East Coast Road Trip – Part 1!

Hello hello, again, Foodie Friends 🙂 Hope you’ve had a great weekend! For the first of this three-part travel edition of Foodie Adventures, we’re taking you to two cities in Western Pennsylvania – Pittsburgh, PA, and Lake Erie, PA; and the Finger Lakes in Upstate NY – join us for our recommendations for fun, food, and sights along the way! 🙌

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Last year, we had a grand plan to take the Ring Road around Iceland for our one-year anniversary, but then the dreaded “C” word came (you know which one by now) making it nearly impossible to travel internationally.

So, for our two-year anniversary this past September, we decided to take a road trip up the East Coast and back down again! We checked out a bunch of places we both have and haven’t been together, visited family and friends along the way, and took your suggestions into consideration too (on both Facebook and Instagram) before we left:

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We’re so grateful to all the friends and foodie followers that helped give us recommendations on what to eat and where to go for some of these cities. For the places we didn’t get to, we’ve included our Google Maps lists for each of the cities and notes on what we were recommended to try from each location. Check out Part 2 of the blog here and Part 3 if you’d like to read the last two in the trilogy after this one.

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We were only in Pittsburgh for the evening before leaving the next morning to drive to Lake Erie, so we asked for some dinner recommendations from the foodie fam online.

Primanti Bros was the winner, recommended to us by @thehungryhunt with their Hot Capicola sandwich with a fried egg! Here, they pile every sammie high with lettuce, tomatoes, coleslaw (vinegar-based), fries (more Five Guys style if you’ve been there), and then the sandwich ingredients you asked for (meat, cheeses, other proteins, etc.). Jamie got a hot pastrami with cheese, no egg on his (see bottom two pics), and I went with our fan’s recommended combination above.

I’d never had capicola before, but it tasted almost like if ham and spicy bologna had a food baby. It was delish, and the heat kinda built up and started to sneak up on you after a while. I could only get through about half of my sandwich, but Jamie loved the place so much we ended up buying a shirt from the restaurant to remember our trip by!

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After such a big sandwich, I definitely recommend walking that off in the cool area that surrounds Primanti Bros. The city is in the process of building out the old steel mill building next door into commercial and residential spaces, with indoor golf playing center, nail salon, and plant store currently there, with more space to continue to build on. At the end of the street sits The Church Brew Works, a massive church that they’ve converted into a brewery, another recommended place on our list from Kevin Nelson, owner of Mac Attack Food Truck in Greenville, SC! For more pictures from our travels and other recommended places, see the slideshow below and the Google Maps link above!

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For this section, there would have been more restaurants on our list, but we had very specific criteria in mind for Lake Erie:

• Could we see the lake from where we were eating?
• Were they open around 11-11:30 am when we would be driving through on Thursday?
• Would they still be fairly well rated and have things within walking distance to do?

We ended up going with the Sheraton’s Bayfront Grille, as the patio was smack dab on the lake. It was a little brisque, as the sun was behind the hotel, but they had fire pits and cool seating areas if we wanted to eat out of the light breeze. I got one of my favorite sandwiches, a Reuben (no cheese, please), and Jamie got their Chicken bacon ranch sandwich, with a ranch seasoned fried chicken cutlet, bacon, bibb lettuce, zesty pickle, cheddar, Cajun ranch, brioche bun. I loved the little baskets they brought the fries out in (these were those fries that had the little crunchy bits on the outside, yum), and my Reuben was so tasty, Jamie ended up taking a big ole bite of mine too!

From our view from the patio, we got peak harbor views to see the historic ships that you could board to tour this side of the lake leaving from the nearby Bicentennial Tower, which we checked out after lunch.

We also made it a goal to take photos of ourselves in each city we went to, so here’s our first picture in front of Lake Erie, with the hotel we ate lunch at to the left in the background! 📸 🌊

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Jamie’s family grew up in Upstate New York, so this part of the trip was special, as I got to meet some of his family and see where his dad, uncles, and grandma had grown up.

For dinner on Friday, we headed to the historic Mountain View Inn in Atlanta, NY, for their infamous Friday Fish Fry, which they only do on Fridays (similar to a wing Wednesday or taco Tuesday here). It was stuffed to the gills (pun totally intended) in there when we went, and we got there at 5 pm sharp, but the service was great and it was definitely one of those hometown places where everyone seemed to know each other. Jamie got the fish fry and I went with his brother Jonathon’s suggestion of the stuffed fish filet topped with crab that he had gotten last time they visited. Everything was delish! 🐟

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The Finger Lakes were absolutely gorgeous this time of year, and while leaf peeping wasn’t in full swing yet (since they hadn’t had their first real frost), I would highly recommend visiting Upstate NY or New England in the fall.

We stayed at a gorgeous little Airbnb called Captain Frank’s Lakeside Getaway, and boy was it! 😁 It was as close to the lake as you could be, with two levels of decks, grills, a hot tub, fire pits, and a dock that had kayaks and boats that could be used once the weather was warmer. I could absolutely see us coming back here. 💜 Jamie and I loved stargazing at night and waking up to sunrises with coffee on the porch in the mornings.

For breakfast one morning, we went to the nearby town of Livonia to Wanda’s Family Restaurant for a little slice of a hometown diner favorites with some classic breakfast sandwiches. I got one of their specials, ham & egg sandwich on a hard roll with coffee and fruit, and Jamie got the ham, egg, & cheese sandwich on a hard roll with hash-brown potatoes and coffee. These were delish and hit the spot! They even put the ham on the griddle before they put it on the sandwiches so it had a little crispiness to the edges, mmm. 😋 Would definitely recommend stopping by here if you’re in the area!

After this, we headed to the Cohocton Fall Foliage Festival, complete with food trucks, farm stands, wine and distillery tastings, local vendors, a homecoming parade, and much more! Check out the slideshow below for some snapshots from the couple hours we spent there, I always recommend buying and supporting local when you travel as well.

One of the coolest things we found in our travels up here was grape pie! 🍇🥧 It’s a hyper-regional baked good based on the by-product of having so many concord grapes left over after wine-making season is over. They make them into two different variations of pies and tarts, one with more of a streusel topping, and one with a traditional lattice topping. We went with the streusel topping on the recommendation of Cindy’s Pies, and it was awesome! It had almost the texture of a blueberry pie filling but tasted like grape jam on the inside. It was a lot less sweet than I anticipated it would be, which I definitely appreciated!

Last but not least, we had to check out a local brewery to finish out the trip! We saw the sunrise from our side of the lake where our AirBnb was, but we wanted to see the sunset from the opposite side, and luckily, Twisted Rail Brewing Company fit the bill perfectly.

Jamie ended up getting a beer flight with a couple of different IPAs, and I got a pineapple-mango cider from Star. We had to get their infamous “rail spike” appetizers – fried green beans, and we got the Farmers Depot Flatbread – topped with artichoke hearts, sautéed mushrooms and onions, marinated olives, semi-dried cherry tomatoes, and mozzarella. The “rail spikes” were probably my favorite out of everything, as that was super unique and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone fry green beans before! They were super crunchy and had almost a cornmeal crust on the outside, which was an awesome touch.

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We hope you’ve enjoyed this shorter form guide, and stay tuned for our next edition on New York City next time!! 🍎🗽

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So how was your weekend, Foodie Friends? Do you have a favorite place or attraction from one of these places we should go to next time? Are you excited for the next NYC installment of the travel blog? Sound out in the comments below to let us know your suggestions of what dishes to make or places we should visit next. As always, feel free to like, comment, & share 🤗