Entry No. 42 — the Pittsburgh file — filed under: bluegrass
Trace Echo
Trace Echo opened on Forbes Ave in October 2024 as Trace Brewing's Uptown outpost, and its music programming is two standing free jams that split the month between them: Uptown Bluegrass with Slag Mountain on first and third Thursdays, and the Get Dahn Uptown jazz jam on second and fourth. Both are free, both are jams rather than concerts, and the room is small enough that the players aren't fighting a sound system. The rest of the operation is nine taps running everything from Schwarzbier and Kellerbier through hazy IPAs to a barrel-aged stout, cider from A Few Bad Apples, a full espresso bar via Ghost Coffee, and food from the Sahar's Food Lab truck. Anyone with a 15219 ID gets half off their first round on Fridays from 3pm to close, which is a neighborhood-bar move a brewery satellite didn't have to make.
→ Three more underground music & performance in Pittsburgh — never the same twice
The story
Trace Brewing belongs to Dave Kushner, who came to Bloomfield by way of Harpoon in Boston and Lord Hobo in Woburn, and who runs a vocational program at the Main Street brewery that trained Trace's current head brewer. Echo is what that operation built when it wanted a second, smaller room: a satellite taproom that opened October 4, 2024 on the corner of Forbes and Miltenberger in Uptown, the ridge Pittsburghers also call the Bluff. The name is Kushner's own framing — "The source is Trace, but Echo is its own entity. It will sound like the source, but it will also sound different."
The building is over a century old, reworked with local partners Epic Development, keeping as much of the original as would survive. What's there is a small corner lot: a low-lit bar, a handful of indoor tables, windows wrapping the corner, glassy by morning and closed-in after dark, and an outdoor space larger than the room behind it. Ghost Coffee Collab runs its full espresso bar out of Echo and calls it their global headquarters; food is one static truck, Sahar's Food Lab. The draft list runs to about nine and spans styles — German Schwarzbier and Kellerbier, three hazy IPAs, a fruited sour, a rice lager, rotating A Few Bad Apples cider, and a 10% barrel-aged stout by the bottle.
The programming is where it stops reading as brand extension. Music happens on Thursdays only and splits the month down the middle: the Uptown Bluegrass Session with Slag Mountain on first and third Thursdays, the Get Dahn Uptown jazz night on second and fourth. Both are free, and both are jams rather than booked concerts — players turn up and sit in. Then there's the Friday deal: show an ID with a 15219 zip code, 3pm to close, and the first round is half off. A satellite taproom did not have to do that.
What it's like
Come in off Forbes and the room reads bar-shaped rather than brewery-shaped: low light, a short bar, a few tables, glass on two sides. Weekday mornings it is functionally a coffee shop — the espresso bar opens at 8am, and Monday through Wednesday the whole place shuts at 3pm, so there is no evening to wait for. Thursday is the night that matters. Arrive around 7 if you want to eat off Sahar's truck and hold a table before the players set up; once the jam is going, the room is small enough that nobody is fighting a PA and conversation at the far end carries. Jam etiquette applies: the circle is for people who brought instruments, applause between tunes is fine, talking over a quiet break gets noticed. No cover, no ticket, no list.
The move: Check which Thursday it is, get there by 7 to eat off the Sahar's truck and get a table before the players set up, then order two things off the taplist you'd never normally pick — Schwarzbier and the barrel-aged stout — and stay for the jam.
📍 Before you go Music only happens on Thursdays and alternates: bluegrass 1st and 3rd, jazz 2nd and 4th, both free. Mon-Wed the room closes at 3pm, so it's a daytime coffee stop those days; Thu to 10pm, Fri to 11pm, Sat 9am-11pm, Sun 9am-8pm. Food comes from a truck, so it can vary — check before counting on dinner. Fridays 3pm-close, a 15219 ID gets half off the first round. Confirm the Thursday lineup on Trace's calendar; jam nights occasionally shift.
- 📍 Pittsburgh
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Big night
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 1738 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Rock Room — Polish Hill's 120-capacity room is a short hop away and the exact inverse of a free jam — cash at the door, bills four bands deep, first act around 8pm.
- Hocus Pocus — A mile up Forbes in Oakland, Pittsburgh's oldest occult shop is a daylight stop that drops you back toward Uptown by evening without backtracking.
- Doomed Planet Comics (the former Copacetic Comics storefront) — Three flights up on Dobson Street in the same 15219, open Thursday afternoons until 5 — an hour of browsing that ends right as the jam crowd starts arriving.
More weird in Pittsburgh
Good to know
Which Thursday is which?
Bluegrass with Slag Mountain falls on the first and third Thursdays; the Get Dahn Uptown jazz jam takes the second and fourth. Both are free and neither is ticketed. Jam nights occasionally shift, so check Trace's calendar the week of.
Is there a cover, and what does a night cost?
No cover for either jam. Beer is taproom-priced across roughly nine drafts plus rotating A Few Bad Apples cider; the 10% barrel-aged stout is a bottle pour, so it costs more than the lagers. Every Friday from 3pm to close, an ID showing a 15219 zip code gets half off your first round.
Can I go during the day?
Yes, and Monday through Wednesday that is the only option — Echo opens at 8am and closes at 3pm those days, with Ghost Coffee Collab's full espresso bar running the counter. Thursday it stays open to 10pm, Friday to 11pm, Saturday 9am–11pm, Sunday 9am–8pm.
Is there food?
One truck: Sahar's Food Lab, parked at Echo permanently rather than rotating through. Its service hours are narrower than the taproom's and have been expanding as the weather allows, so confirm before you plan dinner around it. Coffee runs all day.
How do I get there and where do I park?
1738 Forbes Ave, on the Forbes and Miltenberger corner in Uptown, under a mile east of Downtown and walkable from the Duquesne campus. Parking is street parking on Uptown's grid — there is no lot.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · grassgigs.com
last checked: 2026-08-26