Cocktail chat: Spencer Warren, ETA
Having pioneered craft cocktails in Pittsburgh, Spencer Warren is opening a Japanese-themed standing bar, ETA, as well as Cease & Desist, a private members’ club.
*This feature was originally published in the May 2024 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
Spencer Warren brings his own perspective and rule-breaking to the Pittsburgh cocktail scene. Through curated spaces, Warren is injecting his travels and love of good drinks into his home city, historically a beer-and-a-shot town, in ways that are both authentic and imaginative.
“I love to travel,” Warren says. “So I’m trying to bring things from other cultures, other cities back to Pittsburgh.”
In 2018 he opened The Warren, which he described as a neighbourhood cocktail bar. It mixes lounge-worthy cocktails with the approachability of a dive, while also offering 1,500 spirits. The drinks are listed with flavour descriptors rather than ingredients and if anyone ventures to order the pricey and elusive Pappy Van Winkle, Warren has two unconventional rules: they aren’t allowed to pay for it, and they have to drink it straight from the bottle. The downtown bar and its come-as-you-are approach reflects a city that is ready to embrace elevated cocktail experiences, due in part to Warren’s decade-plus influence.
Though the current Pittsburgh cocktail landscape is good and growing, progress is fairly recent. Warren says 15 years ago, his nightclub, Fireside Lounge, was primarily serving cheesy Martini riffs to international clientele. He was considering opening a dessert bar in the space beneath it when he and friends visited New York’s Milk & Honey, where they were served by famed bartender Sasha Petraske.
“I was so enamoured by it all. I was like, ‘I want to do this,’’ he says. “We could teach people in Pittsburgh that there’s more than just the [sweet Martini] type of thing.”
First things first
Warren opened what he calls Pittsburgh’s first craft cocktail bar, Embury, in 2008, with Freddie Sarkis. He credits a passionate staff, research, and travel to San Francisco, Chicago and New York for its success. But it wasn’t without its struggles early on.
“The first six months were a little rough, because people just didn’t understand it,” he says. “We have Pittsburgh pricing, so at that time, it was US$10 cocktails, and that was considered absurdly expensive.”
Though it closed just three years later, Embury served as a breeding ground for emergent and guest bartenders, with current Pittsburgh food-and-drink destinations like Meat & Potatoes and Butcher and the Rye able to trace their roots back to it. “My friend Cecil goes, ‘One of the best things ever for Pittsburgh was Embury closing because then all those bartenders went and opened new places’,” Warren says. But Warren himself was left heartbroken after losing both leases at the same time. He consulted on a bar opening in Louisville, Kentucky, then worked in Miami, then ended up in San Francisco, then came back to Pittsburgh for a girl. “You know how that story goes,” he says.
He sustained himself on pop-up bars like the Christmas-themed Miracle, but knew that he wanted to be an owner again. “I’m an entrepreneur first,” he says.”I dive so deep into things. When I want to do something, I try to be the best. I’m super competitive.”
Cease and desist
That led to The Warren, which he originally wanted to call Mr Rogers’ Neighbourhood Bar before he got a cease-and-desist letter from the Fred Rogers Foundation that looks after the legacy of the beloved US TV personality. “I wanted something casual,” he says, and the Pittsburgh crowds followed. He’s proud to have kept cocktails at or around US$10 until recently, noting that now, a US$14 drink isn’t so shocking. “For me, with The Warren, it was always about just making a great cocktail,” he says.
Yet the city’s drinking faithful are clued in to his presence and contributions as well. “I take it as a big compliment, and people definitely come because my name is attached to it, which is weird to me,” he says. “I didn’t want to ever name a bar after myself.”
During the pandemic, Warren used the space next to his bar as a wine shop and grab-and-go lunch counter known as Penn Grove. “I’m a huge proponent of using as much space as I can in the same building,” he says. “Luckily, in Pittsburgh, we have bigger real estate options that we can afford.”
That business dried up after lockdowns, so Warren began researching what he could do with the small space, welcoming any opportunity to pivot. He landed on ETA (lead image), his take on a Japanese standing room-only Tachinomi bar, which officially opens this month. “It’s meant to be a whole experience like you’re standing in the alleyway in Japan,” he says. “We went to Japan last year to make sure we were doing it correctly, because I don’t want to mess it up or do anything wrong.”
It’s a vibe
Just as The Warren is minted by its elevated casual atmosphere, ETA’s vibe is well-pitched. A single bartender makes drinks exclusively with Japanese spirits, guests can select vinyl records to play, and a vintage Pepsi machine highlights a well-detailed interior design.
“The music, the staff, the quality of the cocktails, you have to maintain it,” he says. It’s a pricier proposition than The Warren, offering a Yamazaki 12 Old Fashioned for US$24, but Warren believes there is an audience for something higher-end. “People want that, they want more of a curated cocktail, they want the experience of interacting with the person making your drink,” he says.
Taking his commitment to utilising space even further, he is launching a third concept in the building, known as Cease & Desist, a private members’ club that will feature vintage spirits and decanters. He envisions hosting visiting athletes and musicians, as well as some dedicated locals. As with his other bars, it is spirits as seen through his curatorial lens. “The biggest thing is creating that whole atmosphere and experience of making it memorable,” Warren says. “Something that you remember like, wow, I was in Pittsburgh and I went to this great place.”
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