A whiskey name that vanished from Pittsburgh more than a century ago is coming back to life in the Strip District, with plans to open a tasting room in the same Smallman Street building that housed Kingfly Spirits before it abruptly went dark. H. Obernauer & Co., founded in Pittsburgh in 1885, is being revived by Matthew Obernauer, the great-great-grandson of original founder Herman Obernauer, who sold the liquor business in 1915 after state regulatory pressure and concern about a future national prohibition.
Kingfly Spirits operated at 2613 Smallman Street for seven years before its sudden shutdown in February, a closure Hoodline covered in a report on the venue going dark overnight. TribLive reported that H. Obernauer & Co. plans to use the vacant space for a tasting room between Wigle Whiskey and Maggie’s Farm Cocktail Bar and Barrelhouse. The venture is expected to open by the end of the year, according to TribLive.
A Family Story Passed Down for Generations
Matthew Obernauer, who relocated to Squirrel Hill with his family in 2024 after working as a corporate lawyer in New York and in the Colorado Rockies’ legal department, is reviving the company based on a family story he heard from his grandfather as a child, according to TribLive’s reporting. Obernauer has said his ancestor created something more than a century ago that he later held himself.
Herman Obernauer began his Pittsburgh business in 1884 with a saloon at 395 Fifth Avenue before converting the operation into a wholesale liquor rectifying firm at Fifth and Stevenson in Uptown, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. As a rectifier, he blended whiskeys made by other distillers according to his own signature recipes rather than distilling from scratch himself, per TribLive’s reporting. Herman Obernauer went on to create several trademarked lines, including “Belle of Pittsburg Whiskey,” “H.O. Brown Gin,” and “Dr. Michael Cox’s Stomach Bitters,” according to Peachridge Glass. He also served four times as a Democratic presidential elector for Pennsylvania and was a prominent member of Pittsburgh’s Rodef Shalom Congregation, according to the historical blog Pre-Pro Whiskey Men.
Rebuilding in a Historic Carriage House
The Smallman Street building itself carries its own layered history. The space originally operated as a 1906 carriage house and underwent a major architectural renovation that earned a Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Award in 2019, according to Kingfly Spirits’ own account of the property. TribLive’s reporting notes the new venture will handle its actual production elsewhere, with barreling, blending, and bottling taking place in a separate warehouse facility in Lawrenceville while the Smallman Street site serves strictly as a public tasting room. H. Obernauer & Co. plans to offer American whiskey, bourbon, and rye whiskey, with Matthew Obernauer’s revived company based in Pittsburgh, per TribLive.
What the Public Record Establishes So Far
The verified material reviewed for this article does not identify a Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board license or application for H. Obernauer & Co., nor does it identify zoning, building-permit or occupancy records documenting the conversion of 2613 Smallman Street into a tasting room. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board says a distiller must hold an active Limited Distillery license to participate in its Spirits Program, which allows participating in-state distilleries to place up to 10 products in as many as 10 Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores. Separately, the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh says projects along Smallman Street are adding mixed-use commercial and retail space and are intended to improve safety, pedestrian experience and traffic circulation while retaining the corridor’s character…