Food

A Zabar’s Craft Beer Bar and All the Weekly Dish

Image by Courtesy of Eli Zabar

By Michael Kaminer November 24, 2015

Eli Zabar has expanded his with Eli’s Night Shift, a “craft beer bar” he’ll run with son Oliver.

Also on offer: Signature cocktails and haimish dishes like fish & chips, house-made sausages and house-cured pastrami on rye with mustard.

During the day, the space is one of Zabar’s Essentials cafés. Eli’s Night Shift, 189 E 79th St., New York City

Mexican-Jewish in Houston

Houston’s Rustika Café & Bakery, a beloved Mexican-Jewish hybrid known for its empanadas and over-the-top custom cakes, is opening a second location, reports local blog CultureMap.

Marco Reznick, the son of Rustika founders Leonardo and Francis Reznick, will own the new downtown Houston location with his mother. Look for signature items like cheese blintzes, huevos rancheros and breakfast empanadas. Rustika Cafe, 801 Louisiana St., Houston

Kosher Market at Newark

Newark Liberty International is now home to the first stand-alone kosher market at a U.S. airport.

The Kosher Market opened at Newark’s Terminal C last week, reports YeahThatsKosher. Its parent is CIBO, which runs grab-and-go food concessions at the airport.

Look for sandwiches, salads, wraps, dips and snacks, along with sweets like red velvet cookies, rugelach and non-dairy brownies.

Bay Area Kosher Spot Shutters

Another Bay Area kosher restaurant is shutting its doors, reports JWeekly.

Jerusalem Grill and Bar in suburban Campbell, California, closed for good on November 20. Longtime manager Tammy Nijmeh told JWeekly it was too “challenging and expensive” to keep going.

The past few years haven’t been kind to kosher eateries in Northern California. Upscale Berkeley spot Ristorante Raphael closed in 2007; The Kitchen Table in nearby Mountain View shuttered in 2012. And Oakland’s Amba Grill expired in August after six years.

Chowing Down(stairs) With Einat Admony

At her West Village hotspot Bar Bolonat, Chef Einat Admony is inaugurating a new subterranean dinner series.

Downstairs With… will feature guests chefs. But the maestra herself will cook the first dinner on December 13. It’s a Hanukkah feast whose menu includes a trio of latkes, brisket in pomegranate sauce and sufganiyot.

Admony’s one busy woman, having just added Spanish-Israeli tapas mashup Combina to her portfolio. Bar Bolonat, 611 Hudson Street New York City

Toronto Eatery Introduces Challah

Peter Pan Bistro has been a Toronto mainstay since 1927, when it opened as the Peter Pan Lunch. But only this year did it start serving challah.

When 32-year-old Noah Goldberg took over as chef/owner last spring, he restored the eatery’s Deco-era stained glass and pressed-tin ceilings — and launched a bread program that includes house-made challah every Friday.

“We use the left-over challah for French toast for weekend brunches,” he tells the Canadian Jewish News.

Kosher Hospitality in Montana

When an El Al flight got stranded in Billings, Montana, last week, locals pitched in by delivering kosher food to the stranded travelers.

“You just don’t often get a planeload of Israelis in Billings, and we thought we should do what we could to make them comfortable, and kosher food is a part of that,” Donna Healy, a member of Billings’ Congregation Beth Aaron, told the Billings Gazette.

Fruits, cereal, crackers and hummus were among the rations.

What We’re Drinking at the Holidays

What to wash that holiday meal down with? Those 21 and older who celebrate and drink alcohol on holidays were asked which alcoholic beverages they are most likely to drink on each, according to Convenience Store and Fuel News (yes, Dish looks far and wide for tidbits).

Just over half say wine (51%) and over four in 10 say beer (46%) for Hanukkah. Interestingly, the inverse is true for Kwanzaa (55% beer; 43% wine).

Michael Kaminer is a contributing editor at the Forward.

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