Are volcanoes allowed on East Carson Street? Based on responses at a Dec. 6, 2023, Historic Review Commission meeting, the answer is a resounding “No.”
Steve Zumoff — the owner of many current and former East Carson Street hotspots such as Tiki Lounge, Lava Lounge and the Beehive — announced that Spork Island Trading Co. would replace South Side’s service station-turned-restaurant Double Wide Grill, which closed in October 2023.
The new bar and restaurant will be a joint venture with Andy Tepper of Spork fame and, like many other Zumoff locations, will boast a tiki theme.
On Dec. 6, Zumoff and architects with Gruskin Group presented conceptual designs of the renovated space to Pittsburgh’s Historic Review Commission. The designs were bold: planters and Moai — often referred to as the “Easter Island Heads” — fence in a tall wooden trellis, palm trees, thatch umbrellas and, on the corner of East Carson and South 24th streets, a volcano.
Kweilin Nassar, who attended the meeting as a constituent but is also a South Side Community Council board member, said that while she knows Zumoff is attempting to improve his business, the proposed changes are too far from the neighborhood’s historic review guidelines and urged commissioners to reject the application.
“If we allow this type of, I’m going to call, destination — a.k.a. ‘Kennywood’ — in the midst of a historic review district, how do we stop tattoo parlors from wanting psychedelic on the front of their storefronts?” Nassar asked. “How do we stop allowing anyone who’s going to be able to want an exception in the historic review guidelines when they can show this as an example?”
Another comment, an email read by Review Commission Chair Lucia Aguirre during the meeting, expressed opposition to “this ‘Walt Disney World’” that would look “nonsensically out of place on East Carson Street.”
Aguirre also summarized findings of South Side’s Local Review Committee, a group that advises on East Carson Street’s historic review guidelines.
“In short, the building is not contributing from the period of the 1940s to 1950s,” Aguirre summarized. “The proposed exterior alterations are substantial. The LRC believes the proposed design is not an appropriate alteration, and specifically, the proposed alterations take an existing non-conforming property and make it significantly more non-conforming in numerous ways that are counter to Section J of the guidelines.”
Section J reads, in part, that “additions and alterations to, and rehabilitation of, non-contributing buildings in the district should either be compatible with the style and character of each building, or cause the building to become more compatible with the district.”
Ultimately, commissioner Rich Snipe moved to deny the application.
“We’re too far apart,” Snipe said. “They’re going to need to go back and do this all over again and work with the community.”
Commission Secretary Dave Green was the only member to vote against the denial. Ahead of the vote, he posed that some non-contributing building applications received by the commission are not outright denied and that this application raised questions of what types of renovations are stylistically appropriate for a building that was already visually unique on East Carson Street.
Aguirre, alternatively, said the exterior should better align with the neighborhood’s guidelines, but the interior could be as unique as Zumoff wanted. She referenced the Tiki Lounge, which is conforming on the outside, but has a sprawling tropical island-themed interior.
Commissioner Karen Loysen’s thoughts on the exterior brought the restaurant’s display closer to home.
“Because the trellis work looks so much like a bridge, if this theme changed to something that was about the character of bridges and steelmaking and so forth, and your corner monument was Joe Magarac instead of a volcano, you might have an easier row to hoe in terms of knitting into the Pittsburgh fabric, but still doing something that’s kind of unusual,” Loysen said. “As ‘the South Pacific meets the Mon,’ I think you’re going to have a hard row to hoe.”
Zumoff and the Gruskin Group did not respond to multiple requests for comment about their plans to modify the plans or appeal the decision.
