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Shale's Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA
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Shale's Cafe (AKA Shale's Rinkside) is a neighborhood dive established shortly after prohibition, and in recent decades has been a sports bar, catering to fans of the Penguins hockey team and Duquesne University sports. It is located across the street from PPG Paints Arena, home of the Pens and popular concert venue, and near the previous Pens home in Civic Arena. Shale's is now open only when there are events in PPG, which means it is only open when nearby parking is really expensive. But it is the quintessential locals' sports bar, and although PPG hosts all kinds of events (we recently saw Paul McCartney there), I was glad to finally visit the bar in the right circumstances - i.e. before a Pens game.
The crowd there is friendly and the staff - perhaps tuned to timeliness of fans trying to pound a few drinks for a reasonable price before heading to the arena - are as attentive as any you'll find in the city.
Shale's doesn't appear in the 1934 Polk directory, but it does appear in the 1935 edition, so I have no reason to doubt that it was established in '34. Based on the information I have accessed, this makes it probably the 5th oldest bar in the city (for details on my data and criteria see my page on
Oldest Bars in Pittsburgh). There do not appear to have been any legal bars in the location before that, although Saul Zarkin, the first owner of Shale's, was busted here in 1927 for a major bootlegging "cutting plant" operation here, with raiding prohibition agents finding whiskey ageing machine, labels, counterfeit stamps, 70 gallons of alcohol, 17 cases and 69 quarts of whiskey and gin.
Almost 100 years later, Shale's would be closed by another raid, as liquor control agents shut down the bar, nailing a piece of wood across the front to prevent re-entry, and charging current owner Jimmy Parey with operating without a current liquor license. The raid occurred on Jan 22, 2025, and the bar would resolve matters and reopen the following April 5th.
I do not know the age of the three story building (currently two floors for the bar and a third containing an apartment), but newspapers show rooms to let at the address by at least 1895. It was a grocery by 1899 and a restaurant by 1908. Saul and Myer Zarkin ran it with a few partners from the 1920s to the 1940s, with David Casper taking over in the 40s until 1980. For fans of hockey, hometown or visitors, and just fans of welcoming old neighborhood joints, it is not to be missed.
#6434 - Shale's Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA - 12/30/2025
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