About Allegro
Building | Community | Highlights | Mission
Café Allegro is housed in 2 quaint turn-of-the-century buildings located in Bedford Square on Pittsburgh’s historic South Side. Bedford Square (as today) was a vibrant part of Pittsburgh in the late 1880s.
Bedford Square’s market house, like its counterparts in Market Square Downtown and Allegheny Center on the North Side, was the center of activity providing an outlet for farmers who sold various types of produce. Dairy products, eggs, meats, vegetables, fruits, flowers, and plants were all available at the market house in Bedford Square.
Early listings of Bedford Square businesses suggest that the square contained retailers, merchants and customers who interacted with the farmers that sold goods in the market house. The inns, taverns and hotels on the square allowed farmers to have a meal and drink, socialize, make business contacts, and stay overnight if necessary.
Surrounding the market house were feed stores, a grocer, dry goods merchants, two shoemakers, a cabinetmaker, and a millinery store. In addition to commercial stores, there was often a residential component to the buildings in Bedford Square, with living quarters located upstairs. Occasionally a single-family home (and at least one boarding house) was noted in historic records. Most of the square’s residences were working-class occupations including mill workers, carpenters, laborers, and at least one drover, pattern maker, stone mason and riverman.
Café Allegro’s corner building (51 South 12th Street) was first constructed in 1888 for a cost of $6000, and was built as a typical late 19th century commercial building in the Victorian urban style. Exterior features of 51 South 12th Street that are typical of this building type are its tall and narrow form, flat roof, and storefront topped by a secondary cornice for display of the name of the building’s commercial occupant. The flat stone lintels with horizontal carving were used in a number of brick houses and buildings that were constructed in urban Pittsburgh neighborhoods in the late 1880s.
A liquor store was one of the first commercial operations to be housed there, then a grocery store. The 1st floor of the building was used as a bakery between 1930 and 1935. The buildings commercial space was converted to a tavern around 1935, just 2 years after the end of Prohibition. Various tavern businesses were operated there between 1935 and 1963.
With the decline of the steel industry along the rivers of Pittsburgh, the building sat vacant from 1963 until the mid-1970s. Nicholas and Marion Freyda Petrov, who eventually opened a restaurant called “Old Europe”, purchased the building in the early 1980s. They eventually closed Old Europe and leased the restaurant space to Bikki Koshhar (a now famous Pittsburgh restaurateur). Bikki operated a restaurant called “Simply French Too” for a few years through the mid-1980s until selling to Café Allegro in 1986. We purchased the building a few years later, and simultaneously purchased the adjacent building (53 South 12th Street), as well, to launch our expansion plan in 1988.
The “espresso bar” building next door (53 South 12th Street) was constructed between 1863 and 1865 and was originally used as a feed store. The architectural details of this building are consistent with construction of this time period, with elements of the Italianate style that are typical of houses and commercial buildings constructed in the late 1860s. Buildings with flat or side gabled roofs, decorative brackets supporting box gutters, arched window openings, prominent and/or protruding window hoods, and prominent front door surrounds characterize the details of this Italianate style of architecture.
Café Allegro, Bedford Square, Carson Street and the entire South Side are situated within the National Historic District. It is a classic Pittsburgh neighborhood with a deep history and rich traditions. Come experience the architecture of a fine meal, in a timeless setting, situated in the South Side’s historic neighborhood district.