Square Café's East Liberty opening delayed
The opening of the Square Café in East Liberty has been delayed until early next week.
The new location was scheduled to debut Thursday, but a final inspection detected a problem with the ventilation — the fire suppression system, to be exact — at the site. The restaurants Spoon and BRGR has occupied the space, at the corner of Highland and Centre avenues, until they closed this summer.
Square Café owner Sherree Goldstein said she needed to get a permit to do the repairs and is awaiting final word from the city of Pittsburgh, which has been working with Goldstein to get the necessary approvals.
“We are working on getting this fixed,” she said. “We are ready to go, but we want to get this done right and taken care of. An inspection showed it hadn’t been updated in many years.”
A fire suppression system is an engineered group of units built to extinguish fires through the application of a substance, as defined by Keystone Fire Protection Co. Most commonly, a fire suppression system has built-in components that detect fires at the beginning stages through heat, smoke, and other warning signals.
The last day for service at Square Café, which had been in Regent Square for 17 years, was Sunday. Most of the equipment, tables, chairs and other fixtures have been moved to the new space.
The old location will house Goldstein’s other business, MyGoodness, a market and prepared-food company. MyGoodness, now located across the street, will double in size at the former Square Cafe spaceand should be ready by the end of October.
The new space in East Liberty is 8,000 square feet with a rooftop deck that, with outdoor heating, can be used nearly year-round. Square Café, which serves breakfast and lunch, will eventually be open for dinner and have alcohol, Goldstein said.
Goldstein recently launched a campaign with Honeycomb Credit to raise money for the move. She reached $250,000, well exceeding the $100,000 target amount. People who contributed will be paid back with 6.5% interest in 60 months.
“This is amazing,” she said. “The support through this campaign will definitely help us with operating costs and unexpected expenses, such as this one.”
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a TribLive reporter covering the region's diverse culinary scene and unique homes. She writes features about interesting people. The Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist began her career as a sports reporter. She has been with the Trib for 26 years and is the author of "A Daughter's Promise." She can be reached at jharrop@triblive.com.
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