The Grill on Murray Avenue: A Story of Innocence

A woman who drinks beer out of an ashtray (complete with ashes); a bartender who loses himself in Jimi Hendrix; an over-the-top jokester who ushers for the Pirates; a broken heart who finds comfort in Henry Miller’s lusty language; a University of Pitt professor (originally from Peru) who eats buffalo wings with a knife and a fork as he devours The Economist; and Jenna, the idealistic, ambitious waitress—aspiring to be a professional dancer—at the center of it all… These are just a few of the characters who give life to The Grill on Murray Avenue.

Set in the nineties in Squirrel Hill, a large residential neighborhood in the east end of Pittsburgh, this coming-of-age novel tells the story of friendship, love, laughter, melancholy, wonder, and longing within an unassuming bar-and-grill, and the striving and ecstasy that are unavoidable in forming relationships, making a living, and pursuing a dream.