It’s a sunny and 70-degree day in May, and though it’s perfect for ice balls, those coming to Gus & YiaYia’s seem to be just as excited to see Gus Kalaris. His bright orange stand is an institution on West Ohio Street on the North Side, where his family has sold ice balls, popcorn and peanuts since 1934.
Since the West Ohio Street bridge a few hundred feet from his stand was closed for reconstruction in January, however, his business has been down 50 percent. And the bridge is not scheduled to reopen for two years.
A video created by Willy James, a local documentary filmmaker, in early May raises awareness about Mr. Kalaris’ plight. The video generated more than 35,000 views within the first three days it was posted.
Nearly all of the regulars who stop by this afternoon mention the bridge with equal frustration and empathy. They express concern, tell him to keep the change or suggest that he has nothing to worry about.
Mr. Kalaris’ father opened the stand in 1934 after purchasing it for $175 (that’s $3,268.31 in today’s dollars). In 1951, Mr. Kalaris took over after his father died, continuing the work at the stand he had started when he was 8 by helping out his dad.
“Ice balls were 3 cents, and the reason they’re 3 cents is because there was a thing called Isaly’s — they give you an ice cream cone that was this tall,” he says, holding his hands about a foot apart. “They had a special scoop, and they were only a nickel, so to compete with them, they made ‘em 3 cents.”
Despite the drop in business, Mr. Kalaris doesn’t plan to close the stand or move it any time soon.
“If I would move, people that know me, they won’t know where I moved to, you know what I mean? So they’ll find us, they get up in here, and it’s starting to change around now since we got some publicity on it.”
At 86, Mr. Kalaris has known plenty of his customers since they were kids, knows most of them by name and treats all of them with the warmth of a grandfather. While the stand is undoubtedly his, he speaks with ‘we’s’ rather than ‘I’s, fostering a small-town sense of community that can feel distant in an ever-developing city. The sound of ice shavings scraped from a huge cube quickly becomes familiar, and almost comforting.
With his stand placed along the tennis courts in West Park, where families sit on benches and blankets, walking their dogs while the kids chase friendly squirrels, he’s eager to talk about the past. “Trolleys ran down the middle of the street, we had a swimming pool over there… then it was leaking down to the railroad, so they tore it out and made three ballfields that lasted for about 25 years,” he said, pointing toward the recently drained Lake Elizabeth.
Gus & YiaYia’s was a favorite spot of Dan Rooney’s, he says. The late Steelers chairman would autograph the stand’s popcorn boxes for kids in the neighborhood. “He had the biggest business on the North Side and I had the smallest,” Mr. Kalaris says.
The octogenarian has built relationships with plenty of Steelers celebrities, and his relationship with other locals is just as honest and heartfelt.
“End of the fourth generation or fifth generation here, tell ’em how long you’ve been coming here,” Gus says to Tiarra Pijanowski, 30, of Millvale, as soon as she walks up to the stand with her family. “Since I was that size,” she says, pointing to her 3-year-old twins, running around the tennis courts holding plastic baby dolls. Her daughters both go for blue raspberry, which they choose by pointing to the blue stripe of the beach umbrella keeping the stand’s ice in the shade.
Later, when Mr. Kalaris saw one of the twins spill her cup, he instantly scraped the ice for another. Ms. Pijanjowski has been coming to Gus & YiaYia’s for 26 years, first with her grandfather, who owned a beer distributor for nearly 40 years nearby. Mr. Kalaris gave Ms. Pijanowski’s twin daughters silver dollar coins for their birthday, and she talked about storing them in keepsake books.
“Everybody’s worried that his business is just gonna go down, and then he’s just not going to want to be here,” Ms. Pijanowski said.
“Gus, not want to be here?” Billy Harold, 22, a family friend helping Mr. Kalaris for the day, said with a laugh — and he’s absolutely right. Mr. Kalaris is a true gem.
Tom Stanton, 66, of Oil City, recalled the first time he met Mr. Kalaris five years ago at the stand. He had forgotten his wallet and was ready to buy $7 worth of popcorn. “He said, ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll get you next time.’ He didn’t know me from Adam, I was always impressed by that… small, small city.
“The popcorn’s really good, too. Try it, it’s excellent.”
Emma Honcharski: ehoncharski@post-gazette.com
First Published: May 25, 2018, 10:31 p.m.
