Penn Brewery to stay open
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It's not yet auf Wiedersehen for Penn Brewery.
The restaurant on Vinial Street on the North Side will remain open while the company continues to seek a new address.
So president and CEO Len Caric told employees at a meeting yesterday afternoon. He declined to give more details until a news conference being planned for this morning.
The announcement was nearly last-minute, as Penn's lease was to expire today. Mr. Caric had said in November that the company decided to not renew the lease after the rent was effectively more than tripled by E&O Partners. E&O later said Penn owes it money for a disputed water bill. Neither side has said much publicly since.
No beer has been brewed there this year: Penn contracted brewing to The Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre and those beers, in new packaging, now are on the market. Penn laid off its brewers and shut down the brewing equipment, which remains for sale (the bottling line is sold).
But Mr. Caric has said that the company is committed to having a restaurant in Pittsburgh -- probably in the city -- and that it wants to return to doing at least some brewing here.
The award-winning craft brewer was Pittsburgh's first and largest, having opened in 1986 in the former Eberhardt & Ober brewery that had opened in 1848 and is on the National Register of Historic Sites.
Loyal customers and beer fans have been vocal about how much they would miss the red-brick and cobblestone ambiance, and people had been going there this week for what looked like final visits. The Pittsburgh Hash House Harriers, in fact, had scheduled "one last run" from the brewery yesterday evening that was themed "auf Wiedersehen," a German saying that translates as "until seeing again."
First Published February 28, 2009 12:00 am
