‘Kosher Pizza Wars’ Restaurant Regroups With New Chef And Improved Menu
Yesterday, Basil Pizza and Wine Bar — a Crown Heights-based kosher dairy hotspot — was closed for business. But only temporarily.
According to a report from hyperlocal news site, COLlive, Basil is undergoing a remodel of sorts. It will reopen on Wednesday, October 18, with both a new chef and a new menu. The owners told COLlive that the re-tooled menu will include a mix of “popular favorites as well as cutting-edge dishes the kosher world has not seen before.”
Over the past few months, Basil experienced a series of unfortunate events. Back in March, after a beit din battle with Calabria — a kosher pizza shop that opened across the street — Basil was awarded a pyrrhic victory: Calabria received kosher certification after minimal adjustments. Then, in late June, after Basil’s landlord allowed a landscaper to trim the bushes outside the restaurant on Shabbat, the OK — a kosher certifying agency — revoked its certification for Basil. Instead, Basil had to rely on the “self-certification of Menachem Mendel Schneerson son of Harav Sholom Ber Schneerson OBM of Kehilas Bais Schnei-Or” as the restaurant reported in a Facebook post. In the midst of this turmoil, Basil’s outspoken manager Clara Perez left her post.
Does this mean that the OK will re-certify Basil Pizza and Wine Bar? That remains to be seen. But it seems that Basil’s management is actively trying to court the OK. As it told COLlive: “It is definitely our intention to get it reinstated in the immediate future.”
Michelle Honig is a writer at the Forward. Contact her at [email protected]. Find her on Instagram and Twitter.
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