Category Archive: News Wire Services
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Penn Brewing’s Pastorius retiring
by Tim Schooley
Friday, May 23, 2008
Pittsburgh Business TimesTom Pastorius, who helped launch the craft beer industry in Pennsylvania when he founded the Pennsylvania Brewing Co. on the North Side 20 years ago, is retiring.
Five years after he sold a majority interest in the brewery to Wexford-based Birchmere Capital, Pastorius plans in September to stop working at the facility where such award-winning beers as Penn Pilsner, Penn Dark and Penn Gold are made.
The company’s board of directors is seeking a candidate to take over Pastorious’ roles as president and CEO of Penn Brewing, he said.
Pastorius expects the new hire will join the company in early summer in a COO position and then trained to take over leadership of the company once he leaves.
Pastorius plans to instead work to promote Pennsylvania’s craft beer industry through the Pennsylvania Craft Brewers Guild.
“I won’t be running a brewery anymore but I intend to remain active in the industry and maybe I’ll enjoy life a little bit more,” he said.
He said he also intends to sell the remaining 20 percent interest he owns in Penn Brewing.
A descendent of German immigrants who wanted to have the same high-quality lagers available in Pittsburgh that he enjoyed while living in Germany, Pastorius started Pennsylvania’s first craft beer in Penn Pilsner.
In 1989, Pastorius opened Pennsylvania’s first tied house — in which a brewery operates in conjunction with a restaurant — since Prohibition, helping to pave the way for craft brewing industry in the state.
Today, there are dozens of micro-brewery and brew pubs in Pennsylvania.
“You couldn’t find a fresh imported beer, and no one in Pittsburgh had heard about the craft brewing movement that was just beginning on the West Coast,” Pastorius said. “I wanted to bring something special to my hometown, real German beer and a German beer hall like I had enjoyed during the 12 years I lived in Germany.”
The awards Penn Brewing’s beers have won are among the most prestigious in the industry, including eight gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival. In 2000, Penn Dark was voted the “Best Dark Beer in the World” at the World Beer Cup competition.
Penn Brewing operates out of the former Eberhardt & Ober Brewery, a historic restored brewery on the North Side. Pastorius gradually ramped up production to 20,000 to 30,000 barrels of beer each year despite the facility’s limitations.
“I’m proud of what my wife, Mary Beth, and I were able to accomplish,” he said. “We produced top quality products and created a unique destination. We educated a whole generation of beer drinkers and craft brewers by giving thousands of tours and talks. We provided Pittsburghers with a lot of good times.”
His contribution to the industry hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Lew Bryson, the author of “Pennsylvania Breweries,” a guidebook of the state’s many beers, isn’t sure what Pennsylvania’s craft beer scene will be like without Pastorius.
“It’s going to seem strange without him,” he said. “Tom’s been part of Pennsylvania craft brewing from the get-go.”
He said that it was a brazen act for Pastorius, along with contemporaries such as Stoudt Brewing Co. of Adamsburg, to start new breweries when they did.
“It was something you didn’t do,” he said. “Breweries didn’t open. They closed.”
Penn Brewing has maintained a strong niche even though it produces lagers, a bottom-fermenting beer that takes longer to make and is more expensive than ales, a more popular and common kind of craft beer, Bryson added.
Cris Hoel, a local lawyer who represented Penn Brewing in its initial application to open as a brewery and restaurant, said Pastorius was a pioneer in the industry.
Given the challenges faced by Iron City Brewing Co., the city’s struggling regional brewery in Lawrenceville, Hoel believes Pennsylvania Brewing Co. could soon surpass it.
“Very shortly, there’s a reasonable chance that what Tom built will be the largest brewer in Allegheny County,” Hoel said. “That’s a lot to be proud of.”
tschooley@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3826
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Penn Brewery founder to tap retirement
Thursday, May 22, 2008Tom Pastorius, who helped pioneer the national craft beer industry by introducing Penn Pilsner in 1986 and founding what would become Penn Brewery on the North Side three years later, has announced that he will retire. “All good things must come to an end,” said Mr. Pastorius, 63, of Sewickley. He plans to hang up his lederhosen in September.
Tom Pastorius lifts a cold one at Penn Brewery in 2002.
He has continued working as Pennsylvania Brewing Co.’s chief executive officer after selling a majority interest to Birchmere Capital in 2003. But part of that deal was that he step down after five years.
When the Pittsburgh native and his wife, Mary Beth, started the company in the former Eberhardt & Ober Brewery, the restaurant was called the Allegheny Brewery and Pub and was the first “tied house” — brewery-owned pub — in the state since Prohibition.
Having served in the Army and lived for several years in Germany, Mr. Pastorius did everything the German way, importing not just the copper kettles but also a brewmaster and making Penn Pilsner like a favorite German beer. Penn Brewery became known for its German food and music, while its brews became well-known across the state and beyond.
In 1990, Penn won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival, the first of a dozen medals it would win there, in addition to honors from the World Beer Cup, the United States Beer Tasting Championships and other contests.
But looking back, Mr. Pastorius says, “I think what makes me feel best is we’ve been something special in Pittsburgh, and we’ve made a lot of people happy.”
He’s not sure if he’ll hang on to his stock and his seat on the board, but he does plan to keep a hand in the beer business, perhaps working to raise the membership and profile of the Pennsylvania Brewers Guild. “Look at what the wineries have done,” he said, citing their collaborative marketing and lobbying efforts.
He’ll officially say goodbye at the annual Penn Brewery anniversary party on Sept. 12.
Meanwhile, he’ll be in attendance at the June 7 Pennsylvania Microbrewers Fest, the craft beer blowout he started in 1995.
For more information, including how to buy tickets ($37 for one of three sessions — noon, 3:30 p.m. and 8 pm.), visit pennbrew.com.
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Vandergrift Main Street moves ahead
By Rossilynne Skena
VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Monday, May 19, 2008Part of the now-vacant building at 143 Grant Ave. is “a time capsule,” said Shaun Yurcaba, Vandergrift Improvement Program Main Street manager.
Inside are two single-bedroom apartments, complete with details and woodwork left unchanged since the turn of the 20th century.
By fall, renters will be able to live there and look out over Vandergrift, the area the VIP has spent the last four years trying to improve.
The VIP is a nonprofit organization that’s facilitating the Main Street program, a community revitalization initiative, Yurcaba said.
This summer, contractors will restore the apartments — one two-bedroom and two one-bedroom. The VIP is getting bids for painting along with electrical and plumbing work.
Yurcaba said the building facade has been partially restored with the help of a $300,000 grant from the Allegheny Foundation, a Pittsburgh-based Scaife Foundation that gives grants to historic preservation projects, made possible through the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
A new roof has been installed and asbestos abatement has occurred, Yurcaba said. The storefront needs to be restored, she said.
“We’re hoping that this building will be an example to others on what they can do to restore and rehabilitate others,” Yurcaba said.
A business will move into the first floor by late summer or fall, Yurcaba said. Plans for the business are being finalized, she said.
Yurcaba said the VIP has seen a couple of businesses relocate to the area and another reopen, although she said the VIP can’t take complete credit.
Carino’s Ristorante, 133 Grant Ave., will reopen next month, and owner Mark Carino said he’s anxious to get back into the business.
The restaurant, which had been in Vandergrift for 20 years, has been closed for about two-and-a-half years. Carino of Vandergrift said the restaurant will be “kind of different this time.”
“It’s going to be more neighborhood-friendly, more price-friendly,” Carino said, describing the previous restaurant as the “white tablecloth” kind.
Carino’s will offer pasta dishes, sauces, sandwiches, salads and appetizers and will be “kind of sports-oriented” with TVs.
Carino said VIP’s revitalization efforts were one of the deciding factors to open again.
“I like what they’re doing. They’re very pro-active. Before they came along, I thought it was stagnant. Now, they’re trying to do things. I can see other people trying to do things also,” he said.
Allan Walzak is president of StrongLand Chamber of Commerce, which represents Vandergrift among other municipalities, backs the VIP.
“It’s very important to us that every community within the chamber has an opportunity to move forward, to grow and develop,” he said. “We are here to help them.”
Walzak also serves as president of the Casino Theater, a partially-restored building in Vandergrift. He said there has been community interest and support of the theater.
Last week, the VIP received an $850 grant from the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau for the program’s farmers market, which will be held Thursdays this summer, beginning July 10, Yurcaba said.
The VIP this month received a $75,000 grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development to pay for the program’s operations, including running programs, keeping the office running and keeping the staff working on projects, Yurcaba said.
The VIP will also receive a DCED grant for $35,000 by fall or winter to help pay for building renovations, she said.
Another DCED grant, the Facade Grant Program, offers money to downtown businesses owners and property owners to rehabilitate their storefronts. The VIP receives this $30,000 grant each year for four years, Yurcaba said. The VIP has this $30,000 to grant to property owners to do renovations, and applications for funds are available at the program’s 132 Grant Ave. office or at its Web site, officialvandergrift.com. As much as $5,000 is available for each facade, depending on the project.
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Streetscape funding awaits Bush’s signature
Thursday, May 08, 2008The federal transportation bill that includes streetscape funding for Heidelberg, Scott and Carnegie is headed to the White House for approval.
H.R. Bill 1195, which as of last Thursday had passed both houses of Congress, contains $2.4 million that will be targeted for various street improvements between First and Third streets on Route 50 in Heidelberg, Carothers Avenue in Scott and Third Street in Carnegie.
“Being a center point between the airport and the city, and at the crossroads of two interstate highways, these communities have so much to offer,” said U. S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, who developed the revitalization initiative.
Specifics of the streetscape plan need to be worked out, but past discussions have included using the federal money to repair infrastructure, relocate utility lines, provide secure lighting and add other amenities such as decorative benches and planters to make the three communities more inviting.
In addition, the Port Authority and the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation are working with the communities to introduce transit-oriented development and create a blueprint for revitalization.
Legislation containing the funding passed the U.S. House twice, most recently in March 2007, but was held up in the Senate.
Mr. Murphy, who secured money in the House version, worked with U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, to move the bill in the Senate with additional funding for the project.
“This is an exciting springboard for these areas that have tried to rebuild,” Mr. Murphy said. “As the plans are developed, community input will be essential.”
He estimated that it would be several months after President Bush signs the bill before the money would be available.
Mr. Murphy added that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the midst of a $4.5 million plan to remove sediment from areas prone to flooding, such as Chartiers Creek and Robinson Run.
Carole Gilbert Brown is a freelance writer.First published on May 8, 2008 at 5:39 am -
Printer manufacturer to plant trees in area parks
By Allison M. Heinrichs
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, May 7, 2008A company that relies on paper is planning to plant 250 trees in Pittsburgh’s parks.Boston-based Riso, which makes digital printers and photocopiers, announced Tuesday that it will begin the plantings this weekend in Riverview Park in the North Side.That planting will commemorate the grand-opening of the company’s North Shore branch, which it opened about a year ago, after nine years in the South Hills.
“Twice a year for the next four years we’re going to do spring and fall plantings in Pittsburgh’s parks,” said branch manager Rick Laird. “We really want to make an impact in Pittsburgh.”
The company plans to plant 100,000 trees in U.S. parks as part of a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation.Office Technology Magazine this year recognized Riso as the “most green” office technology dealer because of its focus on environmental stewardship. The company’s copiers use soy-based ink and conserve energy.
All the trees to be planted in Pittsburgh are native to Western Pennsylvania and include cucumber magnolia, American beech, redbud, tulip poplar and serviceberry.
“We’ve lost many trees over the years,” said Phil Gruszka, director of management and maintenance at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. “We’ve found that there are a number of places that currently don’t have trees that should, so we definitely appreciate this.”
Allison M. Heinrichs can be reached ataheinrichs@tribweb.com or 412-380-5607.
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Art appreciation
By Alice T. Carter
TRIBUNE-REVIEW THEATER CRITIC
Tuesday, May 6, 2008Diane Novosel has plans to shed light on a local art treasure in ways both literal and metaphoric.As the chairwoman of The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka, Novosel is producing “Gift to America,” a play that celebrates the murals that adorn the walls and ceilings of St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale.“I recognize (the murals) as the art treasure that it is, and really feel duty-bound to step up to the plate and do something,” says Novosel, a resident of Leechburg.
Beginning Wednesday, four actors will perform a 60-minute staged reading of David Demarest’s “Gift to America,” which was first staged at the church in 1981. The readings will be accompanied by interludes of recorded Croatian and church-related music.
In addition to raising money to properly preserve and light the murals, Novosel hopes the performances increase local awareness and appreciation for the paintings. A question-and-answer period and an opportunity to examine the murals will follow the performance.Vanka’s murals have been part of Novosel’s life since her youth, when her family lived in Lawrenceville and she attended both church and school as a parishioner at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church.
“They always fascinated me — probably terrorized me — as a grade-school student,” says Novosel, who found her appreciation for the works growing as she grew older.
Painted in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Vanka’s murals depict Croatian peasants who left their homeland and farms to seek a better life in factories and mills in the United States. The native Croatian’s dark, dramatic and sometimes horrific scenes convey his beliefs, which were pro-labor and anti-war.
“(The murals) are certainly unique in Pittsburgh, and we feel they are of national significance,” says Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. “They express the concerns of working people of the times, and we would hope they could be preserved and restored and raise the national awareness of them.”
Geoffrey Hitch, an adjunct professor who teaches business acting at the Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, will direct “Gift to America,” as he did when it was performed in 1981.
Mike Sambol of Shaler, former choir director at St. Nicholas, will appear as Father Zagar, the pastor at St. Nicholas who originally commissioned the murals.
David Crawford of Squirrel Hill will play Maxo Vanka, and the unnamed Female Voices will be represented by Katherine Carlson of Highland Park and Crystal Manich, a former Mt. Lebanon resident who now is a New York-based actress.
Hitch emphasizes that it’s a production that focuses its attention more on the murals than the characters and actors.
“We’re not even lighting the actors. We’re lighting the murals,” he says. “This is not character acting. The acting is more the sense of being a guide to the murals. We hope the awareness of the actors is secondary to (awareness of) the murals. The main characters are the murals.”
Alice T. Carter can be reached at acarter@tribweb.comor 412-320-7808.
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Mt. Lebanon theater project creates buzz
By Craig Smith
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 1, 2008A Mt. Lebanon theater that showed “The Graduate” and “To Sir With Love” — significant art films of the 1960s — might revisit that genre with a $3 million renovation.Along the way, officials hope the project will be the catalyst for increased business in the community.“It’s a great community project that will light the spark for more economic development in the region,” said Mt. Lebanon Commissioner D. Raja, who purchased the Denis Theatre on Washington Road in November to keep it from being converted to an office complex.
Raja has signed a 15-year lease to rent the building to the Denis Theatre Foundation, which announced plans Monday to revive it.
The Denis will reopen as an art house, showing independent and foreign language films, and documentaries. It could be a venue for lectures, film series, student productions and cultural events. A church has expressed interest in conducting services there.Since word of the plan first started circulating around the community, “the buzz has been amazing,” said Joe Rovita, owner of Empire Music and president of the Uptown Business Association.The Denis opened in 1937 as a one-screen moviehouse with a capacity of 1,200. Ownership changed repeatedly over the next six decades, before Raja bought it last year. The 11,000-square-foot theater closed in 2004.
Raja, of Bangalore, India, is co-founder of Computer Enterprises Inc. He and his wife, Neeta, bought the property in November for $668,750, real estate records show.
Renovating the theater will be a huge project, said Anne Kemerer, executive director of the Denis Theater Foundation, which hopes to raise the $3 million in government grants and private donations.
“Time has not been kind to the Denis,” she said. “There is water damage, vandalism, some outdated equipment.”
The theater’s marquee, which is not salvageable, lies in pieces in the lobby. Its basement is filled with 70 years’ worth of accumulated theater equipment.
But officials are optimistic the renovated theater will bring people to Mt. Lebanon.
“Because Mt. Lebanon is a walkable community, the theater has great potential,” said Dan Woodske, Mt. Lebanon’s commercial district manager.
Theaters can draw people to Main Street in the evening and on weekends — two key periods that have been lost to the malls, Woodske said.
“Very few stores stay open past 5 or 6. There’s nothing right now to bring a steady flow on the weekends,” he said.
A number of old movie theaters in the Pittsburgh area have been preserved, including the Oaks Theater in Oakmont, The Strand in Zelienople, The Hollywood Theater in Dormont and the Ambridge Family Theater in Beaver County.
Craig Smith can be reached at csmith@tribweb.com or 412-380-5646.
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‘Heritage Grant’ Aimed at Preserving Cal U Campus
BILL LIEPINIS
CalTimes
May 1, 2008For many at California University of Pennsylvania, it may seem like the changes of every semester include a new construction project on campus. Whether it’s been the demolition of Binns Hall, Longanecker or Duda Hall, the construction of Carter Hall, Booker Towers and the new Duda Hall, or the renovations of Steele Hall, Vulcan Hall and now Herron Hall, changes have become a part of life for many students, faculty and staff. Even though the campus landscape has drastically changed over the last 10 years, a new grant now backs a project in the works that will help preserve the university’s heritage in the years to come.
The $200,000 grant from the Los Angeles based J. Paul Getty Foundation was awarded to the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation last summer, which will be distributed to preservation projects on the campuses of Seton Hill, Washington & Jefferson and IUP, along with Cal U.
Project Manager and PHLF Landmarks Director of Real Estate and Special Development Projects, Eugene Matta, has been working on project plans for months, and is excited to see the work continue. With a team including an architect, a construction expert, an architectural historian and a landscape designer, Matta explains that the team’s plans are much more than just aesthetic recommendations. “Although their work is historic in nature, they also make recommendations for the future development and maintenance of the campus buildings and landscapes that are consistent with the original concepts but adapted to today’s reality.”
Matta adds that the team will also consider issues that are holding the global spotlight. “Relevant issues of today such as sustainability, health of our ecosystems and the environment in general affect us all, but mostly the young people preparing themselves for tomorrow’s challenges.”
Work on the project started last October, as team members focused on historical research for all four college campuses. The team has already completed some work on California University’s campus, and will continue their visits over the summer and into the fall semester.
As the ‘conservation team’ continues their work on plans to maintain local history on the ever-changing Cal U campus, Eugene Matta hopes that campus-community members will speak out on their opinions and ideas.
The ‘conservation team’ includes historic architect Ellis Schmidlapp, Construction and Rehabilitation expert Tom Keffer and Horticulturist and Landscape Designer Ron Block. If you have any questions, suggestions or would even like to lend some help while team is working on campus, you can contact Project Manager Eugene Matta at 412-471-5808, or email him at eugene@phlf.org