Big Bad BROWNIE
PITTSBURGH’S ALTERNATIVE FOR NEWS, ARTS ENTERTAINMENT SINCE 1991
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What started as a marketing gimmick for Kings Family Restaurant has grown into a beloved mascot defined by irreverent humor and chocolatey goodness
BY: AMANDA WALTZ
COLIN WILLIAMS
OWEN GABBY
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON
PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON
PHOTO: COURTESY OF KINGS FAMILY RESTAURANT
PHOTO: COURTESY OF JACKWORTH GINGER BEER
SISYPHUS, DARWIN, AND UPMC
Laid-off workers and angry patients say the healthcare company acts more like a corporate behemoth than a nonprofit
BY: COLIN WILLIAMS // CWILLIAMS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
UPMC is a Pittsburgh juggernaut. Its expanded Mercy Hospital and corporate headquarters loom physically above the city when you enter from Parkway West. Some 4.5 million people, including many in Greater Pittsburgh, access healthcare through UPMC insurance, and the system employed around 100,000 people in 2023.
As the nonprofit has ensconced itself in southwestern Pennsylvania, however, employees and patients say it has begun to act less like a charitable healthcare organization and more like a for-profit corporate titan.
and slashing pay for travel nurses, framing these cuts as necessary to UPMC’s survival. Patients tell Pittsburgh City Paper they’ve seen a concurrent increase in fees and drop in the quality of customer service and patient care. UPMC institutions also rank near the bottom of American hospitals in terms of community investments per the Lown Institute, a nonpartisan thinktank that has published extensively on health systems’ expenditures.
Local leaders say the clear gulf between UPMC’s C-suite and the workers staffing its hospitals, coupled with the nonprofit’s ongoing reluctance to pay
“UPMC CONTINUES TO TREND AWAY FROM THEIR HISTORY AS A COMMUNITY-BASED NONPROFIT AND TOWARDS THIS CORPORATIZED HEALTH CARE MONOPOLY.”
For starters, its executives — including one who retired in 2021 — are taking home millions of dollars in pay and flying in a private jet as UPMC expands its global footprint. These same executives then brought on infamous consultant McKinsey & Co. ahead of laying off over 1,000 workers
more property taxes on its $1.7 billion in real estate, leaves UPMC looking less like a good corporate citizen and more like a Gilded Age monopoly.
City Paper spoke on and off the record with UPMC employees, patients, and local leadership to get a clearer sense of the
disconnect between UPMC’s jetsetting executives and recently laid-off workers. What we found paints a picture of a nonprofit operating in a similar fashion to a for-profit company without the attendant tax burden.
CP also reached out to both UPMC and McKinsey multiple times via email and phone with detailed questions, but we have yet to receive any response from either.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
UPMC has long raised eyebrows for its high executive pay. The most recent data shows president and CEO Leslie C. Davis taking home over $10 million per year in pay. Others, including board members and highly regarded surgeons, also make salaries in the low seven figures.
CP also discovered that, since suddenly leaving UPMC in 2021, former president and CEO Jeffrey Romoff has continued to make millions off his former employer.
Romoff took home around $18 million in deferred compensation in 2023. He left in his wake a much larger hospital system overall, but Romoff also reportedly busted unions, shuttered hospitals, and engaged in controversial liver transplant practices all while giving himself sixfigure raises. His deferred compensation package is millions more than what the city has sought to collect annually from UPMC — around $14 million in 2021 — in property taxes (City of Pittsburgh officials declined to comment for this story).
Alex Wallach-Hanson of Pittsburgh United, a local advocacy coalition focused on housing, economic, and environmental justice, says this top-heavy pay structure reflects a focus on profit at the expense of local investment. “UPMC continues to trend away from their history as a community-based nonprofit and towards this corporatized healthcare monopoly,” he says.
“We’ve gone from a city that had a tax base that was driven by extraction industry to now having a city whose tax base has been driven by property taxes,” Wallach-Hanson says. “If our two largest industries are nonprofit eds and nonprofit meds, we can’t build … a thriving city without those industries paying into our tax system.”
As pay steadily increased for Romoff and others, and UPMC shelled out $37 million for marketing, the nonprofit was slow to raise its minimum wage and, headed into 2024, sought to trim back staffing levels that swelled during the worst of COVID.
To do so, UPMC enlisted McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm that has long been known for helping companies “rightsize” operations — often by laying off lower-level staff while maintaining high executive pay and investor returns. More recently, McKinsey came under fire for charging New York City $1.6 million to suggest the city use trash cans and paying out $78 million in opioid settlement money for its work with controversial OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma.
Even as the hospital system moved ahead with a $1.5 billion expansion of UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland, UPMC and McKinsey were figuring out where to cut staff.
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON
Ron Kaplan, a recent UPMC patient, poses for a portrait at his home.
The company revealed its plans to staff earlier this year with a slideshow announcing its 2024 strategic priorities. CP was able to view the slides through an anonymous source. raming a reduction in headcount as “tough, but necessary,” UPMC insisted it would not be cutting patient- or member-facing staff — however, the presentation lamented, an organizational restructure was needed in the face of the “strong headwinds” of a “post-pandemic marketplace.”
The slide in which this change was announced prominently features an image of isyphus — the mythological figure doomed to roll a boulder up a hill for all eternity. nother slide detailing UPMC’s partnership with McKinsey prominently features an image of Charles arwin with a uote about species responding to change in order to survive.
“We are confidently going forward with approx. 1 percent less leader positions (difficult ,” a subse uent slide on “Transformation” reads.
The laid-off employees CP spoke to said the announcement of cuts came
“[THE LAYOFFS] HIT AT THE WORST POSSIBLE TIME . THERE WAS NO HUMANITY IN IT AT ALL.”
as a shock given UPMC’s rapid expansion. One says that the cuts in their department had a disproportionate impact on working single mothers.
“ et’s be real here whenever it comes to jobs for women who are mothers, it is hard for us to locate employ ers who are willing to work around our family schedules,” this employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation, tells CP. “UPMC hit at the worst possible time.”
This person was laid off shortly after being shown the isyphus and arwin slides. The former employee says UPMC obscured the true scope of layoffs by conducting them department by department and immediately bricking laid-off employees’ work-issued devices, including laptops.
“There was no humanity in it at all,” they add.
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON UPMC Mercy
TO BOCA AND BACK
In spite of promises not to cut public-facing staff, UPMC executives were laying the groundwork to do just that as they sat aboard the company’s leased Bombardier Global 6500 jet on pril 2 . The aircraft, which sells for $50 million and costs millions to operate and service each year, features a livery striped with UPMC’s official purple as well as a spacious interior with “revolutionary” seating.
The executives were on their way to the oca Raton, la., head uarters of Omega Healthcare, which also maintains offices in the Philippines. Their business Providing outsourced customer service for healthcare giants like UPMC in order to “accelerate cash flow” and “reduce administrative costs.” The Pittsburgh-area employees who previously answered calls from those insured through UPMC soon found themselves on the wrong end of the McKinsey-led restructuring — and replaced by ilipino workers.
n May, UPMC executives again fired up the jet, taking it to Orange County, back to oca, and then overseas to Rome and ublin, where UPMC maintains clinics. UPMC also maintains a clinic in Kazakhstan and announced a new Hillman Cancer Center in Croatia late last year.
Wallach-Hanson says this international expansion has coincided with the shuttering of hospitals in rural communities that are “less profitable.”
“UPMC chooses to invest their money in opening hospitals for the ultra-rich in countries around the world, while at the same time claiming a billion-dollar shortfall in their budget that they need to make up for,” says Wallach-Hanson.
Other trips included flights to Chicago and ew ork City. CEO avis made several flights to and from lorida up to a year ahead of UPMC’s shifting of jobs from reater
Pittsburgh to offshore call centers and, former employees tell CP , had already been paying Omega to handle overflow calls.
Workers say they had a bad feeling about the future of their roles months before the layoffs actually hit and that morale among staff was low. They also say locals had complained about issues with offshore representatives’ ability to address concerns. The anonymous laid-off employee says that when UPMC staff raised concerns about Omega’s uality and H P compliance, they were told the arrangement was here to stay.
“I can tell you right now that there is going to be an impact on patient care,” they say.
CP also spoke to patients who said they had had recent negative experiences with UPMC. Ron Kaplan is one such patient — he switched from a different primary care provider (PCP to his wife’s UPMC PCP on her advice, but was later dismayed when he says UPMC levied facility fees that made routine blood work $1 0 more expensive than it had been at his old doctor.
“The service they … provided, between the examination and the blood test, were exactly the same as what had at my previous PCP,” Kaplan tells CP
Kaplan pressed his case with UPMC Health Plan staff but says escalation of his complaints went nowhere, and later, phone calls “seem ed to be farmed out” to overseas workers. Kaplan is considering switching back to his previous doctor. “ find it impossible to justify UPMC’s higher cost,” he tells CP
“This is not going to kill us financially, but it’s still a burden,” he says. “ iven their resources, and given how much we’re paying for insurance … it seems it’s a bogus fee and went to enrich them.”
GLOBAL WEALTH, LOCAL POVERTY
t doesn’t have to be this way, locals say.
Some people CP spoke to for this story say llegheny Health etwork ( H , UPMC’s chief rival in the region, offers one point of contrast. H pays its workers better, for one, and negotiated a new three-year contract including significant raises with its nurses late last year. The city has also challenged H ’s tax-exempt status on far fewer properties than UPMC — 7 for the latter compared to six for the former.
Comparisons aside, WallachHanson of Pittsburgh United says UPMC should do more to take care of local employees, especially ones who, like Romoff, have worked for the nonprofit for decades.
“We’ve heard of people who worked at UPMC for 40-plus years being brought into a room, told they were let go on the spot, and being walked out of the building,” WallachHanson says. “ nd, of course, that has an impact on people’s ability to afford their rent, to afford groceries.”
Local leaders and community advocates worry that allowing UPMC to continue cutting staff while pouring money into an expanding network of hospitals worldwide essentially gives the company carte blanche to behave as a megacorporation — while continuing to avoid paying local taxes.
“ city like Pittsburgh is not going to thrive if our fastest and largest growing industries aren’t contributing money into our tax base,” WallachHanson says. “ t really raises the uestion of, should UPMC continue to get their nonprofit tax status if they’re going to continue to prioritize CEO compensation, investing in countries around the world, and not investing in care for people in Pittsburgh ” .
Many Americans are fortunate to have dental coverage for their entire working life, throughemployer-provided benefits. When those benefits end with retirement, paying dental bills out-of-pocket can come as a shock, leading people to put off or even go without care.
Simply put — without dental insurance, there may be an important gap in your healthcare coverage.
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Look for coverage that helps pay for major services. Some plans may limit the number of procedures — or pay for preventive care only.
Look for coverage with no deductibles. Some plans may require you to pay hundreds out of pocket before benefits are paid.
Shop for coverage with no annual maximum on cash benefits. Some plans have annual maximums of $1,000.
Medicare doesn’t pay for dental care.1
That’s right. As good as Medicare is, it was never meant to cover everything. That means if you want protection, you need to purchase individual insurance.
Early detection can prevent small problems from becoming expensive ones.
The best way to prevent large dental bills is preventive care. The American Dental Association recommends checkups twice a year.
Previous dental work can wear out.
Even if you’ve had quality dental work in the past, you shouldn’t take your dental health for granted. In fact, your odds of having a dental problem only go up as you age.2
Treatment is expensive — especially the services people over 50 often need.
Consider these national average costs of treatment ... $222 for a checkup ... $190 for a filling ... $1,213 for a crown.3 Unexpected bills like this can be a real burden, especially if you’re on a fixed income.
“Absolutely love”
“I absolutely love my dental insurance. My dental office files the claims, leaving me with very little balance to pay.”
Dorothy
P., TN
GILDED, NOT GOLDEN
The revamped tour of Clayton, the Frick’s family home in Point Breeze, shows the Fricks at their most powerful — and private. City Paper staff sat down to unpack what’s changed.
BY: COLIN WILLIAMS // CWILLIAMS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM AND BY: RACHEL WILKINSON // RWILKINSON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
The Frick Pittsburgh recently won laurels from the American Association for State and Local History for thoughtful updates to its guided tour of the Frick family’s former home, Clayton, which sits along a busy stretch of Penn Ave. in Point Breeze. The museum invited Pittsburgh City Paper and other local media to check out the refreshed Gilded, Not Golden tour, and what we found was a thoughtful, entertaining, and more inclusive version of the walkthrough — one that pulled back the curtain on the Fricks’ home life while incorporating more of Clayton’s staff and the working-class Pittsburghers outside its walls. CP staffers sat down afterward to discuss the tour and its highlights. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON Marble bust at Clayton
Rachel Wilkinson, staff writer: They really wanted to update the tour to have “a broad focus on the experiences of everyday Pittsburghers.” t’s a really good effort to show the contrasts, and obviously they won an award for it, and they took several years to update it. But is it possible to encapsulate the lives of everyday Pittsburghers at one of the most opulent mansions in the nation at the time t’s difficult.
Colin Williams, news editor:
I think that they do a good job of acknowledging what people who were working under Frick would have been like, what their lives would have been like. But it’s so crazy — there’s as much stuff in just that massive dining room as there would have been in a multifamily home in Pittsburgh at that time.
Rachel: I never considered what Point Breeze meant until the tour. I knew it was a suburb, obviously; but not that it literally referred to
the idea that the breeze would run through that neighborhood [and flush out air pollution
Colin: I thought it was really interesting that they renamed it “Point Breeze” from Homewood, that the Homewood cemetery retains the old name of what’s now Point Breeze, but today when you think of Homewood, you think of a predominantly Black, working class, dense urban neighborhood. That use of branding changing as a neighborhood changes has some modern parallels.
What about the many details of the house? What were some of the things you saw that left you intrigued?
Rachel: The lunch pail. [Clayton added a variety of artifacts to attest to the lives of working-class Pittsburghers. Our tour guide Julie ilverman said, “ like when people come in and go, ‘oh, my grandfather had that lunch pail that he took to the mines.’ And you go, ‘oh, there’s history right here.’” It does very
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON
The parlor at Clayton, the Frick family mansion
much echo through the generations to today, those little touches.
This is not as pertinent, but I really nerded out to the ice stuff, because I love old ice hauling. When [our guide said] “there was someone whose job it was just to move around the ice,” because if you leave ice long enough in any kind of contained place, it will mold — the ice handler being one of the staff felt really opulent to me.
Colin: Kind of on the opposite end of the temperature spectrum from that, I thought that the sitz bath was really unusual. There were so many things about it that are designed to be used with help, like you can’t get in and out on your own. There are all these different valves, and you have to remember exactly which spigot they operate depending on what exactly it is you’re trying to do. Going from a room where there’s a rusty lunch pail to a room where there’s a brassknobbed sitz bath, it’s a very clear exercise in contrasts.
There are so many amazing details in that house, everything from the crushed velvet wallpaper with mother of pearl to all the hand-carved woodwork everywhere. Whatever you can say about Clayton and Frick, almost everything in that house was in very good taste.
What about family members? This isn’t exactly a family member, but one thing that I thought was a really revealing part of the tour was talking about their live-in nurse, and the photos of her with [the Fricks’] dead child, [Henry Clay Frick, Jr.] were really striking. [The Fricks’ longtime nurse Jane Grandison, who was a Black Hill District resident, gets more attention on the updated tour.]
Rachel: They’ve updated their website, and she has her own webpage … but there is, other than that, almost no historical record of her I could find. So it seems like they really dug deep to represent her when they updated the tour, and I can see why.
I first got to know Helen Frick
through the Frick Fine Arts Building [at the University of Pittsburgh]. My understanding is that, to this day, it’s a fight with her estate to the level of, like, if they change the let terhead in the building, it has to be approved. I always heard Helen was a known weirdo, with a sort of an Ivanka Trump-esque relationship to her father, and the tour was very pro Helen, I think, because she was the one who poured a lot of effort into maintaining the legacy and main taining the estate. [But] I still remem ber it was a point of contention allow ing anyone but traditional Western European artists to show their work in the Fine Arts building into the 21st century because of Helen Frick’s estate, which complicates her legacy for me to say the least.
Colin: was her father’s daughter, too, that there were so many really specific considerations made when it came to the appointing of the house and the way things were installed, the way that the rooms flowed into one another, even that little kids’ foyer with the sink in it.
Rachel:
wild. To have seen the absolute height of the Gilded Age, and then see basically the dissolution of the factories in one lifetime — I mean, I see why she had trouble adapting.
Another single object I liked was the grandfather clock, because I recently learned about how weird the Allegheny Observatory is. It’s where time zones were invented and standardized because of industrialization, because they needed the trains and the factories to run on time.
Colin: The fact that this whole house is built on this foundation of steel and stuff like that, having that [clock] be so front and center was so telling. I also love that when the Fricks got it in there via their private train, it didn’t quite match the woodwork! There’s sort of a poetic justice in that.
Also that Orchestrion, my god.
I loved hearing it play. I heard the story of the Orchestrion through a live recording of The Dollop history podcast at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, where they were talking about the Homestead strike and Henry Clay Frick’s relationship with Carnegie at that time. Those two were literally, from what I understand, at least, corresponding about how great the Orchestrion was while they were sending in the Pinkertons [to break the 1892 strike]. Sending telegrams about this gigantic, million-dollar jukebox, basically, while you’re preparing to lock your workers out of their livelihood and send in violent thugs to break up their labor movement, is really something. You couldn’t draw a clearer contrast between opulence and the everyday working man’s struggle than that.
Rachel: Steel touched everyone for generations. To situate [the tour] in the middle of that time — in 1892 when the mansion was the most occupied — and tie it to the strike, which is probably the most significant historical event that’s happened in Pittsburgh, I think it’s very smart. This keeps coming up as I go to places: is this for tourists, or is this for locals? And I do feel like [Clayton] was for tourists … and now it might be for locals who have a grandfather with a lunch pail but have never been on the tour, or who have grown up around the mansion but not necessarily gone inside. I feel like that angle is more incorporated now. It’s beautifully preserved, and it transports you back to that time in a way that it’s hard to get elsewhere in the city. •
A Galactic Party to Benefit our Riverfronts
By Leigh Frank
For 15 years, Riverlife’s Party at the Pier has widely been known as the fundraising event of the year. This year’s anniversary celebration (25 years of Riverlife and 15 years of the event) promises to be out of this world. On Friday, August 23, 2024, the stars will align on the Rooftop Terrace at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center for Riverlife’s most anticipated event of the summer— Riverlife’s Party at the Pier: Galactic, presented by Peoples.
Every moment at Party at the Pier supports Riverlife’s mission to create, activate, and celebrate Pittsburgh’s riverfronts. This is more than just an event— it’s a galactic experience celebrating Pittsburgh’s riverfronts’ beauty and potential.
A Big Bang for VIPs
Rocket to where few have explored before on the Rooftop Terrace of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center at the VIP Reception, presented by PNC. The VIP experience is more than indulgence—it’s an investment in the future of our city’s natural treasures. From 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM, the VIP Reception, presented by PNC, will invite you to immerse yourself in a realm of futuristic luxury. Picture this: stepping into an exclusive universe where every detail, from gourmet galactic bites to star-crafted cocktails, is designed to transport you to another dimension. Enjoy private performances and engage with fellow visionaries who share your passion for Pittsburgh’s riverfronts.
Stardust Fashion
Party at the Pier is widely known as the fashion event of the year. This year’s theme calls for futuristic fashions and cosmic cocktail attire. Attendees are encouraged to
embrace the galactic glam and let their outfits shine as brightly as the galaxy. Think striking silvers, shimmering crystals, and iridescent fabrics that reflect Riverlife’s bold vision for the future.
Astral Entertainment
As the clock strikes 7:30 PM, the Rooftop Terrace kicks into a galactic playground for all ticketed guests. DC Synergy will ignite the night on the LED Infinity Dance Floor, creating an constellation-like atmosphere. Dance among the stars and lose yourself in the rhythm of the cosmos. Those seeking a more relaxed vibe can kick back in the First National Bank Sky Lounge. Experience the most unique vantage points and views of our beautiful skyline, dazzling riverfronts, and beautiful bridges as you groove to DJ Hypnotyza x Jason Kendall.
Party at the Pier: Galactic, presented by Peoples, is chaired by the Wirginis Family. Renowned for their leadership of the Gateway Clipper Fleet, the Wirginis Family has been integral to Pittsburgh’s river culture for decades. Their involvement underscores the deep connection and commitment to Pittsburgh’s waterways that the Riverlife celebrates, and their support helps ensure that Pittsburgh’s riverfronts continue to be vibrant spaces for all to enjoy.
Limited Tickets Available
Don’t miss your chance to blast off to this space-age celebration. The universe awaits. A limited number of VIP Tickets are a vailable, including exclusive experiences and complimentary valet parking. Tickets can be purchased at partyatthepier.com.
PITTSBURGH’S ALTERNATIVE
Photo courtesy of: Rose Colored Creative
Big Bad BROWNIE
BY: AMANDA WALTZ
He has traveled the world, popping up in Australia, Barbados, France, and at Stonehenge. He has appeared on billboards, in parades, and on television to the delight of fans both young and old. He has also been arrested multiple times and leads a group of juvenile offenders known as the Angry Mob. And all this before the age of 18.
Not too shabby for a giant sentient brownie.
uch is the legacy of the rownie rownie, the official mascot of Kings Family Restaurant, a chain launched in 1966 and headquartered in North Versailles. Conceived in 2006, Frownie became the sneering face of a brand known for diner-style comfort food, Kids Eat Free deals on Mondays, and all-day breakfast. While Kings’ presence has diminished, with locations dwindling from 23 in 2019 to four throughout western Pa., Frownie still looms large, including through a recent campaign today resurrected him from a years-long hiatus.
Why rownie was baked in the first place boils down to, of course, marketing, but his personality has given Pittsburgh — a city with a justifiable chip on its shoulder after years of post-industrial economic distress and being the butt of jokes — a sort of hero. On another level, he represents a chaotic, Waluigi-type alternative to Eat’n Park’s forever-beaming Smiley Cookie, setting up what many locals see as a rivalry between the two area restaurant chains.
But Barbara Dunlay, a longtime employee of and current procurement manager for Kings, tells Pittsburgh City Paper that Smiley never came into the equation when creating Frownie. Dunlay, who says she worked in a marketing capacity when Kings created Frownie, recalls how the agency they hired “wanted to do something edgy and fun.”
Still, she admits that they never sought to dispel the belief that Frownie and Smiley were enemies.
“And because everyone assumed the rivalry, it made it more fun, but it was never admitted out loud that that was a rivalry,” she says. “It just created a fun thing for both Eat’n Park and Kings.”
Frownie provided a way for Kings to further connect with customers beyond serving them burgers and fries in homey, family-friendly settings — besides being another option on the menu, Frownie appears on apparel, mugs, and other merchandise. Dunlay recalls how “little kids loved Frownie” and yelled his
BIG BAD BROWNIE,
PHOTO: COURTESY OF KINGS FAMILY RESTAURANT
PHOTO: COURTESY OF KINGS FAMILY RESTAURANT
name when he appeared at parades as a costumed mascot.
That love translated into calls for Frownie to return when the devious dessert disappeared in 2015 after Kings was sold to a San Diego-based private e uity firm. our years later, Kings announced Frownie’s comeback with a marketing campaign that included T spots, billboards, and the hashtags #whereisfrownie and #frowniereturns.
Lady Gaga. One ad depicts Frownie introducing the mini “ rownie Jr.” brownies — which are part of Kings’ Angry Mob sundae — with the famous Scarface line “ ay hello to my little friend.” Kings also made plush versions of Frownie that became a hit with both kids and adults. The cuddly toy added another interactive element when Kings encouraged customers to snap selfies of Frownie on their travels during a" Where
“HIS PERSONALITY HAS GIVEN PITTSBURGH — A CITY WITH A JUSTIFIABLE CHIP ON ITS SHOULDER AFTER YEARS OF POST-INDUSTRIAL ECONOMIC DISTRESS AND BEING THE BUTT OF JOKES — A SORT OF HERO.”
Unlike his sunnier cookie counterpart, rownie’s “edgy” appeal gave Kings the freedom to lean into popular culture, with irreverent ads and social media posts that read “Resting rownie ace” or featured Frownie’s face Photoshopped onto actor radley Cooper in an image of his famed Oscar performance with
in the World Is Frownie?" contest. This resulted in photos of Frownie at numer ous recognizable locations, including lcatraz sland in an ranciso, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the ydney Opera House in ustralia, and obblers Knob during Groundhog Day ceremonies in Punxsutawney, Pa.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF KINGS FAMILY RESTAURANT
PHOTO: COURTESY OF KINGS FAMILY RESTAURANT
Even as Frownie, with his white icing features and cakey body, has remained the same, Kings has banked on new approaches as a way to keep their few remaining restaurants in operation. Alisha Merico Binkoski, who does marketing for Kings, tells City Paper that the chain recently launched a food truck as a way to bring Frownie and other menu items to customers at various events.
“Kings has changed a lot, and our brand has shrunk,” she says, adding that the truck gives the chain more of a presence outside of the restaurant locations still open in Canonsburg, Kittanning, Greensburg, and Franklin. Merico Binkoski adds that Kings also launched a new menu on Aug. 12, and in September, the chain will bring back its Oktoberfest menu for a limited time.
While the future remains uncertain for Kings, Frownie appears formidable enough to weather any storm as a Pittsburgh icon whose tough exterior belies a sweet nature. His presence offers a bit of good-natured surliness in troubled times, a grimacing panacea for toxic positivity that tells people it’s okay to be mad — just don’t be mean
PHOTO: COURTESY
PHOTO: COURTESY OF KINGS FAMILY RESTAURANT
GINGER ROOTS
Jackworth
Ginger Beer draws on history and experimentation to give locals something a little different
BY: OWEN GABBEY // CONTRIBUTORS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
Creating something new in the packed-to-the-brim world of craft drinks is a rare thing nowadays, in Pittsburgh or anywhere else.
Jackworth Ginger Beer, a new brewery in Larimer, is trying to thread the needle, taking the familiar and making it fresh, honoring history while charting a way forward.
Jackworth, a business specializing exclusively in alcoholic and nonalcoholic ginger beer, uses a formula that’s oh-so-similar to your standard beer recipe. “Think of it as using ginger instead of hops, and cane sugar instead of barley,” Jackworth Smith, Jackworth’s CEO and brewer, tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “And then, we use two types of sugar, a dark
and a light, but other than that, it’s the same process people have been using to make ginger beer since who knows how long.”
The “who knows how long” is at least since before Prohibition, as Jackworth's co-founder, Tyler Lewis found examples of alcoholic ginger beer prior to that era. The simple recipe has been adopted across regions and cultures; there are fun ways to tweak the basic ingredients, but those basic ingredients don’t change (Jackworth just debuted a new release in collaboration with DJ pvkvsv for Barrel and Flow that uses one of those tweaks, a cayenne pepper variant that’s an homage to pvkvsv’s Congolese family’s roots). Jackworth was born out of the
PHOTO: COURTESY OF JACKWORTH GINGER BEER Jackworth and its outside seating area
idea that ginger beer had something unique to offer the Pittsburgh craft scene — and could be a delicious option for a whole generation of people that only think of one thing when they hear ginger beer: “Moscow Mule,” laughs Lewis, wjo also serves as Jackworth’s chief growth officer. “That’s how it stands in most people’s minds. So we’re creating and bringing back an old product, but introducing a new one with our alcoholic ginger beer.”
ginger beer on its own, it’s a surpris ing voyage, a spice and sharpness taking hold of you right away. It’s bal anced out with sweet and refreshing notes that you don’t expect, turning it into a real balanced drink that feels like it can be consumed any time of year, in any setting. And if you don’t want the alcohol, don’t worry; Jackworth has been deliberate about maintaining the quality and taste in both its alco holic and non-alcoholic products.
“WE’RE AN INTERSECTION FOR PEOPLE THAT DO DRINK, PEOPLE WHO DON’T DRINK, PEOPLE WHO CAN’T DRINK THAT DAY. YOU CAN COME HERE AND FIND SOMETHING ON EQUAL FOOTING. IT’S NOT AN AFTERTHOUGHT.”
The concept of alcoholic ginger beer has been on Smith’s mind for a long time. His dad owned the beloved Dunning’s Grill in Regent Square (“I started bartending way too early,” Smith jokes), and he always gravitated towards the spirits industry. After college, he bartended in Philadelphia and kept getting drawn to ginger beer. He had kept in touch with his college friend Lewis, and in 2016, the idea really started to take shape, with Pittsburgh always being the natural fit for them.
“I’m from here,” Smith puts it succinctly. “The cool thing about ginger beer, it’s kind of a revival. [Jackworth] is actually my great-grandfather’s last name, and he was a streetcar driver in Pittsburgh forever. So it’s kind of continuing the tradition of my family and bringing that history into the modern age.”
Adds Lewis, “Because there’s other breweries, people are already conditioned to see craft beverages popping up around the corner. So something like this, something niche, it just made the most sense from a growth perspective and from a comfort perspective.”
At the core of Jackworth are two really good ginger beers. Both of their standard offerings, the alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions, taste real from the first sip. If you’ve never had
That comes in part from seeing, if not a sea change, a shifting of tides in the craft community. Pittsburgh’s craft beer scene is still thriving despite some rockiness after COVID, but people aren’t clamoring for the same types of beer that exploded the scene in the 2010s. They’re looking for diverse tap lists, they’re looking for ciders, they’re looking for selt zers — and Jackworth hopes they’ll be looking for ginger beer.
“It’s kind of the perfect product and the perfect beverage for the modern market, because we have the non-alcoholic, and the alcoholic form,” says Smith. “So we’re a meeting place, we’re an intersection for people that do drink, people who don’t drink, people who can’t drink that day. You can come here and find something on equal footing. It’s not an afterthought.”
product in so many places, there are other ways for Jackworth to grow.
“We’d like to go statewide with this,” said Lewis. “Every bar needs ginger beer, every bar makes Moscow Mules, [and] we want to be that
Smith and Lewis hope they can weave themselves into the fabric of the local scene and have been deliberate about stocking their bar with local taps and developing relationships. They’re also working to make Jackworth a staple at other places around the city. “We’re not competition for beer; we sit really nicely next to beer,” Lewis says.
Smith adds, “[The support is] kind of magical. People have been so collaborative and helpful. This
had alcoholic ginger beer. So they’re curious, and they taste it, and they just get this big smile. And then they go back for the second sip, which is always the most important one.” •
PHOTO: COURTESY OF JACKWORTH GINGER BEER
The interior bar area at Jackworth
CONVENTION • STRIP DISTRICT
Cryptid Bash 4. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Helltown
IN PITTS
SEVEN DAYS IN PITTSBURGH
THU., AUG. 15
FESTIVAL • BLOOMFIELD
Little Italy Days 5-9 p.m. Continues through Sun., Aug. 18. Liberty Ave. from Ella St. to Gross St., Bloomfield. Free. littleitalydays.com
MARKET • MILLVALE
Bukowski Bar Flea Tattoo Trader Market 5-11:30 p.m. Poetry Lounge. 313 North Ave., Millvale. Free. poetrymillvale.com
MUSIC • LAWRENCEVILLE/ OAKLAND
Lawrenceville and Oakland get all punked up when Charged P.G.H presents Skullfest 14 at various venues throughout the two neighborhoods. The four-day event showcases a packed list of live bands at Thunderbird Music Hall, Cattivo, Spirit, and Prevention Point, as well as “The Courts” (ask a punk). See acts from Pittsburgh and around the world, including The Goons from D.C., Haram from New York, and British punkers Subhumans, among many others. 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Continues through Sun., Aug. 18. Ticket prices vary. skullfestpunk.com
FRI., AUG. 16
FILM • LAWRENCEVILLE
Row House Cinema pays tribute to Killer Queens with a theme week highlighting female-led thrillers and chillers. Included in the lineup is Jennifer’s Body, the 2009 demonic cult classic directed by Karyn
Kusama. Catch up on some 2024 releases with screenings of the horror comedy Lisa Frankenstein and the queer crime thriller Love Lies Bleeding, both of which also feature women directors and stars. Showtimes vary. Continues through Thu., Aug. 22. $12.50. rowhousecinemas.com/lawrenceville
LASERS • NORTH SIDE
Laser Taylor Swift. 4 p.m. Continues through Sept. 1. Carnegie Science Center-Buhl Planetarium. One Allegheny Ave., North Side. $6-7. carnegiesciencecenter.org
THEATER • MULTIPLE LOCATIONS
The city’s three rivers will turn into stages for floating live performances when Flotsam River Circus arrives in Pittsburgh. The Seattle-based troupe will use music, puppetry, circus arts, and more to delight onlookers at Point State Park, South Shore Riverfront Park, and the North Shore Great Lawn. Flotsam promises to immerse audiences in a “post-apocalyptic world where climate change has raised temperatures and water levels leading to a takeover by invasive mutant fish.” Presented by Riverlife. 6 p.m. Continues through Sun., Aug. 18. Multiple locations. Free. riverlifepgh.org/rivercircus
FILM • HAZELWOOD
Movie Night on the Lawn: The Sandlot. 7:30 p.m. Doors at 6:30 p.m. Hazelwood Green Plaza. Lytle St. and Eliza St., Hazelwood. Free. RSVP required. hazelwoodlocal.com
COMEDY • ALLENTOWN
Joel Kim Booster 8 p.m. Doors at 5 p.m.
Taproom. 1700 Penn Ave., Strip District. Free. All ages. instagram.com/mothboyspodcast
TOUR • STATION SQUARE
DOORS OPEN Pittsburgh: Secrets of The Ohio River 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Gateway
Clipper Fleet Docks. 350 West Station Square Dr., Station Square. $15-40. doorsopenpgh.org
MUSIC • MILLVALE
Continues through Sat., Aug. 17. Bottlerocket Social Hall. 1226 Arlington Ave., Allentown. $30. bottlerocketpgh.com
SAT., AUGUST 17
SPORTS • AVELLA
Vintage Base Ball Day. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village. 401 Meadowcroft Rd., Avella. Included with regular admission. heinzhistorycenter.org
WED., AUG.21 AUG.SUN.,18
Frostapalooza 8 p.m. Doors at 7 p.m. Mr. Smalls Theatre. 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. $20 in advance, $25 at the door. mrsmalls.com
SUN., AUG. 18
WORKSHOP • WILKINSBURG
Workshop PGH Open House 11 a.m.-2 p.m. 321 Penn Ave., Wilkinsburg. Free. All ages. workshoppgh.com
ART • NORTH SIDE
Death resonates through artist Azza El Siddique’s latest show, now on view at The Mattress Factory. The Sudan-born artist presents Echoes to Omega, described by MF as investigating “an archeological anomaly, ancient burial practices, and the hidden narratives that shape our understanding of time” by “integrating ceramic figures, steel architecture, video, water, and scent.” The show is presented as part of the museum’s International Open Call residency program.
PHOTO: TOM LITTLE Azza El Siddique at Mattress Factory
PHOTO: LAUREN MORRISON Chamber Music Pittsburgh presents C Street Brass.
PHOTO: PAUL LITHERLAND “that which trembles wavers,” part of Echoes to Omega at Mattress Factory
11 a.m.-6 p.m. 500 Sampsonia Way, North Side. Included with regular admission. mattress.org
MON., AUG. 19
OUTDOORS • MCKEESPORT
Venture Outdoors presents McKeesport Evening Fishing 5-7 p.m. Lake EmilieRenziehausen Park, McKeesport. No prior fishing experience or license needed. Free. Registration required. All ages. ventureoutdoors.org
MUSIC • STRIP DISTRICT
Kris Allen with Walker Burroughs 7:30 p.m. Doors at 6 p.m. City Winery. 1627 Smallman St., Strip District. $25. pittsburgh.citywinery.com
TUE., AUG. 20
MUSIC • UPTOWN
Childish Gambino with Willow. 8 p.m. PPG Paints Arena. 1001 Fifth Ave., Uptown. Tickets start at $36. ppgpaintsarena.com
WED., AUG. 21
MUSIC • DOWNTOWN
Squirrel Hillbillies 6-8 p.m. The Giant Eagle Foundation Backyard. Eighth Ave. and Penn Ave., Downtown. Free. All ages. trustarts.org
MUSIC • SOUTH SIDE
Chamber Music Pittsburgh presents C Street Brass 7:30 p.m. The Highline. 339 McKean St., South Side. Free. chambermusicpittsburgh.org
HELP WANTED
SOFTWARE DEVELOPER
The position involves developing, creating & modifying applications.
Job based in Pittsburgh, PA. Send Resumes to: lathiainvestments@hotmail.com
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MARKET PLACE
SERVICES
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SERVICES
Digital Coordinator
Pittsburgh City Paper is looking for a Digital Coordinator position. In this role, you will be responsible for developing and implementing digital marketing campaigns across multiple platforms, including social media, email, and our website. In the role you will also track and analyze campaign performance for all clients. Great team atmosphere!
$40K salary and benefits. Please email your resume and cover letter to Rachel Winner Rwinner@pghcitypaper.com
Switch to DISH and get up to a $300 gift card! Plus get the Multisport pack included for a limited time! Hurry, call for details: 1-877-857-5995
PUBLIC AUCTION
Extra Space Storage, on behalf of itself or its a iliates, Life Storage or Storage Express, will hold a public auction to sell the contents of leased spaces to satisfy Extra Space’s lien at the location indicated: 110 Kisow Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15205 on August 21, 2024 at 11:15 AM. Robert McGregor 256, Sarah Bailey 327, Martina Searcy 362, Linda Jackson 70. The auction will be listed and advertised on www.storagetreasures.com. Purchases must be made with cash only and paid at the above referenced facility in order to complete the transaction. Extra Space Storage may refuse any bid and may rescind any purchase up until the winning bidder takes possession of the personal property.
MISCELLANEOUS
Guaranteed Life Insurance! (Ages 50 to 80). No medical exam. Affordable premiums never increase. Benefits never decrease. Policy will only be cancelled for non-payment. HOURS: M-F 9a-10p & Sat 11a-2p EST 1-888-386-0113 (Void NY) (AAN CAN)
NAME CHANGE
IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-24-007690 In re petition of Susan Lynn Sims-Zampogna for change of name to Susan Lynn Zampogna. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 11th day of September, 2024, at 9:30 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for.
FINANCIAL
LEGAL
Need Help with Family Law? Can’t Afford a $5000 Retainer?
Low Cost Legal Services- Pay As You Go- As low as $750-$1500Get Legal Help Now! Call 1-844-821-8249 Mon-Fri 7am to 4pm PCT (AAN CAN) https://www.familycourtdirect. com/?network=1
FINANCIAL
Struggling With Your Private Student Loan Payment? New relief programs can reduce your payments. Learn your options. Good credit not necessary. Call the Helpline 888-670-5631 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Eastern) (AAN CAN)
PUBLIC NOTICE
Wesley Plaza Properties has an open waiting list to apply for the Section 8 program. For more information on how to apply please contact us at 412-626-6111
JUST FOLKS
ACROSS
1. Prophet swallowed by a big fish
6. Stand ready 11. Stubborn one 14. 1999-2004 Oldsmobile model 15. Three-stripe soldier, informally 16. Dispensary product 17. Sleep on it 19. Magic org. 20. Graphic design deg.
Bailiwick
Turn 23. 1978 #1 Donna Summer hit 28. Most dear 30. Nobel Prize subj. 31. Have an edge against 32. It’s bad in Bogota 33. Wedding announcement? 36. Law firm bigwig
Morsel 42. Representative Schi
43. “O.K.” 44. Pace
45. Candy family with famous boxed chocolates
48. Place to be pampered
52. Start to freeze? 53. Woman’s name
that sounds like two letters
54. “More later,” on a sched.
57. Fizzle out
58. Saxophonist who played with James Brown and ParliamentFunkadelic
62. Swallowed
63. Garlicky mayonnaise
64. Piece maker
65. Tourist’s aid
66. Clothesline alternative
67. Goes up and down
DOWN
1. Door sidepost
2. Norwegian king
3. Total after expenses
4. Skill
5. He wrote the Odes
6. Make a claim
7. Attended
8. Dada’s founder
9. Grocery chain letters
10. “Ideas worth spreading” grp.
11. Breathing problem
12. Judicious
13. Utter
18. Memorable periods
22. Work-from-home tech aid
24. The Thin Man pooch 25. Multitude 26. Golden State Bruins
27. Engine sound 28. Paintballer’s outfit, briefly
29. Letter-shaped beam: Hyph.
32. The Wizard of Oz studio
33. It’s to the right of backspace on some PCs
34. Lots of bucks
35. They’re found in veins
37. Showy
38. “Cool, Daddy-o!” 39. Scru
40. DVR system
44. Its theme was “Who Are You”
45. ___-faire
46. Booking.com booking
47. Notorious cow owner
48. Address for a lady
49. West Side Story role
50. Brew
51. Nope director
55. “Eso ___” (Paul Anka hit)
56. Son of Zeus
58. Nuts or bananas
59. Tune
60. Not forthright 61. Stutz contemporary
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