Although D's Six Pax and Dogz in Regent Square might be best known for its microbrew-filled, make-your-own-six-pack "Beer Cave," it's also a canvas for local artist Jeff Lucas.
Drink your beers near the main dining room's large wall, and you can spend a few hours picking out familiar faces. In a work reminiscent of Alex Ross's Infinitely Heroic (recently exhibited at the Warhol) and Norman Rockwell's The Golden Rule, Lucas created a mural that pays homage to people who are important to him, to Pittsburgh and to owner Dino DeFlavio.
A Pittsburgh native, Lucas started drawing "lots of comic-book stuff" when he was a kid. And at D's, the comic-book heroes of his youth share space with colorful Pittsburgh mayors, sports legends and media icons. There's even section highlighting notable Italian-Americans —because, Lucas says, "Dino came by and told me to put more Italians in there."
It took Lucas three years to complete the project. There are eye-grabbing hop vines that protrude from the wall, sculptures of monks at Trappist breweries and landscapes of a beer festival and Bethany College (DeFlavio's alma mater). Lucas even went so far as to rework the air ducts so that they resemble old wooden beams ... right down to the use of antique nails.
Lucas also decorated the wall of the adjoining taproom with an in-depth "beer bible." He was inspired by a similar work he found at a Boston bar, and "just freely associated from that." Lucas says the mural instructs the reader on "how to drink beer, what's in a beer and what kind of beers there are."
DeFlavio is happy to have Lucas decorating his space, and he believes there's more to come. "This man needs to be hooked up with somebody who can manage his skills," he says.
1118 S. Braddock Ave., Regent Square. www.ds6pax.com or 412-241-4666.
