The owner of the historic Pitt Building, Downtown, already has launched a members-only social club as a nod to the building’s past. Now he is taking a chance on yet another slice of nostalgia — a restaurant inspired by 1930s era supper clubs.
Developer Michael Blum has reached a deal with the owners of The Vandal restaurant in Lawrenceville and The Bureau, an East Liberty coffee shop that opened last year, to bring Saint Johannes to a prominent corner space fronting Smithfield Street.
The new restaurant is one of two concepts Vandal co-owners Joey Hilty and Emily Slagel plan to bring to the Pitt Building, the other being a sandwich shop featuring meatball subs, Philly roast pork, chicken Parmesan, and Chicago beef as well as an espresso bar and Italian sweets.
Saint Johannes will be patterned after the supper clubs of yesteryear, with a full bar and food menu.
“Saint Johannes is our maximalist approach to the fleeting ‘grand bar restaurants’ that used to be found all over major East Coast and Midwestern cities,” Ms. Slagel said in a statement. “The kind of place you might sit at the bar and order a shrimp cocktail and find yourself sitting between the ghosts of a prize fighter and a bookie.”
She and Mr. Hilty see the new restaurant complementing the Americus Club, a members-only social club that Mr. Blum recently opened on the second floor of the three-story Pitt Building.
The Americus Club, which also includes office space, pays homage to a Republican gathering spot of the same name that debuted with the building in 1918 and featured a dining room, a billiard room, a gym and a sleeping room. It closed in 1926 after a Prohibition-era raid.
Beyond the nostalgic aspects, the goal is create more of a neighborhood feel in a Downtown that is now home to thousands of residents in addition to office workers.
“We want to give people something that is comfortable and familiar but also really fun. Right now, a lot of Downtown is ephemeral and touristy; there isn’t really a neighborhood bar in that area of Downtown for people to go to. That’s what we’re looking to provide,” Ms. Slagel said.
The sandwich shop, which has yet to be named, will serve breakfast and lunch. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Saint Johannes hours will be 4 p.m. to midnight.
Both the restaurant and the sandwich shop are expected to open next spring.
With its elegant red brick facade and arched windows and columns, the Pitt Building also is home to the Beauty Shoppe, a Pittsburgh-based operator of shared work spaces in which Mr. Blum is an investor.
Mr. Blum envisions the Americus Club being a cross between the tony Duquesne Club and a coffee shop, a place that he hopes will be attractive to professionals between the ages of 30 and 50.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: 412-263-1601.
First Published: November 21, 2019, 6:32 p.m.
