Gen X Pittsburgh: The Beehive and the '90s Scene

Beginning in the early 1990s, artists began to rent empty apartments, what were once shot-and-a-beer bars became hip dive bars and entrepreneurs found inexpensive real estate to follow their visions. The Beehive Coffeehouse began to attract a new 90s alternative crowd. Out of East Carson Street was soon home to not just coffeehouses but Slackers, Dee's Cafe, Culture Shop, Club Laga and the Lava Lounge. Across a bridge, in the university community of Oakland, The Upstage, Electric Banana and another Beehive catered to the new youth culture. Cappuccinos, thrift shop culture, grunge music, local alternative bands, artists, writers and creative denizens of all stripes would soon enter the city's collective conscious. The South Side Beehive though was where the night often began, and weekends ended...