Trace Echo: An Uptown Gathering Space for Coffee, Pints & Pittsburgh Community
Since early October, there's been a new venue in town with a familiar name, Trace Echo (a Trace offshoot), in a perhaps unexpected part of town — Pittsburgh's Uptown neighborhood.
Southeast of the city's Central Business District and across from some colorful row houses, this quaint, new corner venue now welcomes locals to its cozy interior and connected patio with outdoor space (featuring wood stacks, a fire pit and soon-to-come food truck).
The neighborhood, also known as The Bluff, currently seems a contrast of dilapidated buildings and beautiful historic architecture, overgrown lots and vibrant murals. There are a couple budding businesses popping up around, too; Redhawk Coffee Roasters, for example, has an outpost just a few blocks away.
And then, of course, there’s Trace Echo. We’d highly recommend supporting this friendly business by grabbing a coffee to go, served in a clever, compostable-recyclable cup, or sipping an afternoon pint amongst neighbors in an evolving part of the city.
Aadam Soorma, head of marketing and guest experience at Trace Brewing, says the company’s overarching goal is always community with a focus on inclusion. “A lot of our regulars aren't the types to visit a bunch of breweries,” he explains. “We're their neighborhood spot and third space. We're their coffee shop, meeting place, work-from-home space and gathering place.”
He feels that at Trace they curate a vibe in many ways. But the purposeful and intentional steps taken through programming — with events, their bar program and menu selections, plus hiring practices — is all geared toward touching diverse communities with the goal of everyone feeling comfortable in their space.
Trace first evolved during COVID when the owners were simply brainstorming about where they envisioned things going once it was safe to gather and host events again. “But the density of Bloomfield and walkability/bikeability/public transit access was something we thought about,” Soorma says, “and the way that our space could sort of gel with the neighborhood as a part of folks' day to day.”
He adds, “Also, our General Manager (Katie Rado) has underrepresented communities in breweries literally at the top of her mind so there was no doubt our events would showcase, celebrate and pay Black, Queer artists and lead the way for other breweries to start thinking about their events strategies.”
The beer continues to get brewed at their homebase brewery in Bloomfield, and the team then drives kegs over to Trace Echo. At bar-cafe Echo they’ve then rounded out the menu with some fun, non-beer options as well. “A Few Bad Apples is the only cider we will run at Trace Echo,” Soorma shares. “It feels neat to have that as a bit of an 'exclusive' deal. We are excited to offer Two Frays NA beer in cans. We will continue serving Goodlander draft cocktails and Personal Day seltzers too. Pittsburgh Winery options are available too for the wine drinkers.” There are options for soda and even iced tea, too.
Soorma’s favorite part of opening Echo has been getting to know the neighbors. “With our seven-days-a-week service and our dense, walkable vibe, the neighbors have been a blast to talk to,” he says. “I really like Lee at Uptown Mini Mart; he's from Bhutan, grew up in Nepal and will share all kinds of stories about folks who come in to play the lottery every day (he's even had a few big winners)."
They’ve also become friends with Harry at Uptown Kitchen; when they opened, he looked at our menu then looked back at his pizza restaurant and said "WE COMPLETE EACH OTHER!" “That was a very cute moment,” Soorma says. He also really appreciates the space’s natural light, and the overall vibe during cafe hours. “Also the bus stop out front is the most active bus stop I've ever seen in my life,” Soorma says.
Current draws include a 'second drink on us' deal for folks en route to a Pens game or a concert at PPG. “It's an exclusive Trace Echo deal for folks who are en route to the arena,” Soorma says. Also, they’re extremely excited about onboarding Sahar's Food Lab — an experimental, minority-owned food truck. “Sahar and her partner Jeremy run their food truck (they have commitments to several breweries thru the end of 2024),” Soorma says, “and plan to join us as a static, permanent food truck concept at Trace Echo in early 2025. We're very excited to have them working with us.”
