I know this is early... Places to eat?

Though they ran out of sausage on Sunday. How they managed to do that, I'm not sure. With luck they'll be better stocked this year!

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Tom Brady/Duncan da Husky
Artists Alley and Con Store Manager
For fastest replies to questions about Artists Alley, e-mail me at

I packed food last year, but half the time forgot it was there So I grabbed food when I remembered and always had a pretty good dinner...me and mornings dont..get along so breakfast generally is lunch by that time

SunShadow
Mrow-a-purr

I, too, have never heard eating out listed as a potential cause of con crud. I think it probably depends on what kind of stuff you're eating, but most restaurant diets i can think of are unlikely to have much effect over that short a time.

True, eating out a lot does tend to cut down on your vitamin/mineral intake (due to reduction of fruit and veggie intake), which can weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to any crud that's going around. But i think you usually have to be off the stuff for a while before you really notice the results. Besides, the kind of foods that have a lot of vitamins are often just the sort that aren't easily stored in a hotel that would just as soon you not pack out all of your food. My experience has been that it's simpler to just pack a bottle of multivitamins, especially since i'm picky about my veggies.

I've much more frequently heard ppl warn of the effects of living off con suite snacks, which makes a lot more sense to me. A lot of the snacks you'll find there are things like potato chips and candy that have little or no nutritional content. The (ostensibly) human body really doesn't tolerate a lack of protein for very long, and protein is mostly found in nuts and meat and soy products that the con suite doesn't stock. After all, those snacks are meant as a nice treat, not a complete meal plan. The lack of recognizable nutritional content is liable to leave you pretty worn out, and fighting off disease is one of the first places your body is liable to cut corners in order to keep going.

Proteins also digest slower than starches and sugar, so they'll keep you running somewhat longer without getting as hungry. Starches digest faster than much of anything else, so they're good when you need a quick boost of blood sugar but won't keep you running for long. Candy is even worse--sugar highs usually come with sugar crashes.

My experience has been that if i bring my vitamins, fit in some juice or milk when i can, make sure my meals include some significant protein, and eat when i'm hungry, i don't have any problems. But of course that's just me. *smiles*

--dester'edra, rememebering friend whose bf gave himself rickets when he lived off nothing but chicken fingers for a few months

wish i had known that last year...i wanted a burger in the WORST way and finally went and got one in the hotel,....talk about expensive..arg.

SunShadow
Mrow-a-purr

I hope they are there this year, the prices were great, and the food awesome! I got upset on sunday when they weren't there

cross your paws!

Have been to every hotel this Con has had because I've been to every Con we've had, and I believe they all had buffet setups
for breakfast or lunch/dinner, etc. Yes, overpriced but I think the food was pretty good...at the Westin here,
the Wyndham in '05, the Adams Mark before that, etc.
I used to get the breakfast buffet and salad bar --and
the cheesesteak sub plate--back at the old 'Mark and it
wasn't bad.

The Adams Mark was right next to the famous Denny's Of Death.

For some reason there has been a Buca di Beppo Italian
family-style place not far from each of our locations.
We've taken trips there. (Yours truly, dazed from a long drive and a longer afternoon Pirates game, took some wrong turns last year trying to get to the Station Sq. location...yikes...)
This year I may only be at the Con Fri/Sat/Sun so I'm
not sure if I can make it or not. (It's a place where
the prices seem expensive but the plates are fairly big
and delicious and everyone shares.)

OOH it all sounds so good! not too sure on pizza, tomato sauce gives me indigestion like nothing else. Yoi. However, the rest of it...

We tend to eat out, I packed food last year but TOTALLY forgot about it and it basically went to waste. We tend to hardly eat, anyway. Good, good advice. Will be nicer than last year eating nothing but chinese. Best dang chinese ever, but I digress.

Or you can walk just a little further (0.7 miles vs. 0.4 miles to the closest Quizno's) and find a real Pittsburgh treasure, Primanti Bros. (open 24 hours!) Locals rave about the cheap and huge pastrami or roast beef sandwiches.

I didn't get an opportunity to go there last year, but I'm hoping to still have the energy at the end of the day (ha!) to get there this year.

---
Tom Brady/Duncan da Husky
Artists Alley and Con Store Manager
For fastest replies to questions about Artists Alley, e-mail me at

Not very well! I have flashbacks of AC04 and the great hangovers that I heard about... The con environment is *extremely* dry (air), and unless you're constantly hydrating, (and eating *well!* and healthy) the mix is a bad idea.... Unless you love headaches and nausea.

Then you're set.