Strip District-Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh: neighborhood guide

The Strip District runs along the Allegheny River northeast of Downtown, roughly from 11th to 31st Street. It was Pittsburgh's wholesale market: produce, fish, meat, coffee and ethnic groceries, much of it still trading from the same low brick warehouses. Penn Avenue is the spine. Some side streets are still paved with Belgian block, stone that arrived as ballast in ships from Europe.

Lawrenceville sits directly north and east, one of the city's oldest and largest neighborhoods, with about 11,000 residents and three business strips. Butler Street, from 34th to 62nd, holds most of the shops, galleries, restaurants and bars. Penn Avenue from 34th toward Friendship is the quieter, funkier end. Liberty Avenue from 33rd to the Bloomfield Bridge has studios and restaurants.

The wider east side continues into Bloomfield, Pittsburgh's Italian-American district, and East Liberty and Garfield, both reshaped by rapid redevelopment since the 2000s. You can walk or ride between them, but they are separate bases with separate characters.

Stay in the Strip District if you want to be near the food markets and a short ride from Downtown, and you value a working neighborhood over a hotel district. Stay in Lawrenceville if you want the evening to happen outside your door: Butler Street has the densest run of bars and restaurants, and it stays busy late.

Do not base a first Pittsburgh trip here if your list is museums, the inclines and stadiums. Those sit in Oakland, the North Side and the South Side, and each is a bus or car ride away. Downtown is closer to the Strip than to Lawrenceville, so split the difference: two nights Downtown, two nights on Butler Street, if you have four nights.

Both areas are largely residential once you leave the commercial streets, so check the block before booking. Penn Avenue and Butler Street are loud on weekend nights; the side streets a block back are not.

The Strip District is a daytime food destination. Come Saturday or Sunday morning for the fullest market: coffee roasters, Italian grocers, sausage makers, Asian and Eastern European shops, and street vendors along Penn Avenue. Many stalls pack up by early afternoon, so a late lunch is a gamble.

Lawrenceville is the evening side. Butler Street runs from casual brunch spots to small-plate restaurants and cocktail bars, with a cluster of breweries and music venues further up. Penn Avenue in Lawrenceville and Garfield adds coffee shops and inexpensive ethnic kitchens.

Bloomfield, a short ride or a 20-minute walk from upper Lawrenceville, is where to go for Italian-American red-sauce cooking and bakeries. Reserve on Friday and Saturday nights in Lawrenceville; walk-ins work better at lunch and early in the week.

From Downtown, Liberty Avenue and Penn Avenue run parallel east through the Strip District. Stay on Penn for Lawrenceville and turn left onto Butler Street for upper Lawrenceville and Highland Park. By bus, routes 86, 87, 88 and 91 cover the Strip and Lawrenceville; route 54 connects the Strip to the North Side, Oakland and the South Side. Fares and frequency change, so check Port Authority schedules before you rely on a late bus.

Walking works within each area but not between them: the Strip to central Lawrenceville is 20–30 minutes on foot, mostly uphill. A car helps for Oakland, the North Side and day trips, but parking on Penn and Butler is tight on weekends.

Rideshares are easy to find on Penn and Butler and are the simplest option after the buses thin out at night.