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<\/a><\/p>\nHe came to Pittsburgh to go to the University of Pittsburgh with designs on dental school, but along the way found another way to numb teeth and gums: Whiskey. Erie native Cortney Buchanan is a savant-scholar of Scotch, having honed that knowledge over a 13-year stint at Piper\u2019s Pub. He\u2019s since taken his skill set to Downtown\u2019s Butcher and the Rye, along with an acid wit that\u2019s drier than any martini. His humor can be an acquired taste, but his professionalism, respect for fine spirits and commitment to his craft come naturally.<\/p>\n
Tommy Carroll, Smokin\u2019 Joe\u2019s<\/strong> Regulars are routinely greeted with an announcement and applause. Pop songs and movies are regularly re-imagined and belted out with hilariously profane lyrics and titles. And there is no piece of sports trivia he doesn\u2019t know. Pull up a stool because the bar can be a de facto stage at Smokin\u2019 Joe\u2019s on the South Side, where the Tommy Carroll show has been playing a few nights a week since 2002. Be sure to stop in some time and let him know how much you, too, hate Tom Brady and the Patriots.<\/p>\n Stephanie Dickson, Blue Dust<\/strong> Earl Rudis, Nadine\u2019s<\/strong> Fiona Simpson, Casbah<\/strong>
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\nWhile it may be human nature to seek a splash of spirits to soothe the temporal tensions of a difficult day, if you stop at Blue Dust in Homestead, you might not even need the booze to lighten your mood if Stephanie Dickson is behind the bar. Her smile and laughter are positively infectious, her beer knowledge superb and the liquor infusions she and her colleagues make are without parallel in the region. And she routinely plays the foil to the establishment\u2019s owner, \u201cUncle\u201d Jerry Miller, a character nonpareil in his own right.<\/p>\n
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\nWith a mischievous glint peering out over bifocals, bartender and cook Earl Rudis at Nadine\u2019s on the South Side has that rare ability to make you laugh out loud \u2014 at yourself no less, even when you\u2019re on the receiving end of an endless stream of chop-busting that\u2019s like Pittsburgh Dad meets Mel Sharples. For instance, to a customer that\u2019s leaving: \u201cHope to see you again. But don\u2019t make it a habit.\u201d To a couple: \u201cHow did you two get together? An AA meeting?\u201d \u201cEveryone should have a job where they laugh their [posterior] off all day long,\u201d he said of his career of 24 years.<\/p>\n
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\nScottish-born and English-bred Fiona Simpson poured her first pint at the Holyhead Pub in Coventry, England, as an 18-year-old, to put away pence for a dream: an American holiday in California. After a career in modeling in New York and as a flight attendant for Saudi Airlines, she came to Pittsburgh 23 years after that first tavern job and for the past 15 has been a fixture in the local bartending community, working for the past decade at Casbah in Shadyside. With her thick British accent, affinity for calling customers \u201clooov\u201d and a guttural laugh, she\u2019s part Mary Poppins, part \u201cAbsolutely Fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was the sociologist and author Ray Oldenburg who first posited the notion of the \u201cthird place\u201d and its importance as a not-home, not-work gathering spot where all are welcome. Often a bar or a pub is that place, and whether it\u2019s a shot-and-beer joint or a place for martinis and Manhattans, the tone of the experience is set by the bartender who can wear the hats of jester, therapist, father confessor and friend, all at the same time. Here are some of our favorite barkeeps.\n [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[16],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2016\/04\/20151028ng-fiona1.1.jpg?fit=2518%2C2700&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7tYWJ-O","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/pghinsidersguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}