When John Elavsky took over Hemingway’s Cafe in the early 1990s, one of the building’s owners — a mentor of his — imparted wisdom that stuck with him.
“John, you better be here,” Elavsky, 68, remembers Leo Xyftis telling him.
In other words, absentee ownership wasn’t going to cut it.
So, when family circumstances meant Elavsky couldn’t oversee the popular bar in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood every day, it started to gnaw at him. He had to prioritize visiting his 100-year-old mother several times a week, but being away from the place felt like “cheating,” he said.
Xyftis’ advice all those years ago is a big part of why Elavsky has decided to shutter one of Oakland’s oldest watering holes. The last day will be May 3. There are no plans for anyone to take over.
A post on Hemingway’s Facebook account Thursday inspired nearly 200 comments, most lamenting the loss of the 43-year-old bar along Forbes Avenue.
Many users tagged their friends, gearing up for one last hurrah.
As further proof of people’s attachment to the place, all 100 pieces of Hemingway’s merchandise the bar had on hand sold that night.
“I am not getting out because business sucks,” Elavsky insisted.
But sales aren’t as strong as they once were. Young people are drinking less, he said — a documented trend that’s a public health win or a sign of an antisocial generation, depending on who you ask.
Sales, which used to grow annually, flatlined after the bar emerged from a 53-week pandemic shutdown in 2021. The menu now features mocktails. The place only gets packed when there’s an event in the neighborhood, like a concert at the Petersen Events Center.
Elavsky, who lives in the North Hills, welled up as he spoke to TribLive in the wood-paneled back room of the bar Friday afternoon.
Hemingway’s has been his life for 40 years, counting the brief period when he helped run the establishment before buying it outright. Prior to that, he tended bar at the long-gone Pitt Tavern, where he “fell in love with the business.”
He credits the staff for the bar’s success. Customers, too, with particular appreciation for a group of Russian filmmakers who’d meet there as well as the poets who held readings at Hemingway’s in its early years.
The prior owners, in a misguided attempt to reference these poets, named the place Hemingway’s, after the famous writer. Funny enough, Ernest Hemingway appeared to have much less interest in poetry than prose.
“I’ve been very blessed here,” Elavsky said. “Beyond my wildest dreams.
“Now, I’m going to reap the rewards of being here all the time.”
