Needle & Pin To Bolster Dormont Drinking, Dining Options

DORMONT, PA - Those craving a curried chicken pot pie will soon have a place in the borough to get one. Needle & Pin, a new restaurant featuring a infusion of English and Indian cuisines and dozens of different gins, is coming soon to West Liberty Avenue.

Although an opening date has yet to be announced, Colin Smith, the restaurant’s director of operations, announced on Facebook that the eatery is seeking people with upscale dining experience. “We’re looking forward to a great team of employees to help us make a truly special dining and bar environment,” he said.

Needle & Pin will be 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 will feature more than 80 gins from around the world, dishes that arose during the “British Raj” period and libations with dozens of house-made tonics, syrups and tinctures from rare botannicals imported exclusively for the restaurant. The bar also will stock more than two dozen vermouths and aromatized wines.

Needle & Pin won’t be a shot-and-beer joint. It will offer 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).

The menu will include items that aren’t standard pub grub. Needle & Pin plans to serve dishes such as tikka masala chicken with rice noodles and naan bread. Kofta balls also will be a specialty.

Photo by Cynthia Closkey via Creative Commons.