Merante Brothers Market in North Strabane shut down
Merante Brothers Market has closed in North Strabane Township.
The family-run operation, at 604 W. McMurray Road, shut down Monday, according to an employee at the remaining market in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. She did not give a reason for the closing.
Domenica Merante, who owns the markets with her husband Anthony, could not be reached for comment.
A message posted Sunday on the market’s Facebook page says: “We have closed our North Strabane location doors for good. We are thankful to our many loyal customers and our neighborhood friends. Please visit us at our Oakland location at 3454 Bates Street … where we are celebrating our 36th year.”
A telephone call to the West McMurray site prompted the recorded response: “Thank you for calling Merante Brothers Market. Unfortunately, we have closed our doors and are no longer doing business at this location …”
Visitors to merantebrothersmarket.com encounter the phrase, “Website not available,” on a screen that is otherwise blank.
Domenica and Anthony launched their Washington County Italian store/restaurant in March 2012, across from the ornate All Saints Greek Orthodox Church and visible to northbound motorists on Interstate 79. It also was a short drive from Southpointe.
Nineteen months later, in October 2013, they opened a fashionable bar/six-pack beer shop, which opened to a large outdoor patio. That was the first time in the Merantes’ lengthy history as food purveyors that the family was selling alcohol.
That history dates to 1905, when Anthony’s grandfather, Pasquale, arrived in Pittsburgh and began selling items from a horse-drawn grocery. He did this for many years before returning to his native Italy to start a family and local market.
His three sons then came to Pittsburgh and opened a grocery in Oakland in 1952. The brothers – Anthony’s father, Italo, and uncles Salvatore and Antonio – added a store in Uptown in 1960, near Mercy Hospital, and another in Oakland in 1979.
That third location is the only remaining store.
Anthony and Domenica Merante have three sons and live in Peters Township. Anthony owns and operates two other companies, Merante Contracting and AMC Trucking in Baldwin Borough.