Last Updated on July 27, 2022 by Jeremy
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If you’re like us, you were probably pretty sad to hear that the Allegheny Overlook was not returning for another season in 2022. This pop-up space on Fort Duquesne Blvd was a relaxing hangout spot with food trucks, great views of the Allegheny River and PNC Park, and, perhaps most importantly, beer flowing from one of our favorite breweries- Braddock-based Brew Gentlemen.
While we still lament this closure, there is good news in that Brew Gentlemen is sticking around downtown Pittsburgh in the summer of 2022 with a new pop-up beer garden at Steel Plaza on Grant Street!
Naturally, we had to check this one out shortly after it opened for the season and share a bit more about what to expect at this one.
A Mellow Vibe at Brew Gentlemen’s Pop Up
Steel Plaza is, admittedly, not the kind of place we spend a lot of time whenever we’re downtown. Apart from walking down Grant Street (while marveling at the buildings) or popping by during Christmas in Pittsburgh for the giant creche, we really don’t have other reasons to stop in this particular plaza- until now.
Brew Gentlemen’s popup does justice to the space without really impacting the scenery much at all. If the Allegheny Overlook was as splashy as you can get, this is the opposite of that in all respects. The setup is simply Brew Gentlemen’s mobile truck, ample seating that looks like it could fit 75 or 100 people, a stage for live music, and depending on the day and weather possibly some yard games like cornhole.
That is it.
When you are down at this one, you really could be surrounded by people simply having an outdoor meeting with a beer, doing work on a laptop, or enjoying music with a quick brew after work. I even remarked about how I was jealous of the people who work at the Steel Tower building for having stellar beer out front, but then was reminded by many people that working in an office is still pretty awful (it is true, but I also wouldn’t complain if Brew Gentlemen was set up 20 feet from my office’s front door).
For those who aren’t familiar with Brew Gentlemen’s mobile truck, they often feature about a dozen beers on draft and during our visit included a healthy mix of IPAs, lagers, wheat beers, and fruited beers as well. Two summer staples you really need to check out if available are Garden Party (cucumber wheat) and Muchos Mahalos (a tropical ale made with POG juice) as they are the perfect thirst quenchers on a hot summer day.
From there, if you are looking for more beyond beer, you’ll do well to check out Brew Gentlemen’s Instagram feed to check out when there is live music and/or food trucks (the former seems much more frequent than the latter- thankfully there are a ton of great restaurants in downtown Pittsburgh to hit after visiting the popup). During our quick visit, we were fortunate enough to take in a few songs featuring local legend Byron Nash which really helped elevate our happy hour experience a great deal.
So if you ignore the beer for a minute it really is worth re-iterating that this popup is also going to be one of the best places for live music downtown in summer- it really is hard to find great music downtown at times and this one will be solving that problem!
Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the ambiance at Steel Plaza outright. While earlier in this article we stated we don’t really stop at this one much, it took visiting for the pop-up to realize just how nice the views are from this area. Not only do you get to see the imposing Steel Tower up-close-and-personal, but the plaza also has great views of the BNY Mellon Building, the Union Trust Building, the Omni William Penn Hotel, and the Alcoa Building to name a few. The amount of history in these buildings alone is nothing short of impressive and is a great thing to think about when sipping on a brew.
Oh, and as a final bonus, most of those buildings block the sun as it is setting, so we enjoyed our 5 pm beers in a decent amount of shade as well- win!
So if you are looking for a delicious beer in downtown Pittsburgh, you have no excuse to skip out on Brew Gentlemen’s relaxing popup. If all goes well, we hope this spot will stick around for more than a single season, too!
Brew Gentlemen’s summer popup is at the US Steel Plaza on Grant and Sixth in downtown Pittsburgh. In 2022, the beer garden is said to operate Tuesday to Saturday from 3 pm to 8 pm, but as always it is worth confirming on their website or social media before visiting as we can imagine weather and other one-time downtown events could impact operations. At this time we do not know and end date for the popup, but we hope it will be here through Labor Day (or longer!) pending weather.
