Cynthia Barnes
Audio By Carbonatix
Say so long to summer with a bonus edition of one of Capitol Hill’s tastiest traditions, the free Friday pig roast on the patio at piano bar/restaurant Charlie Brown’s, which has made Westword’s “Best Of” lists for longer than some of you have been alive. And although patrons can no longer smoke on the patio when it’s enclosed (which it wasn’t yet for the season earlier this month), the pig smoker is still lighting up the corner of 10th and Grant adjacent to the old Colburn Hotel.
Modelled after St. Louis’ Fairmont Hotel and opened in 1928, the Colburn has hosted guests such as Clark Gable, Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe. The first-floor bar, which opened in the mid-1940s, was said to be a favorite watering hole for Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady. (Bill Murray showed up later while avoiding pre-med classes at Regis University.)
When George Andrianakos and his brothers opened the joint on May 17, 1990, the first thing he did was change the name back to Charlie Brown’s, and the second thing he did was to institute weekly summer pig roasts on the patio. “When we got it, the patio only had nine tables,” he recalls. “So we bought more chairs and tables, and we came up with the idea of doing pig roasts to promote the patio. And we were doing it every week from June to August for years, for free, to give something back to our customers.”
Cynthia Barnes
Thirty-five years later, COVID put the kibosh on the weekly feasts, but Andrianakos still holds them monthly and hopes to increase the frequency next season.
This Friday, September 19, the crew at Charlie Brown’s is throwing a bonus roast during happy hour to end the summer and give patrons one more taste of pig before the snow flies. Happy hour deals (two-for-one on calls, wells, house wine and non-craft domestic beers for the first round) run from 4 to 7 p.m., and plates of pig are passed around as the meat comes off the smoker. Want to sing along with the gang at the closest thing Cap Hill has to Cheers? The piano playing starts at 6 p.m. and keeps the music going until close (2 a.m.)
See ya there!
Charlie Brown’s Piano Bar & Grill is located at 980 Grant Street and is open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, visit charliebrownsbarandgrill.com.
