Butcher's block from burned-down Spaghetti & Steak House gets new life

When the Spaghetti & Steak House in Murrysville burned down in mid-May, owner Monica Meehan was fairly certain there was nothing left.

“One of our waitresses called in the middle of the night, because her boyfriend had a scanner and heard it was happening,” Meehan said.

But, as she began looking through the building after the massive fire that took eight fire companies to extinguish, Meehan discovered the large wooden butcher’s block that had been in the restaurant as long as she could remember.

“I remember it there when I was a little kid, when my uncle owned the place, and it was here when I bought the building,” Meehan said. “So, it’s been around since at least 1963.”

The block was black with soot when crews from Massarelli Demolition and Excavating in Penn Hills lifted it out of the building’s shell, but seemed to be mostly intact.

Last week, Meehan and her family got a chance to see it for the first time in its finished state, fully restored thanks to volunteers at the Export Makerspace on Kennedy Avenue.

“The biggest thing was trying to figure out how badly it was burned,” said Makerspace owner Tom Spears. “I have a sand planer that did the bulk of the work, and we sealed it with mineral oil and beeswax.”

Helping Spears was Greg Vincent of Murrysville and Michael Rossi of Delmont, who is Spears’ summer intern at the Maker Space.

“I’m going to school at the University of Dayton for mechanical engineering, so I do lot of work here on the CNC (motorized maneuverable tool), but I wanted to help and it seemed like fun,” Rossi said. “The owners wanted to keep the imperfections and chop marks on the top, so we didn’t do as much sanding there.”

Both Rossi and Vincent said the block — which Meehan mostly used for cutting bread at the Spaghetti & Steak House — was incredibly heavy.

“When they brought it here, the first thing I thought was, ‘How’d they get it into the truck in the first place?’” he said.

The answer? With a crane.

Meehan said the block’s location may have helped it survive the massive fire.

“It was in the very center of the kitchen, and I think that made a big difference,” she said.

Soon, it will be in another kitchen.

“My youngest daughter lives next to us, and she has a lot more room for it,” Meehan said as she admired the newly restored block. “But now, I’m kind of starting to have second thoughts.”

Mostly, Meehan is just glad to have a piece of the restaurant that has been part of her family for so long, and thanked Spears, Rossi and Vincent for their work.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “We’re so fortunate to have them here in Export.”

Spears said he was happy to help.

“It was an honor for us to be entrusted with such a special piece and return it back to its former glory,” he said.