#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

#6054 - Lou's Little Corner Bar, Pittsburgh, PA - 1/25/2025

Lou's Little Corner Bar, Pittsburgh, PA 

I don't know how long there has been a bar in this location, but it has been at least since the 1930s and there are hints it may go back to the 1890s.

Louis Lardo established Lou's in 1985. It was O'Neil's Bar in the 1960s, Sutony's Bar in the late 40s and the 50s, and the Anchor Inn from at least 1937 into the early 1940s.

In November of 1991, Lardo was charged with two accounts of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, after he tracked down to black 15-year-olds who stole his car from in front of the bar, and shot them as they fled from him.

Lou's Little Corner Bar, Pittsburgh, PA 

The building attached to the bar has offered rooms to let for well over a hundred years.

4924 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15224 - (412) 682-9723
Est. March 18, 1985
Previous bars in this location: Anchor Inn, Sutony's Bar, O'Neil's Bar
Web site: facebook - instagram  
Reviews: thegreatpittsburghpubcrawl - yelp - reddit