Club in Strip makes a quick success of socializing
The friends who accompanied me to the Bayardstown Social Club one June night in 2013 were with me again Friday when we went to hear Slim Forsythe and His New Payday Loners.
The band was one of several in the night’s lineup, and by the time we got there, the sheltered picnic tables were filled, a cornhole tournament was in full swing along the back wall, the fire pit was blazing and fathers were dancing with kids on their shoulders.
In a little more than two years, Bayardstown has evolved into a true-blue scene in the Strip.
It was born as the Bayardstown Boys Social Club two years ago on a vacant lot at 3008 Penn Ave. Bayardstown is an historic name for the Strip, and the Bayardstown boys were known for their rat logo and their battles with boys from Allegheny City, now the North Side.
Deeplocal, a product engineering and design studio, began renting the space to install a community backyard where people who pay a modest membership fee could congregate, drink their own beer, barbecue their own ribs and get to know strangers who were doing the same thing. The idea was for city folks who don’t have backyards of their own to take part in a low-tech, word-of-mouth attraction that was easy on the budget and strong on social networking.
“Starting a bar is harder than starting a yard,” Nathan Martin, Deeplocal’s CEO, told me at the club’s beginning.
It has since grown to 1,000 members. People come from all over to gather for events under festive garlands of lights, including the occasional movie night. Some participants do have backyards, but they’re probably not as cool as this one. It’s an easy society free of obligation.
As in the beginning, Kruman Equipment Co. next door supplies the electricity that powers the lights.
For $45 a year, members get in free to most events. Non-members can attend for $5. That price pops to $10 to see touring bands, such as Tuba Skinny, a brass band from New Orleans that plays at 6 p.m. Sept. 9.
In the club’s first weeks, most people who turned out were 20- and 30-somethings digging a scene that’s crowded but not crowded like a popular bar, not bar-dark but dark like an outdoor evening and, maybe more compelling, inexpensive compared to bar prices.
Now the age range is strikingly broad. So many families are bringing small children, and dogs are welcome.
“I have a 6year-old daughter, and I try to make the place accessible to people with kids,” said Pete Spynda, Bayardstown’s manager. “The music scene is very bar driven, and I want my daughter to be able to see some of these bands.”
Deeplocal hired Mr. Spynda as its manager on the strength of his management of Weather Permitting, a Sunday-only but similar kind of attraction at the Shadyside Nursery.
“I started programming Friday evening happy hours [at Bayardstown] last year,” he said. “The idea was to have people who could grill early and enjoy music later.”
People still grill their own food at Bayardstown depending on programming; Friday nights feature food trucks.
Weather Permitting, at 510 Maryland Ave., is a little larger, with a sandbox for kids, squirt guns and hula hoops and organizations that bring art activities. It started as a promotional event for the nursery the same year Bayardstown took shape and took on a life of its own.
“Now people come even if it rains,” Mr. Spynda said.
Weather Permitting’s final event of the season is Sunday, with Mathew Tembo and the Afro Routes, the Beagle Brothers and the Working Breed playing from 6 to 8 p.m. It’s $10 for adults, $3 for children.
Bayardstown, Mr. Spynda said, is self-sustaining, “although it’s definitely nice to have a brewery sponsor.” Brewery sponsors offer beer samples and help cover the cost of bands.
Bayardstown rents its space for private parties and weddings and has held art exhibits. It is open through Halloween, with programming through the end of September.
The Bayardstown Social Club is one of a growing number of amenities springing up from Pittsburgh’s creative class.
People who can realize so grandly the potential of a vacant lot are crucial to the mix in a city with enlightened leadership, strong foundations, many community-minded corporations and great neighborhood advocates. It’s the creative types who make it especially fun.