Pittsburgh Drinks by McDevitt Cody;Enright Sean;

Author:McDevitt, Cody;Enright, Sean;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2017-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Mount Lebanon was another area that began attracting crowds in the 1970s. In 1975, voters in that town ended the dry policy that had been around for thirty-six years. Bars such as the Saloon and the Sunken Cork became popular places for singles to go.

“They used to roll the sidewalks up here at 9 p.m.,” recalled Wayne Pritchard, co-owner of the Sunken Cork, to the Post-Gazette. “People who worked here went to Dormont for a drink, and people who lived here stayed downtown for happy hour.”

The two locations became the fastest growing in town. The Saloon was a shot-and-a-beer place. It remains open today. Owner Jim Sheppard hoped it would grow into the vibrant place for youth.

“What we’d like to see happen is to see it turn into a Shadyside,” Sheppard said to the Post-Gazette in the 1970s.

The Saloon attracted some of the more prominent athletes in town, including many of the Steelers and Penguins.

“We’d get a lot of linemen,” Sheppard told Mt. Lebanon Magazine. “They’d come in on Monday or Tuesday when they were off to unwind. We’d get a lot of hockey players. They were all personable. They’d come in for lunch hour because we used to be open for it then.”

The seeds for the South Side’s renaissance were planted in the 1980s. The South Side, as it’s seen today, is an eclectic mix of bars, coffee shops, beauty salons and other storefronts. But it wasn’t that way thirty-five years ago.

When you drove through the neighborhood, there were boarded buildings and a few bars, including Jack’s, Dee’s Café and Kotula’s. But that began to change when Bob Pessolano opened Mario’s in the early 1980s.

“This changed the perception of the South Side,” Bob’s son Louis Pessolano said while sitting in the Mario’s as it currently stands. “Jack’s has changed their way of doing things. Dee’s has as well. But those weren’t bars that attracted kids from Duquesne, Pitt and young professionals. They attracted steel mill workers. And the mills were leaving at that point.”

Those familiar with the neighborhood were surprised that someone would open a bar catering to the yuppie and college crowd in such a downtrodden neighborhood. But the bar became a hit.

Bob Pessolano was always trying to find an avenue that would interest people just by seeing it. He had a number of drinks where he would put beer in different vessels just so people would see the fancy drinks, which would make it more likely for them to buy them. They had yards and port-a-potty glasses. They had fishbowl drinks. Anything that he could find in trade magazines, Pessolano was willing to try.

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