Blog

From Halloween to 3, 2, 1... Q3 & Q4

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These last few months were all about enjoying the beautiful weather and people loving our signature events. Our live music every weekend is presented by our partners at Dollar Bank and Keystone Artist Connect. Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday they bring us the best of the best Pittsburgh talent right to our lawn. We’re continuing to host cornhole and even a Cornhole tournament with our friends and PUMP and Pittsburgh Sports League. We also partnered with the minds at Shape training to present a one-day-only boot camp. Focusing on strength and endurance, they popped up on Sally’s path with some other local vendors to encourage a healthy lifestyle. We also are continuing our weekly yoga on the lawn with the instructor, Katelyn! She had us moving and grooving on the lawn every Saturday morning (weather permitting)! It provided a new upside-down perspective of our Square. Literally.

At Bakery Square, our singular focus has always been community. We kicked off the month with our annual school supply drive for Lincoln Elementary School with Grow with Walnut. This drive is always a huge success thanks to our in-person donations and our virtual donations through GoFundMe. We gathered all donations and supplies and delivered them to the amazing students in partnership with GIFT. GIFT, a grassroots nonprofit, was founded in 2015 when the main focus of communities was to support seniors by meeting their basic needs of transportation and food insecurity. There was a void and disconnect in recognizing the necessity for senior mental and physical well-being and the need for purposeful engagement. GIFT had the formula to make a fundamental change in neighborhoods that included seniors. The Ryan Shazier Foundation for spinal cord injuries held a family fun festival here over the summer as well. They had a ton of fun activities including a wheelchair obstacle course, Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL) innovation station, caricatures, airbrush t-shirts, balloon artists, food, live music & much more.
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We said goodbye to one of our favorite kitchen concepts at Galley Bakery Square, GG's Cafe, and welcomed a new concept. Elevate, made by the minds who brought you Somi, is now open at Galley Bakery Square.

After launching several kitchen concepts with the Galley Group, they're back and in uncharted waters. Nick and Summer wanted to step into the big shoes that the incredible GG's Cafe left behind when their contract with Galley was up this past August. Comfort food. But not just comfort food. Comfort food, their way. Clean, unprocessed, authentically cozy eats that will leave you stuffed and happy.

Our main takeaway from visiting and chatting with Summer & Nick was that the name Elevate means a little more to them than meets the eye. From elevating the quality of food, and caring where it comes from, to elevating the skills and lives of those that prepare this delicious food. One of our favorite things they said at the end of our interview was "Happy people make good food" and you can tell they really believe that philosophy.

Steelers and pumpkins are in season, and there's a frost on the ground, which means we have one thing on our minds… Ice cream! Jeni's Ice Cream officially opened in Bakery Square in October. The first in Pittsburgh, we’re so happy to have Jeni’s as a part of our BKSQ family. Jeni’s ice creams have a uniquely smooth texture and buttercream body, with a bright flavor and a clean finish. We're here to set new standards for ice cream classics and to create our own. At Jeni's, you'll find flavors inspired by their curiosities—art, history, pop culture, and beyond—that simply don't exist anywhere else.
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We also welcomed the community to the lawn for a donation-based urban pumpkin patch during our Halloween Hoopla! Kids and families in the community could select a pumpkin from the "Urban Pumpkin Patch", enjoy complimentary children's activities from Everyone Loves Fun, snack on some fall treats, visit the fortune teller, and more! All proceeds benefited our amazing friends at the Larimer Consensus Group.

Feeling the holiday spirit at Bakery Square, we were so lucky to welcome Elsa and Anna, and the community to our Conservatory Saturday, December 3rd for a day of music, singing, and sweet treats. This event was the first of 4-holiday events we're putting on at the Square. Click here to view our Gallery of Photos!

Buddy and Jovie were here at Bakery Square this past Saturday. We sang songs, played games, wrote letters to Santa (I know him! I know him!), and decorated some delicious cookies. Take a look at some of the pictures we were able to snap for you! Click here to see our Gallery!

Our last holiday-themed event was our Holly Jolly Holiday Party here at Bakery Square. With the first snow of the season happening during the event, the glass Conservatory felt like being in a snow globe. The Grinch special appearance was truly the icing on the cake. Click here for all of the photos!

Why wait until midnight? We partied all morning long at BKSQ at the best noon year's bash in the 'burgh! Noon Year’s Eve is a party where the kids who can’t make it to midnight can celebrate the ball drop at 12:00 PM. DJ BMW absolutely killed it, spinning the tunes and kids' hits all afternoon long. Of course, sweets were brought to you by our friends at ELF again, and not to brag but we made it to 1:00 PM before we crashed. Click here to see all the photos from this awesome event!

A year of events come and gone. It’s bittersweet, in 2022 we saw some of our wildest dreams transform into an amazing event, yet we know the best is yet to come. See you in 2023, new events, a new look, but the same amazing Bakery Square!