Gene Ney has local beer and good vibes on tap

Donnie loiters near the drafts on tap every day and night. As one of the most consistent patrons…

Luv Puhroit / Assistant Visual Editor

Gene Ney works behind the bar at local establishment.

Donnie loiters near the drafts on tap every day and night. As one of the most consistent patrons at Gene’s Place in Oakland, Donnie has been at the bar dependably for years. Yet the regular has never asked for a drop of beer — the alcohol would likely damage his gills.

Rescued four and a half years ago by a patron at Sigma Chi fraternity’s annual goldfish party, Donnie lives in Gene’s Place behind the bar — an unusual regular at the Oakland establishment. The fish is living proof of the greater-than-average personality of the tinier-than average pub.

Located on Louisa Street, the dive bar has served as the local haunt for many a loyal South Oakland customer since Gene Ney, an Oakland native and Pitt grad, bought the location in 2005. With plaster walls decked out with Pitt items, a wooden bar lined with traditional bar stools and Gene’s “Best Bartender” plaques awarded by The Pitt News extending from the ceiling to halfway down the wall, Gene’s Place offers Pittsburgh bar-goers the sort of welcoming, personal and pleasantly quirky atmosphere that can be difficult to find at larger establishments.

The bar’s casual atmosphere matches that of the bar’s owner. “Hello there! What can we get ya?,” Gene says to customers before breaking into the usual banter of beer prices and pitcher specials. His cheerful demeanor is nothing new; he has run Gene’s Place the same way since he purchased the bar — then called Denny’s — in February 2005, after working for the previous owner for 10 years.

Gene is a short man with light brown hair and brown eyes that have a smile coming through them. Customers, usually with large beers, strive to sit at the bar, giving them more of a chance to talk with Gene, who seeks to serve his patrons quickly even when he’s the only one bartending.

He balances his duties as a bartender with his other job — teaching business at Carlow University’s School of Management. Sometimes, patrons can find him snacking on Chef Boyardee or Easy Mac behind the counter if he comes to open the bar directly after teaching a class.

Gene’s Place has developed a loyal customer base, and most will say that it’s because of Gene’s friendly character.

“He’s the most personable bartender in Oakland. He’s ready to hang out with students and have a good time,” said Rob Steinbrink, a nursing major and business management minor at Carlow University who visits the bar two to three times a week.

From dorm to bar

Gene has remained close to his roots. He was raised in Oakland until the second grade.

But opening a business where he grew up wasn’t always his aspiration. At Slippery Rock University, he earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology, his master’s in counseling psych, and another master’s in English writing. In 1998, he earned a doctorate in administration and policy studies from Pitt’s School of Education.

Even while he was studying subjects unrelated to business at Slippery Rock, the businessman in Gene still came through.

“I sold pop and candy out of my dorm room,” Gene said. He sold RC Cola and other treats to the people living in his dormitory.

His dorm room business gained such a large following that the university took notice.

“The vending machine company complained and made me stop,” he said with a grin.

But just because Gene has moved his business from a dorm room to a bar doesn’t mean that he has completely altered the products he’s selling — Gene still sells RC Cola.

“I’m the only one in Oakland that uses it,” Gene said. “Everyone says my Long Island Ice Teas taste different than other bars, and I make them the same way as everyone else. The only thing I can figure is the RC Cola.”

Selling RC Cola isn’t the only way Gene has managed to successfully go against the grain. As one of Oakland’s smaller bars, Gene’s Place does all it can to find ways to keep customers flocking to his bar to grab a beer — in this case, it’s a 22-ounce beer.

“Most bars in Oakland sell their beer in pint glasses. I sell mine in 22-ounce cups,” Gene said. “They’re actually the 79-cent glasses you find at Walmart and a lot of people take them, but I make sure to steal them back when I get invited to parties,” he said.

Gene said that with an invitation, he would consider stopping by parties around Oakland. While most professors might not teach such business practices in the classroom, he considers it as getting to know his clientele.

Whether it’s frequenting the other bars around Oakland or attending house parties, if you extend an invitation to Gene, he’s usually glad to accept. “I always bring plenty to drink, too,” he said.

Passing on the craft

Drinking with Gene might also do more than provide bragging rights. In order to keep the bar run just the way he likes it, Gene often hires his own regulars to work at his bar. Frequenters such as 22-year-old sociology and Africana studies major Mike Woodhull has worked at Gene’s for more than six months. “I came here almost every night for a year ever since I turned 21,” said Woodhull, who now works at the door.

“I just drank here,” said Lawrence “Rocky” Rockwell, whose frequent visits to the bar earned him a job at Gene’s Place just after graduating from Pitt in December 2010. Rocky is just one of a handful of bartenders at Gene’s, which occasionally uses its trusted doormen as bartenders.

While Gene can’t employ every patron that walks into his bar, his classes at Carlow has given him a chance to share the success of his customer-first business model.

“When you take his classes, he relates a lot of stuff to his bar,” said Steinbrink, who has taken Principles of Economics and Business Communications with Gene and has since rearranged his schedule in order to take a third class with him.

All his business methods, however, can’t be taught. One of Gene’s many tactics is the widespread use of $2 bills for aesthetic appeal.

The 15 beers on tap — most of which are brewed in Pittsburgh, including Stoney’s, Straub and Yuengling products — don’t exactly hurt either.

“I cater to the smaller guys,” Gene said. “I’m a smaller guy. We have to take care of ourselves.”

However successful Gene’s Place might be, Gene is still looking to expand. He owns two-thirds of the building his bar occupies — along with taking up residency above the bar itself — but is looking to buy the third lot sometime in the future and make his down-to-earth bar a little bigger. No matter the size of Gene’s Place, Gene insists it will always be just as much a part of the college as it is the neighborhood which it resides in.

With trivia nights each Wednesday, as well as seasonal events such as free turkey dinners during the week leading up to Thanksgiving and traditional German food during Oktoberfest, Gene’s Place makes up for its lack of square footage with its character.

And Donnie will continue to swim behind the bar, grateful to be a part of Gene’s atmosphere rather than a prop for a frat party.