Con Alma

Con Alma is a live-jazz supper club at 613 Penn Avenue in Downtown's Cultural District. It began on Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside in 2019, and the Downtown room opened in 2021 — the Shadyside original has since closed, so this is now the only location, which is worth knowing because much of the writing about Con Alma describes a different building. It has three owners with three jobs: Josh Ross, executive chef, thirty years in restaurants; John Shannon, a Pittsburgh native and Berklee graduate who curates the music; and Aimee Marshall, beverage director and general manager, who has been in the restaurant community since she was a teenager and listening to Pittsburgh jazz since she moved here at seventeen. Marshall describes the concept as the whole eat, drink, jazz experience — they came up with that and the name at the very beginning. Esquire named it one of the 27 best bars in America in 2021. The food is Latin-leaning and serious: bluefin tuna crudo and tamarind-glazed shrimp at $28, lechon at $38, lomo saltado at $34, a jerk platter at $36, jerk jackfruit roti at $24 for the vegetarians.

The non-alcoholic section is headed, in the restaurant's own slightly mistyped words, "non-alcholic drinks", and it is unusually well constructed for a music venue. Two are built cocktails: the N/A Painkiller, with coconut cream, orange, pineapple and nutmeg, and the N/A Mojito at $10 with fresh mint, lime, sugar and Topo Chico. Then there is a wine and beer line — Eins-Zwei-Zero 0% sparkling Riesling at $12, a Bravas non-alcoholic golden ale at $6, and a rotating non-alcoholic beer worth asking about. Most usefully, there is a shelf of zero-proof spirits sold on their own at $8 or $9: Free Spirits gin, bourbon and tequila, the bitter Dr Zero Zero AmarNo, and Pentire Coastal Spritz. That last group is what makes the room work for a non-drinker, because it means the bar can build you almost anything rather than pouring from a fixed list. One practical thing to budget for: a per-person music charge is added during live sets — $10 on Thursday and Sunday, $15 on Friday and Saturday, $5 in the bar and lounge.