By Karen Postupac, Bulletin Contributor
On January 22, 2025, two of Bloomfield’s local restaurants, FET-FISK and Apteka, were honored with a James Beard award nomination.
James Beard awards recognize establishments and individuals of the food industry as having “exceptional talent and achievement in the culinary arts, hospitality, media, and broader food system, as well as a demonstrated commitment to equity, community, sustainability, and a culture where all can thrive,” says the James Beard website.
Located on Liberty Ave, FET-FISK’s menu highlights locally-sourced produce, sustainably-sourced fish and meats and wines all produced via natural and biodynamic growing, says the restaurant’s website.
This pop-up concept turned brick-and-mortar opened their doors in September 2024, replacing the Italian restaurant, Lombardozzi’s.
Located on Penn Ave, Apteka features an all-vegan, Central & Eastern European menu, as well as an expansive wine shop.
“Apteka means pharmacy in Polish and a lot of Slavic languages,” says chef Kate Lasky of Apteka. “A pharmacy, both a place to go to get stuff to help you feel better, and the cut and dry nature of many of the transactions that take place there- it felt right for a lot of reasons.”
Both the chefs of Apteka and FET-FISK have collected several nominations and achievements over the years.
In 2023, Nik Forsberg of FET-FISK was nominated as a semifinalist for a James Beard Award. In 2024, Lasky and her co-owner Tomasz Skowronski were semifinalists as well.
In 2022, Apteka earned a spot on the New York Times “The Restaurant List,” featuring their top 50 places to eat in America. In 2024, FET-FISK earned the same title.
FET-FISK has been nominated for the “Best New Restaurant” category, where Lasky and Skowronski have been nominated for “Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic,” which includes Washington DC, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Lasky says, “We’re stoked [about the nomination]! It’s an absolute honor to get to represent the city we are from and all of the hard work that goes into making Apteka possible.”
The finalists will be announced on Wednesday, April 2, and winners will be announced on Monday, June 16.