Do you consider Trenton an international city? How about a harbinger of international peace? Now largely forgotten is that after half a century of cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union, it was a Trenton restaurant that broke the ice.

Six months before McDonald’s opened in the Soviet Union, and a whole year before the U.S.S.R’s famous first Pizza Hut, there was TrenMos- the first American chain restaurant to open in the Soviet Union. Opened in October 1989, it was founded by Trenton businessman Jeffrey Zeiger at 24. The menu, featuring the New Jersey statehouse golden dome and the Kremlin tower side by side on the cover, features an extensive selection of Italian pastas and pizzas. Both dollars and rubies were accepted at Trent-Mos, and it attracted both local and international guests. The restaurant became so popular that it was able to open a second location, TrenMos Bistro, within a few years of its opening. 

Jeffery Zeiger was sent to Moscow by his father, Shelley Zeiger, founder of Trenton-based Zeiger Enterprises, which had been facilitating American-Soviet trade since the 1970s. Shelley Zeiger grew up in the Jewish community of Zborow, Poland, until Nazi Germany invaded and occupied the town in 1941. His family hid in a cellar for two and a half years, until the Red Army liberated the city in 1944. Shelly Zeiger then was able to migrate to the United States, but remained grateful to the Soviets, forming Zeiger International to import soviet goods in an attempt to improve the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.  This led Shelley to open up AstroPizza USSR in 1988- a truck serving American Pizza in the center of Moscow’s Lenin Hills district. This was the first-ever American eatery in the Soviet Union. Shelley became so noted for his work with the soviet union that two New Jersey governors called him Jersey’s “unofficial Soviet ambassador”. The actual ambassador to the soviet union, Yuri Dubinin, said of Shelley; “We need more Shelleys running around in pizza trucks rather than missiles”.

But the Zeigers’ didn’t find their home in Moscow. Ultimately, it was Trenton that Shelley Zeiger considered his “adoptive city” and the one he chose to raise his children in. The Zeigers, who based their business out of Trenton, were very involved in Trenton’s downtown development. Shelley Zeiger was dubbed “Mr. Trenton” for his investment in Trenton’s downtown. Among various developments, it was the Zeigers who opened up the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Trenton, considered by Shelley as one of his greatest accomplishments. The Zeigers loved Trenton, it was their America. And it was Trenton that the Zeigers wanted to bring to Moscow. 

This led to Shelley Zeiger facilitating a Sister City relationship between Trenton and the Lenin district of Moscow, the first  Moscow sister city relationship with a United States city. Sergei Goryachev, then mayor of the Lenin district of Moscow, met Shelley Zeiger in 1985 and quickly became Zeiger’s main Russian business partner. It was Goryachev who came up with the sister city idea, and later that year Mayor Holland found himself in Moscow with other members of the Trenton administration. The sister city relationship also led to the famous soviet Kirov Ballet performing at Trenton War Memorial the following year in 1986- one of only three stops the company took in its first visit to the United States in 22 years. The sister city relationship was so significant, that in 2005 former soviet president Mikeal Gorbachev came to Trenton to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the sister city relationship, 14 years after the end of Gorbachev’s presidency and the fall of the soviet union. 

The Trenton Public Library’s Trentoniana room collection contains three Lenin medallions, artifacts from the sister city relationship

When Jeff Zeiger was sent to Moscow to run the TrentMos restaurant on behalf of his father, Sergei Goryachev, 55 years old and now former mayor,  stepped in to guide the 24-year-old. Goryachev was the head of the Lenin District Catering Trust, which shared ownership of Trent-Mos with the Zeigers. Much like his dad, Jeffery Zeiger came to Moscow not speaking any Russian or having any familiarity with Russian business or politics- Goryachev guided Jeff Zeiger and TrenMos through that side of the business.

In January 1991, Shelley Zeiger sent a Trenton-based accountant, Nathan Linowitz,  to TrentMos to conduct the first formal audit of the restaurant. Linowitz found a unique American-Soviet restaurant unlike any American or Soviet establishment seen.  The accountant found that TrenMos does not keep traditional books like Western businesses, and while they did have a ledger, it didn’t have an itemized list but just three categories: products, salaries, and “other”. As the Soviet Union would officially dissolve later that year, the westernization could be seen in TrenMos itself- Linowitz was the first to introduce standard Western accounting to the Soviet-U.S. business.

Sadly, TrenMos ended not too long after in tragedy. In 1994, Sergei Goryachev was found killed, shot three times in the back in his garage in Moscow. Rumors spread immediately of a Mafia element, rumors the Zeigers vehemently denied. However, after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Mafia interference with Russian businesses increased exponentially, and many American and international businesses pulled out of the country as a result- including the original Tren-Mos enterprise. Shelley Zeiger passed away from natural causes in 2013, after a long life dedicated to the Trenton community.

Although TrenMos  no longer exists, the legacy of the restaurant, the Zeigers, and the relationship fostered between Trenton and Moscow harkens back to a moment in Trenton where the city played a crucial role on the global stage, at a time when most press on Trenton was focused on its downfall. Trentontonians will always hold the honor of being the first Americans to break the Iron Curtain, and that is no small feat.