Shorty's GoodTimes Bar

Shorty's is a 10,000 square foot games bar at 353 North Shore Drive with another 5,000 square feet of patio, opened in February 2022 in a corner that had housed the Tilted Kilt and Calico Jack's before it, across the street from its sibling Burgatory. Its own team coined the term retro-tainment for what it does, and the COO was clear about the order of operations: the magnet is the gaming, and then the beverage and culinary programmes are what they really want to show off. The gaming is substantial — eight duckpin bowling lanes, pinball, vintage arcade machines, shuffleboard, bocce, foosball, cornhole, bubble hockey, golden tee, basketball hoops, board games and fire pits outside. Duckpin runs $15 per person per hour before 4pm and $20 after. When ESPN's First Take broadcast from Pittsburgh in January 2026, this is where it came from, to a packed crowd waving Terrible Towels. Two things to know before going: the taco menu it opened with is gone from this location, replaced by American pub food, and while all ages are welcome before 9pm, it becomes 21-and-over after 9pm on Friday and Saturday.

For a non-drinker this is one of the more genuinely useful rooms in Pittsburgh, because the whole premise is that the activity is the point rather than the drinking — which is the single hardest thing to find when everyone else is having a night out. The zero-proof drinks are printed on the menu, built on Seedlip, and priced below the cocktails: the Fauxjito at $8 on Seedlip Garden 108 with apple juice, elderflower, lime and muddled mint; the Espressno at $8 on Seedlip Spice 94 with cold brew and demerara; the Mock-Arita at $6 in classic or strawberry; JayNO & Ginger at $6 on Seedlip Spice with honey, ginger syrup and ginger ale; and a Don't Call Me Shirley at $7, house-made grenadine topped with Sprite, which is a proper Shirley Temple made properly. One caution if you are checking online: the Waterfront location in West Homestead runs different recipes and prices under a differently named section, so confirm you are reading the North Shore menu.