How You Can Help Some One-of-a-Kind Pittsburgh Businesses

PHOTO BY AARON JACK

Con Alma

“If you want to experience something authentically Pittsburgh, come to Con Alma,” says John Shannon, the Downtown jazz joint’s co-founder and music coordinator. “There’s a connection that happens between musicians and listeners through improvisation.”

In the 1940s and ‘50s, the Steel City was a hub for jazz musicians. Fans packed multiple clubs to hear standards such as Dizzy Gillespie’s “Con Alma,” which means “with soul.”

Shannon and his business partners, chef Josh Ross and beverage director Aimee Marshall, founded the Con Alma concept in 2019 to breathe new life into the scene, give world-class artists a home base and serve high-end food, cocktails and wine in a deliberately low-tech environment. Pittsburghers got hip to the place (which is devoid of TVs but has a large collection of vinyl records) thanks to word of mouth.

But, like a lot of live music venues in the post-pandemic era, Con Alma is struggling to attract a crowd six nights a week.

On Sunday, Jan. 25 from 5:30 to 9 p.m., guests are invited to a fundraising gala featuring internationally acclaimed trumpeter Sean Jones & Friends, elevated cuisine, hand-crafted cocktails and some good, old-fashioned human interaction. Tickets are available online.

For folks who can’t make it to the event, a GoFundMe page was launched in December 2025 with a goal of $150,000. Proceeds support Con Alma’s continued commitment to the arts, including live jazz programming and artist collaboration, while also sustaining the chef-driven restaurant and beverage program.

“We are the only place in Pittsburgh that can call ourselves a jazz club,” says Shannon, a guitarist who grew up in the jazz scene. “I don’t book any other type of music. All the greatest jazz musicians in Pittsburgh have played here multiple times. It’s home for the music.”

Con Alma is at 613 Penn Ave., Downtown. Hours are 4:30 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 4:30 to midnight Friday, 4 p.m to midnight Saturday and 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CESINA’S SAUSAGE CO.

Cesina’s Sausage Co.

For a lot of Pittsburghers, Christmas 2025 just didn’t taste the same.

On Dec. 15, a late-night fire destroyed the Cesina’s Sausage Co. building in Aliquippa. John Costanza, who owns the third-generation family business with his sisters, Annette Costanza Patterson and Charlene Costanza Tranelli, says he was about to prepare a 2,000-pound order of fresh, all-natural pork products when the blaze broke out.

Local residents, along with expats who have Cesina’s links and patties shipped to their new homes in California, Texas and South Carolina, had to host their holiday parties without the beloved Italian staples.

The Costanzas didn’t even have any for their yuletide celebration.

As the siblings figure out a way to carry on the culinary legacy launched by their Italian grandparents, they’re once again churning out five flavors — Hot, Medium, Sweet, Sweet ‘n Sassy and Breakfast — at Silver Star Meats’ production facility in Coraopolis.

You can find Cesiana’s at area grocery stores and businesses such as Al’s Pizza in New Brighton, Jenny Lee Breakfast Nook in Coraopolis and Shulligan’s Sports Bar & Grille in Aliquippa. John recently dropped off a specialty sausage blend to longtime customer Frankie’s Extra Long in Lawrenceville. It gets my vote for the best hot sausage sandwich in town.

The Costanza family says they’re humbled and inspired by the outpouring of love from the community.

A GoFundMe account set up by their cousin has raised more than $10,000. On Feb. 22, the San Rocco Foundation is offering take-out spaghetti dinners, including pasta, meatballs, salad and desert, to raise money for the family. From 1 to 5 p.m., you can pick up your pre-ordered meal at the MPI Club, 101 Grand Ave.

Cesina’s sausage has been a part of the annual San Rocco Festa for nearly a century.

The company’s Italian namesake, Cesina Costanza, immigrated to the United States in the 1920s — and brought her family’s time-honored sausage recipe along. Cesina and her husband, Oresto, raised six kids in Aliquippa.

In 1969, their son and daughter-in-law, Charlie and Rosella Costanza, opened a small deli called Chapel Superette, where they made and sold small batches of the sausage. High demand for the product – dubbed the “filet mignon of sausage” — led them to launch Cesina’s Sausage Co. in 1978. The building that was destroyed by fire opened in 1998 and was undergoing renovations.

Charlie and Rosella’s children — who took the reins of the operation in 2018 while maintaining their regular jobs — are determined to rebuild the business that put their family on the map and in the hearts of Pittsburghers everywhere.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HAROLD’S HAUNT

Harold’s Haunt

“At least once a week I have someone tell me that this place is life-saving,” says Athena Flint as we belly up to the bar at Harold’s Haunt.

Since 2022, the Millvale “They-Bar” has provided a safe space for everybody from sober-curious crafters and neurodivergent witches to members of the LGBTQIA+ community. There’s even room for a few friendly ghosts in the Grant Street building (even if their otherworldly antics may have contributed to some costly repair bills).

The calendar is packed with events, including gender-affirming clothing swaps, full moon rituals and an all-ages Sober Sunday, which is supported by New Sun Rising, a Millvale-based nonprofit organization offering programs and services that uplift social enterprises throughout the Greater Pittsburgh Region.

The boozeless bash, held on the first Sunday of each month, features a full and affordably priced menu of Fauxions (mocktails), non-alcoholic beer from Garfield’s Two Frays Brewery and dietary inclusive food, although you don’t have to sip to stay. If you simply want to hang out in a nurturing environment, your cup will runneth over. On sunny days, the fun spills out onto Harold’s back patio.

Harold’s team of mixologists has concocted quite a catalog of tasty beverages over the years and often take the bar on the road to private parties and public events.

Flint, who also owns Maude’s Paperwing Gallery, the neighboring metaphysical shop that’s on hiatus, says Harold’s launched a GoFundMe campaign last November to keep the lights on. So far, it’s raised more than $23,000. They hope to open the small, but licensed kitchen to local chef pop-ups or perhaps share the space with a day-time vendor, as coffee purveyor Lemon Tree PGH did before moving into the Millvale Food & Energy Hub a few blocks away.

As a for-profit business, Harold’s isn’t raking in the dough, but its mission of inclusivity and kindness is priceless.

“The No. 1 goal is still community,” Flint says. “We are trying to find out how to make that work financially. We’re finding other ways to make money to keep doing the things we’re doing. I can’t see us being anywhere else other than Millvale. People have your back. There’s a free fridge, a tool library, the Millvale Community Development Corporation— they want to see us here for the long haul. I think the universe helped me land here and I’m incredibly grateful.”

Link, a 42-year-old regular, sees Harold’s as a homebase on a journey of self-discovery.

“My therapist gave me one goal that I took to heart: find queer community. So I started going to a little witchy They-Bar in my old hometown, Harold’s Haunt,” Link says. “My spouse and I started with Trivia Nights and a few other events at the bar. Through community, I eventually found the courage to come out to everyone in my life on Facebook as trans femme/non-binary. I don’t think I would have found that courage had I not been inspired by so many folks at that bar living their truth.”

Harold’s Haunt is at 142 Grant Ave., Millvale. Hours are 5 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, 5 p.m. to midnight Wednesday through Friday, 2 p.m. to midnight Saturday and 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday.