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Bars where Pete has had a drink

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

#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: FacebookFacebook Events 
Reviews: link - link - link

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