Firehouse and Embury closing Aug. 1
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After this weekend, you'll have to go someplace else for your Ramos gin fizz.
Firehouse and Embury, the twin Strip District bars that helped reintroduce Pittsburgh to classic, pre-Prohibition cocktails, will close on Aug. 1.
The space could reopen later, under new ownership and with a new concept. Embury, meanwhile, could be on its way to Shadyside.
Owner Spencer Warren said he would have preferred to keep Embury and Firehouse in the Strip, but couldn't come to a new lease agreement with his landlord.
"It's a little depressing to lose my first business," he said this week. "Embury was my baby."
Mr. Warren opened Firehouse Lounge on Penn Avenue in December 2004. The bar, on the top floor of the former No. 7 Engine Co., was joined in 2008 by Embury, the intimate ground-floor space that is named for David Embury, author of "The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks."
Though they don't have the longevity of some other favorite Pittsburgh nightspots, Firehouse and Embury quickly gained a faithful following, and Embury was one of the first bars in the city to focus exclusively on "upscale" cocktails. Embury was molded after Milk & Honey, a cocktail shop in New York's Lower East Side.
Firehouse, meanwhile, is one of the city's more unique party lounges, showing that DJ-driven venues could still survive in the Strip, where the Smallman Street club district has seen better days.
The eclectic decor, mixing old furniture and antique mirrors with more urban touches, in turn attracted an eclectic weekend crowd, drawn by the lounge's subtle dance floor and spacious second-floor deck.
Mr. Warren said the old fire hall has received interest from a group of local investors who want to convert the upstairs lounge into a "city bar" in the mold of the John Dory in New York City, while the smaller first floor would become a wine bar.
Bobby Fry, one of the four potential investors, said he and his Greensburg-born partners were attracted to the space aesthetically.
"It was very much architecturally driven," he said. "What a welcoming spot."
For 100 years, until 1949, the building was a firehouse, the last in Pittsburgh to give up horses for trucks. After that, it served as an Ironworkers union hall, then as an office building.
Mr. Warren said he is now looking for a space in Shadyside to open a new version of Embury, or a speakeasy-style beer garden.
First Published July 28, 2011 12:00 am
