Mt. Lebanon is full of small businesses, and most of them are concentrated in three areas: Washington Road, Castle Shannon Boulevard and Beverly Road. In this issue and successive ones, we’re profiling a few of the stores and their owners. All have a history with some interesting stories to tell. This month: the Beverly Road business district.

Ace Paints and Unfinished Furniture
Al Lutz’s father bought a hardware store on Beverly Road in 1946. That store lives on today as Ace Paints, which Al established in 1981. The store sells Benjamin Moore Paints, as well as several other upscale brands and unfinished furniture.

“I’ve been on the block longer than anybody else,” said Lutz recently. “I grew up in the hardware business.”

Customers of the store today are pretty evenly split between painting contractors and do-it-yourselfers. Lutz says that the business draws from all over the city. “We specialize in a lot of high-end products, like faux finishes, metallic paints, glazes, wood finishes,” according to Lutz. “We sell Fine Paints of Europe, which is real high-end. We’re kind of a paint store for paint nerds.”

Although he also has a store in Peters Township, he especially appreciates doing business on Beverly Road. “I like the neighborhood feel of it. Sometimes people just stop in to get a dog biscuit for their dog. So many familiar faces, people coming back time after time.”

Iovino’s
Today’s Iovino’s has gone through several permutations in its life on Beverly. Owner and chef Jeff Iovino opened Iovino’s Cafe in 2006, changed to Cafe Io, then opened Io Deli, Taco Diablo, and then a bakery. Then this year, Iovino’s: A Neighborhood Brasserie made its debut.

Iovino and his wife, Carol, who manages the restaurant, have tweaked the menu in the new space. Family favorites like grilled cheese sandwiches and BLTs are still on the menu, but there are new choices as well.

“We’re a scratch kitchen,” said Iovino. “We want to have something for everyone. Call it inventive comfort food!”

Jeff, who graduated from Johnson & Wales culinary program, began his career washing dishes at Bado’s, the longtime pizza restaurant on Beverly that closed last year.

“I always joke that I haven’t made it too far in life. My parents brought me home from St. Clair Hospital to the dead-end part of Beverly, where I grew up, and now I’m still on Beverly! But it’s one of the greatest American Main Streets anywhere.”

Lee Heckman Custom Framing
In 1984, Lee Heckman was a young college graduate with an engineering degree from the University of Pittsburgh. “All the industry was closing up shop and leaving Pittsburgh,” said Heckman. “No one wanted to hire a new engineer with no experience.”

A lifelong Mt. Lebanon resident, Heckman had worked in a framing shop during high school, and his mother suggested he open one of his own. He looked at various places around Pittsburgh, but concluded that Mt. Lebanon was his best bet. When he was looking for space, he saw a for-rent sign on the second floor of a building on Beverly Road. The rent was $200.

“I had no money, so I winced at the price,” said Heckman, of Bower Hill Road. “The owner said, ‘If you can’t afford $200 a month, you have no business being in business!’ That made me mad, so I said I’d take the space.

“I know so many people in Mt. Lebanon that as soon as we opened, friends and parents of friends started showing up.” Although he has since moved to the street level, he’s been on Beverly ever since and now owns his building.

He prizes the street for its sense of community and its walkability. “I sit outside in front of Coffee Tree with a group of guys and half the people who walk by know me.”

Scoops on Beverly
When he opened Scoops 25 years ago, Mike Collins quickly discovered that his best customers went to Lincoln Elementary just down the block. “If you take care of the kids, they bring in the parents,” he said, smiling. “I’ve been around long enough so that now they’re bringing their own kids. And they always want to know if I remember them!”

Collins, Baywood Avenue, opened six Scoops stores, although he recently sold two of them. Sewickley, Bellevue and Bloomfield, as well as his original location in Mt. Lebanon, remain. He also owns Little Nippers Pizza.

Collins considers the restaurants on Beverly another big source of customers. “People go out to dinner, and I’m the closest dessert place for those diners. When I started expanding, I learned to look for neighborhoods with restaurants. You try to piggyback on those.”

“Beverly is a small street, but for that little bit of a block they crush it. I’m very happy I’m there. You don’t see spots opening up there very often. All the businesses help each other. For a little street like that with a school right there, it’s like going back in time, like 1950.”

Barefoot Stitches & Gifts
Karin Smith and Jen Brandenstein offer gift-giving confidence at their store on Beverly. “People come in and they don’t have the confidence to choose a gift. So we ask them about the person they’re buying for — and often there’s a lightbulb moment. And we can suggest something that’s perfect for that person.”

Barefoot Stitches specializes in baby, wedding and hostess gifts. “We believe that gift-giving is one of the most human expressions of love,” said Smith, Barth Avenue. “The store’s been here a long time. We have children and grandchildren of old customers coming in. Sometimes they want to buy the exact same baby gift that their family has been buying for generations. And we wrap, too.”

Smith and Brandenstein, Racine Avenue, bought the store in 2022, taking over a business that had been in operation for several decades under the previous owner.

“We very rarely have a customer who frustrates us,” said Brandenstein. “Most of them are so sweet and caring. We love the small-town feel and that customers can walk here.”

Dot and Line Art Studio
The brainchild of a former school art teacher and a painter and former Chatham teacher, Dot and Line has grown organically. Kate Gugliotta and Branden Koch, Parker Drive, moved here in 2019 from New York City and began with online teaching and then pop-up art projects for ages 5 to 10 at Lebo farmers’ markets in the summer of 2021. The couple found the second-story studio on Beverly in April 2022, later adding a second space.

“The main studio is where we do our older kids, teen, and adult programming,” said Koch. “The newer studio is a play studio, and everything is scaled down for our after-school art club.” Dot and Line picks up kids from Lincoln for this program. There are also several summer art camps for various ages.

The pair, who are married with a son in seventh grade, is excited about the recent changes on Beverly Road. “We’re really aware of the updating that’s happening, with several new businesses opening,” according to Koch. “We do a lot of programming
that involves other businesses on Beverly, like our summer camp called Don’t Eat the Art, where we go to a restaurant, try the food, and do a project based on that sort of food.”

The couple is impressed by the community ties. “It’s an extremely tight-knit community, especially when you’re working with kids,” said Koch. “It’s really lovely, the small-town vibe. And it’s a four-minute walk from our house!