Christopher Driscoll’s prior restaurant experience amounted to working as a dishwasher for a few months. But that didn’t dissuade him from partnering with John King to turn a former funeral home in Bellevue into Revival on Lincoln. The upscale American restaurant is set to open Nov. 2.
On a recent tour of the property, he said this giant leap of faith initially was more about preservation than creating a cool space for Pittsburghers to meet for dinner.
The former McDonald-Linn Funeral Home on Lincoln Avenue was abandoned in 1999 and had become an eyesore by the time Mr. Driscoll and his wife, Kathryn, moved into a house across the street in 2013.
That bothered him. A lot. Though the Washington D.C. native has spent his career in higher education information technology, he’s always been a history buff. It hurt to see the once grand Classical Revival-style house with an elaborate leaded-glass entry in such a lamentable state.
“I wanted to save the building and do something positive in the community,” he said.
But how? He didn’t want to own an apartment building and condos didn’t make sense.
Friends introduced him to Mr. King, and before Mr. Driscoll knew it, the bed-and-breakfast with a small cafe he’d been pondering had morphed into something much grander.
When it opens next week, Revival on Lincoln will be the borough’s only upscale restaurant to offer diners fresh, seasonal fare and a cocktail program. It follows the Italian eatery Vivo, which relocated from Lincoln Avenue to Sewickley in 2011. Roberto Caporuscio of New York’s Keste Pizza & Vino fame also got his start here in 2001 with Pizzeria Regina Margherita.
A longtime Bellevue resident, Mr. King had just retired after 28 years as executive chef of Allegheny Country Club in Sewickley. He saw a kindred spirit in Mr. Driscoll, who was on the board of the community development group Bonafide Bellevue and a former board chairman of the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh. They agreed that with a little TLC, the 116-year-old building could once again become an anchor business on Bellevue’s main street. They decided the best adaptive use would be a restaurant.
Despite its chipped and peeling exterior, the 2½-story house still had good bones when they purchased it for $97,500 in 2017. Designed by Century Architectural and Engineering Co. for attorney Andrew S. Miller in 1902, it was built to last with a massive two-story front porch with fluted columns and pedimented dormers.
There was some minor plaster damage from roof leaks, and the original knob-and-tube wiring and plumbing had to be replaced. Workers also put a new roof on a small brick building that originally served as Mr. Miller’s office and later became the “Little House” dress shop. It was used for embalming when the property was the Dale A. Gilliland Funeral Home in the 1960s. They also had to make the entire quarter-acre property ADA-accessible.
“But we both could see how beautiful it’s going to be,” said Mr. Driscoll.
Construction on the house started in March using plans drawn up by John Evans of MCF Architects and as many local sources as possible. They were careful to preserve original details, including gold velvet wallpaper in the front hall and stained-glass windows on the landing.
But there are lots of modern touches, too. There’s now a patio with seating for 60, and a new breezeway connects the little house and main building. Sixteen diners can be comfortably seated in that cozy space, and there’s room for another 55 in the five rooms that make up the first floor.
The main dining room is anchored by a green tiled fireplace and the bar area features an elaborate carved bar that Bellevue decorator Susan Stabnau found at Artifacts in the West End. The partners are thinking about using two front bedrooms on the second floor as event space.
Jamie Sola, its executive chef, worked with Mr. King for two years at Allegheny Country Club before becoming executive chef at Southern Tier on the North Shore in 2016. His opening menu will feature a variety of locally sourced seafood and meat dishes, including walleye ramen, pork tenderloin with smoked tomato compote and shrimp and lobster grits.
The weekend brunch menu will be more casual, with a selection of omelets and other egg dishes, French toast and fried Lebanon bologna with cheddar and onion jam. Nicole Tedesco will head up the bar program, which will include wine and local brews on tap, and Matt Pupo, formerly of Willow, is general manager.
Mr. Driscoll admits he feels bad about taking down two tall trees that fronted the property, but they were dying. He wanted to turn the stumps into lions, but they weren’t big enough. So Joe King, an internationally known wood carver from Seven Springs, chainsawed them into eagles.
He knows he’s taking a risk in a town that’s not known for its fine dining or lively bar scene; Bellevue was dry from Prohibition until 2015.
“But if you look around,” Mr. Driscoll said, gesturing toward the cars and buses zooming by on Lincoln Avenue, “there’s no competition. And there’s definitely a need here.”
As for all those renovation dollars, well, “you don’t spend this kind of money on a burger joint.”
Revival on Lincoln, 366 Lincoln Ave., Bellevue, will be open from 4-10 p.m. Tues.-Sat. It also will offer brunch from 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun. For reservations or information, call 412-223-5715.
Gretchen McKay: gmckay@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1419 or on Twitter @gtmckay.
First Published: October 24, 2018, 7:48 p.m.
