Meet Aimee Marshall | Restaurant Partner/Beverage Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aimee Marshall and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aimee, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
my 2 partners and I wanted to create a Jazz/restaurant/bar venue that put as much creative effort into the food and drinks as the music

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I wanted to take from all the phases I’ve been a part of through the years. When I started there were no cell phones, you had to actually be able to talk to guests at the bar, you were expected to have people skills-because you weren’t wowing with drinks. The craft cocktail movement and revival of jazz age cocktails hadn’t happened yet. We were making manhattans, martinis, highballs. Then with the craft cocktail movement a lot of the personality went away, the friendliness and it was all about making the drink. I think we have done a challenging but great job at turning out creative new cocktails every season but keeping welcoming level of service. . I have managed to not waiver on this creativity just to make things simpler-easier.. one of the more difficult lessons I’ve learned through our hard earned success is that not everyone wants to see you succeed. Even other women -especially if they haven’t been able to, or they were not up for the challenge. We simply couldn’t recover financially from the pandemic. Fortunately we had an opportunity we couldn’t say no to in opening the larger location downtown in the cultural district. Our landlord dt really appreciated our story and turning it into this brand, Con Alma (with soul) my long journey since childhood, Josh’s journey through pittsburgh kitchens, and John’’s journey through Pgh mentors to bring a space dedicated to preserving the jazz tradition in Pgh , giving these talented musicians a place to play, where the food and drinks are created with as much soul as the music .

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Definitely going to include visiting some other independent businesses One of -my favorite place for wine and opportunity to try something new is Allegheny Wine Mixer. -I also have been to great wine tasting at our friends warehouse Barsotti wines, one of my vendors and do not miss a visit to another friend and vendor we have known for years Clemente Museum-I am a baseball fan and besides being a beautiful museum and tribute to the great Roberto Clemente-Duane makes wine downstairs-my absolute favorite, which we are the only ones that carry, is the Pinotage made from grapes brought in from S Africa.
Another small cozy place I enjoy is the exceptional Italian food at Dish-great for dates because no TV’S! That was a super important thing for us in opening Con Alma-no TV. I also love the pizza and vegan options at Spirit-I have also played bingo there and they are a live music venue as well. I love bringing people to Tina’s as well , more wine! And great cocktails plus they are really sweet people there-the natural gruner I had last time-wonderful! We have had really fun staff parties at both those venues. A day on the north shore would be fun to start record shopping at government center, visit Warhol museum, take in a baseball game, then a little gambling At casino. Then a late night set of any of our fav jazz musicians at our downtown location and cocktail.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Besides my partners that believed in my vision and supported my style of cocktail program and wine list I would like to give credit to the staff members that were by my side through the great times and the trying times/transitions/pivots. Particularly our bar manager Hannah Mckee-she has grown in so many ways and developed a signature style that compliments our entire Con Alma concept -Eat-Drink-Jazz We have been working on a link from our cocktails to the song it’s named after-will probably be on our you tube page-for instance Hannah created a cocktail with elements that you wouldn’t think go together and named it Conference of the Birds-soon we will have a QR code to take you to that song/record.

Website: ConAlmapgh.com

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Image Credits
Adam Milliron/Anatheuncesoredchef