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Bars where Pete has had a Drink (5,608 bars; 1,754 bars in Seattle) - Click titles below for Lists:


Bars where Pete has had a drink

Saturday, February 11, 2023

#5000 - The Oak Room, Pittsburgh, PA - 2/10/2023

Mansions on 5th Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA

In the year of 1900, a time when Pittsburgh produced half the steel in the U.S. and was the country's 8th largest city, prominent attorney Willis Fisher McCook commissioned a new house to be built on "Millionaire's Row," along 5th Avenue in the city. This stretch housed the families of Andrew Mellon, Andrew Carnegie, H.J. Heinz, George Westinghouse and Henry Clay Frick. McCook was counsel for Frick, and eventually served as the president of Pittsburgh Steel Co.

The McCook family lost the house during the Great Depression, and it was purchased in a sheriff's sale by Emil Bonita. To help pay for upkeep and taxes, the Bonita family rented rooms to Carnegie-Mellon University arts students, said to include Andy Warhol, George Peppard, Shirley Jones, and Albert Brooks.

Mansions on 5th Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA


The house was later sold to preservationists Richard Pearson and Mary Del Brady, who commenced restoration work of the mansion as well as adjacent property in 2010. The two were opened as a boutique hotel in March 2011, complete with the Oak Room Pub. The building is also a popular space for weddings and other special events. (Source = printed materials from the business)

On February 10, 2023, the Oak Room was the setting for a little milestone of my own. I've been counting bars that I've had a drink in since early 2006, and on this day of my project, in the capable hands of bartender Lisa, my nutty Manhattan made this this the 5,000th different bar in which I've had a drink.

We enjoyed our cocktails and conversation with Lisa, spanning from notes on local bars and liquor law to ghosts said to tread the old mansion (Lisa is unconvinced). Of course we also took in the beautiful oak woodwork, stained glass, and the Elizabethan Revival architecture. Then after this, dinner and bar numbers 5,001, 5,002, and 5,003.

The Oak Room Pub, Mansions of Fifth
Pittsburgh, PA - Feb 10, 2023




























Lisa, Oak Room bartender
Helping us celebrate my milestone
















Curly, former steward of the Oak Room
(We seem to have been too late to have met this
impressive looking gentleman in the bar)
(Photo from the mansionsonfifth blog)




















5105 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 - (412) 381-5105
Est. 2011 - Building constructed: 1906
Previous bars in this location: None known
Web site: mansionsonfifth - facebook - blog
Reviews: triblive - tripadvisor - yelp - wikipedia - lewisandclark 

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