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Thursday, January 24, 2002

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Call it Saturday Night Fever, Pittsburgh style.

At 6 p.m. Saturday -- or maybe a minute or two later -- patrons of bars, taverns, clubs and restaurants all across the Pittsburgh area will raise their glasses to toast the Steelers and wish them success in their big game on Sunday.

Local TV news crews will do live broadcasts of the celebrations, and Steelers fans in "black and gold bars" in other cities will join in at the same time.

At least that's what Wendy Maletta, Cliff Rankin, Tony Ferraro and Bill Flanagan hope will happen. The four organizers were busy yesterday trying to put together the "Toast Pittsburgh" campaign both here and in other cities where the Steelers have fan clubs. The toasts will take place at 6 p.m. Pittsburgh time.

"It's called a toast to the new Pittsburgh and the new Steelers," said Flanagan, marketing director for four local economic development groups.

Maletta works for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, a Golden Triangle booster group. Ferraro is vice president for sales at Pittsburgh Brewing Co. and Rankin is part owner of Atria's restaurant in PNC Park, which is serving as the flagship tavern for the "toast" effort.

"It's an opportunity for merchants and the city to work hand in hand and make something happen for the community," Rankin said.

Flanagan said the toasts will also serve "as a sort of kickoff for all the other weekend parties for the Steelers" that will go on Saturday night and then Sunday morning as tailgate parties leading up to the 12:30 p.m. game against New England.

Rankin is a partner in a Chicago restaurant with Mike Ditka, the Aliquippa native and former University of Pittsburgh and professional football star who is now a CBS broadcaster. Ditka will be in Pittsburgh for a pre-game show at Heinz Field before Sunday's game.

He's coming in a day early and will be at Atria's Saturday night, along with other big names such as Mayor Tom Murphy, some retired Steelers and current players for the Penguins and Pirates, Flanagan said.

In a phone interview yesterday, Ditka, former coach of the Chicago Bears, said he couldn't take part in any sort of pep rally for the Steelers because, as a broadcaster, he has to remain objective. But he said he would dine at Atria's because of his business relationship with Rankin.

"I love Pittsburgh," he said. "I'm looking forward to getting back. It's kind of like Chicago, except smaller."

Starting this morning, Ferraro said he'll contact bar and restaurant owners he knows and encourage them to have their customers join in the toasts on Saturday.

"We want to include as many people as possible," he said. "At the designated time, everybody will tip their glass to the Steelers."

There's a high-tech aspect to the bar effort, Flanagan said.

"We'll ask the participating bars around the country to take digital photos of their parties and e-mail them to us," he said. "We'll post them on our Web site," called newpittsburgh.org.

Ferraro and Christine Antone, another Pittsburgh Brewing official, came up with the idea for the Saturday night toast as a sort of Plan B to hype the Steelers-Patriots championship game.

They said there wasn't enough time to pursue Plan A, which would have been to hold a big outdoor pep rally either Friday or Saturday on the Roberto Clemente Bridge. The pep rally idea will probably be carried out next weekend if the Steelers win on Sunday to go on to the Super Bowl, Flanagan said.

Staff writer Chuck Finder contributed to this report.