CP Photo: Mars Johnson” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”>
CP Photo: Mars Johnson
Hand-drawn chalkboard art at Spak Brothers
In praising foods we love, we often applaud qualities such as taste, texture, or smell. Things worth celebrating, but I would like to propose a toast to food’s unsung ability to archive and retrieve memories.
There are foods that, with one bite, can transport you back in time to your favorite memory. If you’re lucky, these are foods you can still access. While we’re here raising an imaginary glass, I’d like to pour some out for all the fallen Pittsburgh restaurants. In their departure, they also took with them the most visceral touchpoints of memories that get harder to reach as time moves forward. Restaurants like Essie’s Original Hot Dog Shop in Oakland (RIP), where you first experience it as a place to satisfy hunger, then as the go-to spot to extend a late night out with friends, and finally, as a time machine powered by nostalgia and boats of fries.
This year is Spak Brothers’ 15th year in business and I’d like to give them their flowers. Not only for a decade and a half of high-quality food and service but also for being a cornerstone of Garfield’s art community.
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CP Photo: Mars Johnson
For 15 years, Spak has been an essential part of Pittsburgh’s preeminent independent art scene, anchoring Unblurred: First Fridays, a monthly celebration of the arts along Penn Avenue. There are several arts districts throughout this city but only one has a restaurant that is so inextricably linked to its surroundings, that eating there is almost mandatory when experiencing the art.
“We’re proud to be a part of that because art is an important part of every aspect of life,” says Spak Brothers owner, Ryan Spak, who opened the pizzeria with his brother Nathan.
On First Fridays, the six-blocks-long stretch of Penn Avenue between Silver Eye Center for Photography and the Pedantic Building is transformed from a quiet neighborly street into a bustling reception for creativity. Visual art, along with other mediums of imagination such as handcrafted goods, clothing, and hair-styling, as well as music, dance, and other modes of performance are celebrated by a parade of thousands of people eager to sample as much as the strip has to offer, including its food.
Sitting exactly at the halfway point of the strip, Spak is a logical rest stop for folks making their way up or down the avenue. With plentiful space on either side of their building, it’s also an area well-suited for the kind of sprawled-out congregating that tends to occur as people both wait for and eat the food they ordered.
Spak Brothers, on its own, separate from this once-a-month occurrence, has cultivated a community and created a culture that welcomes hanging out. Pre-pandemic Spak had indoor bar seating, arcade games, and local art, inviting visitors to stick around for a while. It was a place you could post up inside for lunch, meet a friend, or kill time playing a rotating roster of vintage pinball machines or tabletop Pac-Man. When the inside was full, you could eat right outside their doors, or along their walls with no fuss.
Joshua Rieval started working at Spak in 2015. He no longer works as much as he used to, but still picks up shifts every now and then, while also coordinating the restaurant’s social media.
“First Friday was fun to work and also very stressful at the same time,” says Rieval. “It’s cool to see your friends and people checking out what’s going on in the neighborhood. But you’re super slammed with orders in a high-stress environment. I can’t complain about getting good tips and seeing some new faces.”
Anyone who’s ever ordered inside Spak pre-pandemic can attest to the highly energetic environment overseen by an always patient, never short-tempered staff.
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CP Photo: Mars Johnson
Spak Brothers
Wait times for food on the first Friday of the month, between the prime hours of 5-9 p.m., are longer than usual, but it’s a wait that’s barely noticeable. It’s a wait that gently nudges you back into the parade and prompts you to explore another gallery or catch up with an old friend.
There’s something miraculous about how revisiting a specific food in a specific place can sometimes conjure milestone moments, like a first date, discovering art that changed your life, or what would be the last night out with a crew of people that would never come together again.
There have always been other spots to eat within this section of Penn Ave, including People’s Indian Restaurant next to BOOM Concepts, and the always wonderful offerings at the Night Market, a pop-up site that appears in the summer season of Unblurred.
However, Spak’s energy has always been cousin to that of the indie businesses they share the street with. The restaurant has also served as an art gallery, uplifting the work of JR Holtz, the Garfield staple whose paintings and drawings used to adorn Spak’s walls from ceiling to counter before finding their way into community members’ homes.
On Holtz, Ryan Spak notes, “I love supporting JR Holtz. He’s kind of been our resident artist for the entirety of the pizza shop”
“I curated the art at Spak for a few years. Before me, there was a local musician, named Dave Varney who helped curate the inside. This is how I became more involved with artist JR Holtz. We were always friendly with Bunker Projects, Pullproof Studios, and the local art galleries, especially as it relates to the First Friday crawl,” says Rievel.
Spak Brothers has, on occasion, been responsible for the production of art. Owner Ryan Spak recalls how Commonwealth Press designed custom rock and roll-themed pizza boxes.
“That was a really fun experience,” he adds.
One of my favorite ways Spak subtly engages visual arts is through their receipts riffing off famous pop-culture designs (the Nike one is my favorite), created by associate manager Trevor Read. The most recent design honors their 15th year with a Final Fantasy-esque Spak Brothers XV.
Spak has also had a noteworthy impact on the neighborhood’s music scene. When party rocker Andrew WK had a show across the street at The Mr. Roboto Project, Spak donated food, essentially making it a pizza party.
“Andrew WK, unsolicited, sent us a really nice care package early on in our career,” says Ryan Spak. “We had a picture of him playing his pizza (shaped) guitar on the wall and someone who apparently knew him was in there and sent him a photo of it. Then like a month later we got a big box in the mail with a bunch of autographed merch, and a nice handwritten letter. He just did it out of the kindness of his heart. That was very cool, so we definitely mess with Andrew WK for sure.”
Rievel expands on this, saying, “Ryan can be pretty kind when it comes to events he cares for, or if he actively supports the idea. Girls Rock! Pittsburgh events were occasions I recall Spak doing quite a bit of donation for.”
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CP Photo: Mars Johnson
Spak Brothers
In an area that is constantly in flux, Spak’s dependability is as impressive as their seitan. Their sustainability is in part due to the fact that its neighbors actually want them there and would fight to keep them there.
In 2015, following a string of break-ins and other tough breaks, the community Spak cultivated over the years rallied and showed up, helping to fund repairs and breaking sales records in the process. In 2020, when the pandemic disappeared many of our beloved restaurants, Spak survived by pivoting to takeout-only and window service. The community around Spak never relied on the confines of its property.
The difference between space and place is that space is a physical location, the brick and mortar, while place is more a spiritual locale, the heart and soul. Every pizza shop is a space, but not every pizza shop is a place. Spak is a place. And on every First Friday, Spak — a space no bigger than a shotgun house’s first floor, currently with no seating — turns into a place that spans six blocks, making space for thousands of people simultaneously. It’s a miraculous feat.
When asked if Spak Brothers would eventually return to its pre-pandemic days as a gallery, owner Ryan Spak said, “My goal is to get back to some semblance of what we had before. We just put art on the walls for the first time since COVID started, which felt really good. I aim to have more up shortly and to kind of get back to that initial vibe we had.”
CP Photo: Sean Beauford” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”>
CP Photo: Sean Beauford
Art hanging at Spak Brothers
As someone who works in the arts, I’m grateful for how Spak creates common ground between artists, art lovers, and everyone in between. Spak provides a neutral forum for a varied community to reflect.
The debate around the best pizza in the city is evergreen, with no clear criteria, and thus, no clear winner. But if we’re talking about what pizza shop is the most impactful in terms of place, Spak wins hands down.
Also, as someone who’s cursed with restaurants constantly messing up my order, Spak has never once gotten it wrong. Selfishly, I love them for that. I’m most grateful for the fact that they are not a memory, and we should toast to that.