Tucked beneath the Firehouse Lounge is one of Pittsburgh's hidden treasures, Embury. Most of us weren't around in the years leading up to prohibition, when skilled artisans who were more focused on melding the flavors of life and crafting a unique and enjoyable cocktail than getting their customers drunk. With the opening of Embury, located below the Firehouse Lounge, we all have a chance to get a taste of days gone by.

Venue:
Before climbing the stairs to Firehouse Lounge make a left through a pair of clear glass doors and take a step back in time; Embury is a dimly-lit speak-easy sister venue to the eclectic Firehouse Lounge. An intimate bar is located directly across from the glass doors with a section of small tables illuminated by tea lights located to the bar's left with a large glass window facing the street. To the right of the bar there is a nook of bookshelves stocked with books, birdhouses and odd knick-knacks concealing the bathroom (the bank right next to the bar) and the employee-only back room (the bank in the far right corner of the back wall). The liquor is kept behind the bar in what appears to be bookshelves made from small grandfather clocks and there are an array of liquors, mixes, and jars of ingredients you won't find anywhere else.

Staff/Drinks:
The true pleasure that lies within Embury are the handcrafted cocktails and the friendly mixologist, Fred, who stands behind the bar. A recent transplant from Chicago, Fred has personally adapted or modified several of the cocktails from their pre-prohibition era recipes and knows a far amount of history about the liquors and cocktails he's more than welcome to share.

Since the cocktails are all individually crafted from ingredients that are made on site they are a bit pricey, on average between 9 and 12 dollars, and are time-consuming to make. This is not a place to come and get drunk (though it certainly is possible) but more a place to come and enjoy some good food and unique drinks you won't be able to find anywhere else.

The drinks run the gambit from absinthe (at $12 served the traditional way complete with cold water drip) to spicy concoctions called Faust's Pact (made with a jalapeno-infused angostura bitters) and the gingery Dark and Stormy. Other notables include a cocktail that tastes just like earl grey tea, a drink called the secret garden made in part with sage, and a renaissance rose that is an absinthe-based cocktail. I believe they do have a small selection of wines and might even have some beer behind the bar but its sacrilege to order something like beer or wine in a place like Embury.

I haven't had much of the food at Embury (or Firehouse Lounge for that matter) but the burgers that came out from the kitchen looked and smelled delicious and I understand their blue cheese dressing is house made. I also highly recommend the buffalo chicken dip; it is a nice change in pace from the average dip.

Crowd:
The crowd that winds up at Embury either came in because they know its purpose or they happened to step inside on the way up to or down from the Firehouse Lounge. Of those that wander in, there are those who are willing to give the drinks a shot, intrigued by the utter lack of saccharin-y sweet pre-packaged nonsense behind the modern bar and those who are more irritated they can't get a "tic-tac" than interested in respecting the art that laid the foundation for the modern cocktails they carelessly toss back.
Overall the crowd that wanders in attempting to escape the heat of upstairs or that thinks Embury is a replica of the upstairs is a passing annoyance. The people that wander in intrigued by the concept and those that stay for the interesting conversation and cocktails add to the Embury experience.

Music:
The music is more background than anything else and the bartender did seem open to changing the music if the patrons sitting at the bar were more interested in hearing anything else. That being said there isn't anything fancy here, no room for a dj booth, the dj is Fred's iphone. This past Friday it was a selection of funk and apart from a few moments when there was a din in the action moving up and down the stairs or the conversation I hardly noticed it was there at all.
As the night goes on you'll start to notice a periodic pounding emanating from the upstairs, the sound of dancing on the floor above. It didn't particularly bother me and the conversation, clearly the main entertainment here, was good both between those I was with and the strangers who happened to stop in during the several hours I spent sitting at the bar.

The Rating:
Embury is the first place I've actually considered giving a 10. It's a totally new concept for Pittsburgh and its clear that the correct staff has been put in place. It is also apparent that the concept was relatively well executed. The only reason I decided to give it a 9 instead of a 10 is because there are things that haven't been completed yet: the bookshelves leading to the back employee-only areas are still empty and you can still see light shining through); the glass doors that allow a far amount of hallway light and sound from upstairs stream in stand in stark contrast to the overall look of the venue.