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PITTSBURG —
Inch for inch, JST Bobby G’s probably has more history than a lot of museums. Unlike most museums, it dispenses alcohol-based beverages, but they blend well with the history.
For example, take the wine rack.
“The wood came from a barn that was built around 1903 and blew down in the wind storm a couple of months ago,” said John Kutz. “The tree the wood came from was probably around 100 years old, so there’s more than 200 years of history right there.”
Kutz is the J of the establishment’s name, with the S being his sister, Susan Kutz Gardullo. T stands for Terri Steele, Kutz’s fiancee. Bobby G is Bobby Gardullo, Pittsburg firefighter who tends bar on the side.
“This has been Bobby’s lifelong dream for 31 years,” Kutz said. “Since I sell real estate, I had been looking at places for them.”
The storefront at 108 W. Sixth never occurred to him, though he owed the property, until Mike Sittner of the 505 Club talked to him.
“He was talking about how the alleyways line up so that people could walk from bar to bar and not have to drive,” Kutz said. “So I went to Susie and talked to her about it.”
The doors opened on May 3. Hours are from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and the facility is available for private parties on Sundays.
“We’ve had a successful night every night we’ve been open,” Mrs. Gardullo said.
Their first customer was her husband’s boss, Pittsburg Fire Chief Scott Crain.
“Scott came in for a Dr. Pepper and gave us our first dollar,” Kutz said.
Kutz can tell the history of almost every item in the building, starting with the building itself.
“Around 1905 this was the Hotel Leland,” Kutz said. “In the early teens it was a hospital for whites only, and then it was a boarding house. Each room had a corner sink, and on every level there was a common bath. There were only four bathrooms in the entire place.”
As he cleaned the place out, he found that even the trash was historic.
“I found old bottles in the crawlspace,” Kutz said. “They had no trash collection back then. I found opium bottles and they’re up on a shelf in the bar now.”
He added that there is absolutely no opium in the bottles now.
Much of the interior fixtures are from other historic structures.
Inch for inch, JST Bobby G’s probably has more history than a lot of museums. Unlike most museums, it dispenses alcohol-based beverages, but they blend well with the history.
For example, take the wine rack.
“The wood came from a barn that was built around 1903 and blew down in the wind storm a couple of months ago,” said John Kutz. “The tree the wood came from was probably around 100 years old, so there’s more than 200 years of history right there.”
Kutz is the J of the establishment’s name, with the S being his sister, Susan Kutz Gardullo. T stands for Terri Steele, Kutz’s fiancee. Bobby G is Bobby Gardullo, Pittsburg firefighter who tends bar on the side.
“This has been Bobby’s lifelong dream for 31 years,” Kutz said. “Since I sell real estate, I had been looking at places for them.”
The storefront at 108 W. Sixth never occurred to him, though he owed the property, until Mike Sittner of the 505 Club talked to him.
“He was talking about how the alleyways line up so that people could walk from bar to bar and not have to drive,” Kutz said. “So I went to Susie and talked to her about it.”
The doors opened on May 3. Hours are from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and the facility is available for private parties on Sundays.
“We’ve had a successful night every night we’ve been open,” Mrs. Gardullo said.
Their first customer was her husband’s boss, Pittsburg Fire Chief Scott Crain.
“Scott came in for a Dr. Pepper and gave us our first dollar,” Kutz said.
Kutz can tell the history of almost every item in the building, starting with the building itself.
“Around 1905 this was the Hotel Leland,” Kutz said. “In the early teens it was a hospital for whites only, and then it was a boarding house. Each room had a corner sink, and on every level there was a common bath. There were only four bathrooms in the entire place.”
As he cleaned the place out, he found that even the trash was historic.
“I found old bottles in the crawlspace,” Kutz said. “They had no trash collection back then. I found opium bottles and they’re up on a shelf in the bar now.”
He added that there is absolutely no opium in the bottles now.
Much of the interior fixtures are from other historic structures.
“The light fixtures are from the Hotel Stilwell, and hung in the bedrooms there,” Kutz said. “I purchased them 15 to 18 years ago and put them up when this was an attorney’s office.”
There’s also a patch of marble and slate flooring under the bar piano.
“That was the original Stilwell floor,” Kutz said. “You can still see some of it in the entry to the Stilwell basement.”
He said that all the trim on the bar front came from the Pittsburg Masonic Temple. The wooden bar top was fashioned from 21-foot floor joists that had come from rental properties owned by the late Henry Jelochan, Pittsburg. Kutz purchased them from the Jelochan estate sale, planed them down and curved them.
“Look at that patina on the wood,” Kutz said. “You just can’t duplicate it.”
The initials JST were engraved on the bar’s decorative tinwork by his mother, Bernice Kutz.
“When Susie and I were kids we were fascinated by our mother’s writing,” Kutz said.
Bernice and Marion Kutz have operated Kutz Music for over 60 years, and Kutz said that his father has been stopping by the bar to inspect how well things are being done.
There are some more contemporary items in the place as well, such as the two futuristic columns that were fashioned by Kutz as part of the decorations for the 2000 Mount Carmel Gala.
And the bar’s men’s restroom is even more popular than such facilities usually are because of a near-lifesize painting of a pin-up girl done by Bryan Lewandowski.
Other artwork includes photography by Terri Steele. She’s also the chief enforcer of recycling at the new bar.
“There’s no excuse to throw stuff in the trash when we have a wonderful recycling center in Pittsburg,” she said. “It just takes a little bit more effort to reduce, reuse and recycle.”
“We recycle every bottle and every piece of cardboard,” Gardullo said.
Shane Duling and friends have been performing acoustic music every Friday. Other music is a little more impromptu.
“Almost every single night someone talented has sat down at the piano and played,” Mrs. Gardullo said.
Future plans may include an art gallery upstairs. Some patrons have also asked for food, and Mrs. Gardullo said that’s not going to happen in the immediate future.
“But people are welcome to order food in,” Steele said. “One woman asked if they could do that and we said sure, so they ordered in pizza.”
A grand opening is planned for June 2.
