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Sober students; 21st birthday celebrations pittnews.com
T h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t ude nt ne w spap e r of t he U niversity of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | february 23, 2022 | Volume 112 | Issue 69
BEER AND WINE EDITION
MASH, TRASH AND PITTSBURGH’S HOMEBREWING COMMUNITY Brandon Raglow Staff Writer
A bartender at Hemingway’s Cafe on Saturday evening. John Blair senior staff photographer
OAKLAND BARS ‘GETTING BACK INTO THE GROOVE’ AFTER COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS LIFTED Alexandra Ross Staff Writer
Gene Ney, owner of the Oakland bar Gene’s Place, didn’t see any decrease in business when the Omicron variant drove up COVID-19 cases among Pitt students in January — in fact, he said he saw the opposite. “In all honesty, yeah, it helped my business out a lot because Pitt was all online, and so students had more free time to come to the bar,” Ney said. During last academic year, many bars in Oakland sold only to-go alcohol or did no business at all, due to county and state restrictions. By the time this academic year began, those restrictions had been lifted, allowing bars to operate at fuller capacity. As a result, Ney said business has been “significantly better” this year.
“It feels great being able to interact with all the customers, almost all of which are Pitt students,” Ney said. “It feels great getting back into the groove and doing the things we like to do and serving people.” John Elvasky, the owner of Hemingway’s Cafe, said he was surprised by how many students returned to his bar when it finally reopened last March after closing for 54 weeks. He said business remained high as restrictions regarding social distancing and capacity went away. “I thought, when we first opened, I'm like, ‘Geez, we're gonna be dead, everybody's gonna be afraid to come in,’” Elvasky said. “But we’ve got lines for two weeks [after re-opening] out front, lines waiting to get in. And then when we were allowed to seat fully, we got packed.” At first, Elvasky said, customers had to remain
socially distanced and wear masks when not seated at their tables. Elvasky said Hemingway’s followed all Allegheny County Health Department guidelines, and said customers and staff complied with the rules. “We had no complaints whatsoever, no pushback whatsoever, from the kids or the staff,” Elvasky said. “Everybody was very, very nice and understood the seriousness of it. And it was, it's a serious situation, but, you know, it’s time to put it behind us, in my opinion.” Businesses are no longer required by the state or county to implement mask requirements, social distancing or capacity limits. Ney said his bar is now “pretty much back to normal.” “We have the sanitizer around for your conveSee Bars on page 5
For many, the processes that result in the Miller Lite appearing in their red solo cups are as cryptic and confusing as a witch brewing a potion in a cauldron. But Bob Parker said the process can be simplified to a few steps. “To begin really flippantly, it's an afternoon of work, two or three weeks of waiting, and then a couple hours of work and then some more waiting and then you have beer,” Parker, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, said. Parker, who’s also associate dean for graduate education, has taught a class on brewing beer for students 21 and older every spring semester since 2017. The class is a popular selection for engineering students, and some take the lessons from the course and continue homebrewing after graduating, even creating their own businesses. He said that over time, “Science, Technology, and Culture of Craft Brewing” has shifted its focus from strictly science to include lessons on the cultural aspects of brewing. “The first couple years, we really focused on the technology and the process of brewing. This is the first year that we've opened it up to all of campus, and we've expanded it to be science, technology and culture,” Parker said. “We want to make sure we cover the cultural aspects because that's a significant fraction of what the craft beer movement is.” Parker said the home brewing process begins by boiling grains to extract the sugars inside to create a mash. Next, he said yeast is added to the leftover liquid, known as wort, and the mixture is put into an airtight container — which for Parker See Homebrewing on page 6
Culture
Check out our “Wine and Dine” playlist:
Six easy meals to defeat your hangover
Sarah Demchak Staff Writer
A raging headache, the urge to vomit and the insatiable thirst for anything wet and cold — all those shots last night were not worth the hangover. But the day must go on, and food is fuel. Try out these six easy meals to eat to defeat that killer hangover. Trader Joe’s Frozen Heaven Head to Trader Joe’s and check out its frozen food section. From pastas and rice bowls to burritos and pizzas, TJ’s offers a variety of meal options that can all be cooked in the microwave. The easy prep time pairs perfectly with reasonable prices that range from $2 to $6 per package. These relatively healthy meals benefit your hungover body. But if taking the 75 to Trader Joe’s seems too daunting and nausea-inducing, stock up before your night out — they’ll stay fresh in the freezer for a while.
Avocado toast (left) and banana and peanut butter toast (right). Sarah Demchak staff writer
Toast Galore Toast is an extremely easy meal to make ,and carbs will help settle your stomach. Get creative with it by dressing it up with a variety of ingredients. Slice up a banana and slather some peanut butter on the bread to make peanut butter banana toast — a true delicacy. Bananas are rich in potassium, which help replenish lost electrolytes and solve dehydration. Nuts are rich in magnesium, which is depleted by alcohol. Thus, this combination is the true hangover elixir. If you’re looking for a more savory toast experience, mash up an avocado and spread it on the bread. Get even fancier and add some type of egg on top. Avocados help protect against liver injury and eggs are rich in cysteine, which helps break down the toxic byproducts of alcohol metabolism. If those options require too many ingredients, simply make honey toast. Honey is high in fructose, which can help get rid of the alcohol in the body faster. It’s sweet and light, and easy on the wallet — you can pick up a packet at a cafe stand. Get Fruity With It Cut a watermelon in half, grab a spoon and go crazy. Watermelons have high water content, which helps rehydration, and are rich in L-citrulline, which helps increase blood flow. This is a more fun way to replenish that hydration after a long alcohol-filled night out. Watermelons are not in season right now, but don’t forget about them during a summertime hangover. Instead, grab any other favorite in-season fruits and make a smoothie. Fruits still have a lot of water to help cure the dehydration, and you can drink this meal, which may help with the nausea. Hot Potato, Hot Potato Sweet potatoes are packed full of vitamin A, magnesium and potassium, which help replenish what alcohol stole from your body and fight inflammation. It may seem like you need more impressive chef skills to pull this one off, but all you need is a microwave. First, poke the potato a few times with a fork.
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Opinions
You don’t have to take 10 shots to have a great night out pittnews.com
D.A.R.E. EXAGGERATED THE WHOLE PEER PRESSURE THING
Anna Fischer Staff Columnist
Elementary school was, quite frankly, a fever dream. I often look back on that period of my life and have no ability to distinguish what was real and what childhood memories I simply made up. My fifth grade D.A.R.E. experience is one of those memories that I just can’t believe was actually real. D.A.R.E., for those of you lucky enough to never have encountered it, stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education and is a nationwide program the federal government introduced in 1983 to warn children against drug use. It certainly sounds fine and dandy, but in reality, it didn’t show the reality of peer pressure or drug and alcohol abuse. Honestly, peer pressure as D.A.R.E. presented it, simply doesn’t exist. I am sober — yes, by choice — and I’m also getting to the age where I tell people that, and they assume I’m recovering from addiction. In reality, I’ve just never drank alcohol or done drugs — unless you count those four spiked sparkling waters I drank once while home alone because I thought they were La Croix. I have nothing against drinking when done safely. I think everyone should be able to enjoy themselves in a healthy way, and I always offer to be the designated driver when my friends partake in alcohol consumption. Choosing not to drink is a personal decision that, quite honestly, no one ever questions me about much — even in environments where everyone else is drink-
ing. But when people do ask me, I answer them honestly. I have just never felt the urge to. I have control issues — don’t worry, I’m working on it with my therapist, love you Erin — and the idea of giving up cognitive control to substances just causes me a lot more anxiety than it does fun. I enjoy being sober so that I can look after and take care of my friends, and so I can maintain control over the situation. If one day, I wake up and decide I want to down a Bud Light, I will. But that day simply hasn’t come yet. Being sober my entire life, you would think that I would have encountered harrowing amounts of peer pressure, at least according to our D.A.R.E. education. In reality, I haven’t. Every time I’ve told someone at a party or somewhere else with alcohol present that I don’t drink, their response has always been “Nice, good for you!” or “Great, more for us!” D.A.R.E. worked with a zero tolerance policy, which taught all students to reject drugs and alcohol outright with their “Just Say No” campaign. This method of educating children on drugs and alcohol was a complete failure. In the 1990s, the American Psychological Association published research that demonstrated that the positive impact of the D.A.R.E. program 10 years after its creation was essentially nonexistent. Abundant amounts of similar research on D.A.R.E.’s ineffectiveness caused the program to lose federal funding in 1998. I was probably one of the last fifth-graders to ever experience
D.A.R.E., and I even remember thinking at the time, “There’s no way this is real.” D.A.R.E. had police officers talk to children about drugs and alcohol, instead of addiction prevention specialists. There was such a huge emphasis on abstinence that the examples of peer pressure was someone shoving a joint in a middle schooler’s mouth or physically forcing alcohol down a kid’s throat. But that’s just not what peer pressure looks like in real life, and the program left a lot of children unprepared to face what real life peer pressure entails. I’ve already explained my own experience with peer pressure — which I’ve found to be virtually nonexistent — but that’s just a single personal experience. I am not involved in Greek life or other similar programs which could include pressure to participate in alcohol consumption. But even in those situations, peer pressure is far more subtle than what it was made out to be when we were young. In reality, peer pressure is a lot more like FOMO — fear of missing out. You see all your friends partying and having fun, and you attribute that fun to their consumption of alcohol. Then, you believe that you can only have fun if you drink as well. In this way, peer pressure is a lot more subtle than D.A.R.E. presented it to be. For the most part, no one is going to plug your nose and force a bottle of vodka down your esophagus, especially if you surround yourself with good people and friends that you trust. But that doesn’t mean you will never experience that
fear of missing out while watching your friends drink. For anyone who has experienced that feeling, I want you to know that you can still have fun while sober. I use a tactic that I like to call — I apologize, this is going to be incredibly cringey — getting “drunk on vibes.” This means feeling the energy of the people around you, letting yourself go and dance or scream to music and just allowing yourself to act with the same lowered inhibitions of those around you that have been drinking. You can have fun, and you get to avoid the vomit and the hangover. Win-win. If you’re someone who does drink, go for it! As long as you’re being safe, I believe that adults should be able to indulge themselves and have fun. Just make sure you never drink and drive, and you are consuming alcohol in a healthy way. Also, if you have a sober friend or a designated driver with you while you’re drinking, try including them as much as possible so that they can have fun without feeling pressured to drink if they don’t want to. Overall, just be respectful of other people and their personal choices. D.A.R.E. no longer exists, and if we’re being honest, I’m not too sad about it. We need to be teaching children the reality of peer pressure and drug and alcohol consumption, not just encouraging the universal, and frankly unattainable, goal of abstinence. D.A.R.E. may have over exaggerated the reality of peer pressure, but it still exists and we should all learn how to navigate it in a way that works for us.
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Sports
Pitt moments that made fans want to drink pittnews.com
Panthers that aged like fine wine in their athletic careers
Jermaine Sykes Staff Writer
Some players — such as the great Larry Fitzgerald and Aaron Donald — came to Pitt and had an instant impact. Others took a little bit longer to develop. While production may have been minimal at the start of their career, many Panthers aged like fine wine and went on to have great careers. These players did not just progress as they got older, they grew exponentially. Quarterback Kenny Pickett Everyone knows the story of Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett. Pickett came to Pitt as a three-star recruit out of New Jersey and earned the starting position at the end of his first season. Over the next three seasons, Pickett tallied 38 touchdown passes to 24 interceptions. While these are decent numbers, they pale in comparison to what Pick-
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ett did in 2021. The 2021 season catapulted Pickett from quarterback to legend. Pickett’s 4,319 passing yards and 42 touchdowns were both good enough for Pitt records. Another five touchdowns on the ground brought Pickett to 47 total touchdowns and just seven interceptions. Pickett threw more touchdowns in 2021 alone than in his previous four seasons combined. As time passed, Pickett continued to get better and better, leading to him being a Heisman finalist and a potential first-round pick in the upcoming NFL draft. Running back Craig Heyward In Craig “Ironhead” Heyward’s first two seasons as Pitt’s starting running back, he tallied 1726 total yards and 13 touchdowns. Heyward finished sitting at No. 3 all-time in rushing yards in school history.
In 1987, Heyward rushed for 1791 yards along with another 207 in the air to come up just shy of 2000 all-purpose yards. Heyward scored 13 times on top of this, leading to him being drafted 24th overall in the 1988 NFL draft. Running back Curtis Martin Running back Curtis Martin was another Panther who blossomed later in their collegiate career. Martin started off his career rushing for 1,286 yards in his first two seasons along with seven touchdowns. Similar to Heyward, the running back blossomed in his third year with the Panthers. Martin rushed for 1,075 yards along with seven touchdowns in 1993, almost replicating his production of the previous two seasons combined. An ankle injury derailed Martin’s senior 1994 season, but he still rushed for 251 yards in a game against Texas. Martin’s late-blooming career led
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to him being drafted and having a hall of fame career in the NFL. Edge rusher Patrick Jones II Edge rusher Patrick Jones II had a very slow start during his Pitt career. Jones had four combined sacks and eight combined tackles for loss in his first two seasons at Pitt. The three-star prospect out of high school and the No. 1 ranked edge in Virginia was not living up to the hype. The 2019 and 2020 seasons were great for Jones. Jones racked up 11.5 tackles for loss along with 8.5 sacks and four forced fumbles in 2019. This production came out of nowhere and Jones was able to duplicate it in 2020 — where he sacked opposing quarterbacks nine times with 12.5 tackles for loss.
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Bars, pg. 1 nience,” Ney said. “We limit, obviously, the number of people, but I mean, it's not nearly anything like it was when COVID was still raging.” Louis Pessolano, owner of Mario’s Oakland Saloon, said serving to-go cocktails and utilizing outdoor seating helped Mario’s during the pandemic. While to-go cocktails won’t come back to Mario’s anytime soon, because they were only legalized temporarily, Pessolano said outdoor seating will return. “We did outdoor seating and we did slushy drinks to-go,” Pessolano said. “The slushies were a big hit. The outdoor seating was a huge hit, and it is coming back, I believe around the second week of March this year, so we're excited about that.” Gene’s weekly trivia nights, known as Trivia on Tap, moved online when the pandemic hit. Ney said the virtual trivia nights just weren’t the same as in person, but the bar now offers a hybrid version that allows for people to play at the bar or on Zoom. “We did do trivia online, and people participated in that, but it wasn't quite like the real thing at the bar,” Ney said. “Actually, we still do trivia online for those people that live out of state … Some people started doing it that don't live in
Pittsburgh now.” Another way some bars still differ from their pre-pandemic operations is the hours they operate. Elvasky and Pessolano each said their businesses are no longer open for lunch most days. Pessolano said he would like to see the hours for Mario's increase soon, but the bar is “not quite
would be at least Monday through Saturday for lunch, happy hour and at night,” Pessolano said. “Unfortunately, we're not quite there yet, due to staffing and just demand, I guess, from clients.” Pessolano said one thing that helps business at Mario’s is its ability to host private parties. Though this was not possible during much of the
The interior of Hemingway’s Cafe on Saturday evening. John Blair senior staff photographer there yet.” “We haven't been able to really ramp up to the hours in which we'd like to be open, which
pandemic, he said requests for private parties are starting to grow again. “At the time of the initial lockdown … I
believe we had over 20 or 25 parties on our list already booked that we unfortunately had to cancel because we weren't allowed to be open,” Pessolano said. “It was graduation parties. It was formal parties. It was UPMC parties. It was Pitt staffing parties. Those have just started to start trickling [in], like last night we had a rehearsal dinner for a young couple’s wedding.” Elvasky, who has owned Hemingway’s since 1991, said he considered retiring before the pandemic hit. But he didn’t want to retire while Hemingway’s was shut down, and reopening gave Elvasky a “second wind.” “I was considering retiring here anyway, even before the pandemic,” Elvasky said. “I've been here a long, long time, and getting ready [to retire], but I said, ‘I'm not going out like this.’” Pessolano said seeing students enjoy themselves at Mario’s is the reason why he likes working in the bar industry. “Seeing the straight enjoyment on their faces is just exactly why we're in this kind of business, to make life on campus enjoyable for these 21-, 22-year-olds that are hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away from their family and friends,” Pessolano said. “Trying to give them a new home more or less, to feel welcome, to have fun.”
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Homebrewing, pg. 1 is a six-gallon bucket — to ferment. After this, different additives can be mixed in to control the flavor and type of beer. Parker has been homebrewing for 22 years, and he began by brewing with a friend, Jim Schneider, another engineering professor at nearby Carnegie Mellon University. Parker said they first made a brew using a kit from Schneider’s sister. Parker said while he liked homebrewing, and kept at it with Schneider, it took him a while to really go all in. “And at that point, I won't say I was hooked there, but we brewed a bunch for the next couple of years. And then we both focused on tenure and getting what we needed out of this job,” Parker said. “My wife, shortly after that, looked at me and said, ‘You need a hobby.’ And I have been a homebrewer ever since.” Parker has since combined his work and his hobby in more than one way, entering a brewing competition hosted by The American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2018 with Schnieder and one of his former Ph.D. students, Michelle Pressly, where they won best in show. One of Parker’s students, senior chemical engineering major Mike Kane, said taking the class
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has become a tradition for senior engineers. “This is the class you can kind of get to take as a senior, it's just a fun way to end your senior year,” Kane said. “It's kind of like a kick-back class that's still intensive.”
ing classes. “When you’re learning about chemical engineering, you see this gigantic process plant, and it's like, OK, you can't really ever make that in your backyard,” Kane said. “But it's not that hard
Bob Parker, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and the associate dean for graduate education, teaches a brewing class in 2017. Image courtesy of Bob Parker Kane said he’s interested in starting homebrewing, but is holding off until he finishes the class. He said it feels like a practical application of a lot of the concepts he’s learned in his engineer-
to make your own homebrewing area in your backyard.” Teddy Valinski, a former student of Parker’s, has taken his hobby to the next step.
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Valinski graduated from Pitt in 2018, and in October 2021 he opened Walking Distance Brewing Company in Marysville, Ohio. Valinski, who works full time as an electrical engineer, said Parker’s class and the resulting homebrewing hobby influenced his decision to start his own brewery. “Dr. Parker did a great job about introducing us to brewery owners, and probably the most influential one was Couch Brewery,” Valinski said. “Just that they were moonlighting it, and I realized I could work a full-time job and then open up a brewery on the side. And then hopefully, eventually transition to just doing the brewery.” For those who can’t take Parker’s class, there are other resources in Pittsburgh for learning about homebrewing. Kerry Diehl is the former president of The Three Rivers Alliance of Serious Homebrewers. Organizations like TRASH and The Three Rivers Underground Brewers serve as educational forums for newcomers, testing grounds for veterans trying new recipes and social groups for people with a shared interest. Diehl said many basic questions about ingredients and the physical process can get answered pretty easily.
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