Pittsburgh Feis Eats

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

One of the reasons I like to travel is for the food, and when I find a family friendly place near the venue I like to point it out, especially when it is a ‘local’ place that might be easily missed. I found one this weekend during the Halloween Feis.

85596488_scaled_110x110After having spent the previous week on the coast, I was actually tired of seafood, so when Mrs. WTF asked what I wanted for dinner, I said chicken wings. We did a Google search and found there was a Buffalo Wild Wings nearby, but those are everywhere. We also found a little place called Wings, Suds and Spuds that had some favorable ratings, so we gave it a shot.

A small place in Moon Township, about 10 minutes from the Hyatt, WSS is a family-run business. When we pulled in to a packed (albeit smallish) parking lot, I knew we were on to something, and once inside, I could smell the ‘wingy’ goodness. The restaurant is small, but is family-friendly and serves hot wings and cold beer as well as salads, sandwiches etc… You can see the full menu here.

I like wings and these were pretty good, better than some I have had at the big-name restaurants. The wings were wet, and you could get them really wet, so they were messy, but the sauces were really good. I did half and half with half hot, and the other half hot cajun. Everyone else got boneless or tenders and curly fries and there was very little left by the time we were all through.

WSS has 5 or 6 different beers on tap and all the usual suspects in bottles. I was surprised that there were no BIG name brands on tap, not even Yuengling or Iron City, which I think is against the law, but nobody seemed to care.

Prices were comparable to the chicken chains, maybe a little higher, but it was worth it.

So, if you are looking for something other than hotel or fast food next time you are at a Pittsburgh Feis, look these guys up.

As always, WTF is not compensated for these endorsements…. if I could only find a way 😉

Pittsburgh Halloween Feis 2014, PC/OC Review/0 Comments/in , , /by

I have been to four (at least) feis at this venue between the Halloween Feis and The West Virginia Feis. Yes, I said WV. It is at the same venue as the Halloween Feis which is actually between Pittsburgh and WV, but I digress. My first few experiences (one & two) were not my favorite, but number three was much better. The fact that TGC has moved up into the PC ranks, really helps the ‘likeability’ of this feis since the champs portion is held on Sunday. Not taking away from the great job the feis team does on Saturday mind you, but Sunday is just better. Can I get a ‘yeah man!’

The Pittsburgh Halloween Feis was held on Saturday and Sunday, October 4th and 5th, 2014 at Hyatt Regency Hotel at the Pittsburgh Airport in Pittsburgh, PA.

NOTE: This is for the PC/OC day of the feis (Sunday). If you have comments for the Grades day of the feis, please contact me and I can share them in a separate post, thanks!

After re-reading my review of the WV Feis from March, my comments for this feis are almost exactly the same, so much so that I am just going to quote them here, and I will indicate any differences I noticed.

Venue

Stages 1 and 2 were in the large ballroom and were separated by a temporary partition. This was a much better setup than having 3 stages in the same room and allowed more chairs for viewers and better traffic flow. Combine that with less people and it was a win-win.

Stages were huge, I am guessing 30 x 30ish, or maybe bigger. It was hard to tell since they covered the normal 4 x 8 sheets of plywood (which is how I do my normal measuring) with that black material which made a much better dance platform. I did not see any falls and only one minor slip while I was watching the competitions.

Due to the level of the dancers, results were announced instead of posted. This was in the hallway on the way to the back doors and blocked the hallway completely, which was an inconvenience but only minor (depending of course on who you ask).

Camping seemed adequate and I saw no NO CAMPING signs. People did fill up viewers chairs and the tables that had been set up in one of the side rooms, but I rant about that elsewhere if you are interested. There were lots of chairs though, and we did not have any trouble finding seats.

The concessions and vendors were setup in the halls as in years past, but with less people, it wasn’t as congested.

Parking was plentiful but may have involved a bit of a walk depending on when you arrived. There was a way to pull right up to the hotel to drop off dancers and gear though. The feis did pay for parking which was cool and saved me $13.

Judges

PC/OC  always has 3 judges monitoring the performance. You really don’t get much better than that. The judges seemed attentive on our stage and took no breaks that I saw.

Music

Each stage had their own musician and there was a lot of distance between them. I could not hear the music from the other stage when I was watching dancers perform on our stage.

Food

Same as for the last feis, breakfast sandwiches… all reasonably priced.

We were not there long enough for lunch so I cannot comment on that food. There are some previous comments in previous posts.

Vendors

They had the airbrush artist back which I like. Otherwise the standard feis tshirt guy, shoe booth, jewelry, feis and Irish themed apparel, knit goods, the wig stuff, nic-nacs, paddywacks, etc…

Results

As the morning progressed I was more and more impressed that ‘the feis guy’ would come out and announce ‘awards for X will be in 5 minutes’ about 15 minutes after the comp finished. Based on previous PC experience, this is the best PC/OC results I have seen. TGCs comp did take longer than the others, and was between 30 and 45 minutes, but there were a lot of dancers in her comp, so I can understand the extra time. Even with that, it was handled better than I have seen at this level so far.

I have to echo the same sentiment. Jim (the feis guy) does an excellent job keeping things moving. TGCs results were out in about 30 minutes, and now that I have a few champ feiseanna under my belt, that is pretty darn good.

If there were any negatives on the reults, and these are minor… It would be nice if the top three in both steps were announced instead of just first place. This seems to be the norm elsewhere and it seemed NKR (not quite right) when it wasn’t done here. Secondly, if Jim could slow down a little during the result reading, that would be good. If you have heard him, you know what I mean. That is one fast talker and his thick Pittsburgh accent doesn’t help 😉  NOTE: I realize I echo the same sentiment in the last review.

Feis Flow

Big KUDOS for feis flow. ‘The feis guy (aka Jim)’ I refer to above was outstanding keeping things going, and keeping people informed on what was going on.  I saw a continuous flow of dancers within and between comps, and there was very little down time.

Jim also ran the results and kept that smooth and quick. He does have a ‘not from around here’ accent and speaks quickly, and my wife had a hard time keeping up when he read results, but I had no trouble, of course my Mum has that same accent 😉 .  If there was any comment, he could slow down a little.

From my viewpoint the flow was handled exceptionally well.

Side Note: Although I did not attend Day 1 of the feis, we pulled in shortly after 4 and were surprised to see day 1 had already wrapped up. That is one quick feis. Nice job.

Scoring

I think Jim and his team do an outstanding job and from my perspective, this is one of the better run feis in the area. I would easily give it a 9+

What Say You?

[poll id=”71″]

Pittsburgh Halloween Feis Review

/4 Comments/in , , /by

NOTE: When you are done reading, please see the comments for a follow up by the Feis Chair.

The Pittsburgh Halloween Feis was held on October 6, 2012 at Hyatt Regency Hotel at the Pittsburgh Airport in Pittsburgh, PA.

Venue – The Hyatt wasn’t terrible as a feis venue, but I did have some ‘issues’ with it.

From the syllabus I see there were five stages but I really only saw three of them. They were good size and although they were all in the same room, there was adequate room to move between them. They also had sufficient chairs for viewers.

OBSERVATION: I did not see any ‘campers’ in the seats around the stage, not saying it did not happen, but it was not rampant as it is in many feises. A nice, less aggravating seating plan 🙂

Camping spots were available in the halls and other meeting rooms around the ballroom and seemed adequate.

A venue ‘issue’ was the concession set up. They set up serving tables in one of the halls which happened to be the main hall between the dance areas and the results area, and the lunch rush was just a huge traffic jam of people trying to get from one area to the other. They could have used one of the meeting rooms which would have helped the congestion.

Vendors were also set up in the halls which constricted flow a little, but it was not terrible.

Parking was bad and due to construction at the airport was extra bad. We ended up in extended stay parking the first attempt, and the nice man in the exit booth routed us to the right parking. Hotel parking (aka Long Term) was very full so there was a bit of a walk to the hotel, not good for some attendants. The feis did pay for parking, and they provided us with tickets to pay, but it was not obvious on how they were to be used. I saw some ‘aggravation’ with people trying to leave who were unsure what to do.

Venue Score: 6.5

Judges – My daughter danced four dances and was judged by three different judges, pretty darn good.

Judge Score: 9

Music – Each stage had their own musicians, always good. Our stage musician took several breaks, one seemed a bit ‘extended’, so much so that it was obvious. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary.

Musician Score: 8

REALIZATION: I think I may be getting burned out on feising…. I feel like I was not quite as observant at this feis.

Food – Hot dog, pretzels, pizza, salad, drinks and sundries… all reasonably priced. A negative, a quarter pound hot dog was $3 and a salad was $5, which kind of put the kabash on healthy eating decisions. Not bad, but could have used a little more variety since it was catered by the hotel.

Food Score: 6

Vendors – A feis tshirt guy, and a shoe booth (not George)… always there. Nice jewelry and knit goods, the wig ladies, need I go on?

Vendor Score: 7.5

Results – This was a huge negative. My daughter danced her first dance between 11 and 1130, they broke for lunch, and then continued dancing. She finished her 4th dance at nearly 2 and the results for the first dance had not been posted when we checked before her fourth dance started. It was out shortly after, and the last three results came out by 3 so it seemed to speed up some, but in the meantime, there was a LOT of grumbling from dancers and parents.

Results Score: 3

Feis Flow – I thought the feis flow was pretty good. Age group dances were kept together with only a few dances between, always help the flow. During the lunch break I saw one of the feis staff go around announcing break was over, and got everything going again about 30 minutes after break started. I thought that was good and had not seen that much effort put into keeping the flow. (I did find out there was a wedding reception planned for later that day in the same room since the hotel double booked, which may explain the extra effort).

Feis Flow Score: 8

And the WTF Rating – a WTF Rating is 6.86.