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Published by Jeremy. Last Updated on October 30, 2025.
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In many cases, we often overlook that Pittsburgh hotels often have on-site cocktail bars. Some of these may be your conventional hotel bar, while others may be a bit more.
At The Priory Hotel in the North Side, you get what is perhaps the most interesting hotel bar experience in the city, for one unique reason- it is said to be the smallest bar in the state of Pennsylvania.
Yes, The Monks’ Bar is tiny, and according to The Priory’s website, it seats just 14 customers. So cozy up with your fellow patrons, get to know your bartender, and grab a drink from this limited, albeit expertly curated, bar menu!
The Monks’ Bar is Indeed One Tiny Bar
When you walk into the entrance of The Priory Hotel, you’re not going to notice the bar. In fact, you’re barely going to notice the reception until you walk a few feet inside. Naturally, we caught eyes with a staff member at the check-in desk and asked if the bar was open for a drink.
We were pointed to the left-hand side of the building, to a quiet corner door beyond a small seating area (which we believe is overflow seating for the bar). We were greeted by the friendly Monk carving with a sign for the bar overhead, and in we went.
Now, by our count, the proper bar space here seats about nine or ten comfortably, so it is quite likely that the first room we walked through counted as overflow seating for the bar. Within a few minutes, more guests came in, and it did indeed fill out completely with patrons in both rooms.
Your eyes will be quickly drawn to the liquor shelf, which is found in a historic vault that was once home to the archives of the Benedictine Order of Monks, as the space was once part of the priory’s library from 1888 to 1981. From there, your eyes will gravitate to the menu, which has a small, curated cocktail selection, as well as a more robust bottled beer list- starting with a few classic Belgian brews like Orval and Chimay.
As much as we’re fond of all things Belgian beer (you may be interested in reading about our favorite Belgian breweries and beer bars over on our travel blog!), a visit to The Monks’ Bar for us is all about the cocktails, which feel a lot like house takes on classics.
We started with the spirit-forward drinks to kick off our evening, with the Mezcal Negroni (featuring Campari, mezcal, sweet vermouth, and bitters) and The Grand Chartreuse (a Carthusian Manhattan with bourbon, sweet vermouth, green chartreuse, and bitters), and both felt like excellent takes on these two classic cocktails. The Mezcal Negroni had nice undertones of smoke notes without being overpowering, and The Grand Chartreuse was an excellent Manhattan that also had a modest underlying herbal note from the Chartreuse.
Neither was overpowering due to the two additions, and we really appreciated that, even if The Grand Chartreuse was slightly more preferable for our palate at the time of our visit.
We opted for one more drink, and unfortunately skipped over the bar’s famous Monktini (featuring raspberry-infused vodka with Chambord, and lime juice) in favor of The French Kiss (with Grand Marnier, brandy, and Dom’s B&B). The reason for this was that The French Kiss was noted to come in a “fire-heated snifter,” and we were intrigued.
As it turns out, this one is quite literally set on fire. Our skilled bartender carefully poured some brandy into a snifter glass, laid it on its side, lit it on fire, and rolled it around on the bar in front of us- one part preparation, one part show. The rest of the drink was assembled, allowed to mellow in the smoke of the flame, and was served with a note to wait a few seconds to let it cool down.
As you may imagine, if you’re familiar with the brands in this one, the drink is a great one for a nightcap, as the brandy and Grand Marnier had a nice sweetness to it that was perfectly balanced with added bitterness from the Dom’s B&B and nominal smoke undertones. It isn’t the most complex drink by any means, but it is perfectly executed and has a great flavor all the same. I would be remiss if I didn’t say I went home and made another from my own liquor collection, sans flame, of course- it was really good!
If you order this one and are sitting in the adjoining room, we highly recommend heading up to the bar to watch this one being made.
Ignoring the drinks, perhaps the best part about a visit to The Monks’ Bar goes back to the fact that the bar is incredibly tiny. So much so that we spent a great deal of our time at the bar getting to know the bartender as well as a fellow guest who came up and joined us at the three seats at the bar proper. By the end of the evening, we were chatting with guests across the (again, small) bar, and we really felt like we got to know everyone a bit more than we would’ve had the bar been any larger.
Do you need to talk to others when you are visiting here? No. But does the space lend itself to interesting discussions, both with your bartender and fellow patrons? Absolutely, and that is part of the joy.
So don’t overlook a visit to The Monks’ Bar, whether you are staying at The Priory Hotel or looking for a round (or two) of delicious cocktails in the North Side. This bar is a gem, and we look forward to going back for their popular Monktini very, very soon.
The Monks’ Bar is located inside The Priory Hotel at 614 Pressley Street in the North Side.
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