#6100 - Shooting Star Saloon, Huntsville, UT - 3/9/2025

Shooting Star Saloon, Huntsville, UT

The Shooting Star Saloon, sitting on the Pineview Reservoir in the Wasatch Mountains about 50 miles north of Salt Lake City, is said to be "Utah's oldest business" and "the Oldest Continuously Operating Saloon West of the Mississippi." How exactly they get to the latter claim, with several California bars dating back a few decades earlier, I am not clear about, but I suspect it hinges on the "continuously operated" phrase, alluding to continuous operation through federal prohibition.

In any case, it is quite old, with the building dating back to a mercantile business constructed around 1850, a bar first established here in 1879, and the name "Shooting Star Saloon," along with the current bar space on the main floor, dating from 1940. It is located in the town of Huntsville, population approx. 608. In the 2000 census there were 649 residents, 98.77% white, 0.15% African American, and 0.31% Native American (if you do the math that's one black person and two Indians). To the north are multiple ski resorts, which contributed to the saloon once being listed by USA Today as one of the top après-ski bars in the country.

Shooting Star Saloon, Huntsville, UT

The bar preserves a fine old saloon vibe, with dark wood walls, various old west gear hanging over the bar, taxidermy and skulls, and a large amount of signed dollar bills (once estimated at around 15,000 of them) hanging from the ceiling.

The menu is aggressively simple, listed on the side of napkin dispensers, and comprising one hot dog and six variations of burgers, served with chips. However, the burgers are renowned, once rated 3rd best in the country by USA Today, and I very much enjoyed my cheeseburger, passing on the more famous "Star Burger," which has two beef patties and a layer of knockwurst.

I've added this cozy, historical spot to my highest recommendations list, and close with a few additional notes from a couple online sources:

"The mercantile switched to a saloon in 1879, originally named Hoken’s Hole for its owner Hoken Olsen. Hoken (1862-1945) was the son of Norwegian immigrants who had converted to Mormonism and moved to Utah in 1876 as part of the “gathering.” He became a citizen of the US in 1902. Hunstville’s early newspapers are filled with accounts of how “Slippery Hoken'' had once more been fined for selling liquor without a license, or sent to jail for the same. His wife Maria Bingham operated the saloon when Hoken was in jail."  (Intermountain Histories)

"During the Prohibition Era in the 1920s, alcoholic drinks and card games were enjoyed in secret and a confectionery shop for children was displayed on the top floor of the saloon. However, Hoken continued to be arrested for selling liquor without a license. In 1929, Hoken sold his property to Ben Wood. In 1940, Huntsville’s Carl Stokes moved the saloon upstairs from the basement and named it the Shooting Star."  (ibid) 

"There have been seven owners of the Shooting Star Saloon in the past 135 years. Leslie Sutter is the current owner. Leslie had to prove to the owners she was legit enough to buy the famous saloon by working there for two years. The Shooting Star requires a good steward of the precious historic relics kept inside."

Utah Stories

"Mounted on the wall of the Shooting Star is Buck. He was the largest measured St.Bernard in Guinness Book of World Records. He held this record for seven years. Buck weighed 298 pounds and stood 41 inches tall. He died in 1957, and has been mounted watching over the saloon ever since." (ibid) 

7350 E 200 S, Huntsville, UT 84317 - (801) 745-2002
Est. 1940 as Shooting Star, 1879 as a bar - Building constructed: c1850
Previous bars in this location: Hoken's Hole
Web site: shootingstarsaloon.co - facebook - instagram 
Ranked articles and reviews: intermountainhistories - utahstories - oldestbarineverystate - today's outdoor adventure (video) - postcard.inc - sltrib - deseret - thetvtraveler - onlyinutah - kutv - 10best.usatoday - bearsbutt - highonadventure - yelp - atlasobscura - menu.com - salt lake city weekly - wayneontheroad - tripadvisor 

#6087 - Red Star Inn, Cumberland Township (Fairdale), PA - 2/26/2025

Serb Krewasky, Red Star Inn, Fairdale, PA

Miljo “Serb” Krewasky opened his bar here on Labor Day 1965 -- almost 60 years before I first set foot in it on this day, with him still working the bar. Serb says it had been the Red Star Inn since 1938. In this case, the nickname is accurate, as Miljo ("My-low") is indeed Serbian, and has hosted a Serbian Christmas celebration each Dec 7 for decades. He told me he served in the Army infantry 1961 to '63, and when he heard them call him "Miljo" instead of "Serb," he knew he was in trouble.

There's a framed, yellowed newspaper hanging over the paint peeling from the wall, with a blaring headline: "Cumberland Twp. Plays Wilmerding for Title." "That's older than you are," says Serb, and I thought he was probably wrong, but as it was about the 1952 squads, he was correct. The local Carmichaels boys (Cumberland Township), including freshman Miljo Krewasky, made it all the way to the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) B Division Championship that year, having whipped Zelienople 40-14 for their 10th straight win. The "Mighty Mikes" would go on to nip Wilmerding 12-6 to take the title.

Serb was started out as a quarterback and later played linebacker. He is 86 now, but he's not ready to give up the bar. When he does, he says it will be to family only. His hand shakes now as he pours me a shot of Jameson. It was a beer and shot bar when it was full of coal miners, and it's a beer and shot joint today. There's still a framed photo of FDR on the back bar. 

I went from doubting this place was still open to adding it to my list of favorite dive bars in western Pennsylvania. It was an old geezer in an old bar up the road that told me about the place -- "It's even older than this one," he told me. If you're not immediately endeared to a small town working class bar that features a 70-year-old news clip about the local high school team, and with an 86-year-old alumnus pouring you a shot, well, we just have very different tastes.

334 S Vine St, Carmichaels, PA 15320 - (724) 966-9937
Est. 1938 
Articles: greenscenemagazine  

#6088 - Pancake Inn, South Strabane (Pancake), PA - 2/26/2025

Dave Crompton, Pancake Inn, South Strabane, PA

Dave Crompton, AKA "Clem Riley," dressed in a bathrobe and shorts, sat at the bar of in the joint his father bought in in 1964, when Dave was 18. Dave's worked in it ever since, along with his other profession as a bricklayer. It's been the "Pancake Inn" since sometime before that -- I found several liquor license suspensions of former owner Charles Johnson in 1963 and '64, which perhaps contributed to his motivation to sell the place?

You can't get pancakes at the Pancake Inn, nor at any other business in the Pancake, the unincorporated community established in 1822 by settler George Pancake. Before it was a bar, the Pancake Inn building served at least into the 1920s as a one-room schoolhouse, hard by the famous "National Road," originally comprised of the Native Americans' Nemacolin's Trail and Mingo Path, which was later traversed by George Washington himself on his way to erect Fort Necessity during the French and Indian War.

From aged Insulbrick interior it doesn't look like a place where you could take for granted that non-locals were welcomed, but they definitely are by Dave. He tells Dan the bartender that my first drink is on the house, and tries to do the same with my second. He enjoys chatting, generally responding with a satisfied, "Cool beans!"

The decor is just what you'd want in a classic dive -- artifacts that have plainly been collected over many years from many sources, including "Dusty," the mounted deer head, much in winsome disrepair, shabby but perfectly functional.

It's the sort of joint that I will make a point of visiting when I am in the area.

1726 E Maiden St, Washington, PA 15301 - (724) 229-0648
Est. 1963 or earlier 
Previous bars in this location: None known 
Web site: facebook 
Reviews: triblive - untappd 

#6068 - Pleasure Bar, Pittsburgh, PA - 2/7/2025

Pleasure Bar, Pittsburgh, PA 

On our way to a late dinner at Fet-Fisk in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood, we stopped in for a beer at the Pleasure Bar. Pleasure Bar is an old neighborhood joint (the sign right out front says since 1941, which isn't exactly accurate but is only a few years off), with a neighborhood bar on the edge of divey-ness up front and an Italian restaurant behind and beside.

If it weren't for our reservation at a difficult to get into restaurant, I would have welcomed the chance to taste the food I smelled there, and could have easily spent a few hours chatting with long-time locals Ollie, Patrick, and 2 others, as well as bartender Christy.

Pleasure Bar, Pittsburgh, PA 

Pleasure Bar was established in 1944 by Samuel and Michel Collinger in 1944 in a space that had briefly been filled by the Friendship Restaurant. It was one of several businesses named "Metropolitan Restaurant" in the 1920s and "Bloomfield Tavern" during the 30s. Pleasure Bar remained in the Collinger family for many years, and all the regulars we chatted with remembered them well.

It seems to have had a colorful history. In the 40s John Collinger was reputed to be one of the biggest numbers operators in the city. The family also didn't seem to buy into the blue laws restricting activities on Sundays, having had their license suspended at least once for serving alcohol on Sundays and another time for allowing dancing (the horror!) on Sundays.

Pleasure Bar has been run by only three families since 1944: The Collinger family eventually sold the business to Robert Mariani and the Mariani family, who ran it for about 25 years until selling it to Jim Campau in 2009, with the Campau family continuing to run it today.

4729 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15224 - (412) 682-9603
Est. 1944 
Previous bars in this location: New Metropolitan Restaurant, Bloomfield Tavern, Friendship Restaurant
Web site: pleasurebarpittsburgh.com - facebook - instagram 
Reviews: cooksandeats - yelp - travelocity - thrillist - acrosspittsburgh 

#6064 - Corner Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA - 2/3/2025

Corner Cafe and Bar, Pittsburgh, PA

This is a cool neighborhood bar in the South Side Slopes section of Pittsburgh. It may or may not fit your description of a "dive," it is old school in many ways, but certainly not all, hosting live hardcore bands, comedy acts, and late night drag shows. But for me, the main attraction is the beautiful back bar.

I have nothing like a comprehensive history of the bar, but continue to slowly piece things together. The "Corner Cafe" appears to first show up in city directories in 1938. But the building and hotel have been around since at least the 1880s. A framed photograph in the bar itself claims to be from 1890 and notes that the location was then known as the Fischer Hotel. Sure enough, the 1907 Mowrey Directory for Pittsburgh contains a listing for John Fischer at S 18th and Monestary in the Hotels section -- although I can find no application for a liquor license for the location. (John Fischer does, however, apply for annual liquor licenses for a restaurant at 128 17th Street, which I believe is the location of the current Dish Osteria.) 

Corner Cafe and Bar, Pittsburgh, PA 

I do not know the origins of the bar itself, but it is impressive, with gold trim and appliques, a curve awning-style top section extending outward, and top shelves on either side featuring a small railing. I assume it is pre-prohibition, and if it came from one of the major manufacturers of the time, it seems a little more in the style of B.A. Stevens bars than Brunswick. If anyone can point me to any more history of the building, bar, or business, I'd love to hear it.

  

2500 S 18th St, Pittsburgh, PA 15203 - (412) 488-2995
Est. 1938 or earlier - Building constructed: 1887 or earlier
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: instagram 
Reviews: yelp

#4831 - Morcilla, Pittsburgh, PA - 10/5/2022

Morcilla, Pittsburgh, PA 

Morcilla is one of our favorite restaurants in the city, and if you're not interested in random bar history notes you should stop reading now and just go there if/when you're in the Pittsburgh area.

But I did spend some time investigating the history of bars in this location and for me there were some fairly intriguing stories, even if the info was largely limited to license applications and obituaries. The first bar I could find in the space was a saloon of unknown name owned by Jacob Stein, "a great big, blonde-bearded man," who was denied a liquor license in 1889, but granted one in 1890.

Stein died later that year at age 44 "from the effects of an abscess back of his ear." His wife Anna Stein then assumed ownership of the business, though she did not work in the bar, and she nearly lost the license in 1894 as anonymous sources reported she allowed women to drink there and colored people to "collect" there. In Sep 1896 she married Frank Oesterle, who was the head bartender since 1890, and he assumed the license. Then Frank died at age 43 in August 1898, and the restaurant and liquor license are thereafter run by Fred Voelker. Anna went on to marry John George Oesterle, who died in December 1918 at the age of 30. In 1922 an Anna Oesterle, I'm not sure if it is the same one, marries Joseph F. Kaiser Jr. I do not know what became of Kaiser, but in 1924 Anna Stein/Oesterle appears to marry again, this time to Walter Zehfuss. Anna herself passes away in Dec 1925 at the age of 80.

Morcilla, Pittsburgh, PA 

Meanwhile, Fred Voelker passed away in 1906, and the liquor license is transferred to his surviving wife Annie. By March 1907 the liquor license has been assumed by Joseph Hearn. Hearn's license was challenged in 1909 when two detectives testified to seeing women drinking in the back room (another witness claimed the women were drinking pop), but he continues to run the place until at least 1917, with Benjamin Zwolski taking over by 1918. Zwolski was arrested in late 1919 (during statewide and wartime prohibition) for selling a quart of wine, and again raided Nov 1921 with a bottle of wine and quart of "moonshine whisky" confiscated.

Morcilla, Pittsburgh, PA

In 1924 Matthew Maglicich buys the saloon and raids continue, with police seizing 5 gallons of moonshine in March of 1926. Maglichich shortens his name to Maglich -- which over the few years he owns the bar will be spelled by the newspapers as Mack Maglich, Matt Maglick, Matt Maglis, Milton Nuylick, and Nattern Mazlicick. In 1928 the police raids are after not liquor but slot machines, and they seize one 5-cent and one 25-cent machine from Maglich. Maglich passes away in June 1931 (with one obituary listing his widow and children with a surname of "Maglicih."

By 1934 the space is named "Herman's Tavern," run by Herman Frankel, who came to Pittsburgh from Germany in 1902 and was a "restaurateur and hotelman here for nearly half a century" until he died Jan 25, 1940. In the early 40s the tavern is owned by Wanda Wacht, who owned a barber shop just down the street and made headline news by refusing the shakedown threatened by Mike Circelli and his "Master Barbers" Association, which threatened and demanded dues from city barber shops. Wacht's shop has a brick thrown through her front window and a stink bomb thrown in before her testimony. Also while Wacht ran the place, a truck (apparently unrelated to the Circelli affair) ran through the front wall of the bar.

In the late 40s the bar becomes Mac's Tavern, and then McGwire's Tavern until 1967. In that year Charles and Mary Jane Sullivan purchase the place and move their "Chuck's Bar" to this location, where it would remain at least into the 1980s. I have not yet tracked down what was happening in the space over the next couple decades, but in 2009 it becomes the Tamari Restaurant and Lounge, with an asian-latin fusion cuisine. Finally, in December 2015, multiple James Beard nominee chef Justin Severino and Hilary Prescott Severino opened Morcilla, eventually closing their highly regarded Cure up the street, providing a lovely setting to sample Spanish influenced tapas, a great charcuterie board, and delicious cocktails under large hanging legs of cured ham. (Bon Apetit called Severino "the most underrated chef in America" and said Morcilla "serves the best Spanish food I’ve had outside San Sebastián.")

Pittsburgh Press - June 12, 1946

3519 Butler St, Pittsburgh, PA 15201 - (412) 652-9924
Est. Dec 2015
Previous bars in this location: Herman's Tavern, Mac's Tavern, McGuire's Tavern, Chuck's Bar, Tamari
Web site: morcillapittsburgh.com - facebook - instagram 
Articles ranked: pittsburghmagazine - davethegastronome - bykimberlykong - bonappetit - discovertheburgh - theinfatuation - cbsnews - yelp - tripadvisor 

#5586 - Alpine, Pittsburgh, PA - 2/23/2024

The Alpine, Beechview, Pittsburgh, PA

On this day I visited The Alpine, which seemed -- and I assume is -- a calm and cozy neighborhood joint in a quaint setting in Pittsburgh, which the bartender told me is "like Cheers," where everybody knows everybody and most customers have walked from their homes to the bar. The Alpine -- or "Alpine Tavern" as it has been mostly known -- goes back to at least the early 40s, although it started out in the North Side, on the corner of Federal and Alpine Avenue. Sometime between the mid 70s and mid 80s then owner Harry Parker moved it to its current location the Beechview neighborhood southeast of downtown, into a location that had previously hosted Stanley's Tavern for a couple decades.

The Alpine, Pittsburgh, PA

The place has considerable character even on this slow February afternoon, and I'd like to make it back on a Friday or Saturday night to experience that side of it. I like the place, but particularly after experiencing it in such a tranquil state, I was a bit stunned at the amount of turmoil I found throughout the history of the bar -- troubles that appear to have followed it from old location to new. Here are just the highlights I found with a fairly moderate amount of digging:

• By 1935 the original location hosted a confectionary store with a beer license; 
• In 1937 it was a corner grocery owned by widow Mary Catalano, who was fined for running numbers there; 

• In 1955, 19yo Benjamin Umphey was shot in the foot by police after being caught burglarizing what would turn out to be $15.35 in coins stolen from cigarette machine in the bar, and then failing to stop when commanded police; 
• In 1956, 3 men rob bartender at gunpoint; 
• In 1996, Derek Pitts of Swissvale, the son of former Wilkinsburg Mayor Bob Pitts, was shot and killed outside the Alpine Tavern in June. 
• In 1997, another man, Ronald Minniefield, 24, was found in a shed behind the bar in December. He bled to death after being shot in the neck. 
• In 2001, 7 people were injured when Chris Smith crashed his SUV into the tavern after being shot by someone in the back seat; 
• In 2002, 2 women were shot in the feet as they were exiting the bar; 
• In March 2003 a bartender pleads guilty to cocaine possession and distribution; 

• On May 14, 2003, noting 2 homicides, 11 assaults and 22 drug arrests in last 7 years, the Allegheny County DA office announces a deal to close the tavern, and inform the press "This establishment will never be a bar again."
• In 2006, owner Rupert Aumer acknowledged he had been drafted into the German army in WWII but insisted he never belonged to the Nazi party, as was alleged, and for which Rupert sued the claimant

Even for a stretch of almost a hundred years, that seems like A LOT, no? But this just reminds me that I really need to get around to visiting on a weekend evening, to see if the vibe of the bar and location at such times comports with the friendly, easygoing joint I experienced in my visit, or if it gives some hints that gunplay and wall smashing SUVs could break out at any moment?

1544 Beechview Ave A, Pittsburgh, PA 15216 - (412) 561-2950
Previous bars in this location: Stanley's Tavern
Web site: Facebook - Facebook Events 
Reviews: link - link - link