Popular Cheswick six-pack shop bows out to larger competitors

Cheswick’s only six-pack beer store is closing.

Allegheny 6 Pack and Doghouse at 1301 Pittsburgh St. opened in 2009 and will close Saturday.

“My lease is up and I see what the future of the beer industry is becoming — it’s sliding, and Pennsylvania changing its beer sales laws are putting the little guys out of business,” said owner Rich Rosella of Allegheny Township.

Rosella noted his beer sales have consistently decreased by more than 50% over the past two years.

“I have two Sheetz stores and a Giant Eagle GetGo all start to sell beer within a mile and a half of my business,” Rosella said. “It’s (the closure) not something I want to do — it’s something I have to do.”

Rosella said, when he opened a decade ago, he offered a niche beer sales option — six-packs — during a time when beer distributors were only allowed to sell cases of beer.

“I didn’t go the bar route,” Rosella said, deciding instead to offer a popular casual lunch and dinner spot with live entertainment some evenings.

Rosella’s establishment was popular for his signature specialty hot dogs and kielbasas, specialty beers, weekly beer tastings and live music.

Longtime customers are frustrated with the news of the closure.

“I’m upset,” Bill Gerhard of Springdale said. “I have been getting my beer here for eight years, and I always got my beer here. Rich is a good guy, and I am going to miss him.”

Lower Burrell resident Dave Riddle called Allegheny 6 Pack his “lunch spot” and he is unhappy that another local small-business owner is becoming a casualty to what he describes as “Amazon and Sheetz taking over the world.”

For Rosella, the closing is bittersweet.

“I will miss it. If I could stay, I would, but I am moving on and going back to work in sales,” Rosella said.