Businesses booming in Pittsburgh's Polish Hill
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Two months ago, Polish Hill had five businesses you could walk into to buy something, most likely beer.
Now it has nine.
And the new ventures on the block are broadening this city neighborhood's little retail district.
Alfred's Deli and the bars Sarney's, Gooski's, the Rock Room and Donny's Place now have the company of The Urban Gypsy -- Paulette Still-Khouri's vintage, handmade and floral goods shop on Brereton Street -- and three businesses that opened this month at the corner of Dobson and Hancock streets.
"Isn't it amazing?" said Susan Constanse, whose title at the Polish Hill Civic Association is "staffski." "We're really tickled."
Lili Coffee Shop and Mind Cure Records opened last week in a building that Mark Knobil and Catherine McConnell bought two years ago and renovated. Bill Boichel opened his doors a week earlier on the third floor. His Copacetic Comics had outgrown its former space in Squirrel Hill.
Ms. McConnell said the original plan was to find a retail interest for the street level and renovate the rest into apartments. But the sprinkler system that's required for apartments was $50,000.
"So it had to be retail, and I thought, 'Who on earth will locate a retail business on a third floor in Polish Hill?' " said Ms. McConnell. "It just worked out in a way we never dreamed."
Collectors of comics and old records are exactly the type of people who will bother to climb stairs. Collectors have already been arriving.
Jeffrey Alexander, a record collector who owns the Morning Glory Cafe in Morningside, was flipping through the bins recently at Mind Cure Records. He worked in record stores for 20 years, he said, "and this collection seems to have been selected for [good] condition and rarity, also musically, though I know that is subjective."
First Published June 21, 2010 12:00 am
