Standing on the corner of Wylie Avenue and Elmore Street in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, Franco Harris looks across the street at the names of jazz legends etched on the Legacy senior building—Billy Eckstine, Erroll Garner, Earl “Fatha” Hines—and starts nodding his head.

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT—Members of the group that bought the Crawford Grill in February include, from left: Robert Meeder, Greg Spencer, Jules Matthews, Victor Rogue, Dwight Mayo, Franco Harris and William Generett.

“This is a good corner,” the Hall-of-Famer said. “You stand here and your head just starts bopping up and down. This is such a historic site that the preservation and history of it has to live on. So the question is, how do we do that? Well, the first step is to buy this building—so we did.”

The building Harris is referring to is the Crawford Grill, a Hill mecca for jazz that closed in 2003. He is among a group of four private investors and three nonprofits that purchased the property in February. The others include Randall Industries founder Greg Spencer, Transportation Solutions owner Dwight Mayo, former Fisher Scientific CEO Bill Recker; Pittsburgh Gateways, The Keystone Innovation Zone and The Hill House Economic Development Corp.

I’m going to tell you a secret, but you have to keep it just between us: my macaroni and cheese is better than my mother’s. But she doesn’t know that, so sssh. Mom and her friends use Velveeta processed cheese to make their hot, bubbly, baked delight. My crew and I prefer real cheeses.

According to my employer, The Nielsen Co., the keepers of all the buzz on consumer trends—including what you watch, buy, read, text and surf—mom’s and my differences extend way beyond processed versus real.

When hired, his title was slots manager, but that was only because the Rivers Casino hadn’t been approved for table games. That approval is expected shortly from the Gaming Control Board, meaning Corey Plummer is the Rivers’ new vice president of gaming, the highest ranking African-American in the company.

COREY PLUMMER

Plummer served as the vice president of slots at Red Hawk Casino in Shingle Springs, Calif., prior to joining Rivers Casino. He has broad management experience having worked for Aristocrat Technologies, Inc., opened Native American properties and managed gaming and casino marketing domestically and internationally. He also held executive positions with SKYCITY Casinos in Australia and New Zealand. Plummer began his career in the gaming industry with Harrah’s Entertainment.

After operating the Ultimate Beauty Spa in different capacities for the past 10 years, owner Leslie Askerneesa says the business has evolved where, “I finally understand the meaning of owning a spa. It’s more than just making my clients feel good, but about total health and wellness.” Excited about how far the business has come and the possibilities as to where it is yet to go, Askerneesa says her clients are in for a “better self.”

READY TO ROLL—Massage therapist Aisha Hodges and spa owner Leslie Askernessa prepare to travel to an office building to handle corporate accounts.