Zenith

Zenith Pittsburgh's oldest vegetarian restaurant. We sell antiques, vintage clothing & jewelry
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Happy Fathers Day to all of the zenith dads out there! And remember to hug your dads! This is my father he will be turni...
06/21/2026

Happy Fathers Day to all of the zenith dads out there! And remember to hug your dads!

This is my father he will be turning 90 soon!

A poem I wrote about him….

Grape Jelly In Ice Cream
by Robert Trakofler

Was a time, in a young boy’s scheme
To even think or foster the notion
To spoon grape jelly, in ice cream
If it weren’t for my dad’s grand devotion

I would still be, blindly eat-ing
Bland bites of bitter creams promise… broken

When in that age, of how’s and why
Those many questions from a curious mind
You never once, batted an eye
Always with an answer you took the time

As I peered, at clouds in the sky
From the back seat… on so many a drive

Now I am older, this is true
And find while I’m driving down my own path
I still see those clouds… think of you
And my crave of wonder, remains steadfast

The more I know, the less I do
But jelly in ice cream is unsurpassed

06/20/2026

What fascinates me most about public outrage over AI is how selective it is.

People condemn the visible apparition while living comfortably inside the house that summoned it.

They rage at an AI image while standing knee-deep in systems already shaped by invisible automation — recommendation engines, predictive text, ranking algorithms, search engines, curated feeds, targeted ads. The invisible AI is infrastructure. The visible AI is heresy.

I am not saying the criticism is baseless. There are real concerns: theft, homogenization, the erosion of labor, the cheapening of effort. I have already experienced theft with my own work being sold by strangers without royalties.

But much of the loudest outrage feels less like thought than theater. The deeper problem is not AI alone, but the environment into which it arrived.

Long before generative AI, we had already become a society of meme intellectuals. People stopped reasoning through positions and began inheriting them through repetition. A slogan. A clip. A caption. A trigger phrase. Click once, and the system feeds you more. Not more truth. More of what confirms you, enrages you, and keeps your judgment ornamental.

That is not enlightenment. That is conditioning.

I am just a small business owner who happens to be a poet, but I have watched this change for years. People tell me not to use an AI image, while demanding I keep feeding the very platforms that reward outrage and shallow certainty.

How is that for poetic irony?

There is no good reason for working at The Zenith that I can think of.The pay is marginal, and we offer no good prospect...
06/03/2026

There is no good reason for working at The Zenith that I can think of.

The pay is marginal, and we offer no good prospects for a healthy future whatsoever. The workload is gruesome, and the owners have all the personality of a honey badger with a toothache. If you’re looking for a laid-back, chill environment, this is not for you!

But the flip side is—and I say this with a sense of pride—if you can withstand the insanity that will ensue, you will become one of the most employable people in the tri-state area. Even if your state may be slightly less sane than before you started working with us.

The people who stay with us are among some of the best people I know. Many of them return to help out once in a while when their lives get too easy and they need to remember what work is truly like. Perhaps it’s a form of Stockholm syndrome. I don’t know.

But if you can hack it, and tolerate us, something happens…

You become part of the Zenith family.

Sorry. It does happen.

And then you realize we don’t do this just to make money. We’re still working on that part.

We do this because we care.

We care about being a no-waste restaurant. We care about recycling old things in our shop. We care about promoting local artists of all kinds. And most of all, we care about the people who come here and believe in the same things.

The Zenith is a place of freedom of expression, and we believe in the freedom to be whoever you want to be without question. We are an inclusive environment and do not tolerate social prejudice of any kind.

I can’t promise working here will land you in a straitjacket, but I can promise we will provide ample opportunity.

If you have read this far and are still interested, please give us a call at 412-481-4833 or stop by.

We need help particularly on Sundays, but would like to incorporate someone into a day during the week as well.

The Zenith
86 South 26th Street
Pittsburgh, PA
412-481-4833

What a beautiful family! Thanks for sharing your wonderful family with us today:) so many of them came from India to joi...
05/29/2026

What a beautiful family! Thanks for sharing your wonderful family with us today:) so many of them came from India to join the Sanghvi gathering! When I asked what they were celebrating they responded… each other! we wish you many years of happiness and joy!

The Zenith will be closed this week for general maintenance; of our sanity.We have some things we need to get done aroun...
05/20/2026

The Zenith will be closed this week for general maintenance; of our sanity.

We have some things we need to get done around here, and besides, this time of year — especially with the upcoming holiday — has been notoriously slow. So we decided to preemptively strike the disappointment and just not open this week!

Thank you for your patience, understanding, and continued support of our strange little corner of the universe.

— Robert
The Zenith





I found this old foot marker in an abandoned cemetery on a hill overlooking Brady’s Bend on the Allegheny River. The chu...
05/10/2026

I found this old foot marker in an abandoned cemetery on a hill overlooking Brady’s Bend on the Allegheny River. The church had long since gone, with only a few footstones left scattered along the hillside, but it was a most picturesque location for a house of worship.

Brady’s Bend was named after a Revolutionary War scout who rescued two captured children from a band of Seneca warriors.

This footstone was all that remained. The headstone had either disappeared into the hillside or had been relocated, but I remember thinking it didn’t matter that I didn’t know her name, because the most important aspect had been preserved for time:

MOTHER

When I did the rubbing, a small plant got caught between the paper and the stone, but I liked the symbolism of it, so I kept it.

The plant is long dead now, and so is the mother, but their legacy lives on. Someday, we will be gone too. It is up to us to leave a legacy worthy of the ones who fostered ours.

God bless the mothers.

04/21/2026

Remembering Ted Moses AKA the mayor of southside! love is the greatest memorial

04/21/2026

What a nice celebration

04/21/2026

Remembering Ted Moses of is the greatest

Address

86 South 26th Street
Pittsburgh, PA
15203

Opening Hours

Thursday 11:30am - 7pm
Friday 11:30am - 8:30pm
Saturday 11:30am - 8:30pm
Sunday 11am - 2:30pm

Telephone

+14124814833

Website

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