The popular Seventh Avenue restaurant Scalino — shuttered by state authorities on Thursday — reopened on Saturday, apparently having paid a $230,000 sales tax bill.
Finance officers had padlocked the restaurant — and slapped bright orange “SEIZED” signs on the windows — claiming that the owners, the Yaksick brothers, had not handed over three years of tax revenues.
But sure enough, the restaurant, at 10th Street, was serving up its braised pork shoulder and pasta entrees as usual on Saturday.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss it,” said Blaise Yaksick.
He declined to say if the tax bill had been paid, but state authorities had said that if the brothers did not come up with the cash, the eatery would be “sold to public auction.”
During the two-day period when the restaurant was closed, loyal patrons mourned what they hoped was not the permanent loss of a neighborhood staple run by two brothers who are as obsessed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as they are with homey Italian cuisine.
“It’s sad; we’ll miss this place,” said stroller-hauling mom, Heather Millen, who sat on a bench outside the restaurant, channeling the tomato cream pasta. “I love the owners, so I hope things work out.”
Millen said she feels a kinship with the place because she ate dinner there the night she went into labor. Now, it’s one of those neighborhood spots she feels comfortable drinking a glass of wine with her baby.
“I hope it opens back up in a day or two,” said Martin Einhorn, who owns Uncle Moe’s Burritos next door. “I hope it’s a mistake.”
