I've now officially been to all three Pies & Pints locations in West Virginia: Fayetteville, Charleston and now Morgantown. Of course, as soon as I leave Morgantown, the best pizza place graces the town.

Pies & Pints took the place of Ledo's in Suncrest Town Centre - which is probably the best swap ever. It's not a huge space, but it definitely gives off the same vibe as the other two locations: chill, laid back, hip.


I went here for my graduation dinner with my family, so even though a few things were working against Pies & Pints on that evening: busy, just opened, and had to please my family. I gotta say - my dad was a little irritated at how long our order took, but I understand they were training and we did order two large pizzas.

We got half margherita pie, half mushroom garlic and half chicken gouda, half chipotle chicken pie.

Margherita pie - pretty basic, but delicious fresh flavors.
Mushroom garlic - literally has cloves of garlic, which is sometimes too much. But love the flavor combination.
Chicken gouda - this remains one of my favorites. The smoky gouda paired with salty bacon is phenomenal
Chipotle Chicken - this one was good. It's the least memorable, but the onion stuck out to me. Maybe a little too much onion? But still very good.

Morgantown has a real gem with this place. And I think it's important for the town to have some of these places that are more than just eateries. It has personality. And I love it.

Grade: A

An assignment took me out Glen Jean way, and the photographer I was with, Tom, suggested a bite to eat at the Cold Spot. I haven't been to the locations closed to Charleston, but I know there are a handful. Their sign says beer and wings, but since I was working, only the latter applied.

When we walked in, we looked around for menus to take to the table, but all they have is what's behind the counter. I gave it a once over and chose two types of boneless wings: six honey mustard and six sweet Asian.

Tom got his wings a good bit before me. In fact, he almost had his finished before I even got mine. Once mine came out, I ate twice as fast. That was probably a bad decision.


But, I enjoyed them. These - more than any other boneless wings I've had - are clearly just chicken strips, fried, and chopped into bits with sauce poured over top.

That's not necessarily a bad thing - but especially with the honey mustard, there was just too MUCH sauce. It wasn't tossed in the sauce, globs of the sauce were poured over it. Just a little too much.

This place is known for having the best wings, so I'll definitely have to try those. But these were truly not bad. I liked the sauce - I just wish there was a little less of it. And at least maybe try to pretend like they're actual wings? Either way, I'd totally eat these again.

Grade: B

Leonoro's is located just a few blocks from me on Washington Street, so I had my hopes up for a hometown Italian restaurant that served up some tasty pasta. That was short-lived.

When my friend and I entered, we waited for a few minutes before somebody noticed us. They asked if we needed a menu - seems as though this is a place with many regulars. We did need a menu. While I prefer those stuffed pastas with cheese, I decided to get the spaghetti because, well, this is a spaghetti house. I also got a house salad.


We were first greeted with a basket of cold bread. Meh, no thanks.

My salad came out with the house dressing - which was, literally, marinara sauce. Usually house dressings are some sort of oil/vinegar ... this was marinara sauce. I tried it and threw away most of the salad, unfortunately. Iceberg lettuce doesn't have much flavor alone.

The spaghetti was fine. The sauce tasted like it was straight from a can and could have used a decent helping of some spices and herbs. It was also kind of liquidy. The meatballs were good. But I could've made this entire meal for less than what I paid for at the restaurant - and had leftovers!

Everything was generic, too expensive and just bland. No thanks. I'll stick to making this at home if this is the quality I'm interested in.

Grade: C

A Chinese buffet is a guilty pleasure for everyone - admit it. They're disgustingly delicious. Full of calories and dripping in thick, flavorful sauces. They also have that kind of ick factor of it being a buffet. But alas.

The only Chinese buffet that I have discovered so far is one at the Kanawha Mall. My friend Matt and I were feeling some Chinese on this particular day and traveled across the river to sink our teeth into those troughs of food.

I think there were about three rows of islands full of sauce-drenched chicken, beef and pork. Fried egg rolls, chicken, and crab rangoons are also aplenty.

It seemed fairly fresh - they brought out a few new bins while I was at the buffet. They have a sushi portion, but I'm a little more hesitant to say that it's fresh as well. All in all, it is pretty good, but I think some more options, some fresher options and some made-to-order options would be killer. For what it is though, not bad. I enjoyed my go-to General Tso's, as well as the egg rolls and the crab rangoons.

Grade: B

Recovery Sports Grill seems to be a newer restaurant in town, and from what I gather, folks are happy to have a sports bar. It's located right on Virginia Street, and the lane in front of the building suddenly turns into parking around 6 p.m., which blows my mind. I was really confused to see a three-lane road become two lanes because the right-most lane became a parking lot. Bizarre.

There's something about a sports bar that turns me into a sports fan who loves nothing more than a beer, wings, and trivia. In this case, I just went for the wings because their menu said that "absolutely nobody does wings as well as we do." Ha!

Other menu items include burgers, sandwiches, salads, appetizers - your typical sports bar fare. I ordered 10 wings - 5 of which were buffalo bleu and 5 were sweet BBQ. I also got a side house salad because I was extra hungry.

The salad came out first. I was bummed they didn't have French because that makes a salad for me. Ranch had to suffice. It wasn't bad, actually. Some greens, onion, cheese, tomatoes and croutons. A little more to it than I was expecting.

I think whenever someone builds up an item like - "it's the best I've ever had!" or "no one tops our X!" it is instantly a failure to me. Maybe I should not put so much stock in others' opinions or maybe I think my mouth is going to melt from an overwhelming amount of amazing that I just consumed. But I feel like the more times someone talks up a place in such a way that is over the top, the more likely I am to hate it.

Sorry, Recovery.

Have you met Mario's Fishbowl's wings?

Maybe I'm too picky with wings. Here's the thing: I don't like when I feel like I'm chewing a giant piece of fat. That is a texture that is just not appealing to me. I understand its value in flavoring the dish, but skin/fat have to be cooked well done so I don't feel like I just ingested grubs. Blech.

So, I like my wing skin to be cooked well, well through. I don't want it to be slimy - I want it more crunchy. I want some bite. A couple of my wings had this - but the majority did not. Beyond that - I felt like the flavor was meh at best. Yes, 'meh' is an acceptable adjective now.

Too much build up without delivering. Wings need some extra kick. Give me some flavor, give me some spice. Maybe a different flavor would do the trick.

Dessert can redeem all. My friend ordered a cake of some sort, and I got a peanut butter pie. Both were good. That's all.

My bill came to around $25, so not bad considering the salad, the wings, a drink and dessert.

Grade: C