As one of Pittsburgh’s most historically important chefs, Kevin Sousa has garnered local and national press and plaudits, been a consistent innovator, and even cooked for the late luminary Anthony Bourdain and his “Parts Unknown” show.
But only recently has Mr. Sousa started to really feel the food he’s making. It will be a foundation of Mount Oliver Bodega, a retail wine merchant, bar and pizzeria that is set to open in late September.
“For the first time, I’m getting emotional about food,” he said. “I smelled a pizza that I made last night, and it was the first real ‘Ratatouille’ moment,” he said, referring to the Pixar movie in which an icy French food critic is transported by the movie’s namesake dish.
“Suddenly, I’m a chubby kid again, mad at my mother because she made me walk to Church of the Mother of Sorrows [in McKees Rocks] in the rain to get pizza, and that smell was like that pizza.”
The Mount Oliver Bodega is a collaboration between Mr. Sousa, his wife, Meg, and longtime friend Chris Clark. It is the first project under the banner of their new Tribute Hospitality Group.
“It's not an accident that we’re called Tribute,” Mr. Clark said. “Everything that we’re doing here is a tribute to Pittsburgh and to each other.”
“For me to work with both of these guys, I feel super lucky, and it’s really special that I get to do it with my husband,” Ms. Sousa said.
Located in a 112-year-old building at 225 Brownsville Road, the Mount Oliver Bodega will feature Mr. Sousa’s food and a wine selection curated by Ms. Sousa and Mr. Clark.
“These are thoughtful wines made by small production winemakers, and there's gonna be an eclectic collection from around the world,” she said. “Some grapes you know, some you don’t. We want something for everyone here.”
That will include a combination of biodynamic, organic and sustainable wines, but Mr. Sousa stressed, “It’s not weird just to be weird. There’s still craftsmanship and history and technique, and everything doesn’t taste like kombucha.”
“We want to be accessible,” Mr. Clark said. “The food has more depth and is more rustic than I've previously seen Kevin do, and it's going to blend well with the wines.”
The building was most recently The Bakery Society, a business incubator, and before that the decades-long home of Kullman’s Bakery. The first floor will be a dining and retail space, the second floor a wine bar, and the third floor the kitchen.
Craftsman Steve Bucciero is building custom cabinetry, furniture and fixtures for the space.
“These walls had a hundred years of Pittsburgh stuff on them,” Mr. Sousa said, referring to the layers of wallpaper they uncovered.
The floor is impressive old terrazzo that was buried under 2 inches of concrete the newlyweds busted up with a sledgehammer.
“The walls and the floors started to reveal themselves and you see all the scars,” Mr. Sousa said. “I want to keep a certain level of that patina.”
The group has partnered with neighborhood native Joe Calloway of the real estate company RE360.
“So much of this comes from Joe’s will of wanting to do cool things,” Mr. Sousa said. “He doesn’t level buildings. He brings them back to life and puts cool stuff in them.”
The group already had the nearby Arlington Beverage Club in the works when the pandemic hit. Located in the old St. George’s Lyceum at 1226 Arlington Ave. in Allentown, Arlington Beverage is to be something of an homage to neighborhood social clubs of yore with an accessible menu of bar bites and drinks from Iron City to craft beer and cocktails.
Mount Oliver Bodega will be the most significant development along a commercial corridor that’s seen some positive activity over the past year with the opening of Mt. Oliver Gyros and Flavor of Puerto Rico.
Mr. Sousa’s most significant project, Superior Motors in Braddock, closed as the pandemic unfolded and remains so while the business’s investors weigh what to do next.
For now, the three partners are excited to get back to making and serving food and drink, with a new perspective.
“I can’t speak for these guys but I feel like we’re better off for the wear of the pandemic,” Mr. Sousa said. “It gave us a clearer focus on what we want to do here. Our relationships grew exponentially. We all got closer, and the concept really came together.”
“A lot of it to me is kind of a homecoming,” Mr. Clark said. “We’ve done the tweezer food before and the high-end stuff. Now when I’ve been tasting Kevin’s food for this concept, it's based on how we grew up.
“There’s whole industries that are dedicated to meditation and living in the moment, and one of the only times you’re able to do that is when you're dining. That’s what makes it special for us — we get to provide that.”
Dan Gigler: dgigler@post-gazette.com.
First Published: July 27, 2021, 4:05 p.m.
Updated: July 28, 2021, 1:42 a.m.
