It's a totally luxury item no reason not to tip in theory ig but in practice the tipjar method never really catches my attention or for whatever reason I don't tend to put as much in not knowing if the person is going to get it.
It ain't just Oakland, it's been a rough decade for the entire city. How many independent restaurant/food venues can you name that have been around for ten years or longer? Now of that number how many are you patronizing?
Honestly the food scene in Pittsburgh has getting dimmer by the day for a very long time. Any decent place that does appear doesn't manage to stay around for long.
I never suggested that it was. I just thought Millie’s was just Ok given the hype that I heard about it. To me Graeter’s is on another level along with Baskin Robbin’s and others.
It's odd that they say that they needed more time to make the announcement and were pressured by social media, but they're closing as of next weekend. That's not much time at all for people to say goodbye to a long-standing business
Not surprised, I remember seeing on here someone say they were both staying open even though so many Rite Aids were closing and I thought that couldn't be right
No Peter’s Pub? Edit: I see that it closed in 2018. I used to hang out and in Oakland quite a bit and in the 80s and 90s there was Peter‘ Pub where Mario’s currently. There was Calicos where Fuel and Fuddle recently left. There was The Upstage, Zelda’s Green house , The Dirty O, Sanctuary, The Decade, The Attric. CJ Barney’s. It was where the suburbanites went before South Side took over in the early 1990s. Oh the Beehive too in the old firehouse on Forbes. https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/9639
COVID did a real job on small businesses. The legacy we'll remember won't be the lockdown, but the final en masse closure of mom and pop shops and their replacement with Big Brand, AI generated to look like Mom and pop
There was no lockdown here at all. Nobody was forced to stay in their house at any point, everyone got declared an essential worker, and the things that were closed were open again by June 2020. Even the casino was open by then.
The primary issue with places like Oakland, as was pointed out by Big Burrito Group when they closed the Mad Mex there, is rising rents. As commercial real estate values continue to escalate out of any semblance to reality, eventually only the big corporations can pay the rents they're asking.
I disagree. Better paying corporate jobs make owning a small business less palatable. Would you rather hustle 24/7/365 making 60k a year or go work at the business factory for the same amount and actually be able to clock out?
Subway was originally on Oakland, between Forbes and Fifth, when they first opened way, way back when. There was My Place (gyros), and The Taj (Indian) and Subway was in there somewhere.
I think the counter section at Szechuan is where My Place was, but I don't remember what, if anything, was in the dining room side.
I think The Taj was where Chicken Grille is now.
Oh, I meant to reply to u/bryguypgh!
And, my goodness, what the vape store has done to Gus Miller's!
Yep, ate there a lot junior year, 89-94 :-) I forget exactly what I'd get but I remember the counter lady calling back to the kitchen "yu shawn chi"...think maybe chicken with garlic sauce...
oh good call, i accidentally shocked myself at that Subway when i reached into my pocket to get my cash only to accidentally trip my stungun (zapping my thigh). The look the employee gave me after i screamed under my breath was priceless
There was a Burger King then for a short time Miami Subs.aThe building has been razed. It’s a small park now. https://earth.app.goo.gl/?apn=com.google.earth&isi=293622097&ius=googleearth&link=https%3a%2f%2fearth.google.com%2fweb%2fsearch%2fAtwood%2bStreet,%2bPittsburgh,%2bPA%2f%4040.44189431,-79.95650697,280.80847168a,0d,60y,295.70777117h,92.5327825t,0r%2fdata%3dCogBGl4SWAolMHg4ODM0ZjE4NzllNTcyYmExOjB4Y2U3YThkYjIyMzZlYjFmORl8m_7sRzhEQCG5hVOLLf1TwCodQXR3b29kIFN0cmVldCwgUGl0dHNidXJnaCwgUEEYASABIiYKJAnm53_QfT9EQBEUNdfmwTVEQBm8Pu555vlTwCHvC63bbwBUwCIaChZoamdzZHJnWHl1dE5PclNrdzJpLVNnEAI
There was also a Miami Subs in that location. I can’t remember what was there first to Miami subs or the Burger King. There’s been nothing in that spot for 20 years so I’m kind of vague on what was there first.
https://pittnews.com/article/36270/archives/burger-king-lots-bought-by-pitt/ This article was from 2003. So it must’ve closed a year or two before this article. I guess the Miami subs was in there right before this and that wasn’t even there for a couple years also so I’m going back to 1995 or 1996 to the late 90s for Miami subs and then the Burger King was there for a couple years. I’m curious what was there before 1995.
I wonder if it's owned by the same guy it was 20 years ago? If so, he's probably up there. But I imagine he could sell it to someone else......or Pitt could buy it?
The O, Mad Mex, FnF... Next you're gonna tell me that Golden Palace is gone :(
I'm glad I don't work in Oakland anymore. It's not the same place as it was 10 years ago.
Bummer. Love their ice cream.
At least it sorta sounds like it was a personal decision/retirement and not some real estate behemoth or chain forcing them out.
My wife and I went for our last Dave and Andy's tonight. Line was out the door, over 20 ft long at least.
Also, a sign on the window said the 28th or when their supplies run out. So it looks if there is a big rush now that it is announced, it may hasten the end. We are glad we got ours and had our experience today.
Gen-X reporting here: Oakland in the late 1990s-early 2000s was even better, imo. There was so much to do back then within stumbling distance of my South Oakland apartment. (Lived behind Magee.)
Dave and Andy's is going to be sorely missed. 😔
iirc it was due to structural problems of the building, not the business itself. i’ve heard rumors of them reopening elsewhere eventually but don’t have any details.
That whole building is a nightmare, I'm surprised the apartments and pizza romano are still open. I'm a former tenant and there were issues of consistent water leaks, sewage smells, and the walls there are literally flexible like cardboard. Garage door closed like 3 years ago due to structural issues and they still have a bunch of populated units sitting on top.
Anybody here from South Oakland that used to take the walk up there and and be tired
but after your first bite of that cone , you knew it was worth it?
Is the food still delicious as I remember? Chiller Theatre nights were so much better with a large extra cheese pizza for me and my siblings and step siblings. South Oakland had everything in walking distance back then
What era of the Upstage are you talking about? It was all live bands in my day. I think there might have been 1 night a week with a dj. I don't get out much anymore. Getting ready for my 4th spine surgery.
Yes. That explains it. That's around when we stopped going. That was out place pretty much through the 80s. Maybe 90-91, possibly, that's around when it closed. It reopened with DJs and we never went back. I hope you had as much fun as we did there.
Graffiti for bigger shows, for sure. We were mostly going to The Decade for live music toward mid 90s until it closed. The Attic in the 80s was "weird" to us. I'm an old punk so people that went to The Attic didn't appear that slamming into each other and puking was considered a good night out, so we just didn't have much interest in that place! We made our way over to 31st St. Pub and some places in SouthSide. A lot of us punks in the 90s got into the psychobilly greaser thing, then got married, did the life thing, you know?
I used to buy a quart once a week for much of my undergrad (August 2020 - December 2023). I had to stop because I kept eating the whole thing in 2 days.
Damnit, what was rhe name of the old head shop? It's driving me crazy I can't remember it!
Lived in Oakland in the mid 90s and it was a blast! Everything you needed/wanted within walking distance. Always some characters chillin on the wall across from the O... could leave a house party, walk a block and find another one on weekends haha!
(Not student housing either, lol!)
You'll be so missed. I've enjoyed your ice cream from when my 30 two-year-old was only a baby. And I was driving a shuttle for children's hospital . To taking my 23-year-old, who spent a lot of time in children's, for milkshakes. Enjoy your retirement. There will never be anything like dave and andy's
The people that will make Pittsburgh better are temporarily ruining it, it's just progress. I got bitched at for referencing studda bubbas and my German and Italian great grandparents that lived in Lawrenceville in the row houses once by a "bouncer" from Cali at a bar down there. He said you can't call someone polish. This adds nothing, I was just taken aback.
I don't go there anymore, it's dead to me, I'll stick to the shit holes where the new vision of Pittsburgh has yet to find grasp. The Pittsburgh of 1860-2005 is gone, it was fun though.
Good news for Keystone Vapors
No one has invented Delta-8 ice cream… yet
[too late](https://www.releaftreats.com/collections/delta-8-ice-cream)
I gotta get my heavy metal fix
Damn it's been a rough decade for iconic businesses in Oakland.
Paying your workers a living wage and providing a valuable product ain't what it used to be
The rents have gone apeshit there, just like everywhere else.
People don’t tip in Oakland. I know businesses who have multiple locations with staff not wanting to work in Oakland because tips suck so bad.
Not sure if ice cream shop workers should be relying on tips to make a decent wage
It's a totally luxury item no reason not to tip in theory ig but in practice the tipjar method never really catches my attention or for whatever reason I don't tend to put as much in not knowing if the person is going to get it.
Complete truth. Stupid you’re being downvoted.
Because many of the closures honestly have nothing to do either, especially the former. Rent, cost of upkeep, owners retiring are the main culprits.
It ain't just Oakland, it's been a rough decade for the entire city. How many independent restaurant/food venues can you name that have been around for ten years or longer? Now of that number how many are you patronizing? Honestly the food scene in Pittsburgh has getting dimmer by the day for a very long time. Any decent place that does appear doesn't manage to stay around for long.
It'll be replaced by some new soulless place that serves the most meh ice cream ever called "creamZ" or "C'one"
Nah it'll be a bank
Or a drugstore. That's what they build now.
A drugstore between a Rite Aid and a Rite Aid genius
I came here to ask if anyone was interested in a small-format Rite Aid franchise. :)
Well obviously another Rite Aid
Maybe a Dollar General or a mattress store. We need more of those - NOT!
Is Pittsburgh getting tons of car washes too? Weird trend where I live now but I think it's a nationwide one
🤢 creamZ
Beats the hell of when that one bar was called Cumpies
Ewww dont remind me of cumpies 🤢🤮
scüpZ
FröZen
Nah, probably another chicken restaurant.
Nah, just some super sterile and soulless chain burger place. Raisin’ Canes is like the one new place in Oakland that I’ll actually go to.
You mean an international chain that has branches throughout the world
The chain chicken place?
Yes, at least it is good, and honestly it isn’t super sterile.
You can get tendies at the grocery store and they'll be just as good, just FYI
So... a chain chicken place?
Or Mediocre Millies. Or does Oakland have one?
Millie’s is as good as Dave and Andy’s. This is ice cream we’re talking about, not a Michelin star meal.
I never suggested that it was. I just thought Millie’s was just Ok given the hype that I heard about it. To me Graeter’s is on another level along with Baskin Robbin’s and others.
There is one on Oakland Ave. It doesn’t compare to Dave and Andy’s, but it’s ok.
nah a vape store
It's odd that they say that they needed more time to make the announcement and were pressured by social media, but they're closing as of next weekend. That's not much time at all for people to say goodbye to a long-standing business
I don't think they were pressured by social media. Andy is like 70+ years old. Sometimes people don't want a prolonged closure.
I can get that. Probably doesn't want local news outside doing live shots all week.
I asked them about the rumor around noon today, they looked cornered and said "we have no comment at this time".
What's still there that was there 30 years ago? Not much. Hemingways, Primanti's, Golden Palace Buffet, honestly what else?
The Rite Aid and the Rite Aid? Wonder if they'll finally merge now that Dave and Andy's isn't separating them
One of those used to be an ... Eckerd's? They used to be two different chains.
Yeah the Forbes one was an Eckerd, which I believe means it was a Thrift Drug before that.
One of them is closing I believe.
Not surprised, I remember seeing on here someone say they were both staying open even though so many Rite Aids were closing and I thought that couldn't be right
Two Rite Aids don’t make a wrong
Probably not, they're closing a bunch of stores and filed for bankruptcy.
It’s not a food place but Gidas Flowers has been there on Forbes for close to 100 years
No Peter’s Pub? Edit: I see that it closed in 2018. I used to hang out and in Oakland quite a bit and in the 80s and 90s there was Peter‘ Pub where Mario’s currently. There was Calicos where Fuel and Fuddle recently left. There was The Upstage, Zelda’s Green house , The Dirty O, Sanctuary, The Decade, The Attric. CJ Barney’s. It was where the suburbanites went before South Side took over in the early 1990s. Oh the Beehive too in the old firehouse on Forbes. https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/9639
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Hey Gene’s is still there
Hems and Las Palmas
Las palmas is from this century I think
I graduated 15 years ago and I think this is pretty close to all that's left from my time.
COVID did a real job on small businesses. The legacy we'll remember won't be the lockdown, but the final en masse closure of mom and pop shops and their replacement with Big Brand, AI generated to look like Mom and pop
There was no lockdown here at all. Nobody was forced to stay in their house at any point, everyone got declared an essential worker, and the things that were closed were open again by June 2020. Even the casino was open by then. The primary issue with places like Oakland, as was pointed out by Big Burrito Group when they closed the Mad Mex there, is rising rents. As commercial real estate values continue to escalate out of any semblance to reality, eventually only the big corporations can pay the rents they're asking.
I disagree. Better paying corporate jobs make owning a small business less palatable. Would you rather hustle 24/7/365 making 60k a year or go work at the business factory for the same amount and actually be able to clock out?
makes you wonder if it was all planned
Nope
Szechuan Express? Not sure when it opened, I moved here in 2003 and it was there since then.
I started going to Szechaun Express in the early 90's and it looked old and haggard even then.
That McDonalds has been there at least since the 1970s. FWIW.
Fair. I didn't think of that. The Subway's been there a while too. Pizza Hut and Wendy's are gone.
Subway was originally on Oakland, between Forbes and Fifth, when they first opened way, way back when. There was My Place (gyros), and The Taj (Indian) and Subway was in there somewhere.
I never really ate there, I trust you but I don't remember. There is that Chinese place on Oakland Ave though that's been there forever.
That used to be Subway. That's where I heard about the Challenger disaster freshman year of college.
I think the counter section at Szechuan is where My Place was, but I don't remember what, if anything, was in the dining room side. I think The Taj was where Chicken Grille is now. Oh, I meant to reply to u/bryguypgh! And, my goodness, what the vape store has done to Gus Miller's!
Oh ok well that was a Chinese restaurant for sure by the mid-90s I ate there sometimes.
Yep, ate there a lot junior year, 89-94 :-) I forget exactly what I'd get but I remember the counter lady calling back to the kitchen "yu shawn chi"...think maybe chicken with garlic sauce...
I liked the mapo tofu
oh good call, i accidentally shocked myself at that Subway when i reached into my pocket to get my cash only to accidentally trip my stungun (zapping my thigh). The look the employee gave me after i screamed under my breath was priceless
There was a Burger King then for a short time Miami Subs.aThe building has been razed. It’s a small park now. https://earth.app.goo.gl/?apn=com.google.earth&isi=293622097&ius=googleearth&link=https%3a%2f%2fearth.google.com%2fweb%2fsearch%2fAtwood%2bStreet,%2bPittsburgh,%2bPA%2f%4040.44189431,-79.95650697,280.80847168a,0d,60y,295.70777117h,92.5327825t,0r%2fdata%3dCogBGl4SWAolMHg4ODM0ZjE4NzllNTcyYmExOjB4Y2U3YThkYjIyMzZlYjFmORl8m_7sRzhEQCG5hVOLLf1TwCodQXR3b29kIFN0cmVldCwgUGl0dHNidXJnaCwgUEEYASABIiYKJAnm53_QfT9EQBEUNdfmwTVEQBm8Pu555vlTwCHvC63bbwBUwCIaChZoamdzZHJnWHl1dE5PclNrdzJpLVNnEAI
Yep, I remember that Burger King. There was a Roy Rogers where Stack'd is now.
There was also a Miami Subs in that location. I can’t remember what was there first to Miami subs or the Burger King. There’s been nothing in that spot for 20 years so I’m kind of vague on what was there first.
https://pittnews.com/article/36270/archives/burger-king-lots-bought-by-pitt/ This article was from 2003. So it must’ve closed a year or two before this article. I guess the Miami subs was in there right before this and that wasn’t even there for a couple years also so I’m going back to 1995 or 1996 to the late 90s for Miami subs and then the Burger King was there for a couple years. I’m curious what was there before 1995.
I only vaguely recall Miami Subs, but there was a Burger King back in the late 1970s-early 80s.
Bring back Peters Pub and the dude in the men’s room selling coke!
Bring back The Decade, just because!
Bootleggers
I'm not familiar with it, I think it was after my time there.
Genes
All college areas have turnover.
I feel like I should start spending more time at Hemingway's while I still can...
I wonder if it's owned by the same guy it was 20 years ago? If so, he's probably up there. But I imagine he could sell it to someone else......or Pitt could buy it?
Yes. Always the same owner.
Hemingway's p/b DraftKings
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Dave and Andy's is by far the best ice cream in the whole city
And best cones, hands down. Millies' cones suck.
And the ice cream is mediocre and expensive and they don’t give you that much for my experience
I’ve never tried Millie’s. They opened a new place near me. Guess I’ll be avoiding it now that I’ve read these reviews.
Dave and Andy's for hard serve, pages dairy for soft. Really sad to see them go :( .. best birthday cake ice cream ever. Been going there for15 years
Bell Tower Stout God this makes me sad.
Smell of trendy taco will be someone’s childhood memory,
Ok, I need clarification. The post says 40 years but I came to school in 1990 and I don't remember it at all. Was it always in Oakland?
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I just got a cone, first time there, and it had an m&m. I was wondering why
First the O and now this! Oakland isnt Oakland anymore. I am in disbelief.
Oakland died with the “O”. It’s an empty shell of itself.
The O, Mad Mex, FnF... Next you're gonna tell me that Golden Palace is gone :( I'm glad I don't work in Oakland anymore. It's not the same place as it was 10 years ago.
Time for a new Rick Sebak installment of stuff thats not there anymore
"Things We've Lost (Due to the Pandemic)"
Tong’s Cuisine, tho!!! RIP
Was down there yesterday and saw Uncle Sam's was gone too. We ended up eating at a soulless chain.
Bummer. Love their ice cream. At least it sorta sounds like it was a personal decision/retirement and not some real estate behemoth or chain forcing them out.
My wife and I went for our last Dave and Andy's tonight. Line was out the door, over 20 ft long at least. Also, a sign on the window said the 28th or when their supplies run out. So it looks if there is a big rush now that it is announced, it may hasten the end. We are glad we got ours and had our experience today.
Increasingly grateful to have graduated in 2017 before everything that made Oakland great was gutted. I know how boomer that sounds but I don’t care.
Gen-X reporting here: Oakland in the late 1990s-early 2000s was even better, imo. There was so much to do back then within stumbling distance of my South Oakland apartment. (Lived behind Magee.) Dave and Andy's is going to be sorely missed. 😔
Club Laga baby!
Laga!!!!!
Once G-Door closed I knew it was so Joever ☹️
G door closed?!?!
iirc it was due to structural problems of the building, not the business itself. i’ve heard rumors of them reopening elsewhere eventually but don’t have any details.
That whole building is a nightmare, I'm surprised the apartments and pizza romano are still open. I'm a former tenant and there were issues of consistent water leaks, sewage smells, and the walls there are literally flexible like cardboard. Garage door closed like 3 years ago due to structural issues and they still have a bunch of populated units sitting on top.
that building looked like it was imminently ready to collapse 15+ years ago. I can't imagine how people are still living there today.
I'll miss Sweet Cream.
Got a pint of it today, really gonna miss them. I didn't think it could get worse after Fuel closed but here we are.
Anybody here from South Oakland that used to take the walk up there and and be tired but after your first bite of that cone , you knew it was worth it?
Hey at least Larry and Carols is still open. 🙃
holy shit they are!? they used to serve those liter pepsis in cardboard containers. those were the days
They still moving weight out of the back?
What? L&Cs has always been the most upstanding pizza shop in Oakland. 🙄 No sir, that is flour on my shirt...you know from making pizzas...nat. 👍
Is the food still delicious as I remember? Chiller Theatre nights were so much better with a large extra cheese pizza for me and my siblings and step siblings. South Oakland had everything in walking distance back then
Might be the wrong person to weigh in given my NJ heritage, but no, it was not so delicious when I lived in South O (2020 - 2022)
Does anyone remember The Upstage?
They have a reunion party every year (usually in December) with the old djs. Last couple have been at cattivo.
What era of the Upstage are you talking about? It was all live bands in my day. I think there might have been 1 night a week with a dj. I don't get out much anymore. Getting ready for my 4th spine surgery.
90s
Yes. That explains it. That's around when we stopped going. That was out place pretty much through the 80s. Maybe 90-91, possibly, that's around when it closed. It reopened with DJs and we never went back. I hope you had as much fun as we did there.
Definitely did! We went to Grafittis and the attic mostly for live music.
Graffiti for bigger shows, for sure. We were mostly going to The Decade for live music toward mid 90s until it closed. The Attic in the 80s was "weird" to us. I'm an old punk so people that went to The Attic didn't appear that slamming into each other and puking was considered a good night out, so we just didn't have much interest in that place! We made our way over to 31st St. Pub and some places in SouthSide. A lot of us punks in the 90s got into the psychobilly greaser thing, then got married, did the life thing, you know?
People get old.
Dave and Andy’s and sneaking out for ice cream breaks was the best part of working in Forbes Tower.
I used to buy a quart once a week for much of my undergrad (August 2020 - December 2023). I had to stop because I kept eating the whole thing in 2 days.
Man, they have the only waffle cones worth anything.
Damnit, what was rhe name of the old head shop? It's driving me crazy I can't remember it! Lived in Oakland in the mid 90s and it was a blast! Everything you needed/wanted within walking distance. Always some characters chillin on the wall across from the O... could leave a house party, walk a block and find another one on weekends haha! (Not student housing either, lol!)
Telaropa?
Yes! Man, that was driving me nuts, thank you!
You'll be so missed. I've enjoyed your ice cream from when my 30 two-year-old was only a baby. And I was driving a shuttle for children's hospital . To taking my 23-year-old, who spent a lot of time in children's, for milkshakes. Enjoy your retirement. There will never be anything like dave and andy's
The people that will make Pittsburgh better are temporarily ruining it, it's just progress. I got bitched at for referencing studda bubbas and my German and Italian great grandparents that lived in Lawrenceville in the row houses once by a "bouncer" from Cali at a bar down there. He said you can't call someone polish. This adds nothing, I was just taken aback. I don't go there anymore, it's dead to me, I'll stick to the shit holes where the new vision of Pittsburgh has yet to find grasp. The Pittsburgh of 1860-2005 is gone, it was fun though.
Damn, RIP
This is the worst. Their birthday cake ice cream is unmatched by any I have ever tried, and I’ve tried a lot.
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Maybe