Emily Fritz | a&e editor

With the dawning of 2025, 19% of adults in the U.S. vowed to eat healthier for their New Year’s resolutions, according to Statista. But at Apteka, Bloomfield’s only fully vegan restaurant, co-owners Kate and Tomasz Lasky have entered their eighth year celebrating a menu change, lovingly named “Crapteka.”

“Crapteka” is a three-week vegan burger and fry pop-up menu, complete with sunflower seed milkshakes and their take on a Pittsburgh salad. Typically, the venue boasts Central and Eastern European dishes, but every January they “embrace some good crap,” according to their menu.

What began as a pierogi event in 2012 turned into a full-fledged restaurant in 2016.

“We started doing ‘Crapteka’ because we would try to go on vacation in January every year and it was a menu that we could prep ahead of time,” Kate Lasky said. “Eventually it backfired because now it’s too busy for us to go on vacation.”

Now, the Laskys spend their week doing prep work, making everything from vegan yogurt to bread from scratch.

“To handle the volume of people that we get, we can really only be open for three days,” she said.

Even so, Apteka attracts a full house on a regular basis. Pittsburgh creator Jeremy Jones of Discover the Burgh said that he and his wife Angie visit every year for “Crapteka.”

“The burger patties themselves are made from beet, buckwheat and mushrooms and have rich earthy notes,” Jones said. “The sunflower seed milkshakes also have a rich flavor and a unique texture. … You really can’t tell that there isn’t milk in it.”

As a brand that promotes the newest things to “see, do and eat” in the Steel City, Jones is able to visit Apteka four times a year — which is a considerable repeat rate when trying to navigate a city full of opportunities.

Part of what keeps them coming back is the culinary innovations from year to year. For self-described “adventurous eater” and second-time Apteka diner Mandy Seiner, the lesser known plant-based options sweeten the menu.

“This time I tried yuba for the first time ever,” Seiner said. “[It] was smoky and sweet at the same time. It opened me up to a new plant-based dish, and I’m excited to try making it at home!”

Traditionally, some cuisines are more difficult to transform into a vegan dish, but Lasky explained that over the last decade, there has been an “evolution” of plant-based options, giving people who are interested in reducing their animal consumption more choices.

“The alternatives that have been developed over the last couple years, I think that they really hold an important place for a lot of people … they’re very worth highlighting and celebrating.”

This year, the event runs from Jan. 17 to Feb. 2, Friday to Sunday. Limited pre-orders are available online, but due to its popularity, take-out orders are sold out. Come open hours, a line forms outside the door, sometimes down to Pearl Street, according to Lasky.

To accommodate demand, Apteka prepares around 75-pounds of sunflower seeds for sunflower seed ice cream per week and they still sell out.

On Sunday, the callback time for two people arriving 40 minutes into dinner service was 9 p.m. Olivia Ayala of Brookline was among those who couldn’t get in. As a vegan of nearly a decade, she was excited to dine at a fully vegan restaurant.

“It’s nice to go in somewhere and [not] have a hard time choosing what I’m gonna have because … I can eat everything on the menu,” she said.

Ayala and her family are new to the area, coming from Boulder, Colo. Since they moved East, she’s noticed a significantly smaller number of plant-based and vegan dining options.

“Indian food is probably the [easiest] and I think the hardest actually would be Chinese food. They use a lot of chicken broth and fish sauce,” Ayala said. Typically, she ends up cooking at home so she doesn’t have to “ask a thousand questions about what’s in something.”

Although the Apteka menu is in high demand for practicing vegetarians and vegans, Lasky said that the majority of their clientele is omnivorous.

“I’m happy to showcase an alternative to people,” Lasky said. “You can have a meal that doesn’t include meat, and you’re still going to have a nice time. And I think that that’s a really valuable space to hold.”