WE WILL BE CLOSED FOR OUR ANNUAL FALL BREAK OCTOBER 15th-25th :)

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lonely no more every sunday 9-11p lonely septemb lonely no more every sunday 9-11p lonely september line-up -—> tonite! 9.6 The wandering eye of Pittsburgh- Dave Bernabo- builds up with earth music meets paranoid America meets awe and wonder, with selections from where American avant-garde meets pop music, funk that features Junie Morrison, German jazz, calypso, and some soundtrack music. 9.13 Spaghetti Dinner (aka our Anni) wades through a romantic off and on relationship of dense distortion and intimate ambient cadence. Drapery of foggy shoegaze, lonely ballads, frustrated rants, and chewy strings. 9.20 Heartthrob PVKVSV makes dinner- expect ladles of stewed feelings to help usher the transition from summer into fall. Indie pop, jazz-grunge, alt rock & rnb, experimental/instrumental hip-hop. 9/27 Flyswatter Trio +2 Live Jazz! lineup: Jon Birkholz, Riley Young, Patrick Breiner, Andy Bauer, Nick Larsen work through compositions of Paul Motian performed by musicians from Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and New York City. Serious stuff - consider reading something dense before you come or at least wear a cool hat or something.
Last few days of this year’s short + sweet sunflow Last few days of this year’s short + sweet sunflower season:) Been running iterations of this dish every year since 2018 when after years of trying with local farms, our bud Todd @tinyseedfarm grew lovely heads -> picked at the sweet spot where the seeds are almost full size but without shells -> we can grill them and eat the seeds kind of like corn off the cob. It’s a difficult harvest with a short window when the flowers, all ripening at different moments, are perfect for picking, but few years ago we cracked the code with Reese @medinasunflowerfarm . Reese (awesome dude in slide 4) plants a bunch of fields in two week successions, with the main purpose of being the backdrop for baby/engagement/family/occassional boudoir photos. It’s an ideal set-up — a quarter of a million flowers all unsprayed, all ripening at slightly different stages, with tons of flowers to pick through for the right ones in spite of whatever nature’s been throwing at season. This week was the last good picking for the season —> the silver lining that it was one of the loveliest harvests of 300 big beauties. Truth be told, it’s kind of a pain in the ass to give up 7 hours every week to bring these guys back to Pgh, but it’s a dish we forever dig. It’s a North American native that was brought over to Europe, shopped around until it found a great customer in the Russian empire which helped nail its prominent place in East Euro culinary tradition. Oil & seeds are obvious, but what is really popular at markets and more of a rarity here are whole heads of sunflowers with fully developed seeds for snacking around the table. It’s always felt cool to run a dish that built around this iconic big flower that’s kind of a jazzy echo result between North America and Europe. Słonecznik immature sunflower head roast over the wood-fired grill, brushed with a gastrique made mostly from reduced apple scraps and Peachy’s ACV, brushed again with slow roast sunchoke + butter made from cultured sunflower seeds, dusted with dried and pulverized : sun petals + smoked cab + onion + fermented green tomato + coriander + fermented beet. Sweet/sour/smoky/funky. Here today & Thursday then next year:)
Lonely No More August is living. Sundays 9-11p Lonely No More August is living. Sundays 9-11p 8/2 Mother Mushroom - soundtracks the depths of chanterelle season with ancient and modern music of the Baltics - expect a fusion of meditative chants, expansive folk, vintage jazz and psychedelia. 8/9 Carrie Sours - shares heirloom Northeast Ohio Funk, Boogie, New Wave and Electronic Dance Records 1979-1989. Picked ripe, still good! 8/16 Amy Weiland chews on the bone- and leans hard into the blue Chernobyl dog days of summer. atmospheric dub, hip hop, and a healthy shake of girl power. 8/23 Davis Galvin puts in the work- expect god’s favorite angel to lay out a patchwork of cog works, atmospheres, canyons. Leave the headlamps- D’s got glowing oscillations. 8/30 jazzteka vol.2! Dylan Zeh, Derek Bendel, Eli Weidman- LIVE FREE JAZZ- Back to prove a point- Kinetic improvised jazz inspired sounds- group scribbling and free hand. 👁️👁️
been loving the ig break- but we got to post some been loving the ig break- but we got to post some food pics before we throw up another lonely no more schedule :/ desserts this week—> Ciasto Drożdżowe z Morelą yeasted cake baked with roast apricots + roast apricot jam + crumb with apricot cream ^only here for the weekend Lody z Pestek Wiśni z Pieczonymi Czereśniami (pictured melting in the sun) cherry pit + almond ice cream with roast sweet cherries + walnuts roast in post-cordial black walnut molasses Ciasto Malinowe layered sponge with raspberry jam, oat creme pat, light set raspberry flax meringue >>>>>> Every year, we head up to our buddy Jim’s orchard on Lake Ontario to pick some of bulk fruit we process for the year. Tomasz’s parents, Maria i Marek, plus the two of us and our occasional bonus picker ~my sister Claire!~ spend a day picking two RAV4s worth of fruit — dark tart cherries (mostly Jubileum & Balatons), apricots, and early plums. This year has been bad for fruit —> a late frost ruining fruit crops across a lot of the eastern US. Jim lost almost all of his apricot crop and about 25% of cherries:( We came back with a little less than normal —> the 600# of apricots from last year shrunk to a tough 100# this year —> just 400# dark tarts made it back this year —> tried to make up for a bit of the volume loss with 300# of sweet cherries. (Apricot pic is some of the 2025 haul) Most of the fruit gets processed for the year —> cordials for the bar, steam juiced for kompot musujacy, jam and sorbets for desserts. A small allotment goes toward the moment —> as always running a few weeks of sour cherry pierogi (maybe through next week?), plus a couple sweet things on the menu right now 😋
🌝 Lonely No More  Sundays 9-11p deep summer.  Th 🌝 Lonely No More  Sundays 9-11p deep summer.  The start of the big stick. July 5-  Il duo iItaliano - Zonamorta- piece together dark parts for a nocturnal celebration.  Coolgoths4coolgoths.  July 12- Alvin Row is making a late dinner- guy cooks for a big family- eat jazz, folk, electronic- no room for dessert.  July 19- Indigo Baloch lingers in the maybe memory haze of late night drives and last kisses. Adrift in the tragical magical.  July 26- Good Dude Lojack brings hope.  Special rhythm rider extraordinaire makes it fun.  C u soon :*
Closed today 7/4 Open tomorrow 7/5 📷 @nathancepha Closed today 7/4 Open tomorrow 7/5 📷 @nathancephas :)
oooOOOooo Sundays 9-11p @ Apteka is Lonely No Mor oooOOOooo Sundays 9-11p @ Apteka is Lonely No More. June lineup: 6/7 (Tomorrow) : Jazzteka - avant jazz exploration - live free jazz 3 piece- Dylan Zeh, Eli Weidman, Derek Bendel. 6/14 Ziad Adamo shares post Arab spring awakening. Traditional rhythms and music interpreted by contemporary artists and new instruments. 6/21 Michael Parente lingers for this last chance for a slow dance. MP’s last weekend in Pittsburgh- set to soundtrack of techno> ambient> instrumental> house> techno. 6/28 Dana Bishop Root plays Resistance songs. >> A kind of breath work, a call to each other in rage, in grief, in tire. Jubilation is inevitable. c u soon:*
Late start to spring this year is Pittsburgh. Hot Late start to spring this year is Pittsburgh. Hot then cold — some things got frost early, some things germinated late. Still relying on the last bit of root veg stores while more green makes it to the building:) Asparagus made it to us a few weeks ago- the set we’re running this year is a green tasty one —> Amish + Mason Farms asparagus sauteed in smoked onion+BP/WP+++ vin paste at the bottom from mostly blanched fresh mint + boiled sunseeds green jus from blanched TRG spinach + parsley with coriander heavy light stock- with a spent flax + onion bun for soppin up the mess- in ever so slightly limited supply while we are only getting about 65#/ week to tide us over + perennial favorite back for the season —> sparkling mint tea from Coldco mint + dried peppermint and our fresh peppermint C u sooooon:*
L o n e l y N o M o r e M a y L i n e u p -—> Tom L o n e l y N o M o r e M a y L i n e u p -—> Tomorrow- this Sunday, May 3rd: Funeral Parade of Roses plays „Easy Listening For Difficult Personalities” —> leftfield selections of dub, post punk, ambient, jazz and komische. May 10 Karilyo fruit from hard labor grown in dub rich soil. May 17 Kinseland Radio—> a vinyl-driven sonic experience created by Anqwenique and DS Kinsel —> listening to their hearts and trusting their hands to guide the groove, they take listeners on a journey through throwback deep cuts of classical, jazz, hip hop, rhythm and blues, rock, and retro pop. Kinselland vinyl collection is a blend of ancestral inheritance and personal crate-digging discoveries. May 24 Taste Sensation aka Anna B plays through a spiritual commitment to your summer bod —> the salty taste of beading sweat on your upper lip + optimistic lunges. May 31 Ricky Mawzlin the other half of Jellyfish plays dreamy motorik grooves plucked from all over the world. <333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
In one week - Wednesday, May 6th - we are hosting In one week - Wednesday, May 6th - we are hosting our friends Agnes and Katarina from Slobodné Vinárstvo, a farm and vineyard in western Slovakia to help contextualize their beautiful wines while we cook some Slovak spring staples for dinner:) Tickets available through the link in our bio and on our website:) Read about the incredible story of their historic family vineyard here: https://www.littlewine.io/winemaker-magazine/slobodne We’ll be pouring through some of our favorite bottles with lots of food to pair. See you then:*
Some food shots through Nate’s camera lens: 1–> Some food shots through Nate’s camera lens: 1–> Zupa Szczawiowa sour sorrel soup from @coldcofarm fresh sorrel with wilted spinach, potato, and a nod to the regularly featured pairing of an egg—> instead soup cream from cultured nuts with a carrot dot. Slice of Mike’s spent flaxseed sourdough boule for dipping. 2–> a. Sałatka Ziemniaczana potato salad with Minty’s green garlic, spinach, fried and fresh onion, smoked celeriac, kale rabe, vin from our rye bread miso + cultured sunflower seed paste + charcoal oil b. Lángos Hungarian yeasted and fried bread with foraged greens picked early Friday by prof. Marek: flowering dame’s rocket + wild garlic + nettle + ramps + for today some hops shoots from our Apteka backyard -> all seared and sitting atop smoked double fat Veg ++ from Coldco/ Central PA Produce Coop/ Three Rivers Grown/ Minty’s Garden/ Frankferd/ wild and wonderful Western PA, per always :) see you this weekend:* 📷 : @nathancephas
Link in bio: https://reservations.aptekapgh.com/sl Link in bio: https://reservations.aptekapgh.com/slobodne Thrilled to say that Slobodné Vinárstvo is at Apteka May 6. Slobodne Vinarstvo is a vineyard making beautiful wines in Hlohovec, Slovakia- about an hour NE of Bratislava lead by sisters Agnes and Katka, and their partners Andrea and Miso. They’ve been a staple producer for us for almost as long as we’ve been open; a biodynamic wine project focused on great farming and minimal input intervention in the cellar, grown out of a farmstead with a tremendous story that started in 1912, when their family survived Nazis and communism, and is now is their home. Creative and experimental, Slobodne makes all types of music out of: Gruner Veltliner, Devin, Traminer, Riesling, Pinot G, Sauv B, Frankovka, Cab Sauv, Alibernet,.. Incomparably warm and generous hosts, back in 2021 they put us up for a couple nights- invited us to pick grapes, let us cosplay as vitners as we paddled traminer for their orange wines, tasted through all the amazing things they had working in the cellar at every stage- drank and smoked and ate artichokes. Don’t know where you’d even start looking for more cool + talented + real hard working people. These are wines we, and many of you, have grown to know very well - and we’re over the moon we get to host Agnes and Katarina at Apteka for an evening pouring Slobodné wines paired with Slovak flavors of Spring:) Event details: Wednesday, May 6th 6-9p Slobodné Vinárstvo wines with the makers Plenty of food to fill you up $90/person for food/wine/gratuity included. Limited by space- tickets for this event will be available Friday (4/24) at noon through our website- email us if you run into trouble:) <3
Open for regular hours today—> ++ Lonely No More Open for regular hours today—> ++ Lonely No More tonight is with the cool like Spring Jules Malice @jmal_malzof 9-11pm —> Final stretch for the current dessert line-up:) a. return of the chocolate mazurek with spent sunflower seed caramel and chocolate ganache and candied sunflower seeds b. parsnip cake with parsnip creme pat, flaxseed meringue parsnip buttercream, standing tall in a puddle of candied parsnip anglaise c. walnut milk ice cream with an oat & sunflower granola laced together with a honee we made from apples, oranges, and flowers including autumn olive blossoms and our last bit of precious honeysuckle syrup <3 (gf) swipe for the menu- just a reminder that the current menu is updated on the site every Thursday night!
Lonely No More—> Sundays 9-11p. Deep vibrations :> Lonely No More—> Sundays 9-11p. Deep vibrations :>) Special $6 drink :~) This month: 4/5 - Malzof plays through the lush and enchanted on their way to the groovy ambient.  4/12- Albert Hall fills it out with sounds from the save room; ethereal sonic snacks for a nostalgic digital hang.  4/19- Chaia performs electronic music built on sampled archival Yiddish folk music and practice- exploring echoes of memory and ritual. 4/26- Gladstone Deluxe rolls it out of hot mass and spoons it right back with bowlfuls of cloudy electro. C u then:~* #janbrzechwa
Power is back today! Food 5-10pm. @9 Lonely No Mo Power is back today! Food 5-10pm. @9 Lonely No More is a knee deep in krautrock adventure with Stephen Tsong aka Formosa aka 1/2 of Jellyfish:) $6 LNM special cocktail :)) Also- A little dude leaving the menu soon: Surówka z buraków Prażony i gotowany słonecznik zmielony na hummusopodobną pastę z suszonym, po-zakwasowym burakiem + pestki dyni – na bardzo ostrym ogniu skarmelizowane i lekko przypalone – kilka cienkich piórek cebuli oraz melasa z buraków. Na wierzchu mała sałatka z lekko przysmażonego buraka i jabłka marynowanego w zalewie po burakach, z dodatkiem ogórka konserwowego z zeszłego lata. Podane z kromką ciemnego żytniego chleba 🤙 Bombeczka :) ~~~>> Roast and boiled sunflower seeds blended into a hummusy paste with some post-zakwas beets+ sprinkled with burnt peppery candied pumpkin seeds+ some raw onion + and some beet molasses+ topped with a salad of lightly fried beets, apples marinated in beet brine+ crunchy Kirby pix from last summer:) Served with a thin cut of our sunflower dark rye:) -> extra fun Sunday making up for a blackout Saturday- c u sooooooon;^*
Current ice cream set —> on the menu today for Vin Current ice cream set —> on the menu today for Vintoeka —> on the menu this weekend —> leaving the menu soon:) Lody Jogurtowe z Dynią > >ice cream spun from a base we make from our cultured cashew + almond yogurt >candied winter squashes- >kabocha and koginut >candied hickory nuts Many years ago I got a cold call from a guy who turned out to be David, an Amish man who is the manager of a Central PA Produce Coop, a cooperative of Amish organic farmers in Tyrone, PA. Their farmers helped us fill some gaps in staples we buy from for the restaurant - bulk potatoes, beets, carrots, onions+++ - and they soon starting growing items specifically for the restaurant - celeriac, dill, horseradish+++. Some of the team come to Apteka for a meetings 2 times a year, and after seeing the bottles of tinctures on the shelves and trying some of the teas and food, they starting calling us with things they are finding around their properties. The highlight, for us, is the annual hull of hickory nuts:) Last year, we made a rich milk out of hickory nuts and spun it into an ice cream. This year, they are candied and hanging with this set. They also grew the squash on the dessert:) Back in November, we drove out to Tyrone to visit and see their operation. One of the things that is amazing about their operation is that they - as Amish - use no electricity and use a passive cooling system to store crops through the year. Giant rooms at the middle of the building get filled to the brim from the roof with handcut iceblocks- harvested from a shallow tarp lined pond next to the building during coldest months of winter. In November, the ice was still holding strong 11 months after harvesting. They’re old religion Amish- prefer no pictures so we don’t have portraits- but a few pics for flavor — chicory coffee David made us, the top of the ice elevator, one of the many stacks of butternut squash in a warehouse filled with butternut squash. C u soon:*
Lonely No More—> Sundays 9-11p. Special drinks :~) Lonely No More—> Sundays 9-11p. Special drinks :~) Deep vibrations :>) March schedule is super stacked. Looks like a bowl of peak ripeness tropical fruit —> biiig flavors. Tomorrow- Sunday March 1st - Annah Darling sits in the corner and illuminates with jazz fusion, funk, slow disco, and rare groove. A soundtrack to unwrap your mind to, a few tracks to help you put it back together. Beverages matched lubricate the operation. C u soon :*
Lonely No More returns today for the first time si Lonely No More returns today for the first time since the pandemic. Starts at 9 runs till 11 on Sundays. Food has always been a focus of Apteka, but it’s missing a part of its soul if we don’t acknowledge how important it was for us to have the the right atmosphere. Maybe the climate we aim to create is sometimes hard to pick up on in the madness of a dinner rush, so Lonely No More helps define the space for the p2p connection. For those of you who don’t know what it is: Friends of the restaurant, djs and civilians alike, set up in the corner on Sunday nights (our last shift before our ‘weekend’) and curate the soundtrack for the night. Whether it’s crème de la crème of yodeling, Soviet era jazz, lady leads in murder ballads- the genres tilt towards niche and nothing but candles light the way during our sincere effort to make a special space. The return of LNM needs top tier navigators to help guide a solid takeoff- that’s why our little hearts, our adorable friends @a.cosby + @gusto.misc + @sasb.radio @alexinexile =@detourpgh, are leading the way. We go way back with this crew, been with us since our Pierogi Night pop-ups before the restaurant, helping us run the door, fry and serve rogi- absolutely love these humans❤️🫂 Iykyk- but there’s no other choice of company when it comes to this family affair of celebrating Apteka’s birthday. C u soon:^*
February 20th, 2016 we were open for our first ser February 20th, 2016 we were open for our first service. That means TODAY we turn 10 years old 🫢. Straight up coo-coo bananas. Thank you so much for all the love, support, friendship and care over the past decade. This project has been absolutely life changing. It’s been an incredible opportunity to do this and an impossible grind, but we’ve been so lucky to get to do it. Friends told us we’d be fools to just let this weekend pass by without commemorating the milestone, and they’re right. Lonely No More returns THIS SUNDAY! - and first to bat are our dear dear friends- @detourpgh . This will de facto be our lil bday party- nothing crazy- ifykyk- starts at 9pm (2/22). Love you, Pittsburgh- couldn’t do it without you.
Two weeks ago- with the crowds distracted by orang Two weeks ago- with the crowds distracted by orange mayonaisse slathered burgers- @kolinsmith , our front of house manager for the past 6 years, quietly made his escape in the dark of snowy crapteka. Kolin started working on the floor and behind the bar at Apteka a few months after we opened in 2016- stayed on for a year, went on to help manage another spot, and came back to manage the front at Apteka at the start of 2020, having his wedding at Apteka in between. Kolin was a crucial part, like a femur + some fused verterbrae + and a lot of the small hand bones- in the skeleton crew we were drawn down to during the pandemic. Everything got flipped, and he was such a key player in keeping us afloat. Service went to takeout- ordering was a nightmare he mostly handled on his own. The bar program, out of reach without dine-in, had to get repackaged- drinks got kegged then bottled- and with Kolin we blew our small wine program into a wine shop and the robust and more focused program that it is today. The work we put in together during the big reset layed the groundwork for the evolved restaurant we came back to. For the past few years, Kolin has been the face of Apteka to most of our guests. If his annual stack of Christmas presents from patrons says anything, he’s beloved. He’s managed and trained the front of house crew, run service, collaborated on the extensive beverage program, and filled in too many gaps in this massive project to count. The dude- his discipine, kindness, dedication- has been a key ingredient in our special sauce and the success of the project. We are so grateful. Thank you Kolin and cheers to you. And as they say in the big leagues (he’ll get this cuz he loves baseball), „the greatest feat and greatest loss are one in the same, hitting that ball over the fence so far that you never see it again’” Love ya, bud.
~last day of Crapteka~ Baked off the last 450 bun ~last day of Crapteka~ Baked off the last 450 buns to get through today —> ready for the last push 😤 New to this year: Squonk Burger from the bottom: -> cultured carrot butter —> beet + mushroom + buckwheat vegburger -—> roast onions -—-> dill + bread n butter pickles dressed in mustard sauce ——-> red and green kraut stewed with chilis ———> squonk mayo spun from toast sunflower oil, charcoal oil, turmeric Thank you everyone for showing up for this 3 week madness:) Year after year- thanks for making January, an otherwise slower month, into a slammed one<3 Back to Apteka next week!
❄️We are closed this Sunday!❄️ This might be our ❄️We are closed this Sunday!❄️ This might be our first time closing in anticipation of bad weather- but tomorrow, the first Sunday of Crapteka, we are closed:( With the forecast of really low temperatures and really heavy snowfall - expecting a hard time of getting staff and customers here safely- we’re calling it now. Everyone with Sunday preorders has been reached out to- check your emails about moving the order to today or next week. We’re intentionally overloading ourselves today- trying to honor all of our food commitments and make people happy - so bear with us😅. ❤️thanks❤️!
Incredibly honored to be nominated as semi-finalis Incredibly honored to be nominated as semi-finalists in the Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages category for this year’s @beardfoundation awards. So many hands at Apteka make our beverage program something really special —> Thank you to Zach Rihn, long standing member of the kitchen crew, for foraging and curating a deeply creative and beautiful wild tea program from the plants of Western PA <3 Thank you to Kolin Smith, our collaborator of 6 years(!) on the wine program, pouring himself into learning the hundreds of bottles that make it to our list, shakings hundreds of trial cocktails as we dial in recipes, running service for front of house — so, so much work keeping this place running. It’s Kolin’s last week — what a way to leave with national recognition for all of his hard work. Thank you Prof Marek Skowronski, our dad/father-in-law who forages big bulk fruits, flowers, herbs, greens — he helps us get so much cool stuff when we are in the deep shit of prepping and running a restaurant. Thank you to the many winemakers across Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Czechia, Croatia, the US, who have hosted us across the years, giving up your time to show us your operation and craft so that we can better represent you in Pittsburgh<3 (Last vid is Ulli Stein from 2024) Huge congratulations and thank you to the Apteka crew for everyone’s hard work, enthusiasm, kindness♥️ Special shout out to Ethan for his extra help behind the bar:) There’s a lot to say about our beverage program- our cocktails, nalewki (cordials), kompots, sodas, teas, beers, the wine- we’ll try to get to it soon:) <3 <3 <3 while we get the madness of crapteka together:P!! Also- big congrats to our buddies- fellow Pittsburgher @jamilkabm and fellow vegan Ian @pietramala_phl for their noms!
Regular Apteka today + tomorrow —> Crapteka for 3 Regular Apteka today + tomorrow —> Crapteka for 3 weeks after that. This special bite from the Wigilia menu got pulled to the weekly trifold for a little more time to shine in the Pittsburgh dusk —> Krakow-style pretzel mixed with hemp seed, topped with sesame seeds, and piped with smoked celeriac + boiled toasted sunflower seed paste. Center scoop of Polish salad -> apple + pickle + potato + celeriac + carrot, an annual must. Extra shout out to Mike for dialing in a pretzel recipe we really dig. A kiss of spelt for a little extra 🤌😙🤌 See u this week, see u next week, see u forever :*
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