Who remembers The Balcony in Shadyside?

The crocks of French onion soup. Fried zucchini appetizers. Live jazz playing in the background. Swordfish, salmon and specials like all-you-can-eat lobster Mondays and Tuesdays. Friendly wait staff who made you feel welcome.

If you had the right table for two, you also had a prime view of Walnut Street through floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor — perfect for a little people-watching while you dined.

Downstairs for many years was Hotlicks, a cozy spot known for its tangy ribs, wings and hot vegetarian sandwich. It had its own following, including a then-popular Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver who became a regular at the bar.

For nearly two decades, The Balcony offered something a little different from the usual Pittsburgh dining experience.

“When we opened in 1980, there really wasn’t a restaurant scene in Pittsburgh,” said Richard “Muzz” Meyers, 71, who co-owned both restaurants with longtime friend Bobby Feldman.

The city had plenty of places to eat, Meyers said, but many restaurants served traditional, straightforward meals. He and Feldman wanted to bring something new to the table. The Balcony opened in March 1980.

“We were trying to bring something different,” Meyers said. “That was the attraction. People used to go out for dinner because they didn’t feel like cooking. We wanted them to go out for a dining experience.”

The partners had known each other since grade school. Meyers, a Squirrel Hill native who attended Wightman Elementary School, had earned a master’s degree in teaching but couldn’t find a job for the fall of 1979. Instead, he worked as a substitute teacher for Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Feldman, who also grew up in Squirrel Hill and now lives in Indiana Township, entered the restaurant business, joining the management training program at Victoria Station, a chain known for its dining spaces made from old railroad cars.

After managing a restaurant in New Orleans and working in Portland, Ore., Feldman returned to Pittsburgh. He talked Meyers into joining forces on a restaurant.

“It was a great moment in time,” Feldman, who is 70, told me this week. “Everything in Pittsburgh was steak or pasta back then, and we wanted to do something different.”

People still mention The Balcony to Feldman on a weekly basis.

“It’s truly amazing that there was so much love for the place,” he said.

The partnership lasted about 14 years before Feldman left to focus on his family after his son Emery was born with cystic fibrosis. Meyers continued running the restaurants, which eventually closed in 1998. Feldman still helped run the restaurants from afar and eventually entered the investment business.

“They were great people to work for,” said Rod Schwartz, who worked as a bartender at Hotlicks. “They were fun, treated you great, and the places were great.”

The partners took care in hiring staff, Meyers said, because they understood that the people serving the food were just as important as what came out of the kitchen.

“If somebody wanted shrimp on a salad or something like that, we’d basically fall back on, ‘Sure, we can do that,’ ” Meyers said.

Back then, Walnut Street was a nightlife hotspot. Think Lawrenceville of today.

“Walnut Street was perfect for us, and we were perfect for Walnut Street,” Feldman said. “We were very lucky.”

Hotlicks was downstairs

The Balcony opened on the top floor of a two-story building called The Theatre at 5520 Walnut St. that once housed a movie theater. Four years into their restaurant venture, the pair opened Hotlicks on the floor below. Today, the building is home to Lululemon.

Meyers and Feldman also brought live jazz into the mix at The Balcony with the likes of singers Billy Price and Michele Bensen, guitarist Joe Negri, saxophonist Kenny Blake and drummer Roger Humphries.

“It wasn’t any one thing,” Meyers said. “A lot of things went into it.”

One of the biggest crowd-pleasers arrived after the meal.

Hot fudge sundaes were served in wine glasses, accompanied by a small glass pitcher of warm fudge. As servers carried them through the dining room, other diners noticed.

“Everyone said, ‘Oh, man, I want one of those,’ ” Meyers recalled.

The restaurants attracted their share of Pittsburgh celebrities.

Former Steelers wide receiver Louis Lipps became a spokesman for Hotlicks after a Coca-Cola representative introduced him to the owners. The arrangement was straightforward: Lipps appeared in a few advertisements in exchange for free food.

“A lot of people probably thought he owned it,” Meyers said.

Lipps was a natural fit, he said, as a Steelers star and regular presence in Hotlicks, which opened in 1984.

“He was the nicest guy,” Meyers said. “He would come in and sit at the bar by himself and talk to everybody.”

From 1988 to 1990, Hotlicks left its Walnut Street location for Motor Square Garden in East Liberty. Schwartz was a bartender at both locations.

“There was nothing in East Liberty when we went in there,” he said. “The space was gorgeous, but the magic was having The Balcony and Hotlicks in the same building.”

Eventually, Hotlicks returned to its Shadyside spot beneath The Balcony.

Schwartz can still recite the ingredients of the hot vegetarian sandwich: Two slices of Muenster cheese, a slice of provolone, hummus, red onions, sprouts, lettuce, tomato and black olives. He can still whip up a batch of the salsa that the restaurant served with chips for free.

“People, to this day, want to get a hot veg sandwich,” Feldman said. “That was our biggest selling item, believe it or not.”

Former Steelers tight end Eric Green also had a brief stint as a Hotlicks spokesman after Lipps. Meyers remembers the excitement when Green caught a game-winning pass and was interviewed on TV afterward wearing a Hotlicks hat.

Staff reunions

At its peak, the two businesses employed about 100 people. Some stayed for a decade or longer, building friendships with co-workers and customers along the way.

That sense of community remains part of the restaurants’ legacy.

Schwartz, who is 64 and lives in Morningside, has organized reunions over the years to bring former employees together. Some workers were there for all 18 years; others spent more than a decade behind the bar or serving tables.

On Oct. 9, about 60 former staffers and family gathered at The Bulldog Pub in Morningside to celebrate the restaurants and reminisce.

Many were young when they started working at The Balcony and Hotlicks, and their friendships extended beyond the restaurants. They hung out after shifts and stayed close over the years, making an effort to keep in touch long after their time working together ended.

“We treated everyone with respect,” Feldman said. “We used to drive every single dishwasher or late-night person home. There were no buses to take people to Beltzhoover or Penn Hills at 3 a.m.

“People show up at the reunions to thank us for how we started their lives and the way The Balcony was a home for the employees.”

The restaurants’ run ended after their landlord cut a deal with Pottery Barn. Meyers and the landlord couldn’t agree on terms, and Meyers agreed to be bought out.

He later found a new career with Communities in Schools of Pittsburgh-Allegheny County, a nonprofit that connects students with support. Meyers, who lives in Highland Park, was placed in Pittsburgh Westinghouse Academy working with students there.

“I’m still there, and I love it,” he said.

Feldman pointed out another lasting legacy of The Balcony: He and Meyers both met their wives there. Michele was a waitress when she and Meyers fell for each other. They’re still together.

“Cindy was a customer that I chased onto the street to ask her out,” Feldman said, while laughing. “We’re still married. So, you can really call the restaurant a place of love and happiness.”