The Restaurants That Helped Los Angeles Win ‘Coolest Jewish City’ Label
Image by Courtesy of Canters
Food’s a huge part of why L.A. is according to Jewish Journal.
Among the 50 reasons Jewish Journal touts: The Milky Way, the kosher dairy spot belonging to Leah Adler, Steven Spielberg’s mother; the famed Kibitz Room at Canter’s Deli, “one of the coolest music lounges and dive bars in L.A.”; the best shawarma and matbucha outside Israel; the best and most accessible kosher restaurants in America; and an abundance of kosher Mexican.
Eat Your Beer
Image by Courtesy of Regrained
It’s not your imagination if this granola tastes hoppy. A pair of Bay Area entrepreneurs, who met as kids in Hebrew school, is behind ReGrained, which makes granola bars with grains left over from brewing beer. Now, reports JWeekly, the duo has completed a $35,000 crowdfunding campaign that’ll let them “upgrade our recipe, packaging and process for ReGrained’s two flagship bars, Chocolate Coffee Stout and Honey Almond IPA. Next: Maybe granola on tap?
Rome’s Jewish Ghetto — in Toronto?
Image by Stacia Carlton/www.bestillandeat.com
This new Toronto restaurant is so ghetto.
No, really: The menu at Rione XI is a one-pager of the owner’s favorite “ghetto” dishes from Sant’Angelo, the historically Jewish neighborhood in Rome known as Ghetto di Roma. Toronto Life magazine reports that Rione XI’s menu includes stalwarts like carciofi alla giudia — oversized artichokes braised in white wine and lemon for 45 minutes before hitting the fryer. The restaurant takes its name from the quarter’s geographic designation in Rome.
Rione XI, 672 St. Clair Ave. W., Toronto, 647-748-7884
And Another Italo-Semitic Mashup
Image by Courtesy of The General Muir
Atlanta hotspot The General Muir just launched Sunday-night spaghetti dinners, with three courses for just $15.
“The Italian and Jewish immigrant communities lived side by side and ate each others’ food — I think you might still see similar cookies (those pink and green leaf cookies!) in both Italian and Jewish delis in New York and other cities,” owner Jennifer Johnson told Dish. “Plus, we thought it was perfect for a Sunday night, an affordable night out to extend the weekend to the very end.”
The restaurant’s usual fare includes straight-up deli and appetizing, along with homemade baked goods and bagels.
The General Muir, 1540 Avenue Pl., Atlanta, 678-927-9131
Kosher at South Beach Wine & Food Fest
Image by Flickr
Alon Shaya
The peripatetic Chef Alon Shaya will parachute into the South Beach Wine & Food Festival — February 24–28 this year — to prepare the Festival’s first-ever kosher event.
The ticketed dinner, called “Exploring Israel,” will host what the PR is calling a “culinary dream team.” We can’t disagree: In addition to Shaya, chefs include Philly’s Michael Solomonov, Miami’s Zak Stern and, um, Raleigh’s Ashley Christensen.
The Glatt kosher event at the Chabad Downtown Jewish Center will run you $250.
More Huzzahs for Zahav
Solomonov’s also one of the stars on Eater’s second annual National 38 list of the nation’s must-eat restaurants, along with fellow Philadelphians Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby, proprietors of the revelatory veg-centric restaurant Vedge.
“No place else in America serves such a sensuous, transporting and finely wrought feast,” rhapsodizes critic Bill Addison on Solomonov’s Zahav.
Seamless & Grubhub Orders Not Always What They Seem
Image by Courtesy of Mike's Bistro
Kosher restaurant Mike’s Bistro was victim of an online-order imposter.
A kosher restaurant in Manhattan’s fallen victim to a growing scam on Grubhub and Seamless, the online food-delivery services.
NBC’s New York affiliate found that more than 10% of the kitchens among its top New York restaurants were fake locations set up to take orders.
In the case of Mike’s Bistro, the kosher spot, the Grubhub impostor set up an account for “Mike’s Bistro Asian Fusion” at the restaurant’s former address, reports Jewish Journal. A clue: Fake Mike’s served dumplings, which Real Mike’s doesn’t. The fake listing has since been removed.
Bubbe Goes Gourmet
At Theo’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the new beet-cured steelhead with créme fraïche, smoked trout roe and sorrel is a riff on “your Jewish grandmother’s go-to dishes,” according to chef Ryan Skeen. He tells Dish he was inspired by Yom Kippur with his fiancée’s family. We’re assuming he means the break-fast, and not Yom Kippur itself.
Theo’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar, 1048 Third Ave., NYC, 917-475-1721
Kailash Now Fully Kosher
Image by Courtesy of Kailash Parbat
Kailash Parbat, an Indian restaurant in Manhattan’s “Curry Hill,” has gone completely kosher. It had billed itself as vegetarian and kosher, but this week announced kosher certification by Rabbi Yisrael Mayer Steinberg, who has also been kosher supervisor of the 2nd Avenue Deli. There’s also an expanded list of kosher wines.
In Praise of Schmaltz
So now even schmaltz is becoming hip? Pop culture site Paste has a long paean to chicken fat, which apparently is healthier than you think, has a higher smoke point than butter and “makes food taste incredible.”
Festival Alert
The Jewish Congregation of Marco Island, Florida, will host its annual Deli Fest on January 25. Look for matzo ball and barley soups, trad deli sandwiches and a dessert table known as “Bubbe’s Bakery,” featuring rugelach, cheesecakes, mandel bread and more.
Michael Kaminer is a contributing editor at the Forward.
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
