Destination Breakfast: Braddock Cafe for Four

7/16/2013 44m

Today we assembled a foursome for the ride - myself, S, R, and SK - which was tremendous. We mustered at the Bastille (Western Penitentiary) at 0600 and pushed off around 0615. We rode across the Ft. Duquesne and the Ft. Pitt Bridges, through SouthSide, and stopped at Caribou Coffee at South Side Works for shots-in-the-dark to truly wake us up.

Continued south along the trail, and departed the trail at the south end of the Waterfront to join 837 to the Rankin Bridge, then took the sidewalk over to Braddock. Our timing was too good, we made it to the front door of the Braddock Community Cafe a few moments before they opened for breakfast so we manuevered up the street to see the Brick Woman.

When the Cafe opened we were very pleasantly surprised. The last time we were in there, they had T-shirts for sale but we didn't buy any because they didn't have any in bright colors; make some in orange, we said, and we'd buy some. Today they had them in orange so we bought some:

We all had breakfast sandwiches which were wonderful. For the four of us, breakfast sandwiches and drinks came to $15 which is a great value for locally sourced, organic made to order food. I love riding out to the Braddock Cafe for breakfast or lunch, it's my favorite destination ride out of downtown Pittsburgh.

Departing Braddock we noticed a series of new aspirational/ affirming/ and possibly light-hearted street signs on Braddock Avenue:

Departed Braddock, back across the Rankin Bridge, stopped at the Blue Bonnet bakery in Homestead for some pastries, then continued back to the start. Took the Hot Metal Bridge and the Jail Trail for a variation on the theme. Discovered that SK had not seen Point State Park so we took a loop through there, and ended up chilling:

Just a fine ride, off the bikes by 1100 before it could get too hot, 44 miles. Good chow and good friends. wow.