Carson City Saloon

The Carson City Saloon is a place in the South Side that I go to occasionally for a beer and a sandwich. It's in an old bank building and a lot of the the interior has been saved. I really like it when people save or restore the old and still turn it into something new! The walls are covered with a beautiful green marble and the bank vault is still there although it's been converted into a rest room...With a real heavy door!

Anyway, this week was the huge snowstorm in Pittsburgh where we got about 22 inches of snow on Friday and Saturday and another 8 or so inches a couple of days later. A couple of friends of ours, Bonnie and Gary lost their power on Friday night. They stuck it out for the night but by Saturday they still didn't have any electricity or heat. Stacy and I told them to pack up and come on over! They showed up with lots of beer and food that they had planned to use for a Super Bowl party on Sunday. When we woke up on Sunday morning our street in Mount Washington hadn't even been touched. Luckily, Gary has a four wheel drive Jeep and we tried to venture out for breakfast. We soon found out that most of the roads from da Mount were closed so it took about an hour to get to the South Side, which usually takes about five minutes. By this time we gave up on breakfast and decided to find a place where we could have lunch and watch the Penguin game at noon. A lot of places were closed, but not Carson City!

The Carson City is usually pretty packed for Pens games, but not in the middle of a major snowstorm! We found seats at the bar, ordered Bloody Marys and settled in. The menu is big, full of a variety of sandwiches, appetizers, and salads. While the food is good, keep in mind that this is not a health food menu. Salads tend to be Pittsburgh style...A good healthy food that is then topped with french fries and cheese. I don't have a problem with that and neither does Gary so we both ordered fish, breaded and deep fried of course! Stacy ordered a blackened salmon sandwich. It came with smoked applewood bacon (it's Pittsburgh, remember?) and she said it was really good. Not over cooked, the way salmon tends to be in bars.

Gary and I both agreed that the fish sandwich was tremendous! It really is one of the best I've had in Pittsburgh. A large piece of cod that could have filled two buns easily, breaded nicely and fried to perfect golden brown. The breading wasn't overbearing and let the flavor of the fish stand out.

While I have been to Carson City several times before, the menu never really intrigued me. next time I won't hesitate to eat with my beer. It's probably better that way, anyway!