Apteka

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

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:*

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–> 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: /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

Pittsburgh! Come out to @aptekapgh April 19 for a night of Yiddish archival samples and electronics (and Polish food and wine and spirits!). I’ll be presenting archival material on the theme of “Dortn”, “the beyond.” This term is used in Yiddish folksong to describe a distant love “across the water,” and it speaks to sounds and memories from another time. But, the term has also been used by Yiddish activists as a radical embrace of diasporism, representing Yiddishkeit beyond the nation state. The following evening, I’ll be teaching a workshop for @ratzonpgh (@mr_roboto_project at 6pm) exploring this radical Yiddishkeit, teaching anti-Zionist songs from the early 20th century. Photo by @om_being_ , dots and lines by @studioharamat , second poster by @ratzonpgh :)

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 :>) 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 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 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 :~) 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 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:^*