Mimi’s in Manhattan and All the Weekly Dish

Image by Facebook
Hummus Empire
Mimi’s Hummus, the six-year-old Brooklyn charmer that won a for the Big Apple’s best Israeli-style hummus, is crossing the pond.
Owners Mimi Kitani and Avi Shuker will open two Manhattan outposts this summer. One will occupy a stall inside the new Vanderbilt food hall near Grand Central Station; a second will take root on East 14th Street, according to Eater.
Midtown’s Mimi’s, set to debut first, will feature an edited menu of hummus creations and sandwiches. The downtown spot, set to open later this year, will mimic the mothership’s menu — think hummus, sandwiches, salads and a few larger plates at dinner like lemon chicken meatballs, brisket and the Middle Eastern rice and lentil dish mejadara, according to Eater.
Kosher Empire?
West Roxbury, Massachusetts, may become the birthplace of a new kosher-hotels brand, Boston’s UniversalHub reports.
Local developer Nissim Shimon Trabelsi told the site he’s talking to several hotel management companies — including the one that runs Jerusalem’s King David Hotel — about running the chain he hopes to start.
Its Glatt kosher kitchen would make the place a draw, a local rabbi told UniversalHub — as long as Trabelsi hires unionized employees.
At a town meeting, “a member of West Roxbury’s Jewish community said he is looking forward to a place… where he can get a meal that doesn’t involve a trip to Brookline or downtown,” the site says.
‘Illegal’ Juice Keeps Israel Buzzed
It may be banned Stateside, but khat juice is buzzing in Israel. That’s the report from Munchies, the food blog at renegade news site Vice.
Munchies visits Uzi Eli, a genial 72-year-old Yemeni juice purveyor known as the Etrog Man for his citron-based liquid remedies, including khat, the psychostimulant plant banned in the U.S. and much of Europe.
“The Etrog Man foisted another bunch of qat leaves upon me and entreated me to shove them into my mouth,” writes Ilan Ben Zion. “My cheek was already bursting with a wad of masticated green pulp comprised of cardamom pods, clove, almonds and raisins.” Khat’s effect, Ben Zion explains, “are similar to a strong cup of coffee, or a small hit of Adderall.”
Etrog Man tells Munchies: “It’s a social drug. You sit around in a group, chewing, talking, learning, telling stories.”
The Forward first reported on khat’s arrival in Tel Aviv in 2012.
‘Austin’s Best Pastrami’ Purveyor Shutters
Melvin’s Deli Comfort, which served what some called Austin’s best pastrami, has closed. The restaurant — also hailed as Austin’s King of Corned Beef — occupied a shiny red trailer. Owner Melvin Ennis told Austin360 he’s considering coming back to the food world in 2017 or 2018, possibly with a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Hungary for Jewish Food
The Jewish Journal this week drops in at Budapest’s Spinoza Café, “one of the few modern (nonkosher) eateries proudly announcing Hungarian-Jewish food.” General manager Imre Takács: “We make it like grandma used to make it,” referring to the cafe’s flodni, the traditional three-layered Hungarian-Jewish cake. The hummus recipe came from the owner of Jerusalem’s Link Café, a friend of the Spinoza’s owner.
Michael Kaminer is a frequent contributor to the Forward.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jerusalem Post editor Zvika Klein, arrested in ‘Qatar-gate,’ says he’s being unfairly prosecuted for his reporting
-
Fast Forward Trump fires national security officials, reportedly at urging of Laura Loomer, far-right Jewish ‘Islamophobe’
-
Fast Forward Display honoring Jewish women graduates of naval academy removed ahead of Hegseth visit
-
Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: מיידעלע געפֿינט 3,800־יאָריקע קמיע לעבן בית־שמש, ישׂראלTIDBITS: Little girl finds 3,800-year old amulet near Beit Shemesh, Israel
אַן עקספּערט פֿון פֿאַרצײַטיקע קמיעות האָט באַשטעטיקט אַז די קמיע איז געלעגן אויפֿן אָרט פֿונעם אַמאָליקן לאַנד כּנען.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.