Ruggers Pub, a Little Rugby Bar on the South Side, Has a Big New Kitchen

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

Ruggers Pub is a lot of things to a lot of people: community hub, rugby clubhouse, late-night dive, performance space, vegan-friendly burger joint, wedding venue.

A couple who spent their first date at the South Side bar will tie the knot there in March.

It’s general manager Alex Gordon’s mission to help customers live happily ever after, whether they’re saying “I do” to a soul mate or another I.C. Light. It’s where he met his wife, Mollie Black-Gordon, after all.

“It’s my dream job,” Gordon says. “I love rugby, I love Pittsburgh and I love people who come into Ruggers.”

In 2000, the Pittsburgh Forge Rugby Club purchased the former Characters bar to create a welcoming space for players and fans alike. You can still find a lot of characters here, though. Pull up a bar stool and make a new pal!

This tiny rock n’ rock watering hole quietly reopened its kitchen on Valentine’s Day weekend after a four-month-long renovation. The crew doubled the size of the food-prep space and expanded the menu to include more upscale pub fare, including seitan wings, mac-and-cheese bites, mozzarella sticks, sandwiches, hoagies, wraps and half-pound burgers.

By 9 a.m. on Saturday, fans packed the place to pig out, knock back pints and watch Ireland battle Italy in a Guinness Men’s Six Nations rugby match. The South 22nd Street bar has a designated TV tuned to rugby and will showcase every game in the Six Nations series through March 17.

I suggest getting there early and order the new Bahn Mi sandwich, sliced steak or falafel topped with a house-made pickle blend, chipolte mayo and cilantro with a side of fried pickle chips and a beer.

Ruggers has 18 rotating taps featuring local, international and NA brews.

The bar has a partnership with Pittsburgh Brewing Co., (team proudly wears the Iron City logo on their chest during every game) so the I.C. Light flows there like the three rivers. The house libation is slitovitz, a Serbian plum brandy. Order them together for $5 and it’s called a Steel Hurtin’.

A 24-ounce can of Pabst Blue Ribbon and a shot of Old Crow Bourbon is called The Cowboy. The combo is named after Ronald “Cowboy” Nye, a founding member of the Ruggers family who died in 2023.

“He wanted to make life high-five worthy,” Gordon says of his friend and teammate.

His spirit lives on at Ruggers and through the Ronald “Cowboy” Nye Rugby Scholarship Fund. Each year, money is given to one Western PA high school student-athlete from who plans to attend Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Cowboy’s alma mater) and one current IUP Rugby player.

Ruggers has sent six kids to college so far and introduced countless others to the contact sport.

In June, the bar will hold the second edition of Rugg-A-Palooza, a three-day music festival featuring bands, DJs, wrestling, tattoos, raffles to benefit the scholarship fund. Other events throughout the year include drag and burlesque shows, a Toys for Tots drive, gift card collection for a local women’s shelter and the Good Cheer holiday pop-up bar.

Established in 1964, the rugby club supports local men’s, women’s and youth teams. The nonprofit organization has big plans for the future of its little pub, including a restroom overhaul and the addition of six new draft lines. Lunch service will soon expand from three to seven days a week.

More than a decade ago, Gordon, a native of upstate New York, discovered Ruggers while attending Slippery Rock University, where he was a member of the rugby club.

“I thought it was the coolest place on the planet,” he says. “I wanted to live here.”

And now, as the GM logging 70 hours a week, he pretty much does — happily ever after.

Ruggers Pub at 40 S. 22nd St., South Side