August is always special because it marks the anniversary of the creation of the Alex Eats Too Much brand. I didn’t mark the occasion with anything too special this year, but it’s always impressive to see how much I’ve grown. I was also in Pittsburgh for almost all of August! I don’t think that has happened in a long time. I did make a quick overnight trip to Cleveland to see the Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, and Mannequin Pussy at Huntington Bank Field. Otherwise, I was in town the whole month. I spent a lot of this month covering food trucks ahead of BaconBurgh, the bacon festival I host with Beers of the Burgh. It was nice to be home for the month because I will be away a lot in September and October.
August 2026 Highlights
My favorite beer festival, Barrel & Flow, is in August. If you attend Barrel & Flow Fest, it’s pretty obvious why it keeps getting voted America’s favorite brew festival. The mission of Barrel and Flow is to create an inclusive festival celebrating Black-owned breweries and distilleries, Black artists, and Black-owned small businesses. I got to try so many beers from both local breweries and Black-owned breweries around the country. I ate some great food. I bought beard care products. This is a must attend event for me, and it should be for every beer lover too.
My brother and I drove out to Cleveland for the night to see the Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, and Mannequin Pussy at Huntington Bank Field. This was my 4th time seeing both Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age. I’ve actually never seen the Foo Fighters in Pittsburgh. Foo Fighters are one of those bands that are meant to play big stadium shows. They tore through 25 songs, mostly the hits and played for almost 3 hours. Dave Grohl really embraced that they are now dad rock because they have been churning out hits for over 30 years. It was fun seeing Queens of the Stone Age play a tight hour as an opener instead of a headliner. It was such a stripped down set, but they still played like they were the headliner. I can’t wait for their new album coming soon and their next tour.
BaconBurgh is Pittsburgh’s celebration of all things bacon. I am one of the hosting partners of BaconBurgh. I was pretty busy through August covering food trucks to get content, and teasers of all the amazing bacon and pork belly vendors were bringing. I was even on KDKA Pittsburgh Today Live to talk about BaconBurgh and show off some of the food that Rogue BBQ was bringing. We had over 15 food vendors and almost 20 vendors in our maker’s market. We had a mechanical hog ride. There was live music. The Wienermobile was back again. It was an incredible day. We believe at least twice the number of people attend as last year. I got to try a few great food items and talk to different vendors. I got to go inside the Wienermobile, which is not something most people get to do. We know year 3 for BaconBurgh now needs to be even bigger.
Street Fries just opened a store in the Pittsburgh Southside to go along with their food truck. I needed to go check it out to congratulate them on the new space and film because they were a vendor at BaconBurgh. Street Fries brings fresh-cut loaded fries to the city with a local and international spin. They offer giant servings of fries meant for sharing, topped with many different sauces and proteins like bacon. I got two half sizes so I could try the BBQ Bacon Ranch Fries and the Chicken Bacon Ranch Fries. I loved the BBQ Bacon Ranch for its sweet and smoky flavor and lots of bacon. It’s so exciting to see how much Street Fries has grown and I can’t wait to see how they keep growing.
I had dinner with the family at 1930 by Atria’s to sort of celebrate my parents’ wedding anniversary. It was also restaurant week and prime rib night. 1930 has a lot of great daily specials. I got the prime rib. It was pretty good and a large cut. I would maybe ask if they would skip throwing it back on the cooktop the next time after cutting it. My photos this time don’t do the meal justice, but everyone was pretty happy with their dinners.
This past weekend, I was invited by PNC to take part in a Hoist the Cone promotion with the Pittsburgh Pirates. They are giving away PNC branded traffic cone ice cream cone holders with the purchase of a waffle cone at Sunday home games the rest of the season. This was a great connection of my former life of helping people bank with PNC to my new life of eating and still supporting PNC.
I was invited back to Rogue BBQ in Homestead to try out all the great bacon and pork belly dishes they were bringing to this year’s BaconBurgh Festival. Rogue BBQ is known for its brisket and wing nights, but its pork belly and bacon are fantastic. They were bringing back the crowd favorite bacon on a stick. They made a brisket style pork belly sandwich, bacon wrapped hot dogs, and bacon nachos. The sandwich was my favorite of this tasting.
I finally had breakfast at Lola’s Eatery in Lawrenceville. I don’t go out for breakfast often. I don’t even eat breakfast often. Lola’s is worth the visit. I loved the Ube Cinnamon Roll and I’m not crazy about ube flavor. The breakfast sandwich and the spam and eggs were both really good too. I loved their home fries with a little bit of spice.
I was invited to a Secret Garden party at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco. The party served as a showcase for their event services. This party had a little bit of everything related to hosting an event at the hotel. The event space was decorated with lots of flowers and spring decor. We got to eat lots of different examples of food they serve, like sliced beef tenderloin, late night short rib sliders, a seafood bar and lots of desserts. There two different types of bars. They even had a band all evening. I didn’t know what this event was going to be like at first, but it turned out to be a great time. I wish I had an excuse to host an event at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco now.
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