Stroll by the patchwork buildings lining Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood and you’ll come to a single-story tile-and-brick establishment on a corner lot. This is Fet-Fisk, a Nordic-meets-Appalachian restaurant helmed by chef and co-owner Nik Forsberg, whose inked arms and affable gruffness would help him easily pass as the front man of a DIY punk band. His meticulous approach to each dish (as Bon Appétit senior editor Jennifer Choi describes in her review: "Each element…takes days to create via processes he honed during years of sold-out pop-ups") has earned considerable hype and accolades since Fet-Fisk opened its doors in March 2024, including multiple James Beard Award nominations and a place on our 2025 Best New Restaurants list.
Originally from Asheville, North Carolina, Forsberg has been kicking around Pittsburgh for a hair more than a decade now. He spent the first few years playing in local bands (the off-duty-musician vibe, it turns out, isn't just for show), working different restaurant jobs and getting involved in a local farming operation, Tiny Seed Farm, before he and his business partner Sarah LaPonte got the ball rolling with Fet-Fisk in 2019. COVID-19 took hold of the city when the concept was still just a pop-up, disrupting their plans as well as those of many other up-and-comers in Pittsburgh’s food scene.
“COVID really knocked the wind out of the sails of the industry here, and it's taken a while for it to bounce back,” Forsberg says. “But I think it allowed a lot of people who were in the industry and had ideas but were working for someone else to get out from under that and strike out on their own.”
Now Forsberg and other chefs of his generation are dynamizing the food landscape in Pittsburgh. Fet-Fisk is joined by other newcomers like Lilith—a fun, cozy, and eclectic eatery that started serving diners in 2023—and soon-to-open spots Amboy, a modern Filipino joint, and Titusz, which will feature a menu of reimagined Austrian and Hungarian dishes, both of which are set to open in the coming months.
But the culinary spoils of Pittsburgh go well beyond new restaurants. The city has a strong reputation for dive bars, sandwich counters, and an abundance of pierogie spots—there’s no shortage of places to explore.
“Pittsburgh's set up is kind of like a triangle in between the two rivers. Everything in the triangle is the East End, which is where I think all the fun, interesting stuff is happening. But even within that, every neighborhood has a totally different vibe, has different kinds of food, different kinds of people,” says Forsberg.
When he’s not busy doling out house-made farmer’s cheese and grilled cabbage Caesars (or doing the million other things involved in owning and operating a restaurant) you’re likely to find him blowing off steam at a nearby dive or checking out a friend’s pop-up. We snagged a little bit of time with the chef to talk about his favorite spots and typical haunts in the steel city.
How to experience Forsberg's Pittsburgh
Forsberg shares his recommended Pittsburgh itinerary, in his own words.
Check into the Maverick hotel
“It's a nice place in an old YMCA. It used to be an old Ace Hotel—I actually used to cook there in the restaurant. I think now they're building out a bar and a restaurant. There's no-contact check-in and the rooms are reasonable. They kept the same aesthetic from that old Ace Hotel.”
Stroll around the East Side—don’t skip the graveyard
“[The neighborhood] Bloomfield-Garfield has a bunch of art studios and they do a gallery crawl every first Friday. However, there aren’t a ton of restaurants and bars. Lawrenceville is the most concentrated and saturated for shopping, decent restaurants, and walkability. It's right near the Allegheny Cemetery, which is huge and super beautiful, with tons of old mausoleums. It’s a great place to go on a date, or to go hang out at night and drink wine (which is not necessarily above board). You could definitely take a walk through Bloomfield-Garfield, walk down through the Allegheny Cemetery into Lawrenceville, get your full fix down there, and have a full day.”
Grab some local coffee
“I like Redstart Roasters. They're sort of near me and the people that run it are really sweet. But in general, I go to this place Commonplace Coffee. They probably have eight to 10 locations in town now. There’s one like a block from my house, so if I need to run out the door, that's where I go.”
Enjoy an old-school diner vibe
“Dad's Dog and Burger, it's a block down from the restaurant. It used to be called GM Dog N' Burger Shoppe and you could get hot dogs with or without chili, hamburgers, and fried fish sandwiches—they hadn't raised their prices in probably 40 years. But this woman Katelyn [Bako], who's really sweet, bought the business and reopened it. She cleaned it up a little bit but definitely kept the spirit of the place.”
Eat exceptionally good (and exceptionally hot) Chinese food
“There's a restaurant in Squirrel Hill called Chengdu Gourmet. The chef there [Wei Zhu] has been a Mid-Atlantic [James Beard Foundation] semi-finalist several times. There’s also this place in Oakland called Hunan Bar. They have a really nice vegetable section, with wild veggies sauteed with tons of garlic and chili oil. It’s just super good. They also have a really spicy fried pig tongue dish with tripe and chili oil. It’s an awesome place to go with four people and just order a ton of food.”
Pop into the Duolingo cafe (yes, the Duolingo cafe)
“Duolingo actually opened a restaurant next to their offices and they hired my friend Marcella [ Ogrodnik] as the chef. She does really, really excellent higher-end Mexican food. It's called Duo's Taqueria. It's kind of goofy because the Duo bird is on the menu. But the food is so fucking good, I don't care. It's so good every time. Super seasonal. I was embarrassed to say it for a while, but I'm like, I don't care. It's so good. It's worth the light cringe, I think. But they know what they're doing. They have money, they're doing a good job and the chef is super talented.”
Have a red-sauce-joint date night
“Dish Osteria, which is in the southside, is kind of off my beaten path, but it's just an excellent family-run Sicilian restaurant that’s been around for 25 years. It’s my special occasion place for a good date, and they've always been super solid and consistent. The best service in town.
Rattle around in the Squirrel Cage
“My favorite place is the Squirrel Hill Cafe, but we just call it the 'Cage' or the 'Squirrel Cage.' It's a dive that's been around forever and has always had solid food. It's probably my favorite burger in town. It's eight bucks up from six three years ago or something like that. They have a great beer selection. They do subpar Negronis, but I still love even a bad Negroni.
The first place we ever did pop-ups was this soon-to be-bagel shop in Squirrel Hill before it had been built out, and we would always go to the Cage after a pop-up to wind down, decompress, laugh about all the chaos that the pop-up entailed, and eat burgers at midnight. That place for me always feels like home, and it's just become our spot, like the OG team. It’s our favorite bar in town.”
Spend too much on wine and cheese
"[For wine, go to] Allegheny Wine Mixer. Their aesthetic is kitschy and quirky. The guy who runs the wine list is an ace expert at the stuff, and they change their list all the time. It's always really good. They do good meat and cheese platters and stuff—kind of like classic wine bar food—but a lot of us love that place and spend way too much money there."
Interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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