Friends Bar

Friends Bar image from Facebook

Friends Bar

Location: 5840 Forward Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Opened: November 9, 2012

Closed: Fall 2013

Here's how Friends announced her beginnings on Facebook:

Welcome to the Pittsburgh's newest gay bar in Squirrel Hill. We are located at 5840 Forward Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. This is a SMOKE-FREE bar.
 

Description

Friends Bar is open 5 days a week, hours listed below. The bar features a pool table, darts, a jukebox, and the hottest bar tenders in PGH, perhaps the world! We also offer a full menu!

We hope to welcome a diverse LGBTQIA crowd! We realized that there weren't a lot of places for lesbians to gather and have a space that caters especially to this community. We're here to create a fun spot where you can feel safe, comfortable, and connect with a diverse crowd!

 

Despite the all-so-important inclusive language, Friends was largely identified by the community as a lesbian bar (note imagery above). This is also reflected in the customer reviews at Yelp:

 

Friends Bar

From Iliana C., November 2012:

 

This is the newest bar in Squirrel Hill and it's a lesbian bar!  It's connected to Frankie & Georgie's (4 Wood Grille).

I came here opening night since it's always nice supporting lesbian places.  The drink specials were great - $2 wells and $2 domestics. There was a free buffet but you can also order food from next door. This place is brand new and could use a little help with the decorating. It's currently really bare.  I'm also not a fan of the name.  It's listed as "Friends Bar" on facebook but the windows say "Friends Over the Rainbow".  Either way - it needs to be changed.  The music is from a TouchTunes machine but if no one puts any money in it then the bar goes silent.  On the plus side, you don't have to wait long to hear your music play.

There was a great crowd opening night.  I didn't have to wait too long for a drink.  They do take credit cards.  Everyone was really friendly. Plenty of seating at the glittery bar or in one of the booths.  I would come back.

 

But for some reason, Friends just didn't catch on. Here's a review from Rebecca G. in March 2013:

 

Some of my friends really like this place so we went there this past weekend. This place was D-E-A-D, dead this Friday. We were the only people there until like 9:30. The food is decent, but they don't have a great selection of liquors. Beer selection was ok though... Just not my thing.

 

Actually, I can vouch for the lack of people from my own experiences. My girlfriend and I met up with two women friends at Friends, and the place was virtually deserted. But the staff was very nice. Even though the kitchen was closed, they actually fetched us food from elsewhere on the street. Pretty amazing service--beyond the call of duty, really.

Sad to see that Friends had such a short life.