Elbow Room Restaurant Back Home Again In Shadyside

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Elbow Room on Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside has come back home again.

Owner Mike DeFiore greets old friends, on "opening day."

He had moved the Elbow Room to Walnut Street for four years, turning the former location into the 1947 Tavern, named for the year the building opened.

However, he says, "So many people came back in saying how much they miss the Elbow Room, bring the Elbow Room back, and we realized that we were a real part of the neighborhood, and for us, too. It's been a part of our lives. "

The DeFiore family bought the Elbow Room in 1979. Six years after that, their bartender son met the waitress.

"We had a manager here, Fred Quinn, who kept trying to set me up with her," he recalls.

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His wife and former waitress, Karen DeFiore, says things worked out pretty well.

"We had a little waitress-bartender romance, and our children have grown up here. So we've had family celebrations and lots of fun here. So we're happy it's back," she said.

Once again, the Elbow Room serves comfort food that local residents missed over the past few years. The dining room and bar have been refurbished. And now, the cozy little corner has a cozy fireplace.

"It's more about friendships and relationships than anything else," Mike DeFiore says. "It's like a second home to us."