Kristy Graver covers the MixBurgh Foundation, the coordinated effort between local bars, restaurants, distilleries, and VisitPITTSBURGH that Space Bar owners Dale Vaughn and Elizabeth Menzel helm, and previews the inaugural MixBurgh Cocktail Weekend & Conference.

"We have some of the best bars right here." - Dale Vaughn

Cocktails are creative and cerebral, with coconut-fat-washed 12-year El Dorado rum in the Espresso Mars-tini and a Kaiju Negroni made with gin, pandan-infused white aperitivo, vermouth, Suze, and Vietnamese coconut liqueur.

Taylor Tobin traces Fernet-Branca from Milanese cholera tonic to the shot poured at the end of a shift. Arum Krause, chief mixologist at Space Bar, appears alongside bar leaders from Austin, Chicago, New York, Charleston, and Minneapolis.

"Bartenders sometimes like challenging flavors, and fernet fits that mold." - Arum Krause

Maggie Hennessy reports on bars publishing ABV on cocktail menus. Food & Wine names Space Bar alongside Washington, D.C.'s Allegory and Chicago's The Radicle, noting that Space Bar began listing cocktail ABVs in March.

"It changes the service dynamic entirely." - Dale Vaughn, Space Bar proprietor

Brad Japhe asks bartenders around the world for their favorite Italian cocktails ahead of the Milan Winter Olympics. Space Bar supplies the article's lead photograph, and Dale Thomas Vaughn traces the Black Manhattan to mid-2000s San Francisco and the craft movement's turn toward bitterness.

"The Black Manhattan showed bartenders that bitterness could be expressive rather than austere." - Dale Thomas Vaughn

#YaJagoff Late Night Episode 94 Presented by Rohrich Automotive 

September 8, 2025

Remember Robby Incmikoski (with the Pirates?). He’s gotta book coming. Meantime, we’re talkin’ an outer space hangout in market square, Cancer Bridges and… the music…. well.. you’ll see. 412 Dos from Visit Pittsburgh!

Original article “Pittsburgh Has a 3-day Pickle Festival—and You Can Ride a Mechanical Pickle, Eat Pickled Cannoli, and Enter a Pickle Juice Drinking Contest” here
…
At Space Bar, a buzzy new spot with futuristic decor and an inventive cocktail menu, the line stretched out the door by 5 p.m. As we entered, a woman on her way out whispered that we had to try the pickle "Red Dwarf" shot. The bar's special festival menu, titled Picklesburgh in Orbit, also featured a pickle martini and the "Dill Void," made with olive leaf liquor, clarified grapefruit, and dill.

Taste of Picklesburgh tries the pickle cocktails from Space Bar

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sip on a cocktail while floating around a distant galaxy on a starship? At Space Bar in Market Square, you get just that!

Jump aboard the SS Oasis to sip some out-of-this-world cocktails and new takes on the classics with some of the most beautiful views of the cosmos you could ask for. For good measure, the bar is also home to a limited vegetarian menu for some starship eats as well!

So whether you are visiting for cocktails with molecular mixology elements, novel twists on classics, or a bit of both, this one is simply fun!

Space Bar is located at 22 Market Square in downtown Pittsburgh.

Space Bar in Market Square explains how they're transforming classics.

The futuristic lounge serves out-of-this-world cocktails and an all-vegetarian menu.

Pittsburgh Today Live! comes to Space Bar

Best Non Alcoholic Cocktails in Pittsburgh