By Brittany McCandless | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | April 9, 2007

For Angelo Cammarata, a drink a day keeps the doctor away.

Meanwhile, a few brews and a lot of memories have kept the customers nearby for three-quarters of a century.

So it goes for America's longest-serving bartender, who Saturday began his 75th year pouring beers for customers and friends alike. On Saturday, he served the friends who gathered at his West View joint, Cammarata's Cafe, to celebrate his diamond year.

"I can look three generations back," he said, as he poured an IC Light. "Customers I serve now are in their 20s. I've served their fathers, I've served their grandfathers, and now I serve pop to their sons. So I've served four generations, and I'm still active."

Not one to down a draft, Mr. Cammarata, 93, has lived by the motto "beer is for selling, not for drinking." Instead, he begins his days with a single glass of bourbon and Coke. Though he's used to the smoky bar atmosphere, Mr. Cammarata has never smoked, and he attributes his longevity to "being on my feet the whole time."

The "whole time" dates to the end of Prohibition.

Mr. Cammarata served his first beer -- a 10-cent bottle of Fort Pitt -- in early 1933 -- the year Prohibition ended -- on the first day beer could be legally sold. It was at his father's Federal Street grocery store, and he was just 19 years old.

His father, Catino Cammarata, was a sharp businessman who emigrated from Sicily. Anticipating the repeal of Prohibition, he bought the first license to sell beer in Pittsburgh. On the eve of the first day of legal sales, a brewery truck parked in front of his North Side grocery, and customers lined up outside, thirsty for a cold brew.

"At the first strike of the clock, I took the first case out of the truck and sold the first bottle of beer," Mr. Cammarata said, remembering how he tended the makeshift bar -- actually the store's soda fountain -- until 2 a.m.

And he's been doing it ever since.

He and his brothers continued to tend bar for their father, who built a bar on the site of the grocery store in 1935. Hard-pressed to find a job during the Depression, Mr. Cammarata kept working for his father when he graduated from high school.

After serving more than two years with the Navy during World War II, Mr. Cammarata returned to what he knew best -- bartending. He and his brothers officially took over Cammarata's Cafe in 1945, when their father died.

Keeping the bar's name, Mr. Cammarata relocated the business in 1954 to a small building on Center Avenue in West View, where it stands today.

He even kept some of his original clientele, including his oldest customer, Charles "Blackie" Blackstone, a loyal patron since 1935.

Mr. Blackstone, 92, moved to a nursing home in recent years and was unable to make the celebration, but "Little Blackie," Mr. Blackstone's son, John, 65, came in from St. Louis.

"When I think of my hometown of Pittsburgh, I think chipped, chopped ham, Iron City, the Steelers, the Pirates, and the longest-selling bartender in the world, my friend Angelo Cammarata," he said.

Mr. Blackstone and his son aren't the only ones with titles at Cammarata's -- or Camm's to those in the know. In addition to "Camm," Mr. Cammarata's patrons call him "Ang" or "Mr. C." There's Bob "Snake" Lindsey, who on Saturday sat around the bar he's frequented since the early '70s. At this alehouse, everyone knows your name -- and your nickname.

"This is the epitome of the neighborhood bar," Mr. Blackstone said.

But with the bartender's motto as "Nobody's poured 'em longer," maybe it's not such a typical local joint.

The Guinness Book of World Records has proclaimed Mr. Cammarata the longest-serving bartender in the world, and the August Busches III and IV of beer giant Anheuser-Busch Cos. have honored Mr. Cammarata as the only member of the "70 Years of Service" club.

Now make that 75 years.

Dozens of other awards and articles line the wood-paneled walls at Cammarata's, including a 2004 Playboy article on Mr. Cammarata. It was that article that brought Glenn Barton, 67, of Mt. Lebanon, to Cammarata's for the first time.

"Ang called me to tell me about this party himself," Mr. Barton said. "He told me, 'I want you there, friend.' "

Other patrons have come from as far away as Michigan, Chicago and Florida to have a beer after reading about Mr. Cammarata, who lived above the bar for 25 years with his wife, Mary, until the couple moved out last fall.

Since moving, Mr. Cammarata has cut back on the number of hours he works each day. But he has no plans to stop anytime soon, and he still tends his bar faithfully from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.

"As long as he enjoys it, I enjoy it," said Mary Cammarata, who has been married to the champion bartender for 69 years. "And he enjoys it."

"As long as I wake up in the morning and see my face in the mirror, I'll be happy," Mr. Cammarata said. "I'm just looking forward to 76 years. That will be a new spirit."

Originally published online here: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07099/776378-389.stm