#5453 - Pastime Inn Lounge, Uniontown, PA - 10/18/23

Pastime Inn Lounge, Uniontown, PA

The Pastime Inn Lounge in Uniontown, PA is old school, and it doesn't make much effort to reach non-locals. There's no web site, no real Facebook site, and even finding a listing that includes the full address takes a little doing. Patricia "Pastime Patty" Franko has been working the place since 1980, ten years after her dad Richard Franko bought the place. Richard passed in 2008.

I have a soft spot for "Pastime" bars, as, this has been the single most popular name for bars in American history -- or at least in the northwestern states. So far I've identified 68 "Pastimes" in Washington state, along with 112 in other states. But relatively few remain now, and I make an extra effort to visit when I find one.

Patty chatted with me a bit about the history of the place, and showed me a photograph of the grocery store that proceeded it in this location near a corner of the city established by the Quaker Henry Beeson in 1776. The city lies less than fifteen miles from the West Virginia border, and ten miles northwest of Fort Necessity, built by George Washington during the French and Indian War and the site of the Battle of Jumonville Glen, where the North American branch of the war began. 140 years later the war here was between the local miners and mine owners, with the owners bringing in "fifteen guards armed with carbines and machine guns [to hold] off an attack by 1,500 strikers, killing five and wounding eight." (wikipedia)

Patty doesn't like photos taken of her, but she seems well known to people in the area. A couple bartenders at my other stops on the road trip told me to tell her hello. It's a nice place for people who appreciate an old, unassuming joint with some nice vintage beer decor. As I left I noted my hope that no one ever changes the name.

154 W Berkeley St, Uniontown, PA
Est. 1970