Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Reynold Fernandes, right, chef and owner of Reynold's on Bryant, hangs up lights with Richard Parker at the Highland Park restaurant.

By Diana Nelson Jones
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Bryant Street is languid on a summer afternoon. Two men eat lunch at a sidewalk table outside Reynold's on Bryant, the latest in a string of restaurants that have tried to find a fit in a former American Legion hall.

A few people emerge from the Walnut Market with bags of snacks and soda pop. Traffic is light.

For decades, entrepreneurs and development advocates have given it a go on Bryant Street, Highland Park's small and only commercial corridor. For decades, the four-block stretch has underachieved.

"It just doesn't quite pull together," said Brad Walter, the co-owner of Food Glorious Food, a cooking school and bakery that opened on Bryant in 2000 and has won the lavish praise of food critics.

In recent years, neighborhood groups in Highland Park and East Liberty have combined their attention to the corridor, with loans from the Urban Redevelopment Authority and recent upgrades of sidewalks and curbs with state money from state Sen. Jim Ferlo.

Bryant has been a frustrating project in part because three highly esteemed businesses, two on Bryant and one just around the corner on Highland Avenue, have bred expectations.

With Food Glorious Food and Laforet, possibly the city's most vaunted dining experience, on one street, and the Tazza d'Oro coffeehouse, a destination by itself around the corner, Bryant would seem a sure bet to attract other entrepreneurs.

Laforet closed on Saturday, its owners retiring from the restaurant business, but Joseph Tambellini, executive chef at Franco's Trattoria in Dormont, is set to open an Italian restaurant in the stately former residence on Bryant.

Amy Enrico's Tazza d'Oro has built a loyal clientele of hundreds over eight years, both commuters and residents. She has been working with East Liberty Development Inc. to court more small business.

"We just haven't hit the mark yet. I hope my business can provide a gateway to what we're trying to do on Bryant."

The strength of the market radiating from East Liberty and the return of many old Highland Park homes back to single-family use from apartments bodes well for Bryant, said Mr. Ferlo.

He said the focus has been on one block, between North Euclid Avenue and North St. Clair Street. State funds paid for new sidewalks and curbs with a 20 percent match from property owners. Bryant is scheduled for paving and street trees, he said, calling this "prep work" for all the investment.

The Highland Park Community Development Corp. owns a former dry cleaners at North St. Clair and the vacant lot beside it and is courting a developer of ground floor retail and upstairs apartments.

Michael Eydinov manages the Walnut Market and a corner building beside it, home to a hair salon, laundromat and upstairs apartments. It has been renovated, with two commercial vacancies, he said, adding that he is talking to several interested occupants.

Mike Eversmeyer, historian, architect and Highland Park resident, said Bryant started as a residential street, one of the oldest in the neighborhood. Businesses established in the early part of the 20th century because a street car line was established along Bryant.

"It was most likely at its peak around World War II and into the '50s," providing residents with most of the goods and services they needed, he said. In the mid '80s, when a kosher meat market and the last grocery shut down, "there was a general decline in business along the street."

The only link to those days is Augie the Tailor, but Augie Scolieri said he is getting ready to retire.

Mr. Walter and his partner in Food Glorious Food scouted for locations in Shadyside, the Strip and Bloomfield but chose Bryant Street for being more affordable and parkable.

"The problem is there is no street traffic," he said. "The retail business isn't enough" to be open more than Wednesday through Saturday. The business depends on classes, catering and its Saturday morning bakery.

"It's always kind of had the potential, [needing] a couple key elements to make it happen," said Michael Uricchio, the chef and co-owner of Laforet. "I don't know what kind of businesses they need to get a draw but a couple of stores might move it in the right direction."