Longtime Pittsburgh Bar Owner Dies

PITTSBURGH, PA — For nearly four decades, the Scarpaci family has owned and operated a popular neighborhood tavern on Shiloh Street in Mt. Washington - first known as Sonny's Place, now called Scarpaci's. Anne Scarpaci, who purchased the place with her late husband in the early 1980s, Sonny, was fond of recalling the bar's origins.

She and Sonny were both unemployed and Sonny ended up bartending at a tavern known then as the Triangle.

"Sonny was a bartender for a few years until Doris, the owner, wanted out of the business," Mrs. Scarpaci recalled on the bar's website. "When he told me I decided we should buy the business.
That was the beginning of a long road."

Mrs. Scarpaci, 74, of Mt. Washington, died Nov. 12. She was 74.

When Sonny's Place first opened in 1983, Mrs. Scarpaci was just learning how to tend bar. Drafts were 35 cents, bottles were 75 cents, shots were $1 and mixed drinks were $1.25. "Boy have times changed," she noted on the website.

One thing did not: the family making all patrons feel comfortable in their business.

"I treated everyone like company and greeted them like they came to visit. I have always wanted
everyone to feel welcome and at home when they walk into the bar," she stated on the website.

"We both worked tirelessly to make our business work and make people feel welcome. And we succeeded and the bar still has that same feeling to this day."

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