Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

Mason and Mug: A Very ‘Brooklyn’ Kosher Restaurant

Let’s face it: If you’re a young, hip, kosher-keeping Jew living in New York City, there aren’t many places to get a really good bite of food and a drink — not to mention go on a date with that guy or gal you just met on JDate.

Itta Werdiger Roth and Sasha Chack are hoping to fill this culinary void with their new restaurant Mason & Mug in Prospect Heights, slated to open in late October or early November. The 30-seat space with an open kitchen and outdoor patio will serve small plates of vegetarian “global street food,” says Roth, who formerly ran the Hester, an uber popular kosher supper club. While the menu will change seasonally, Roth says diners can expect “bahn mi, fish tacos, soups in the winter, and things that pair well with beer like crostini… and maybe a cheese platter.” To wash down those tasty morsels, the restaurant will offer a selection of locally brewed beer and kosher wines. In many ways, Mason and Mug sounds like it will have much more in common with its Brooklyn neighbors than its kosher competitors.

The pair will focus on evening service (which will be ordered at the bar) and a Sunday brunch. But plans are in the works to eventually open a small food provisions shop in the space, where items from their menu like fresh baked breads and house-made jams could be purchased on the go. Roth describes the idea as a “Place to get supplies for a Sunday picnic in the park.”

Whether the combo of kosher and Brooklyn will be a hit, we will have to wait (hungrily) and see.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.