New Girl in Town: On Shopping

It didn’t take me long to find a few favorite stores in Pittsburgh but then I worked at it – hard.  That’s what you do when you’re new in town and need a touchstone or two.  Happy to share my newfound bounty, I invite my friend Emma along for a shopping excursion employing my usual modus operandi:  hit lots of places quick and pause frequently to eat.  Emma, a graphic designer and silk screener, has a keen eye and no idea what it’s like to shop with me.

First stop is Hot Haute Hot in the Strip District, where owners Keneva Fecko and Rose  Smith stock furniture and finery from around the globe.  A favorite supplier, Four Hands, imports from seven continents and their mango wood cabinet is the kind of sustainable, reclaimed piece that radiates eco-consciousness.  It’s beautiful, too.  I always look up in HHH since the chandeliers are the piece de resistance.  A turquoise and brown one from Turkey catches my eye, its circular shape composed of hundreds of dangly beads that catch the light.  It’s delicate – but large.

“I’d need a whole new room just for that!” exclaims Emma.

In the center of the room, a cupboard with a reverse-painted aquamarine peacock shimmers in the sunlight.  Keneva delights in showing us a Four Hands bar that opens every which way and requires about eight hands to maneuver.  It’s a brilliant design and I wish I owned it.

“Very wabi-sabi,” says Emma, summing up beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent and incomplete,” according to the aesthete Leonard Koren.

Around the corner is Roxanne’s Dried Flowers, a haven for those obsessed with wreaths (me).  I knew Pittsburgh was the place for me since most every door sports a wreath.  I’ve made it my personal campaign to rotate a wreath on my door seasonally to see...nah, I just love buying wreaths.  I spot a couple of gorgeous pussy willow wreaths up front and see more further back but they’re all too large for my door.

“We can make it smaller if you’d like, and skinnier,” says Roxanne, in response to my query.  I assure her I’ll be back before pussy willow season is over.

All Things Mexican
At Artistry a few blocks away, owner Laura Kirich’s store exudes casual elegance.  Home is an extension of self in Laura’s world and she prides herself on good-looking design that is comfortable and livable.  I love her penchant for things Mexican so she wastes no time in showing us a mammoth dining table that employs an old Mexican door as its top.

“It’s Sabino wood – so soft!” she tells us.  “Touch it.”

Emma and I reach over and pat the table.  We coo.  It is absolutely beautiful, and the  door is resting on the sturdiest oxen yolk I’ve ever seen.  I surmise it would take a team of oxen to get it out the door.

“I’m hungry,” I say to Emma.  “Let’s eat.”

A Tea Party!
We make our way to Dozen in Lawrenceville, a leap of faith on my part since it’s known for cupcakes and I don’t like cupcakes.  A friend has assured me there are plenty of good eats and one look at the display makes her case.  Em and I fashion a tea party out of a pear and apple danish, a slice of raspberry pound cake with lemon royal icing, a macaroon and a silky-smooth piece of quiche.  Oh, and a milk chocolate cupcake.  We grab a couple cups of Intelligentsia coffee and snag a table near the open door.  The flaky danish envelops a cream cheese filling that suckles dewy chunks of fruit and is BLISS.  The pound cake is moist and bursting with berries and Emma pronounces the macaroon perfect.  The quiche, graced with potatoes, roasted red peppers, asiago and sage, lingers in my mouth before it slides down my throat.  I get to the cupcake and fully expect an impenetrable helmet of frosting but am surprised to find the butter cream soft to the touch.  One bite convinces me that owners James Gray and Andrew Twigg are on to something.

Duly fortified, Emma and I blitz through lower Lawrenceville.  At Accessorize, the bling is BIG and Emma wastes no time in trying on a pair of pink, Paris Hilton-style wraparound sunglasses.  It’s my girl who is HOT.  Pavement is still filled with gorgeous shoes and I’m struck by the sign on the door that reminds me to buy local, since far more money will go back to the community if I do.  Clothing emporium Sugar is stocked with flirty dresses on this early Spring day, many by local designer Kelly Lane, though Seattle’s Suzabelle is giving her a run for her money across the room.  I vow to return to play dress-up.

Crossing the 10th Street Bridge, we land on the South Side and pop into Vessel Studio, where owner/artist Drew Hine displays the hand-blown glass he crafts several blocks away.  Translucent spheres dance across a wall as flights of whimsy descend on scattered cubes.  I first spotted Drew’s glass at Coca Cafe, co-owned by his wife, Jeannine.  The white-washed space on Carson Street does the colorful, sensual pieces far more justice and I play a game of eeny-meeny-miney-moe to decide which pieces to add to my modest collection.  Hunger strikes yet again, so we make our way up Carson to Folino’s, where Chef Matt Helon cooks up his Exotic Mushroom Soup, winner of this year’s South Side Mid-Winter Soup Contest.  Over steaming bowls of creamy, soul-satisfying soup, we chat with owner Penny Folino, a life force and champion of the  South Side.  Penny wants to draw more people over to her neighborhood and is working on a wine walk fashioned after the soup crawl but with a dash more pizazz.

“Sold!” I say to Penny. It doesn’t doesn’t take much to get me out and about in Pittsburgh.

There's a lot to like in Pittsburgh but surely a few things are missing -- Elaine would love to hear your thoughts on what Pittsburgh needs: email her here."

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Elaine Labalme moved to Pittsburgh with her husband and son after conducting an 18-month search for the best place to live. She is now exploring the city and writing about in her occasional column, New Girl in Town.

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Captions, from the top: Drew Hine; lighting at Hot Haute Hot; table at Artistry; Emma at Accesorize; Matt Helon, and Elaine, at Folino's.

Photographs copyright Brian Cohen

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