Best Of 2020 (Part 1)

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BEST OF E D I T I O N

News

SEXUAL MISCONDUCT PREVENTION PANEL PLOTS COURSE Rebecca Johnson Senior Staff Writer

When the Association of American Universities released a report last year detailing sexual misconduct on 33 university campuses, including Pitt, Yemi Olaiya said personal experiences with sexual misconduct inspired her to help survivors.

“I’ve had a lot of experience with myself and friends with sexual misconduct on college campuses,” Olaiya, a graduate student in the School of Law, said. “So I wanted to make sure that survivors are being heard and policies are put in place that actually help them.”

Olaiya is one of the 12 members of Chancellor Patrick Gallagher’s Advisory Council on the Prevention of Sexual Misconduct, a new advisory group created in response to the AAU campus climate survey. The council will meet for the first time on Feb. 21, where they will then determine the frequency of future meetings.

The AAU report found that since entering college, in situations involving physical force or the inability to consent or stop what was happening, 11.2% of respondents said they experienced penetration at least once and 16.7% of respondents said they experienced sexual touching at least once.

The council includes members from numerous levels across Pitt, including both undergraduate and graduate students, professors, staff and faculty. Elizabeth Miller,

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chief of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine within the School of Medicine, chairs the council with Katie Pope, the associate vice chancellor of civil rights and Title IX, as staff liaison.

Miller said she hopes to contribute her knowledge from years of experience as a researcher and doctor in studying sexual and partner violence.

“I’ve been working in the sexual violence and partner violence prevention and intervention space for over two decades,” Miller said. “I have led studies related to sexual assault on college campuses, and worked closely with health and counseling centers to figure out how we could do better in terms of connecting with survivors of sexual assault.”

Miller added that one of the council’s primary responsibilities will be to rigorously evaluate and categorize existing groups, strategies and policies aimed at lowering sexual misconduct on campus.

“It’s imperative that the council lifts up the importance of evaluation,” Miller said.

“Far too often what happens on campuses is everyone goes, ‘Oh well that’s a good prevention program,’ and there’s no coordination and oversight to make sure that what appears to be good prevention programs are implemented with fidelity.”

Miller said these evaluations will take the form of an annual “multilevel” survey and interviews seeking input from stu-

dents, faculty and administrators on the effectiveness of certain strategies. She said she has sought help from the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health in designing this evaluation method, with the ultimate goal of not having to wait another five years for another AAU survey to be released.

Olaiya said that while the surveying method is a good starting point, she hopes the feedback can be independent and far enough removed from the situation to properly judge progress.

“Checking ourselves is a great way to start, but it’s also important to have someone impartial looking at us at the same time too,” Olaiya said. “I want to make sure that Pitt is learning from itself, that it’s being honest, transparent and administration is working with students and it’s not an us-them type of thing, but us working together in changing the campus.”

Different council members also have different opinions on policies the body should implement. Mary Roche, a senior political science major, is one of two undergraduate council members. Roche has worked as a Sexual Assault Facilitation and Education peer educator for the past year and a half. She said she would like to see an expansion of the Office of Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Education, the same office which coordinates the peer educator program.

January 30, 2020

“I would like to see an expansion of the SHARE office, specifically the number of counselors in there right now,” Roche said. “I think that would be a really great way to start and talking about how we can spread prevention education wing of sexual assault prevention education on campus.”

But Olaiya said her first priority is learning the specifics of reporting sexual misconduct and if there is room for improvement, including the Title IX office.

“I’ll mostly be interested first in actually getting a behind-the-scenes understanding at how we operate with the Pittsburgh police and what our reporting actually entails in detail. My interest is seeing how that experience is for the survivor,” Olaiya said. “[The Title IX office is] essentially our hub of where sexual misconduct is dealt with, so if reframing needs to happen it’s a place we’ll look at.”

Olaiya added that she wants to ensure perspectives from minority groups are fairly represented by the council’s work.

“My presence as a black woman is that everyone on this campus is being taken into account with policies we put in place,” Olaiya said. “The reality is different cultures come into play and people’s different experiences come into play and if you’re invalidating those it is just another way people are being made unsafe.”

See Advisory on page 3

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Pitt student’s trial rescheduled for late April Jon Moss

News Editor Pitt student Ethan Kozak will face a nonjury trial on April 27 for three criminal counts, one each of ethnic intimidation, terroristic threats and harassment.

Kozak’s lawyer, Terrence Ging, requested the trial, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday, be moved to late April since he was out of town Wednesday in Florida.

Kozak, a junior political science major, allegedly sent violent and derogatory messages late last June to D.J. Matthews, a 20-year-old black Pittsburgh resident who does not attend Pitt, which led to the counts of ethnic intimidation and terroristic threats. Matthews posted screenshots of the messages on Twitter on June 26, 2019.

According to the criminal complaint filed by Mt. Lebanon police officer Ty Kegarise in July, the harassment charge is

related to a series of threatening messages Kozak allegedly sent to Colin Welling, a student at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

The messages Kozak allegedly sent to Matthews circulated widely on social media and led to outrage on campus over the summer. A group of 27 student leaders sent a letter to top Pitt administrators on July 5 calling for Kozak’s expulsion. The letter also asserted the Student Code of Conduct does not properly address students who “incite violence” against other students on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, national origin, sexual orientation or certain other classifications, as none of the conduct’s 40 violations specifically mention them. To remedy this, the student letter called for the University to develop a “strict policy” for these types of situations.

Provost Ann Cudd and Vice Provost

and Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner said in a response issued the following day, July 6, that they were thankful for students writing to them and appreciated the calls to “continue creating a respectful, peaceful, diverse and safe learning environment.”

Student Government Board President Zechariah Brown and the three students who drafted the letter — Pitt seniors Jordan Fields, Edenis Augustin and Jenea Lyles — met with Cudd and Bonner on Sept. 30, 2019, to discuss ways to strengthen the Student Code of Conduct.

“Ultimately, we are thankful that Dean Bonner and Provost Cudd were willing to meet with us [on Sept. 30], and we look forward to drafting a stronger Student Code of Conduct in conjunction with the University in the next few months,” the students said in a letter posted on social media following the meeting.

Advisory, pg. 2 In her leadership role on the council, Miller said she has similar concerns, and wants to put survivors’ experiences at the forefront.

“In my work I’ve had the privilege of sitting with many survivors both with my clinical and researcher hat on, so honoring survivors’ experiences and putting their experiences front and center in designing prevention and intervention programs is critically important to me,” Miller said. “I want to make absolutely sure that survivors’ voices are not lost.”

Creating measurable and practical goals is something Miller said she finds very important, so much so that it will be the primary focus of the council’s first meeting. But she does have one overarching goal that has been the focus of her career.

“My lofty goal is to implement policies and practices that are meaningful to our campus community so that we can stop sexual violence on campus,” Miller said. “I’m not interested in reducing it, I’m interested in stopping it.”

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January 30, 2020

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Opinions

column

Are award shows arbitrary?

Rachel Soloff

For The Pitt News From Kevin Hart’s 2019 Oscars host termination to 2017’s “Moonlight” and “La La Land” mix-up, controversies and gaffes thrive during awards season — and 2020 is no different.

Whether it be with hosts, nominations or the Academy itself, awards shows seem to do more harm than good. As the 2020 Oscars approach and the same types of controversies and complaints abound, it’s becoming clear that awards shows no longer have a place in our current society — at least the way they are today.

Shows like the Oscars are fumbling with the age-old format as the current world of entertainment is changing. After Kevin Hart stepped down, the Oscars went without a host in 2019. The show without a host seemed to lack continuity and became a swinging door of celebrities making forced jokes and trying to push the show along. The “bits” before nominations and winners are announced always seemed forced, and without a host these jokes seemed to stretch on for eternity.

This is the second year that the Academy Awards are going to be without a host. By not hiring a host, the network seems to be trying to avoid controversy, but with or without a host, the choice is still going to be controversial for some. For example, Ricky Gervais hosted this year’s Golden Globes, who many thought told controversial and tone-deaf jokes, while others thought his jokes were great and got at the problems in Hollywood.

Nominations are also a very contentious subject during the awards season. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a board of 8,000 members that are not disclosed to the public, choose the nominations for the Oscars. This means that, unlike awards shows such as the People’s Choice Awards, a mysterious group of people picks what’s good enough to be nominated —

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which may or may not reflect what the public actually liked this year. The nomination process for the Oscars is highly complex, making it very difficult for certain movies and actors to be even considered for nomination and even harder to join the Academy.

The Grammys have recently been under fire due to the accusations of former Recording Academy President Deborah Dugan.

Dugan accused the Recording Academy — the Grammys’ equivalent of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — of having an unethical process. She said an artist is more likely to receive a nomination if they have some sort of relationship with those in the Recording Academy. This shows the Recording Academy doesn’t care about the best music of the year, but promoting artists that have a mutually beneficial relationship with them.

Another reason awards shows are becoming obsolete is the lack of diversity in Oscar nominations — first brought up on Twitter in 2016 with the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite — and this year saw no change. Greta Gerwig, Melina Matsoukas and Lulu Wang, the directors of “Little Women,” “Queen and Slim” and “The Farewell,” respectively, were all snubbed out of a nomination, while the Best Director category was filled with all male directors and only one director of color.

In 2019, 29% of directors were people of color and only 12% of the top grossing movies were directed by women while 51% of moviegoers were women.

Snubs for actors and actresses of color were also endless this year. Jennifer Lopez for “Hustlers,” Awkwafina for “The Farewell” and many of the actors in “Parasite,” including Song Kang-ho and Park So-dam — who all delivered spectacular and well-received performances in 2019 — did not receive nominations.

The Grammy Awards are no different.

Tyler the Creator, this year’s Rap Album of the Year recipient, slammed the Recording

Academy saying the Grammys are categorizing by race, using terms like “urban” to classify between music by black and white artists.

The lack of diversity within these awards shows are not representative of the public who watches them. More than 29 million people tuned into the Oscars last year, presumably not all of them being white or men.

Without representation, the awards shows seem pointless and out of touch to those watching them.

As the public finds out more and more about the processes behind awards shows — such as the corruption in the Recording Academy — and have more polarizing opinions on what should and shouldn’t be nominated, awards shows are becoming obsolete and out of touch. There are ways to start modernizing them.

First of all, the electing boards of the awards shows such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science and the Recording Academy need to represent those actually seeing the films better by including more members of color and more women. Otherwise, the Academy should be abolished altogether and the Oscars should have nominees and winners chosen by having the viewers nominate and vote.

If awards shows decide to remove hosts, they need to replace them with something else that moves the show forward as opposed to the awkward bits used last year. A few possible suggestions are more musical p e r for manc e s or behind the scenes of filming the nominated movies.

January 30, 2020

For the awards shows to be better, they need to get more efficient. The actual awardgiving seems to only be less than half of the four hour show, which includes more commercials than the actual awards show now.

None of the fat is trimmed from the show.

The Wall Street Journal calculated that between 2014 and 2018, an average of 24.3 minutes were spent filming celebrities walking and almost 30 minutes on speeches.

When awards shows started, they were a great way to celebrate the best media of the year, but now they seem to just cause controversy and uphold old traditions in a changing world. The controversies take away the point of these shows, which is to appreciate great art.

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Best Of

Stevie Kisty voted best RA for second time

Martha Layne Staff Writer

Emily Hearty, sophomore bioengineering major and Brackenridge resident assistant, said Stevie Kisty was more than just her RA her first year — he was a personal inspiration.

“Stevie’s programming and his attitude and the fact that he really cares and has conversations with his residents, he was definitely the glue that stuck all of us together the first couple of weeks and caused us to become really good friends,” Hearty said “I’m an RA now, and he inspired me to be an RA.” For two years in a row now, Kisty has been voted Best RA through The Pitt News’ “Best Of ” survey. Each November, a survey is open until winter break with a variety of options for students to nominate as the best around the University, Oakland and Pittsburgh.

Stephen “Stevie” Kisty is a junior economics and biology major from Pittsburgh. He volunteers at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital and researches evolutionary ecology. Kisty has served both of his years as an RA in Sutherland Hall West — Floor 9 last year and Floor 6 this year — as well as living there his first year. This year, he is serving as Sutherland Hall’s lead RA, meaning that he has additional responsibilities like monitoring the team dynamic, overseeing other RAs and scheduling duty tours.

Kisty said in an interview with The Pitt News and WPTS Radio that his first “Best Of ” win last year helped confirm what was working in his RA style, so that he could refine and focus on it for this year.

“I thought last year I didn’t deserve it, and I feel the same this year, but I am so happy and so thankful,” Kisty said. “It really confirmed to me that everything I was doing was right, and I should continue doing the things I know I do well. I just kind of took everything I did last year

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Junior Stevie Kisty has been voted Best RA two years in a row in The Pitt News’ “Best Of” survey.

Sarah Cutshall visual editor and applied it to this year, and it’s working again so far.”

Some things have changed, though.

Kisty explained last year that one of his favorite programs, a Bob Ross painting night, was not only fun for his residents but a lesson for him in planning. As a self-described type-A personality, he was thrown for a loop when all of his planned University partners and outside vendors fell through and were not able to help out with his program.

Although everything worked out in the end, this program shaped Kisty’s RA

style for this year. He learned that he needed to have a little more flexibility in planning programs and activities for his residents. Now, he’s less rigid in his planning and schedules events based on what his residents want and need at that time.

For Kisty, his current position is more than just a job description. He said being an RA is all about building up interpersonal relationships with different kinds of people.

“I know a lot of people have this visual of us. We’re the big jerks on campus who bust down doors and stuff, but like, yes

January 30, 2020

that happens occasionally, but that’s the part of my job that I don’t like the most,” Kisty said. “At the center of it, being an RA is all about being there to support other people and helping them with rough transitions or bad grades or breakups or just literally anything or just being there and being that little personal cheerleader in their pocket at all times.”

Becoming an RA at Pitt is no small feat. There is a GPA requirement of 2.5 and the application, which is followed by See Best RA on page 7

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Best RA, pg. 6 individual and group interviews before applicants are eligible to be an RA. RAs are compensated through a meal plan and a room in the building to which they are assigned. Their responsibilities include regular assignments, non-routine weekends, non-routine assignments and duty tours.

Kisty said in an email that the experience of being an RA has changed his college experience through valuable life lessons.

“I think the biggest way I’ve changed is that I have become much more aware of myself,” Kisty said. “When I first started this position, I saw myself as a caring, empathetic person, but I was afraid that I was going to have a difficult time with the more emotionally draining aspects of it. I have had to really become very in tune with my emotions and how I am doing before I can help others.”

One of Kisty’s goals as an RA is to build a strong rapport with his residents.

He focuses on being open and relatable.

He also works on building a community

of trust and respect, not just between himself and the residents, but between the residents themselves.

For his residents, Kisty said that it’s all about helping them develop and change into better versions of themselves.

“My biggest goal for being an RA is just personal growth. It doesn’t matter what area it’s in, whether it’s academically or discovering a new love that they have for a hobby. Just being able to, at the end of the year, say, ‘Here’s where I started, here’s what happened, and now here’s why I’m a better person,’” Kisty said.

Justin Vallorani, the resident director of Sutherland Hall, said Kisty’s impact doesn’t stop with his residents, but radiates to everyone in that community.

“Stevie, when he does something, he really does it to the best of his abilities. And that has really done well to serve our community,” Vallorani said. “I would say that, especially in a lead RA role, we have a staff that is three-fourths new, and he was able to mentor them and make sure that they felt comfortable in the role. Stevie is so humble that you wouldn’t necessarily know all these things unless you actually work with

him — he’s so humble but does so much to support others.”

While the lead RA role has administrative tasks, it also has a large focus on fostering relationships with other RAs. Kisty calls the RA staff he works with more than just coworkers, but some of his closest friends.

Sydnie Davis, sophomore biology and chemistry major and Sutherland Hall RA, said by living in Sutherland Hall last year, she had been exposed to the positive energy and leadership that Kisty has.

“During duty tours and everything, he would stop and talk to us, which is something a great RA really demonstrates — not only the ability to get to know your own residents, but everyone in the building,” Davis said. “Him getting to know everyone on a personal level is what really makes him a great RA. Stevie definitely leads by example, and that’s something I really admire.”

Next year, Kisty will not be serving as an RA. Instead, he will use the time to relax, enjoy his last year of college life and apply to medical schools. In the meantime, he gets to enjoy what he de-

scribes as the most rewarding aspect of his job — getting to help residents overcome barriers and seeing them change over the course of the year.

“The most rewarding thing is whenever someone’s struggling, whether academically or socially, and them being able to come to you,” Kisty said. “But then also seeing that all the way to the end when they finally overcome that barrier. It’s just like night and day — you can see a completely different person, from the beginning to the end, which is so amazing.”

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BEST OAKLAND Jazz Studies: The rest is history RESTAURANTS REVEAL MOST Madison Brewer Staff Writer

When she first moved to Pittsburgh, Nicole Mitchell had to stop by the DMV in order to get a Pennsylvania driver’s license.

Her routine errand turned into an odd coincidence when she told the employee there that she was a newly hired Pitt professor. He shared that he’d taken the History of Jazz class there more than 30 years before — without knowing she worked for the music school, much less that she would be teaching the class.

More than 300 students sign up for History of Jazz every semester, which was voted “Best Class” in The Pitt News’ “Best Of ” survey this year. The course offers an introduction to the bulk of the history, theory and instrumental classes in Pitt’s Jazz Studies program. Mitchell, who joined the staff as director of jazz studies in July 2019, is reinterpreting her section of the class to take students on a thematic journey instead of a walk through time.

Adam Lee, a TA for the class and a jazz studies Ph.D. student, said the new format makes it easier for students to connect to the material.

“Now we can say, ‘Hey look, here’s some race, sex, gender issues that might pertain to your life, but this is how it pertained to people’s lives back then and musically this is how they’re expressed,’” Lee said.

It’s a change from the past three semesters, when professor Yoko Suzuki led her section of the course on a chronological history of jazz. According to Suzuki, most students don’t realize the modernday corollaries that the class’s lessons hold. Learning about genre traditions in jazz from the 1920s, students are able to better understand the musical styles of modern artists, such as Beyonce and Lizzo.

“I just want [the students] to understand that [jazz] is still relevant,” Suzuki said. “The music genres they listen to

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these days, R&B, hip-hop, they’re all really related to jazz.”

This universal aspect of jazz keeps the subject open to nonmusician students.

Suzuki said she appreciates the accessibility of the class — students across the University are learning to look at music a new way.

More than just music can be traced back to the traditions that surround jazz.

According to Lee Caplan, a TA for the class and a jazz studies Ph.D. student, themes found in jazz allow the class to talk about past and present social issues.

“Music is the gateway to talk about more contemporary social issues,” Caplan said. “We talk about things that might happen in the ’20s … but I connect all those themes and issues to things that are happening now.”

In class, students tackle these issues head-on. Mitchell focuses part of the class on jazz women like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters and issues such as gender, sexuality and race are often addressed in assigned readings.

Alex Brogan, a sophomore finance and accounting major who took the class last spring, said the class was relaxing.

“It was a class where you could kind of breathe and learn and not feel pressure,” Brogan said.

In fact, every member of the history of jazz staff is a musician in their own right. Nathan Davis founded the jazz studies program with the idea that musicians would teach the classes, according to Suzuki. According to Brogan, the talent of professors and TAs in the program does not go unnoticed. “[Suzuki] plays jazz herself so I think that was cool … someone who actually practices and plays what they teach,” Brogan said.

According to Caplan, in a recent class, Mitchell sang blues lyrics written by the students. Ari Freedman, a sophmore neuroscience and music major who took the class with Suzuki in fall 2018, said See Jazz on page 17

UNDERRATED DISHES

Noodlehead in Shadyside claimed the title of Best Thai in The Pitt News’ “Best Of” survey. Leela Ekambarapu staff photographer

Diana Velasquez Staff Writer

Living in a city means there’s a variety of restaurants around every corner. Even Pitt students on a college-student budget treat themselves once in a while to a night out for some good food.

Pitt students voted earlier this month for The Pitt News on their “Best Of ” for Pittsburgh. The categories ranged from best tattoo parlor to best spring break spot, but there was no category more popular than food. The employees from some of the winners spoke to us about why they think people come to the restaurants they work at — and what some of the most underrated dishes are.

Best Breakfast — Pamela’s Diner It’s not a surprise that the best breakfast winner would be a diner. Oakland is one of the five Pittsburgh neighborhoods with a Pamela’s branch. Located just two blocks down

January 30, 2020

from Litchfield Towers and the Schenley Quadrangle, Pamela’s has a lot of Pitt customers.

Maura Mazzella, 28, is the daughter of one of Pamela’s owners and has been at the Oakland location for 15 years. Pamela’s, according to Mazzella, is famous for its hotcakes, which deviate from a traditional American pancake. Their best-selling strawberry hotcakes are made in a crepe style, big as a plate with crispy edges, which Mazzella said is to die for.

“They’re kind of in between a French style crepe and a standard pancake but you can only get them made here this way at Pamela’s. And the strawberry ones are rolled with a layer of brown sugar, sour cream, fresh strawberries, they’re rolled up and then a dollop of whipped cream on top,” she said.

While Mazzella said their breakfast food is always popular, Pamela’s lunch hours are See Food on page 10

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Food, pg. 9 not as busy. Pamela’s lunch menu features more savory options like chicken wraps, homemade egg salad and a wide variety of sandwiches in contrast to their sweeter breakfast menu. Mazzella said she wishes she could make more dishes like these in the kitchen, especially the grilled marinated chicken breast sandwich and the mushroom Swiss burger.

“I’m gonna take it to lunch, cause our lunch is a little underrated,” she said. “The mushroom Swiss burger, it’s a half pound hamburger topped with grilled mushrooms and melted Swiss cheese. It’s huge and delicious and I’d love to make more of them.”

own option for burgers through a checklist of bun types and toppings and customizable sauces for wings.

“Well I’d definitely say that we have the best wings around Oakland for sure. And burgers as well, but the bonus of getting a burger here is that you get to build it all yourself,” she said.

But if you’re looking for something beyond the beef and their best-selling Buffalo garlic parmesan wings, Stack’d is happy to provide vegetarian options. Its salads, Cerra said, are the most underrated items on the menu and are made exceptionally well in

large portion sizes.

“They’re huge and just really good. Our Buffalo chicken salad is probably our most popular and it’s just a good alternative to the burgers and wings if you want something healthy,” she said.

Best Half Price — Fuel & Fuddle Fuel & Fuddle serves as a classic kind of bar and restaurant hangout for Pitt students, just a block down from main campus.

Like moths to a flame, they come for Fuel & Fuddle’s half prices after classes, especially on drinks. Fuel & Fuddle’s manager Rachel

Hirleman, 26, said its reputation is what keeps the customers coming.

“Well they love the discounted price and the food is still just really good quality, so I think that they’re getting a good deal with the food,” she said. “And it’s a really fun atmosphere [that] people have been coming [to] for years.”

With 10 different beers on tap and a rotating list of 100 bottles, Fuel & Fuddle has plenty of drink options to choose from.

Hirleman said that though the restaurant rotates through different house drinks freSee Food on page 11

Best Burgers and Wings — Stack’d Most burger places offer preconstructed burgers and wings directly on their menu.

But Stack’d gives customers the power to choose what goes into their dinners themselves.

Michelle Cerra, 29, and the front of house manager for Stack’d said the restaurant is automatically the best place for burgers and wings because of the build-your-

1917 (R) Fri: 2:25, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45 Sat & Sun: 12:00 PM, 2:25, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45 Mon & Tue: 2:25, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45 Wed: 2:25, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45 Thu: 2:25, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45 Little Women (PG) Fri: 1:50 PM, 4:30, 7:10, 9:50 Sat & Sun: 11:15 PM, 1:50, 4:30, 7:10, 9:50 Mon & Tue: 1:50 PM, 4:30, 7:10, 9:50 Wed: 1:50 PM, 4:30, 7:10, 9:50 Thu: 1:50 PM, 4:30, 7:10, 9:50 Knives Out (PG-13) 4:25, 7:00, 9:35 Fri: 1:55, 4:25 Sat & Sun: 11:25 AM, 1:55, 4:25, 7:00, 9:35 Mon & Tue: 1:55, 4:25, 7:00, 9:35 Wed: 1:55, 4:25, 7:00, 9:35 Thu: 1:55, 4:25, 7:00, 9:35 Jojo Rabbit (PG-13) Fri: 5:15 PM Sat & Sun: 12:20 PM, PM 5:15 PM Mon-Thu: 5:15 PM Parasite (PG-13) Fri-Tue: 2:35, 7:30, 10:00 Wed: 2:35, 7:30, 10:00 Thu: 2:35, 7:30, 10:00

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January 30, 2020

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Food, pg. 10 quently, the Kimberly, made with vodka, blackberry syrup, ginger beer and lime, is a fan favorite.

“Drinks kind of vary, we have different kinds of specials throughout the week so we have different house drinks. But I’d say the Kimberly is the best. People just order it a lot. It’s like a berry Moscow Mule — they’re very in right now, it’s a little twist on it,” she said.

In addition to its extensive beer selection and cocktail list, it looks like Fuel & Fuddle might be coming for the Stack’d best burgers crown. In addition to its burgers, like the Havana burger served with grilled ham and a vegetarian option called the Garden of Eat’n, Hirleman said Fuel has its own makeyour-own burger option that she hopes people take more advantage of because of the customizability.

“You can really create, like anything, with that option and you can get something new and different there,” she said.

Best Thai — Noodlehead For a Pitt student without a car, it’s a long wait for a bus ride to Noodlehead in Shadyside, especially during cold, damp January.

But this authentically-made Thai restaurant, busy even on a Monday afternoon, is worth it.

Noodlehead is a bit unlike the other restaurants on this list. It boasts a smaller menu and offers a BYOB liquor service. Pam Grandizio, 44, and Noodlehead’s manager said

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this in no way affects its popularity.

“I think we’re the best because of our concept. Our service is super fast, its BYOB, we’re open the same hours every day and we have this consistency,” she said. “We make our food fresh every day and we deliver the food within 10 or 15 minutes. We also have a very small menu which really allows us to concentrate on the dishes that we do have.”

Because of its small menu, most of what Noodlehead serves customers sells pretty well, but Grandizio said for Pitt students, their favorite is probably the See Yew, a wok dish, and a dish called Street Noodles #1, which is made with made with Thai fried chicken.

“The thai fried chicken, which is also an appetizer, the chicken, it’s amazing. It’s unlike any kind of chicken I’ve ever had before and with the rice noodles the Pitt students and just everyone loves that the most,” she said.

Though Noodlehead is rather appropriately named for many of its dishes that feature noodles, it does have other kinds of Thai dishes on the menu. Grandizo said some people are worried that they won’t like one of her favorite dishes, the green curry linguine, because it’s a bit different than anything else on the menu. It’s made with semolina noodles, green curry sauce and lots of different vegetables.

“It’s one of my favorites but I think that some people are afraid of green curry,” she said. “I think people are just afraid of the word curry. I think that they get nervous if they don’t like it, or if it’s something that they’re not familiar with.”

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BEST OF: BEST OF Food & Drink PIADA ______________ Italian

OISHII BENTO ______________ Korean

SZECHUAN ______________EXPRESS Chinese

NOODLEHEAD ______________

HELLO BISTRO

______________ Vegetarian/Vegan

PRIMANTI’S

______________ Sandwich

KENNY PICKETT

______________ pitt athlete

MARIO’S

GARAGE DOOR SALOON ______________

GENE NEY ______________

GEORGE BANDIK

karaoke

local bartender

______________ pitt professor

HEMINGWAY’S ______________

SPEARMINT ______________ RHINO

MILLIE’S ______________

STEVIE KISTY ______________

game-day special

adult entertainment

Ice Cream

pitt ra

MELLINGER’S

MATRESS FACTORY ______________

PAMELA’S

HILLMAN 4TH FLOOR ______________

______________ beer distributor

SORRENTOS

______________ Breakfast

NORDENBERG

Indian

ALI BABA ______________

HOFBRÄUHAUS

BEST OF Services

MIAMI

BEST OF ON CAMPUS KAPPA DELTA

______________ sorority

DELTA CHI

Middle Eastern

______________ fraternity

FUEL AND FUDDLE ______________

PATHFINDERS ______________

Half-Price

student group

STACK’D ______________

local tv station

______________ college night ______________ spring break spot

BEST OF College

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Wings

______________ pitt ncaa team

RED HAWK ______________

CROSS COUNTRY ______________

Coffee

club sports team

PUCCINI ______________ salon

BEST OF Culture

Sushi

PRINCE OF INDIA ______________

KDKA ______________

CORONA

Burger

SUSHI FUKU ______________

museum

______________ beer

place to study ______________ residence hall

STACK’D ______________ vegan/vegetarian

adult entertainment

______________ campus celebrity

______________ Pizza

Thai

ROOTS ______________

CHEERLEADERS ______________

______________ 21st birthday spot

ROC

FUEL AND FUDDLE

______________ Late-night menu

RUE 21 ______________ clothing store

GOODWILL

PENGUINS

RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES

______________ Course at pitt

______________ PITTSBURGH TEAM

______________ Thrift store

THE CLARKS

WALNUT CAPITAL ______________

______________ local band

BIGELOW BASH

______________ ppc event

rental company

ALDI

EMPIRE TATTOO ______________

______________ grocery store

BIGELOW BASH

______________ on-campus event

piercing / tattoo

YOGA U

SOUTH SIDE WORKS AMC

______________ Movie theatre

HEMINGWAYS

______________ bar in oakland

______________ Yoga Studio

STAGE AE

SHADYSIDE

______________ live music venue

______________ Shopping

5801

THE OAKLANDER ______________

______________ lgbtQ+ bar pittnews.com

VOTER’S PICKS

January 30, 2020

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