John Elavsky: So many more stories to tell

If you walk into Hemingway’s Bar on Forbes, there’s a few things likely to greet you — the wooden tables, faces of intoxicated college kids on the walls, over a dozen televisions probably playing sports channels and bar owner John Elavsky. 

You can’t have Hemingway’s without Elavsky. Since taking over the bar more than 30 years ago, he has screamed at Steelers games in the dim lighting, been laughed at by employees for his crocs and even gotten bitten by a customer. Over the decades, Elavsky’s business philosophy stayed simple.

“Better be there,” Elavsky said. 

Elavsky’s been “there” since he started at Hemingway’s in the ‘80s. 

Born and raised in Western Pennsylvania, the bar business wasn’t part of his original plan when he first came to Pitt as an undergraduate. But it was unavoidable, he said. 

As an undergraduate, Elavsky lived above the original Pitt Tavern on Fifth Avenue, where he met the previous owner Christine Bowles. She asked him to help out one day downstairs, to which Elavsky discovered he “kinda liked” the work. Bowles served as a friend and mentor as Elavsky continued to work and learn before he moved to a new job at Hemingway’s Bar. 

“She was a very, very good friend of mine,” Elavsky said about Bowles. “I’d do anything for her. And likewise, she took good care of me.” 

Hemingway’s originally opened in 1983 under owners Barney Silverman and Charles Nucci, who chose the bar’s literary name to attract a literary crowd, some of whom hosted poetry readings at the bar. Elavsky managed and served at Hemingway’s before buying it as an “investment” in the early 1990s. 

When he finally purchased the bar, he changed almost everything — except for the name, which he kept from the original owners. Elavsky said it was important to protect the tradition of the title since the restaurant had been long established and had name recognition among locals.

When Elavsky first bought Hemingway’s, it was far from the spot modern Oaklanders know and love. He added the burger to the menu, which was a stark contrast to the food Hemingway’s was serving before Elavsky’s time.

“It had a reputation as a higher-end place — somewhere you’d bring your parents, somewhere the teachers would be. They had poetry readings in the back here on Tuesday nights — just a different atmosphere,” Elavsky said. 

Elavsky hoped to bring in the younger crowd, which he said was a crucial demographic in the Oakland restaurant scene. He remodeled Hemingway’s with its nostalgic wooden exterior, added half-price menu options for lunch, dollar beers and, eventually, the famed Hem’s pitchers to attract late-night customers — an audience the original restaurant had a problem bringing in.

“Everybody was busy late at night, except us. So I said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get people,’” Elavsky said.

Former employees, including Bill Martin, described Elavsky as a “smart businessman” who still cared about his workers. Martin worked with Elavsky from 1998 to 2002 when Hemingway’s was first getting off the ground and said Elavsky took the bar to “the next level with his involvement.” 

Martin said he has “wonderful memories” from Hemingway’s, and his friendship with Elavsky is still going strong.

“He was very kind to us and had patience for everyone and really did care a lot about all the people that were there working for him,” Martin said. 

For more than 30 years, Elavsky has built a fanbase for the restaurant, evident from the myriad of customer photos hanging on the walls and the crowd of regulars that come in every weekend. That will soon be ending though — Hemingway’s is officially closing on May 3 with Elavsky’s retirement. 

His motto for retirement was simple — when he doesn’t enjoy coming into the back door for work, it’s over. Though he still does love opening the back door to the college chaos on a Friday night, Elavsky said things are different now. 

Elavsky takes care of his mom, Millie, in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. She will be turning 100 years old this fall, but is still “sharp as a tack.” 

“I still enjoy coming in. But like I say, [there are] some other things,” Elavsky said. “My mom has come up, and that takes a lot of my time.” 

Things particularly changed with the COVID-19 pandemic, when Elavsky got the virus in 2021 and a fatigue he couldn’t seem to kick. His mom soon after also began needing more attention and more hospital visits, so Elavsky took more time off work to see her. 

With the hour drive to Hermitage and his mother’s need for constant care, it’s become difficult for Elavsky to show up at Hemingway’s as much as he’d like. That, combined with Elavsky’s growing age and his excitement about travel — he wants to go to Iceland and on an Antarctic cruise “while he can still walk” — it seemed like it was time. 

“I’m getting older too and I’m tired too. I couldn’t do what I did, even five years ago,” Elavsky said. “You know, [you] get a little older, get a little tougher.” 

With tears in his eyes, Elavsky said the response to his closure announcement on Jan. 8 brought him more than 300 texts that night and an outpouring of support from high school friends to former employees. 

“The response was overwhelming. It was terrific. Phone calls and voicemails and emails — people I haven’t heard from for years,” Elavsky said.

Hemingway’s closure post on Instagram has amassed over almost 1,000 comments and 6,000 likes. The comments are filled with disappointed fans, offers to help buy the business and tags of former Pitt student and billionaire Mark Cuban. Though Hemingway’s will end when Elavsky retires, Martin noticed that the comments hit home for Elavsky.

“I think he was very happy, taken aback by all the positive feedback. And I think he even told me that he was surprised how much of a positive impact it had on campus life, college kids that were there, and he’s been very grateful for that feedback,” Martin said. 

While running a business has its ups and downs, the fun is what comes to mind when Elavsky looks back at his time on Hemingway’s. 

“If you’d asked me what [was] one thing I took from here, of course the money — but then I had a lot of fun here,” Elavsky said. “Yeah, we had a lot of fun.”

Elavsky said he is nothing if not grateful for his staff, 50 of whom are coming to commemorate their time at the bar on April 11. Lindsay Wineland, a Hemingway’s employee from 2007 to 2017, said her time as a staff member was “awesome” with Elavsky. 

“He was one of those owners that, if you ever really needed something, he was there. Thankfully, I don’t think many of the staff really ever took advantage of that, which was good,” Wineland said. “If you needed something, you could go to him. If he could help you, he would.”

In the bar, there’s a green crewneck available for purchase on the wall that says, “I celebrated Hem’s last St. Patrick’s Day,” and a post on Instagram for the day people can pick up their photos on the walls. On May 4, Hemingway’s will officially close its doors one final time to the Oakland community. 

“That’s life. Everything has a beginning and an end, right?” Elavsky said.