90 Neighborhoods, 90 Beers, 90 Songs
Today, Sunday November 3, my friends at East End Brewing here in Pittsburgh are finishing a project that they started five and half years ago: to brew a beer for all 90 neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. A different beer with a different recipe, and also trying to do neighborhood releases for many of them.
Clearly this was an insane project, and in retrospect even more insane to start it in 2019, unaware of what would happen. No one would blame East End if they paused or even stopped it altogether once COVID happened.
And yet they didn't. The brewhouse and front of house staff and everyone else kept going. Through COVID and out, through good times and bad, through neighborhood pop-ups with limited turnouts to big successes, East End stayed true to their word. They kept releasing the beers, pushing themselves and their brewery staff, honing their craft in the process.
To help with the sendoff for the final beer, Central Business District (aka Downtown), Scott from East End asked me to help with some organizing. I was still working part-time for East End when this project started, and I was honored to come help close it out today, Sunday November 3, with a trivia event at Arcade Comedy Theater downtown.
But that wasn't enough! In my own small way I wanted to pay tribute to what everyone at East End accomplished, so I made a giant, 90 song playlist, with a song that shares a name with each Pittsburgh neighborhood. Some are exact matches, like Beth Orton's "Mount Washington" or Billy Joel's "Allentown." Some are a bit of a cheat, sure, like "Hazy Shade of Winter" for Marshall-Shadeland. And I tried to fit in some Pittsburgh artists too.
So cheers to Scott and everyone at East End Brewing! Thanks for inspiring me, being good friends, and brewing good beer. Hope you enjoy listening.
Click here to listen on Spotify
