Well, well, well, downtown Pittsburgh is hitting the big [Texas] time with the announcement that Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse will be opening a location in downtown Pittsburgh in 2019.
Del Frisco's original location in Dallas is THE restaurant of choice for the oil and gas crowd. Think gold Rolexes and black Escalades.
Could this be a nod to recent price increases in oil and natural gas, and thus the revival of the Marcellus region? Can a $100 per steak restaurant chain be a leading indicator?
Along those lines I noted that Geekwire.com reported last Friday, in fact before any other media outlet did such, that Facebook was establishing artificial intelligence development hubs in Seattle and Pittsburgh. Over the weekend there's been more reporting in the local Pittsburgh media as well as nationally based tech pubs and even the New York "Times". Interesting to note that many of the pieces focus on how higher education institutions like CMU are being 'brain-drained' when academics can as much as triple their salaries at these corporate led AI efforts.
Well as long as this new push to establish technology hubs includes Pittsburgh on the locational map - and it would seem that is happening - what's the worry? One of the most perplexing questions regarding Pittsburgh's economy over the last 20 years has been that salary levels are consistently lower that its peer cities, even as Pittsburgh expands jobs in high tech, finance and medicine. I for one wondered when we were going to catch up and stop the regional brain-drain that took our best and most creative off to coastal cities and places such as Denver and Austin?
Maybe this is a leading indicator that is the start of competition for Pittsburgh's talent that will ultimately, finally lift the local salary scale. Here's hoping for more good leading indicators.
