{"id":56992,"date":"2025-12-10T05:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/56992\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T05:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:55:08","slug":"print-from-the-past-for-mr-smalls-early-struggles-fueled-todays-success-pittsburgh-city-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/56992\/","title":{"rendered":"Print from the Past: For Mr. Smalls, early struggles fueled today’s success – Pittsburgh City Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh-area music venues have taken body blows in recent years \u2014 much like they did in 2005, it seems, when writer Dan Eldridge dug into<\/a> the grit, passion, and precarious economics behind one of the region\u2019s then-newest venues: Mr. Smalls.<\/p>\n

The years since have thrown a lot at venues like Mr. Smalls. The Great Recession. Industry consolidation. Personal struggle and tough decisions<\/a>. COVID-19. Still, two decades on, and Mr. Smalls has not just survived, but thrived. The venue recently added an expansion called The Sanctuary and continues to host a diverse roster of acts and events, including Pittsburgh City Paper\u2019s Best of PGH party and Karaoke Kabaret earlier this year.<\/p>\n

As other venues have shuttered, passionate locals have taken up the mantle Mr. Smalls\u2019 Mike Speranzo and Liz Berlin donned in the early \u201990s (City Paper\u2019s 2025 People of the Year in Music<\/a> spring to mind).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a fundamental faith in this,\u201d Speranzo told Eldridge at the time. \u201cThis is my house. This is my son. My friends, my family, my whole life \u2014 everything I\u2019ve worked for up to this point.\u201d It\u2019s that fundamental faith that\u2019s kept Pittsburgh venues going despite narrow margins and long odds in 2025. As a revisiting of Eldridge\u2019s piece proves, what worked then mostly works now: keeping your focus local and your customers happy.<\/p>\n

Read the full story, originally printed Jan. 12, 2005, below.<\/p>\n

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This article appears in The Big Winter Issue: Winter Guide\/People of the Year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

RELATED\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh-area music venues have taken body blows in recent years \u2014 much like they did in 2005, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[31374,31375,31376,31377,993,73,75,74,31378,994],"class_list":["post-56992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-dan-eldridge","tag-liz-berlin","tag-mike-speranzo","tag-mr-smalls","tag-new-releases","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-print-from-the-past","tag-section-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56992","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=56992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}