Gen X Pittsburgh: The Beehive and the '90s Scene

by David Rullo

Beginning in the early 1990s, artists began to rent empty apartments, what were once shot-and-a-beer bars became hip dive bars and entrepreneurs found inexpensive real estate to follow their visions. The Beehive Coffeehouse began to attract a new 90s alternative crowd. Out of East Carson Street was soon home to not just coffeehouses but Slackers, Dee's Cafe, Culture Shop, Club Laga and the Lava Lounge. Across a bridge, in the university community of Oakland, The Upstage, Electric Banana and another Beehive catered to the new youth culture. Cappuccinos, thrift shop culture, grunge music, local alternative bands, artists, writers and creative denizens of all stripes would soon enter the city's collective conscious. The South Side Beehive though was where the night often began, and weekends ended...

Genres: History, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

Published October 30, 2023

About the author

David Rullo is an award winning journalist and a senior writer at the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. His work has appeared in national and international newspapers, magazines and literary journals. He has spent the better part of five decades exploring and contributing to the city’s art and literary scene. Rullo’s work has been exhibited and heard in Pittsburgh’s cultural district and his bands Digital Buddha, Architects of the Atmosphere and Centrale Electrique have explored the boundaries between electronic music, spoken word, performance art and experimental music. His music can be heard in the score for the art film “The Pittsburgh Nude Project.” Rullo’s collection of poetry, “Tired Scenes from a City Window,” was published in 2015. A Pittsburgh native, he lives in the city’s South Hills with his wife and son, where he enjoys strong coffee, good bourbon and great books.

Reviews

[Theo Logos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is deeply personal.

Everyone has a time in their life that defines them, a time when they became what they think of as uniquely themselves, no matter how age or the passing of time may alter that. For me, that time was the decade of the ‘90s, and the Beehive just happened to be at its epicenter.

The Beehive Coffeehouse opened in Pittsburgh’s South Side in early 1991, just a couple months before I blew into town. It immediately became a cultural touchstone, a bohemian oasis in a city just starting to climb out of its postindustrial collapse. Open 24 hours with a decor and clientele that one friend described as the Island of Misfit Toys, it attracted a diverse group of freaks, artist, musicians, con artist, and bikers, and the alchemy of the relationships formed there became something truly special — something that defined a generation of the Pittsburgh scene.

Author David Rullo is well qualified to write about this cultural institution. As a young journalism student at a local college he was drawn to the Beehive’s bohemian environs, and he became part of its magic brew. He understood how it was almost sacred space to those who gathered there, worked there, formed friendships and partnerships and families there. When he decided to write this book, he interviewed scores of people who were part of the scene over the Beehives three decades, and here captured and documented their memories and experiences.

Rullo devoted chapters to the art scene, the music scene, the freak show resurgence and the resurgence of pinball, all in relationship to the uniting influence of the Beehive. His scope includes other important sites of that vibrant scene — Slacker, Dee’s Cafe, the Upstage, the Sonic Temple, the Electric Banana, and of course, the Oakland Beehive. But everything comes back to the community that formed around that institution in South Side, as a declining, postindustrial neighborhood and city were transformed by the energy that it drew there.

The Beehive is sadly gone now. But as this book witnesses, it is far from forgotten. It lives on in the memories of those of us who spent our youth there, using it as our living room, our gathering space. It lives on in the life long friendships that were formed there. This may sound like hyperbole, but it calls to mind that Hemingway quote that opens A Movable Feast — you know the one —
”If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you”
Yeah, well for me and many others, the Beehive and the whole scene it helped create was our Paris — the Beehive is our Movable Feast.

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is no denying that The Beehive was the starting point and initial focal point of the underground art and freak scene on the Southside in Pittsburgh. It was a great nostalgic joy to read this collection of memories culled from first person interviews the author conducted with patrons, employees, and observers---many of whom are good friends of mine (it's an extra special kick to see your friends quoted in print!) That little space with the mismatched chairs and tables and chess boards and ashtrays and weird art and...oh yeah, coffee...was truly a coffeehouse in the classical European sense---revolutions were fomented there.
For me the book suffers a bit from trying to broaden the scope---there were multiple "90s scene(s)" in Pittsburgh and even the Oakland Beehive was a completely different social and cultural touchstone that really deserves its own book, not to mention the other music and art scenes building on the other side of the river. There was lots of intersection and cross pollination, surely, but the title of the book suggesting it all focused around the original Beehive is a bit misleading.
The book also suffers from a few typos, factual errors, and repetitive passages that made me long for the days of fastidious editors and fact checkers. It's such a well put together volume---really nice paper, good reproductions of photos, excellent binding, and a paper cover that feels nice to hold---that the little errors feel extra egregious. I docked a star for these reasons.
Overall, though, I recommend this book for anyone who was there, or who came to Pittsburgh after the Beehive's heyday and wants to know what it was like. It was like a neverending circus and it changed the Southside and Pittsburgh forever.

[Andrea Janov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I was not living in Pittsburgh for it's heyday, I did go to The Beehive from time to time a few years before it closed. It felt like a portal to another time, a time that I only missed by a few years but seemed so distant because of how fast technology changed our lives. Rullo's history of the Beehive celebrated what it did for Pittsburgh, arts, the South Side, and the people, but more importantly, it celebrated the idea of a 3rd space where people can come together, create, or simply feel accepted.

[John Fool · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. As a hater, I went in looking for things to dislike. I'd recently finished a pretty bad book on Pittsburgh history and I was expecting similar quality here; but reality held the opposite. I liked how this book was based around interviews, it gave a very personal (primary!) and insightful view into what the Beehive meant to people. Being a pretty recent era of Pittsburgh's history, I find there's not as much interesting stuff written about the 90s. Most of what is written is about revitalization, too. This book fills that gap. While you could argue this is a book about revitalization, it's about the alternative scene specifically— what was happening concurrently with revitalization and how the two intermingled. Considering the alternative scene was so huge in the 90s, this is a vital topic to record. There were some absolutely tantalizing pieces in this book. As someone highly interested in circus history, learning about the sideshow scene (revival? Last dying gasp?) was fascinating, and I'm dying to learn more! There was plenty in this book to send you done your next Pittsburgh rabbit hole.
A couple of things I didn't like so much... the structure was haphazard. Sometimes I felt like I was just reading artist's bios. Like, do I really need to know every interviewees work history? Lol. In some ways, I think this may provide useful documentation for all the Pittsburgh art-historians out there! On the other hand... well, it just felt a bit clunky at times. There's whole chapters that just include a few opinions from former customers, and then their bio, rinse and repeat 10 times. And then, you would get a chapter (for example), focused on the circus revival, that seemed to have a more consistent theme and storyline. In my opinion, the actual quality/ entertainment value of this book varies from chapter to chapter. Nonetheless, it's full of fascinating tidbits. I particularly enjoyed all the ephemera from Steve and Scott's collection.

[Shannon Hussey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I suspect the influence of The Beehive was not as extensive as the author reports, it has an important place in Pittsburgh's history and development. This record of it is engaging and entertaining.

This book makes me yearn for the nineties and for a community like that it describes. I only visited the South Side Beehive a few times, so my memories are not too clear, but Rullo brings it back to life.

The book includes a lot of photographs with descriptions, and incorporates memories from many former patrons, workers, and artists who made the place special.

It's more than a history of the coffee shop, it's a history of the 90s, of generation X, of local and national culture, of the proliferation of coffeehouses, of alternative/grunge music, of the death and revival of circus acts, of the revival and growing popularity of pinball.

It's a wide ranging book with a lot of interesting detours.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Social media often notes that the 90's were the pinnacle of humanity. This book reaffirms that. Music, art and culture thriving in a rust belt city. Community, friendship and coffee kicking off Pittsburgh's revival. This book recounts pivotal moments in so many Pittsburgh "90's kids" lives. It was a joy to read. To the author, Thank You.

[phil breidenbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed David's account of the Beehive, he did a great job of recounting its history, its customers, the way it helped change the South-side and also...bringing back many memories of my own. While I was never a regular there, it was still a place I could go where there were people I could relate to, at least in some small way! Well done David!

[Scott Hallam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I miss the Beehive. I spent many an hour growing up, sipping coffee, writing poetry, reading the Beat writers, and finding out who I was. This book traces the history of the shop from its founding to its end. It was more than a coffee shop; it was a magical place for those who didn’t quite fit in.

[Jodi Geever · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid homage to a Pittsburgh institution.

[Dennis Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great way to remember how the south side was back in the 90’s and early 2000’s. On page 138 is my little contribution to the book. David Rullo is a genius to get this book together.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun book to relive my youth.