One thing I didnt like about Pittsburgh
Maybe I'm missing something here but... for a wonderful downtown area, why does everything close so friggin' early?
For a downtown area, Id expect a lot of places to be open for most of the night or least til' midnight. You should have seen my perplexed look to find the streets at 10 o clock at night to be pretty much a ghost-town even on the weekend. There was hardly anyone out expect for a few con-goers either drunk or worn out from partying. I was especially peeved that there were very few places open after 11 save for a few bars. This is most annoying when I get a late night munchie or unwisely ignore Kages 6-2-1 rule and I need some food inside me. The nearby 7-11 even closes early. Ain't those supposed to open 24 hours?? At least here where I live, many places are open to midnight, several until 3, and a number open 24 hours.
Another lesson to take for anyone going next year; if you wanna eat good, eat before 9 o clock.
I know nothing can be done. I was wondering though if anyone had the same problem.
A number of pizza places are open fairly late, till midnight at least. I had a hoagie at Pizza Parma around 11pm one night. There's about a dozen such places spread around the area southwest of the Westin.
There's even a 24-hour convenience store way down Penn Avenue (or was it Liberty?), named something generic like Pittsburgh News. Pretty well-stocked, though I couldn't find any granola bars there :-]
Perhaps this would be good information to have in the Dining Guide? Mark those establishments that are open past 10pm/midnight?
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iSKUNK!
Yeah the pizza place seemed to be the only food place open within a reasonable vacinity. Needless to say I ate more pizza than I would have liked to.
I think that it would have been a lot better if the scheduling was not the way it was, at least for me. I found that the "Main Events," I attended seemed to be around the same time as lunch or dinner, and that by the time they ended everthing was closed. I also know that pretty much nothing can be done about this as it has more to do with the hours of operation outside the con.
Next time I am just gonna get more snack foods in case I can't make it to a meal. I was fortunate enough to have a roomate with a cooler, but it got dedicated to drinks for the most part. Next time I may have to carve out a hole in the ice and stuff it with something more substantial.
All in all, lesson learned about the downtown area. Fun, Fur, and a battle of attrition XP.
Every year we remind businesses that staying open later will be good for their bottom line. Some businesses such as Steel City Diner "get it". 
As for the others, more have caught on over the years.
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I'd recommend ordering pizza--most places deliver to the Westin Hotel lobby.
I would say though, bringing a loaf of bread, some peanut butter, honey, or other non-refrigerated type spreads, or even those pre-packaged snack crackers, it can save you a lot of stomach-ache
(waves to GreyFoxFanatic, hemp-jewelry-maker extraordinaire!)
Pizza is always an option, great for get-togethers in rooms. Just make sure that the contact number you give them is open and ready to take their call!
Brief anecdote:
I was sitting down in the Westin lobby late one evening. A delivery guy is standing there, fretting. He asks me if I was the one who ordered the two large pizzas he was carrying. Apparently, no one is answering the phone number that he had been given.
But what's this? Two guys walk by, talking about the possibility of ordering a pizza. The delivery guy overhears them, and says, "Hey, I got two pizzas here, and no one to pick them up. It's normally $20 for both, but I'll sell 'em to you for $10."
Those two guys had pizza for dinner---and instantaneous delivery to boot
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iSKUNK!
Aaaaawe, you cad you XD Hemp-Jewelry-Maker Talent at best XD
It's amazing what delivery guys'll do when people don't show up XD
Come to London.
Our shops close at 18:00 (17:00 on Sundays), Our restaurants close at 21:00 and our bars at 23:00.
At least we get to sleep properly...
Noy
yes.
that is a reasonable suggestion.
Despite the presence of the convention center, this part of town is primarialy 9 to 5 businesses. That means most dining places will serve breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday. On nights and weekends there are too few people out and about to make it pay to stay open. It is difficult to get enough employees to work extra days and extra hours to stay open for special events like Anthrocon.
There was a Greek place in the dining guide (Cristos) that was open to midnight. it was a bit further away than some, but very good food.
Definitely seconded a page in the dining guide for open past 9 and that serve FOOD, not liquor!
Though Pittsburgh still beats Hartford. I ended up downtown there in the middle of Sunday afternoon with a friend and nothing was open and there were no people visible either. And there were Chick tracts blowing in the wind downtown telling us to repent because the end was near. It looked like some kind of postapocalyptic movie where the zombies should come round the corner any second now. Pittsburgh is a hotbed of activity in comparison.
Think about it - people CLAIMING the end of the world is near, compared to people with nametags who wear fake tails and ears wondering in groups through the streets.
According to some silly old book, the latter IS the end of the world.
Sort of...
Noy
As someone said already, if you can bring some food with you, or find a place to pick some up. I went to walmart before I left to AC, got two huge boxes of snack cakes (I like to share =3) pudding and some tuna salad meal things. I ate breakfast in the room (snack cake) drunk some water from the faucet (yay!) and went on. Then I skipped over lunch and picked up a hot meal forsupper (though a few times that went off course XD)
I can agree that it is a bit annoying that so many places closed so early. But, they do what they can do, you know? Maybe one day, one AC in the future, the places will get the hint that they could make so much money by managing to stay open later.
In the mean time, you can compensate by bringing non-perishables and storing them in your hotel room. I was with a group of about 6 or 7 people. Between the two rooms, we had enough snack-stuffs to feed a small army. We brought stuff for the ones in fursuit to snack on (Energy bars, bottles of water, Caprisun and so on), and we had stuffs for everyone to enjoy (pop-tarts, Vitamin Water, Crackers, Chips and so on).
We even kept our drinks cold by keeping a small cooler in each room, and keeping it stocked with ice from the Omni's Ice machines that are conveniently located on every single floor. Each room even offered a small container to put the ice in to carry it from machine to room.
So even when most places were closed, we were not very hungry or thirsty. I suggest to everyone to plan ahead when going to Conventions, including AC. Bring your own food so you are not as hungry as you could be, if you had brought nothing.
We even kept our drinks cold by keeping a small cooler in each room, and keeping it stocked with ice from the Omni's Ice machines that are conveniently located on every single floor. Each room even offered a small container to put the ice in to carry it from machine to room.
Helpful Tip - If you are planning to come to AnthroCon (or any con, for that matter) by car, with a group of friends, and need the cooling capacity of the larger coolers - you know, the ones that have hinged lids, or two half-lids, and typically have a drain plug at the bottom of one end - and if you are going to need to keep things chill for about 4 days - consider using Dry Ice as your cooling medium.
Many commercial Ice Houses offer Dry Ice as a product. Many large, multi-department Supermarkets offer Dry Ice for sale, at typically $1 per pound or so. This sounds cheap, but solid blocks of frozen Carbon Dioxide are quite dense, so a single layer of slabs to cover the bottom of your cooler can cost near $12. You want a few large slabs, not several small chunks - the slabs present far less surface area to vaporize, and will last much longer; multiple small chunks have LOTS of surface area, and will absorb LOTS of heat quickly, but won't last as long.
Anyway - lay enough slabs of Dry Ice to reasonably cover the bottom of the cooler, 1 slab (roughly an inch and a half) thick. Place over this Dry Ice Layer a cloth towel, just large enough so that it doesn't have to be folded. You want a thin layer of cloth covering the Dry Ice, separating it and preventing direct contact with what you put in next, but not so thick that it insulates the ice itself. In a pinch, if no towel can be found, or all the towels are too large, a single layer of corrugated cardboard will do; you don't need to wall off the Dry Ice, just keep anything else from direct surface contact with it.
NOW - over this foundation, carefully fill the cooler with a layer of ice cubes, enough to cover the foundation (Dry Ice, Towel separator) to a minimum depth of two inches.
Now you can put in your drinks, beverages, perishables (all preferably pre-chilled in the refridgerator beforehand). IF you wish, and if the goods you have now packed away are loosely stored, you may add more ice to surround and help anchor your stuff.
This arrangement will keep your stuff well-and-truly chilled for several days,and the Dry Ice keeps the regular ice from melting away (well - actually, it slows down the melt rate to almost nil), so you don't have to drain water. The cold water ice slows the rate of Dry Ice sublimation somewhat.
Now - it is of vital importance that you handle the Dry Ice with gloves, that you not play with it or handle it unecessarily, that you don't put it out on glass or formica or ceramic tile counters or cultured stone surfaces. A wooden bread or cutting board is OK. Dry Ice temperature is -78.5 C...that's minus 109.3 degrees F! THIS is why the regular ice doesn't melt, and also why you don't want anything in direct contact with it. If you let your cans of soda actually sit on the dry ice, funny things happen to them - "Funny" as in "gee, I didn't expect THAT to happen", rather than "WOW, THAT was delightfully humorous". All you need to know is, what happens leaves you without a drinkable soda when you want it, and perhaps not possible to drink at all, without inconvenience, waiting, and a mess.
So REMEMBER THIS TIP! Dry Ice, in the bottom of your cooler, with a physical isolation from anything you wish to keep from becoming a cryogenics experiment, and preferably a buffer of regular ice, which you will only need to apply once, is a useful thing.
Dry Ice, when placed atop the other items in your cooler, even with the towel or a piece of corrugated cardboard as an isolator, will Quick Freeze everything else in the cooler - and unless you are preserving hunting or fishing trophies for the taxidermist, or perhaps havesting certain organs, you DO NOT want to do this; it is a BAD thing.
And you DO NOT want to handle Dry Ice without gloves, or set it out on certain surfaces subject to cracking when subjected to extremely fast temperature changes. Let NO PART of your flesh touch this stuff, lest it DIE, from extreme frostbite.
RESPECT Dry Ice, and it is a useful tool (several SciFi cons make carbonated beverages on-site, like root beer, before your very eyes; they also love making Ice Cream, using Liquid Nitrogen - but that is perhaps a little too advanced for a "Science for Furry Fans" post).
That is a nice tip. That is something I will take into consideration for the next AC.
Dry ice is also a suffocation hazard. It should be kept in a well-ventilated area. When you open the cooler, don't lean down and stick your head into it in order to rummage around.
Many are the tales of graduate students leaning down into the dry ice bin to fetch a scoopful, and passing out from lack of oxygen.
graduate students leaning down into the dry ice bin to fetch a scoopful, and passing out from lack of oxygen
graduate students
IS OUR CHILDREN LEARNING?!
-There is no truth
After having read your cautionary post, I did some thinking.
My original idea - which I have done before in a hotel room, with no problems or ill effects - actually poses a risk in a typical Furry-inhabited convention hotel room.
Dry Ice is wonderful stuff - it sublimates into a gas, itself leaving no residue - but if not doing so into a VERY WELL VENTILATED environment, the product - pure gaseous Carbon Dioxide - will, being heavier than normal air, settle into a creeping, spreading, invisible cloud, pushing the normal atmosphere (including the oxygen that we need) up away from the floor.
Normally, this would not be too much of a bother - most hotel rooms have a room fan in the Heating-A/C controls, to circulate the air - but it would still leave the risk of a layer, perhaps a couple inches thick, of cool, dense CO2...
...And Furries share "floor space"! People will often bring a sleeping bag or borrow a couple blankets, and crash on the floor - and be breathing whatever the atmosphere there happens to contain.
Most ice chests are not air-tight, and considering the amount of CO2 which sublimating Dry Ice can create, you wouldn't want to store the stuff in one if it did, due to pressure issues. And if the drain port which I mentioned is NOT sealed tightly, it will be a veritable spring of dense, cool, pure CO2, spilling across the floor.
I don't normally sleep on the floor when I go to Cons, and usually don't take in "boarders" who would, so the thought had honestly not occurred to me of any potential trouble.
I think that I shall venture an experiment - I will put a couple blocks of Dry Ice into my larger ice chest, and set it up as normally with the towel or cardboard, some regular ice, and about 20 cans of soda plus or minus some bottles of Crystal Geyser or Poland Spring or similar - and let it sit overnight; In the morning, I will light a couple of tea-candles set on saucers, and set one on the table, and one on the floor - and see if the one on the floor is extinguished.
If it is not, then I will open the lid - and watch to see if it doesn't get extinguished in about 10 minutes or so. Perhaps 3 or 4 tea-candles, set at various distances and directions away from the ice chest, might prove - er - illuminating.
This might not have been such a keen idea to sugest for general Furry Room use, after all 
If you ask me, it's still an excellent idea, it's just not something for those who are stuffing many people into one room, and it requires responsibility on the part of the people using the dry ice, and the ones setting the coolers up.
How about if you put the ice chest in the bathtub? That way the CO2 can escape through the tub drain.
How will it get past the trap?
Sounds like Dry Ice could be more used as a weapon. Who needs guns and baseball bats anyway when the power of... really cold ice can do the job. Heres a example:
[me and 3 other gon guests are playing poker]
Me: All right guys, aces are high and I'm running wild with chips!
[A criminal enters in]
Criminal dude: All right give me everything you got!
other con goers: Oh noes! D:
Me: *in a sarcastic way under my breath* I hope he doesn't look in the cooler where all the money is hidden.
Criminal dude: ah ha! *he looks in there and is bewildered to see a bunch of dry ice. I force his head in there and he passes out and gets a bunch of bloats on his face*
other con coers: Yay were saved!
Everyone is happy, I'm a hero, and the first day of every AC is declared Shot King appreciation day.
BTW I was aware of a few restaurants that were open late, but they weren't exactly a short walk around the corner. Do you think I would be in the mood for a hike in the city after walking all day in the dealers den and dancing in the ballroom for 3 hours?
The best solution for late night munchies many people have suggested already--bring non-perishable food items. I like to bring trail mix. There is Primanti Bros in the nearby Strip District which is open 24 hours. If you have a car, there are places not very far away that are open longer.
Something else to keep in mind, not only is that section of Pittsburgh primarily a 9 to 5 area, but increased fuel and transportation costs are also a bear on the locals. For some smaller mom and pop places, it may simply not be feasable for them to stay open late at night if there is not a pretty consistent and stable traffic of customers.
That being said, there are ways that you CAN influence the restaurants in the area. If you are planning to attend Anthrocon next year, perhaps a call to some of the establishments about a month in advance asking what their hours of operation would be? Places like Sonoma Grill do accept reservations, and having a number of them in advance could go far in helping to extend operational hours.
Use conventional (no pun intended) business techniques to alert the local establishments that there are people who will be in the area and looking for later dining options. We've developed a wonderful business relationship with many of the establishments in Pittsburgh. This will continue to grow if we continue to patronize their establishments and inform them of our convention's timetbale trends.
This is a good local article on places that are open late or on Sundays.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08213/900614-51.stm
Several of the restaurants mentioned in the article are within walking distance of the Westin or a short drive away.
I try not to leave the hotel after 9pm... I see locals and they frighten me lol *is a wuss wolffox*
~Shy~
hugs are free!
http://www.furry4life.org
Hugs, free?
I should certainly hope so...they never seem to breed well in captivity.
Pittsburg locals don't scare me.
I've walked through Philly and Camden at night for a decade. 
Slight correction: the 8:2:1 rule was created (I believe) by Dr. Bob Passovoy, a member of the Dorsai Irregulars.
(My cure for the late-night munchies is to buy something while the stores are open that can be safely stored for a while. 7-11 supposedly got its name from their original hours of operation: 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM.)