The Warren Bar & Burrow

First impressions tend to stick around, and so it is with The Warren Bar and Burrow. I cannot untie my impression of this place from my initial visit, which happened to be one of my first forays out in Pittsburgh.

‘Twas a cool, early spring evening and my first out-of-town visitor had arrived. It’s Saturday night, I leave work around 10 and we’re back at my place with a drink. ‘Let’s go for a drive,’ he says after midnight. ‘Let’s,’ I says.

I barely know my way around town, so I point him to a tunnel and when we’re through I say now this way and then that way and no wait follow that sign there. I’m sort of making it all up, but now there are tall buildings all around us and, wait, I see people outside on that street, turn here.

I didn’t know people stayed out this late here. Whaddaya know. Wait a minute I think I’ve heard of this place.

The music we can hear before we’re halfway down the block. A handful of patrons out on the sidewalk getting some air, smoking a cigarette (a real cigarette! I didn’t know people still did that either!) Inside it’s just dark enough and just loud enough and yes, there’s people! It’s a small room filled with good looking folks and not-so-good-looking folks, drunk folks and not so drunk folks, smiling faces and not so smiling, yeah you get it. It’s kind of a mix.

The bartender mixes up some very fine drinks and proceeds to sway back and forth in place as he tries to talk about something. He looks unsteady. He smiles and slurs something again and bops away to the music.

He may have been having too good of a time, but it’s hard not to have fun here. It’s somehow chill and lively at the same time, not boring but not a frat party either. The crowd seems to always come in waves. First the after-work crowd, then the pre-dinner drinkers, the here-for-a-bite-folk, after dinner tipplers, late night revelers.

The bar staff do a good job of straddling both sides of the line, they’re knowledgeable and good at what they do, and at the same time remain approachable and helpful without an air of snobbery (Snobbishness? Snobbnishery? Well, they’re not snobs).

On subsequent visits we’ve had several rounds of pork buns (yum) and some darn good sushi. We’ll be back. It’s kind of everything you’d want in a bar downtown. It’s lively, good music, great energy, easy to have a good time. the bartenders are pros and know their way around a bottle of booze. They don’t seem to keep staff around that can’t do it right (unsurprisingly, we never saw our original bartender again).

Aside from being awesome, it’s downtown and it’s open late, so consequently it sees a lot of industry traffic later in the evenings, which has the effect of losing cred with some in the industry, you know, because ‘too many industry people go there’, which is kind of like the old ‘nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded’ routine.

But hey, that’s how trends come and go, isn’t it? First, everyone carries their backpack on one shoulder. Then some of the cool kids start to carry theirs on both shoulders, and before you know it, the whole class is two-strapping. Fast forward a few years and the new cool kids have gone back to one strap. And on it goes from there. Well, I don’t know where the cool kids are going now (yeah I do, I’ll tell you later) but I’m sticking with The Warren when I’m downtown.

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 Your online concerns, addressed (they won't do it, but The Monster will):

“I haven't eaten there but I have gone several times to have a drink. The waitresses do not have good customer service. If they see you kissing your partner they will tell you not to do it. You cannot smoke near the premises. And the bathrooms are not very clean and are always busy. Otherwise they make good cocktails”

TWO STARS

Listen, if I wanted to eat and drink I’d go elsewhere, I came here to smoke and make out, damn it!

The Warren Bar & Burrow

245 7th St

Downtown

https://thewarrenpgh.com/