Walnut St, Shadyside

While Walnut Street has some of the nice mall-type stores like J. Crew and Sephora, you can find a lot of charming, “boutiquey-type” shops here. It is outdoors, so if the weather is nice, it really adds to the enjoyment of poking around the stores. We were not there for the Shadyside Arts Festival, but if you are there in the summertime, we hear it is really nice. We ate at the Union Grill. It was Ok, but nothing special. I wish we had tried some of the other interesting places. Lots to choose from.

Walnut street has a lot of the same stores that an upscale mall has including American Apparel, the Gap, Banana Republic, the Apple Store, and Coach. There are a few smaller and more exclusive boutiques that carry higher-end fashion, like Moda, but mainly the stores are chains. That is not necessarily a bad thing, because it means that you will rarely need to drive to the suburbs to shop. Walnut street has a lot of apartments and houses along its length and is near to the Oakland university district. It does get busy and although you can usually find a parking space, it is better to make sure that you get off-street parking if you are planning to move to this street. If you are planning to visit, there are convenient garages and parking lots, but not so many that it ruins the pleasant village-like feeling of the neighborhood. I like Walnut street, but it is more like a mall than other nearby commercial neighborhoods. That said, it is safe, relatively clean, contains a pretty complete collection of shops (food, clothing, housewares, etc.) and has nice landscaping and well-maintained sidewalks.

Walnut street is definitely one of the most pleasant streets in Pittsburgh. It contains very nice and upper class stores, like Gap, Apple and Victoria Secrets. The surrounding area is very nice, and it is easy to find a parking space. During the night, it has very good restaurants with quality meals and some nice bars where you can relax and enjoy some spare time.