Needle & Pin Slated To Open In Dormont Wednesday

DORMONT, PA - The anticipation is over. The long-awaited addition to the borough’s dining scene, Needle & Pin, is slated to open on Wednesday.

The West Liberty Avenue restaurant, which will feature an infusion of English and Indian cuisines and dozens of different gins, is in the space that formerly housed Franco’s Trattoria and Otto’s Hofbrau Haus. It’s a new concept from the ownership group of Winghart’s Whiskey & Burger Bar, which has locations in Market Square, the South Side and Greensburg.

Needle & Pin’s hours will be Wednesdays through Mondays from 4 p.m. to midnight. The restaurant will be closed on Tuesdays.

“Needle & Pin ("pour me a gjn" in old British Cockney slang), is here,” an announcement on the establishment’s Facebook page stated. “We set out to make a great fusion eatery with a cocktail bar that is Pittsburgh's first gin-entric bar but we ended up going even farther. Elements, and flavor combinations, and so much more never before, at least to our knowledge, seen in Pittsburgh are just through the door.”

The menu will be drastically different from what you’d find at a Winghart’s. It’s expected to include dishes dishes such as tikka masala chicken with rice noodles and naan bread. Kofta balls also will be a specialty.

The drink menu will be different as well. Needle & Pin will servce cocktails such as the Ramos Gin Fizz (consisting of orange flower water, jaggery, Plymouth gin, egg white and cream) and the White Lotus (Martin Miller’s Navy Gin, schochu, lemon, peychaud’s bitters, cherry tincture and orgeat.

Needle & Pin might be the city’s first gin-centric establishment but it won’t be the only one for long. The DeShantz Group, which already operates the Downtown restaurants Butcher and the Rye, Meat & Potatoes, tako and Pork and Beans, plans to open the gin-themed Gi-Jin this summer on Sixth Street, Downtown.

Photo by Cynthia Closkey via Creative Commons.