittsburgh unmatched anywhere else. Everything old will one day be new again. Money can’t buy that view!!!!

Gandy Dance Saloon

100 West Station Square Drive

Pittsburgh, PA 15219