Jan 21, 2026 | Pittsburgh Business Times
Herky Pollock has opted to turn a vacancy into the opportunity to launch a new restaurant downtown.
Pollock and his wife Lisa are teaming with Chefs Ed and Amanda Smith, who lead their kitchen at Ritual House, to open what they’re calling The Common Good, a fast casual breakfast-and-lunch restaurant.
The Common Good is under construction and expected to open by March 1 in the former location of Freshii, the health-conscious casual restaurant that struggled its way through all the operational challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic before closing toward the end of 2024. The Pollocks are taking over a space for The Common Good on the other side of the Union Trust atrium from Ritual House, which is expected to offer plenty of operational and customer overlap between the two jointly owned restaurants.
The Common Good is slated to serve up casual breakfast, lunch offerings with a menu of fresh salads, grain bowls, soups, sandwiches, smoothies and acai bowls as well as bakery items and coffee, including cold brew, with items typically priced at between $10 and $20, with Pollock emphasizing an approach to complement The Speckled Egg breakfast restaurant also operating in the Union Trust Building.
Pollock said the new restaurant was motivated by the ownership of the building, The Davis Companies.
“The genesis of this was the ownership of the building came to me and said, ‘here’s what we would like to have in this space and can you find someone to do this?” added Pollock.
So they hatched the new fast casual restaurant concept, with Ritual House’s Chef Ed Smith, vice president of culinary, and Amanda Smith, vice president of operations, also both partners in The Common Good.
Pollock sees a different level of demand for such a restaurant now than when a local franchisee closed the Freshii location in the space nearly two years ago after a six year run that faced the hampering influences of the pandemic.
Pollock noted PNC Financial Services Group’s recent announcement of returning to five-day in-office working downtown, suggesting a daytime population boost by itself from one of the city’s largest private employers.
He sees downtown getting busier and has plenty of input on the potential for The Common Good from the clientele at Ritual House, which remains very busy.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of daytime traffic coming into our urban core, both from office dwellers, residents and tourists alike, so we are simply responding to that,” he said. “We feel as if we’re filling a void that currently exists in that part of town.”
The Common Good joins a line of restaurants nearby that already includes Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse along with Ritual House, The Speckled Egg and a Jimmy John’s sandwich shop.
Pollock added major cities typically include a host of fast casual breakfast restaurants in their downtowns and is working to bring that option to the Golden Triangle.