Peter’s Pub owner decides to tap out
“We said you have to clean up your business or you’re out. So instead, he sold us the business.”
Peter’s opened in 1974 and quickly became a beloved institution and the site of wild nights and hazy memories for several generations of Pitt students and alumni.
“I can’t say enough about the patrons. People in business always ask about the bottom line. I was never worried about the bottom line. I was worried about bodies. The more people I brought in, the more people they brought in. I kept my prices cheap. People enjoyed themselves. I made sure everybody was safe. I had cops at the door and made sure I had enough doormen. I made sure my staff was safe and my customers were safe.”
And with a staff of 25 to 33 employees at any given time, he estimates that he’s had thousands of student employees over the decades.
“Do you know how many college tuitions I’ve helped pay for? Room and board?” he said, laughing.
Without missing a beat, Mr. Leventis said home football weekends at the old Pitt Stadium were his favorite memories at the bar.
“There would be lines to get in in the morning, then they walked up Cardiac Hill,” he said. “When the game ended, they’d walk back down Cardiac Hill and stay here until three in the morning. It was exciting.”
When Pitt won college football’s national championship in 1976, he said there was a line down the street on Oakland Avenue and clear around the corner on Fifth Avenue.
“I just had the one room then. We stayed until about six in the morning.”
Autographed Tony Dorsett and Dan Marino Pitt jerseys adorn the walls and both men have been routine visitors over the years, as have scores of other athletes and celebrities.
With a newsboy cap slung low on his head, the brim curved tightly around his eyes, he rattled off the famous guests who have passed through the doors.
“Tony Dorsett was here again a few years ago, Dan Marino comes in. The ‘Goose’ [Tony Siragusa] comes in. He’s wonderful. [Bill] Fralic comes in,” he said.
Despite being a Penn State alum, Franco Harris was a visitor. Various other Steelers and Penguins have popped in. And while there is plenty of Steelers memorabilia at the bar to go with the Pitt stuff, the local chapter of the Cleveland Browns Backers fan club made it their game day meeting place for 13 years.
Hollywood has come calling as well.
Scenes from the 2015 movie “Concussion” were filmed there, and when “Hoffa” filmed in Pittsburgh in the early 1990s, Mr. Leventis said Danny DeVito and Jack Nicholson came in together. Nick Nolte stopped in once as well.
“I never bothered them. I let them do their thing and relax.”
But, it was the daily customers and employees that made it a classic “third place” on the edge of the Pitt campus.
Jillian Bonner, Dylan Wassel and Dan Scurfield grew up together in Elizabeth, went to Pitt and all live on Mount Washington now. So it was a natural that they’d convene for an after work drink at Peter’s when they heard news of the closing.
“This is where everyone went,” Ms. Bonner said. “People might go to other bars to eat, but this was where the actual party was. This was the place.”
The trio said that they plan on returning here in a week for one last visit on the bar’s final day.
Bar manager Ashley Wells started working at Peter’s six years ago. Her voice cracked and eyes welled at the prospect of saying goodbye.
“It’s not just somewhere we work, it’s family,” she said. “The customers I’ve met, the people that I work with. It’s a family.”
Her former co-worker Andrew Stackiewicz concurred.
Mr. Stackiewicz and his sister, Michelle Bugg, are coowners of the The Foundry Tap & Table on the North Shore but both worked at Peter’s while attending Pitt. Mr. Stackiewicz started as a one-day a week bar back there 11 years ago — Michelle, already a waitress, helped get him the job.
He worked his way up to be the general manager before leaving to start his own business.
“Every friend I have in the world besides the people I grew up with, I know from there,” he said, noting that the place had a true neighborhood bar feeling as opposed to many college bars that are pseudo-clubs. “Staff, customers. We’re forever friends.
“I’ve seen just about everything in the world at that place.”