Pittsburgh has been the beneficiary of the national housing implosion in some less obvious ways. If, for example, the real estate market hadn't collapsed across the Sun Belt and West Coast, Derek Burnell might never have taken a flier on Pittsburgh, never moved to Lawrenceville with his Carnegie-born wife, and never walked into the corner bar that would eventually become his, the Round Corner Cantina, a place specializing in scratch margaritas and Mexican street food.
In the part of the neighborhood the kids are now calling "LoLa" (as in Lower Lawrenceville, kind of like how "SoHo" means South of Houston Street in New York City and in Denver, "LoDo" means Lower Downtown), the Round Corner Cantina has taken the place of the old Sufak's Round Corner Hotel, itself a fine little bar, one that predated the art galleries, the antique shops and the "hip" new Lawrenceville.
Mr. Burnell and his wife, Jesse Zmuda, moved to Pittsburgh in 2008 and began scouting. Two promising locations didn't pan out. In April, he bellied up to the bar at the Round Corner Hotel.
He liked what he saw.
"We went in, got a couple Coronas, saw the back room, went back to the patio. My eyes kind of lit up. Who would have known this was back there?"
Problem was, there was no "For Sale" sign in the window. But everybody has a price, and when Mr. Burnell asked about buying the place, he learned that 28 years in the bar business had been long enough for the proprietors of the Round Corner, which had built up a faithful clientele of Lawrenceville locals.
"There was some grumbling a little bit" when the youngsters took over the place. "But it was pretty harmless. And they understand" what's happening in the neighborhood, he said.
Growing up in San Diego, 15 minutes from the Mexican border, Mr. Burnell was part of a world where the cantina and the taqueria were staples. Owning and running such a place had been on his wish list for a few years -- he is 28 -- but the opportunity wasn't there until his job in the real estate industry, with a territory including Las Vegas and San Diego, became markedly less profitable. "Sometimes, when there's a downside to things, there's also an upside," he said.
Pittsburgh was an obvious next move: Jesse, also 28, was born in Carnegie, then lived in Squirrel Hill. She had been in San Diego for five years, but was ready to come home. A former bartender at Kelly's Bar & Lounge in East Liberty, she reconnected with old friends and co-workers, recruiting one of them, Sarah Fitzgerald, to be the manager at the Cantina.
After a year of renovations, the bar opened this July, and began serving food -- street food like small tacos and ceviche -- just a few weeks ago, under the direction of a new chef, Adam Kaplan, who comes here by way of the former Genoa restaurant in Portland, Ore.
The result of the yearlong wait is a warm, terra cotta bar that draws inspiration from Mr. Burnell's own cantina visions and from bones of the old place. Margaritas, for instance, are served in small Mason jars, just like you might find in any number of German and old-man bars across Pittsburgh. Original tile work was kept intact too.
"We wanted to keep it in tune with the neighborhood," he said. "The building was built in 1864. We wanted to put together a turn-of-the-century, border-town, cantina-style feel," and do it in a building that just happens to be in Pittsburgh.
It sounds like a tough balancing act, but it seems to be working. The rustic courtyard -- nothing formal or ornamental, just some grass, some chairs and some tables -- got plenty of late-summer use, and tequila nerds have been preaching about the place since it opened. People have learned of the place largely through word of mouth, and also because two popular, nearby restaurants -- Piccolo Forno and the newly opened Tamari -- are directing overflow crowds to the Cantina.
"We [all] appreciate having each other there," he said.
Like some of the other Pittsburgh bars and bartenders now specializing in classic recipes, spices and fresh juices (and, in the Cantina's case, fresh chiles), Mr. Burnell said he feels like he can be an ambassador for a new manner of imbibing.
"I think we're encouraging something good here."
The Round Corner Cantina, 3720 Butler St., 412-904-2279. Closed Tuesdays.
PANCHO VILLA
2 ounces tequila
2 ounces Tia Maria
1 ounce Cointreau
Orange segment
Shake ingredients in ice-filled shaker and pour over ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with orange segment.
-- Round Corner Cantina
RUBY RITA
11/2 ounces silver tequila (of choice)
5 ounces fresh-squeezed pink grapefruit juice
3/4 ounce Cointreau
Sea salt
Fill 12-ounce glass with ice and pour in ingredients. Use glass and shaker to shake the mixture.
Leave shaken ingredients in shaker and salt rim of the glass. Pour ingredients back into glass.
-- Round Corner Cantina
First Published: November 12, 2009, 10:00 a.m.
