Cool Picks Sunday January 20, 2013

January 18, 2013/Rick Handler

Cool Picks brings you the best in Pittsburgh entertainment every day!

1) It’s Pittsburgh Restaurant Week! How does this relate to you? More than fifty Pittsburgh restaurants are offering extra special deals through Jan. 20. Some of the participating restaurants are: Verde Mexican Kitchen & Cantina, Tamari, Bridge Ten Brasserie, and Kaleidoscope Cafe; the full list and more information available at Pittsburghrestaurantweek.com for more information on all the great restaurant deals. Let’s get out there and support all our great local restaurants!

2) It’s NFL Conference Championship Sunday. In the AFC Conference we have two of Pittsburgh’s favorite teams “fighting it out,” Baltimore Ravens at the New England Patriots’ Gillette Stadium. Who do you root for in this game? In the NFC we have the Atlanta Falcons hosting the San Francisco 49ers in the Georgia Dome. A cool place to watch the games is Buffalo Wild Wings. Why, because it has three of the basic essentials covered – lots of TV’s, a large assortment of cold brews, AND Buffalo chicken wings!! Buffalo Wild Wings’ Pittsburgh-area locations are: Wilkins Township, West Mifflin, The Pointe at South Fayette, Cranberry Township, Gibsonia, and Greensburg.

3) It’s a good time of the year to be a movie buff. Some flicks screening locally are: The Guilt Trip, with Barbara Streisand and Seth Rogen on a comedic, mother-son, cross-country road trip.; Not Fade Away, a story about several young men in the ’60’s who catch flack from their parents for forming a rock band and trying to hit it big. One of the domineering parents is played by James Gandolfini, who portrayed mob boss Tony Soprano in the TV show, The Sopranos. The movie On the Road is based on the Jack Kerouac novel of the same name and stars: Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley and Kristen Stewart. And there is Les Miserables, a musical film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel of 19th-century France’s hardships and revolution, starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway. Hathaway just won the Golden Globe Award for “Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.”

4) If you live a little farther out from the city center and wish to ice skate in a sylvan setting, then Allegheny County’s North and South Park’s ice skating rinks are “your ticket to fun!” The rinks offer both free and paid skating lessons, and skate rentals. Today’s session are from: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., 4:30-7 p.m. and 7:30-9 p.m. North Park rink is on Pearce Mill Road; South Park rink is on Buffalo Drive.