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1 day ago | 
pittsburghquarterly.com | Stuart Sheppard |Aakanksha Agarwal |Marianne Dougherty |Vicky A. Clark
Modern adaptations of classic plays often look like someone wearing borrowed clothes: they don’t fit quite right, and it’s obvious that the person wearing them had to struggle to put them on. But when an adaptation of a play like August Strindberg’s “Miss Julie” (1888) really does justice to its antecedent and fits the subject matter – such as in PICT’s current production at Carnegie Stage — we as the audience get a double reward . . .
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2 days ago | 
pghcitypaper.com | Aakanksha Agarwal
In early 2025, Pittsburgh landed three James Beard semifinalist nods: Fet-Fisk for Best New Restaurant, along with Kate Lasky and Tomasz Skowronski of Apteka and Wei Zhu of Chengdu Gourmet for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. Fet-Fisk, already named one of the country’s best new restaurants by The New York Times and Eater, has since advanced to the finalist round.
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3 days ago | 
nextpittsburgh.com | Aakanksha Agarwal
“Cleveland has the best 90 days of any place in the world,” quarterback Jameis Winston declared after one season with the Cleveland Browns. It might sound like hyperbole, but spend a spring or summer weekend here, and you’ll get it. Because when this city blooms, it really blooms. Rooftop bars buzz with energy, world-class museums spill into sculpture gardens and historic cobblestone streets brim over with markets and makers.
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4 days ago | 
kidsburgh.org | Aakanksha Agarwal
Brightly colored snacks have long been a childhood rite of passage. The pink yogurt in the lunchbox, the neon cupcake at the birthday party, the crimson candy at the checkout line. But behind the hues that scream "fun" lies a quiet shift: growing concern from health experts and regulators about what these artificial colors might actually be doing inside kids' bodies. So what does that mean for families right now?
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1 week ago | 
kidsburgh.org | Aakanksha Agarwal
Photo above courtesy of Persis Naumann/Kelir Books. What language do we speak at home? How do we avoid losing our mother tongue? Is bilingualism even realistic? As more Pittsburgh families raise children with roots in more than one culture, these questions around bilingualism are becoming more central than ever. "Language is culture," says Dr. Leah Fabiano, who specializes in bilingual development.
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2 weeks ago | 
pghcitypaper.com | Aakanksha Agarwal
"I’m just a chubby-cheeked guy from Duquesne who likes a good fish sandwich," David Schorr tells Pittsburgh City Paper. "Somehow, that turned into this." "This" being the unexpected phenomenon that made him Pittsburgh’s unofficial king of fish fries. What started as a casual appreciation for a good battered filet has grown into something much bigger: an entire movement, a Facebook group with thousands of members, and a name recognized in church basements across the city.
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2 weeks ago | 
cidercraftmag.com | Aakanksha Agarwal
Ditch the usual pre-dinner routine: no heavy cocktails or complicated drinks. Pommeau is your new go-to. It’s the kind of drink that pairs perfectly with those slow, lingering evenings that stretch into night. Imagine a smoky room, soft classical tunes, and a glass of Pommeau in hand. This French classic is slowly but surely making waves in the United States, converting cider lovers with its smooth, caramel sweetness.
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2 weeks ago | 
kidsburgh.org | Aakanksha Agarwal
All photos and graphics courtesy of Pittsburgh Public Schools. When Dr. Theodore Dwyer joined Pittsburgh Public Schools in 2017 as chief accountability officer, he arrived with a clear mandate: make the district's data more transparent and more useful.
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3 weeks ago | 
pittsburghquarterly.com | Stuart Sheppard |Aakanksha Agarwal |Marianne Dougherty
If there’s a miracle in Pittsburgh Public Theater’s current performance of the 1962 Edward Albee play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” — it’s that two well-educated couples can argue drunkenly for over three hours and never once broach the subject of politics. (And these couples are of different generations, no less). Of course, this would never happen today. But my oh my, how much more interesting conversation can be when the political realm is eschewed.
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4 weeks ago | 
nextpittsburgh.com | Aakanksha Agarwal
When Monica Malik was 13, she rang up her first customer at a McDonald’s in Pittsburgh and was immediately confused. “What kind of pop do you have?” a teenage girl asked, her friends giggling beside her. “We don’t have pop,” Malik replied, puzzled. “But we do have Coke, Sprite, Dr Pepper … .”The girl stared blankly, and Malik, fresh from New Jersey where it was called “soda,” suddenly realized she wasn’t just learning a new job.
