Harold's Haunt

Harold's Haunt opened on 13 October 2022 on Grant Avenue in Millvale, attached to Maude's Paperwing Gallery, and is run by what it calls Millvale's own queer witches. The theming is thorough and unironic — a themed bar with comfy community vibes, in its own words, with food orders marked at the table by tarot cards and dishes named the Hobbit Pizza and Calcifer's Coals. But the theme is not really the point. Co-owner Athena Flint has described what the room is actually for: truly, she said, the number of trans individuals she knows who have come dressed as they wished they could for the first time in public, here, is just amazing. Her other line is the one that explains the atmosphere — it is not party city; you come here and you are cosy and comfortable. Food is vegan-friendly and comes from Lemon Tree PGH, there is a patio out back for when the front room gets loud, and there is a resident bar dog.

For a non-drinker the offer is genuine but informal. The bar's own standing commitment is that there are always mocktails on the menu for its sober friends, served under the house name Fauxtions, and the specialty shots have alcohol-free versions too — which matters more than it sounds, because a shot is the most socially loaded drink in any bar and being able to take part in a round is the whole thing. What we cannot give you is a current list. Harold's does not publish its drinks online, and the Fauxtions documented in press over the years — a cranberry, rosemary and bubbles build with a gummy frog dropped in, a strawberry-soda and blood-orange one, a mint frother — read as playful fruit-and-soda drinks rather than non-alcoholic-spirit cocktails, and none can be confirmed as still being poured. Ask at the bar. Two practical notes worth having in advance: the bar is honest on its own site that it is not fully accessible, with a step at both doors, a steep slope in the back hallway and small bathrooms without handles; and there is no car park, though Millvale has plenty of street parking and the meters stop being checked after 6pm.