![\"Felicity](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1794220811_981_f5da7f48-268e-42a1-b4ad-fef6d26640a6_1741638383.png\")
<\/a>BELLEVUE, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\nJoe’s Rusty Nail, a beloved restaurant in Bellevue, will close by the end of the year after 48 years in business as owner Joe Elbicki announced his retirement. <\/p>\n
Barbara Zerbee, a longtime customer, shared her reaction to the news. <\/p>\n
“I feel very sad. It’s been here forever. I’ve lived in this area for about 35 years. It’s been kind of a go-to restaurant. We come here pretty often, so I feel bad,” she said. <\/p>\n
Zerbee said she first heard about the closure on social media. <\/p>\n
“I just heard it this morning on Facebook. I was hoping it was a rumor, but it’s not, I guess,” she said. <\/p>\n
Patrons praised the restaurant for its food and the memories it created. <\/p>\n
“You have to get the pot roast dinner. Makes it every Thursday and Sunday night. I will miss that. I’ll be coming here every week now,” said customer Adele Maher. <\/p>\n
For many, Joe’s Rusty Nail was a place where families shared special moments. <\/p>\n
“She had her first bacon slice here. She loves bacon and toast. That’s her go-to meal,” said Vincent Lamperski of Bellevue. <\/p>\n
Lori Guvish recalled a memorable experience with her children at the restaurant. <\/p>\n
“My children used to call it smashed potatoes, so I ordered mashed potatoes for him and his brother. His brother was like 2 1\/2, he was 18 months, and he got the mashed potatoes and flung it and ended up at another table,” she said. <\/p>\n
Despite the sadness surrounding the closure, customers expressed their best wishes for Elbicki. <\/p>\n
“Joe’s been around since before I’ve been here, obviously, and we miss him. We’re going to miss him. Hopefully, he stays local and continues visiting us and all that, but I mean, if he wants to go to Florida too, that’s nice,” Lamperski said. <\/p>\n
“Good luck to him. He’s a great, good man, and he has a wonderful place. The food was always [great], and the friendship and everything\u2014everybody here will be sorely, sorely sad,” Maher said. <\/p>\n
Elbicki thanked his longtime customers and staff for their years of support and service. The restaurant will redeem unused gift cards after its closure. <\/p>\n
They can be sent to:<\/p>\n
Rusty Nail Restaurant<\/p>\n
560 Lincoln Ave.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh PA 15202<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe’s Rusty Nail, a Bellevue staple for nearly five decades, will close by the end of the year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[894,45863,3727,37491,131073,130614,73,75,74,976,7174,131289],"class_list":["post-324095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-allegheny-county","tag-bellevue","tag-closure","tag-diner","tag-joe-elbicki","tag-joes-rusty-nail","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-restaurant","tag-retirement","tag-rusty-nail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}