Boston Kosher Butcher Reopens After Fire
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
BOSTON — Six weeks after a fire shuttered Boston’s main kosher supermarket, The Butcherie is now operating on a limited basis from a nearby Brookline location.
Selectmen in Brookline, a suburb of Boston, voted last week to give The Butcherie’s owners emergency permission to operate temporarily from the former Rubin’s Deli through the end of September. Rubin’s, the city’s only kosher delicatessen, closed on Aug. 5 after 90 years in business, surprising the area’s Jewish community and others throughout greater Boston.
The Butcherie’s owners, who originally hoped repairs would be complete within one month of the fire, now expect to reopen in the store’s original location by Sept. 6, nearly a month before the start of the High Holidays.
Since the two-alarm fire forced the store to close on July 12, a limited number of The Butcherie’s kosher products were available at two kosher businesses a few doors down from the grocery.
No one was injured in the blaze, which was quickly extinguished. The fire caused between $400,000 and $500,000 in damages — mostly from smoke contamination of perishable items
On The Butcherie’s Facebook page, owners Josh, Gili and Walter Gelerman acknowledged the community’s support.
“Many thanks to Cafe Eilat and [Catering By] Andrew’s for opening your doors to us and helping in this trying moments and a world of gratitude to our dear customers for supporting us as well,” they wrote.
The Butcherie has operated since 1972.
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