close

Dave Barbe – faces

4 min read
1 / 4

Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter

Four Points Brewing owner Dave Barbe, standing above, brewmaster Adam Boura (red shirt) and brewer Zack Colton look over the operation.

2 / 4

Four Points Brewing

Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter

Four Points Brewing owner Dave Barbe looks over the brewing equipment.

3 / 4

Dave Barbe Jr. stands in front of the buliding that will be a brewery in Charleroi.

4 / 4

Dave Barbe Jr., owner of Fourth Street Barbecue in Charleroi, will be opening a brewery in the near future.

On name alone, Dave Barbe seemed destined to run a restaurant specializing in barbecued offerings. And he has been doing just that for nine years, as owner of Fourth Street Barbeque in the center of Charleroi’s business district.

Barbe was doing well enough that, in September 2018, he opened a complementary business next door, Four Points Brewing. It was an idyllic marriage of beer and savory, saucy meats: wings, ribs, chops, chicken, beef brisket and more.

Then along came COVID, which in March 2020 prompted Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf to shut down indoor dining statewide. Allowed to reopen three months later, Barbe was short staffed and kept the Fourth Avenue Barbeque dining area closed. He offered only takeout orders, a policy that was still intact when this article was submitted for publication.

As of mid-September, customers could pick up food and cans of beer from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Taproom hours were more restrictive, Thursday through Sunday, for on-site pours and to-go cans.

It hasn’t been an easy time for most of the global population, especially management in the restaurant and food service industries, which have been beleaguered by staff shortages. Barbe has had to adapt, too. “We had takeout and shifted a lot of our business to distribution for the brewery. We had a lot of accounts.”

He said his operations have been coping, however, and are still standing. He even launched a second taproom in May, on Western Avenue of Pittsburgh’s North Side, where he resides. It is directly uphill from Heinz Field.

“We’ve been fine. We’ve kind of weathered the storm,” the 37-year-old Ringgold High graduate said. Then he added, optimistically, that he was “thinking about reopening” to indoor dining no later than early October.

“We’re doing the best that we can to reopen as many days as we can. We hope to get our sea legs back and get our staff to at least three to four days to full services, then get back to five days. I have people working overtime every week.”

A return to indoor dining was on his radar four months ago, after the North Shore location was launched. But a mix of toxic circumstances dissuaded Barbe from following through – circumstances that have become commonplace in his field.

“Trouble materialized and we had to fix a few things, which led to a hard time finding staff. All of the chains are throwing money at all positions, which makes it harder for smaller business to survive. And food costs have nearly doubled or tripled. We’re dealing with higher prices and higher wages.”

Barbe is but one of many business owners and operators who are beset by a shortage of job applicants, some of whom apparently are less interested in working than fulfilling a job-search obligation while collecting unemployment benefits.

“I’ve gotten used to people not showing up for interviews,” he said. “When I have eight interviews and no one shows up, its pretty alarming. Pittsburgh is more forgiving. It’s a secondary job for many on the staff there. It’s like a hobby for them.”

A few years after opening Fourth Street Barbeque in 2012, in a building owned by his father, Dave Sr., Barbe’s plans to erect a brewery came to a head. His dad also owned a dilapidated four-story apartment building next door, one that needed a massive makeover, but there was a chance that a lot of blood, sweat and tears could lead to beers. The son hoped to launch in 2017, but was thwarted by an unanticipated circumstance.

The company from which he was purchasing equipment went bankrupt. “That stuck a lot of breweries,” he said.

Barbe secured the equipment later that year, had it installed, and oversaw the renovation that became Four Points Brewing. His rough drafts led to the pouring of drafts.

All of the beer sold in Charleroi and on the North Side is produced inside the brewery. And the output has been more formidable. “We tripled capacity with what we brew,” Barbe said. “We love the space and should be adding capacity. But we’re approaching the limit on the production we can do.”

He admitted that COVID-19 has been a concern, especially recently with the surge of cases from the Delta variant. “We’ve been worried about everyone’s well-being,” Barbe said. “Many have been working here the whole way. We appreciate their support and want to see everyone back.

“It’s never ideal to not have income from your restaurant, but we’re buying some time. We’re hoping the stars align and we can do everything we want to do again.”

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today