Carson City Saloon Restaurant and Sports Bar
If you are looking for the food portion of the review right here at the top, you won’t see it. We had to do something different with this fine establishment. Normally when I walk into a place on Carson I find a great restaurant to eat at, a good bar to hang out and drink at ... maybe higher end but they still tend to be text book establishments - in other words, the places may look pretty, sell high end food and booze, but they generally feel the same.
That is not Carson City Saloon. I walked into the place as they were opening for their first time (the paint was still drying). When I entered I was made to feel like I was walking into a room full of people I had known for twenty years. The best I can describe it is “Cheers on steroids”. I fully expected to see Norm, not at the end of the bar sipping a beer .... but “high fiving” the rest of the patrons and dancing to whatever was blasting over the Bose sound system in the place.
Keep in mind, since this is not your normal bar, there are rules. Make sure you read the rules on the back of the menu and strictly adhere to them - they are enforced. You think I’m not serious? Look behind the bar, I’m pretty sure I noticed tar and feathers there. When you are finished reading the rules of Carson City Saloon, read the story behind it. This really sets the mood of the establishment you have just entered.
The place itself is an old bank. It still has the black granite surround now stylishly trimmed out in wood. BTW, if you see a sandy blonde “gentleman” in a t-shirt with his hair tied back, buy him a drink - because he did allot of the work you see around you. When you are in Carson City Saloon and get to meet the people that remodeled the place and who own it - you really start to understand their definition of family business. It is not just their immediate family, but includes everyone that walks into Carson City Saloon.
If you look in the back of the room, the old vault is still there. Besides keeping the looks of an old bank, I have a few good ideas for it:
1. If you p*ss off the bartenders you get stuck in the vault for an hour as punishent while the bar patrons get to watch you on closed circuit TV. Considering there are no restrooms in the vault, and you’ve probably just sucked down a few brews, it could get entertaining. If you were really irritating, they’ll pipe in Michael Jackson on continuous loop.
2. If you ask the bartenders a really stupid question (please read the bar rules on the menu to find out what one of those key stupid questions is) - you get the same punishment as number one, except they occasionally open the vault door and spray spoiled beer on you.
3. If you don’t tip the bartenders, they just leave you in the vault and forget about you.
As additional punishment for any of the three situations above, clips of your stay in the vault are sent to Simon Cowell for his next reality show .... “Stupid People in Bars”.
I’m not going to bother rating the place or doing a food review, simply because there is no need to. This is truly a place where you can say “it’s ALL good!”. To be respectful to the owners, though, try to not end that statement with “,dude!” ...... it might not result in a pretty sight, as you might get b*tch slapped.
My advise on Carson City Saloon:
Go ..... have fun ..... forget about everything else - the bouncer really does do a good job of keeping your problems outside the door when you enter Carson City Saloon. If you can get them to let you sneak out the back, they might never catch up to you :-).
Address:
1401 East Carson Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Phone: 412-481-3203
Website:
P.S. If you had to read this review to see if you wanted to go to this bar, that probably means you have no life and need to get to Carson City Saloon ASAP!!!!
If you want to validate this review - ask the people at Carson City Saloon who Screaming Weasel is. You will probably get some fairly strange looks, which will be quite entertaining to myself.
SWB-Review
Carson City Saloon
Thursday, June 1, 2006
