End-of-Year Food Lists and All the Weekly Dish
Image by Courtesy of Baz Bagel
Image by Courtesy of DGS
The Washingtonian ranked DGS Delicatessen No. 30 on its top 100.
The end of the year means lists, and this week brought a bushel.
heaped more acclaim on celebrated New Orleans Israeli spot Shaya, naming it restaurant of the year. Washingtonian ranked nouveau-Jewish deli DGS Delicatessen #30 on its top 100 for 2015. And Michael Solomonov’s pioneering Philly eatery Zahav earned a place on OpenTable’s top 100 restaurants of the year.
Another Israeli — and a kind of dark horse — dominated USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards. Timna, Chef Nir Mesika’s East Village joint, beat out everyone for the top prize.
Mesika recommends the Bedouin Octopus, Lamb Saddle and Mediterranean Sashimi if you join the stampede that’s sure to follow.
…and Eater wrapped up the year with an “ultimate guide” to NYC Jewish delicatessens. Its “20 Iconic Delis of the Greater New York Area” includes a few surprises, like Times Square’s Ben Ash, Williamsburg kosher spot Gottlieb’s, nouveau-deli extraordinaire Mile End — the pisher of the bunch — and the closed-indefinitely Carnegie Deli on its list.
London Kosher Spot Closes
Dish hates to end the year with a downer, but it’s our sad duty to report London’s only Michelin-listed kosher restaurant has closed.
Bevis Marks The Restaurant, which had been open for 13 years in the City of London — the capital’s financial district — shut on December 24, according to the Jewish Chronicle.
It’s the second high-end London kosher resto this year to close.
NY Deli in NH
We missed this opening, but still think it’s noteworthy, especially since it’s in Portsmouth, New Hampshire — a burg not generally celebrated for its Jewish food heritage.
Bubby’s NY Style Delicatessen is just like delis you find in New York, owner Greg Schweitzer insisted to a local blog.
“All our food will be made from scratch,” Schweitzer said. “Corned beef, brisket, roast beef and turkey will be cooked in the deli’s kitchen.” Smoked fish comes from Brooklyn’s Acme, pastrami, breads and bagels from NYC purveyors, and tongue from local sources; he’ll brine that in-house. Matzo-ball soup and borscht round out the menu.
Bubby’s NY Style Delicatessen, 241 Hanover St., Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Dining Trends in Israel
Image by Courtesy of Santa Katarina
Locavore-style pizza and Santa Katarina.
What’s hot in Tel Aviv’s restaurant scene?
Condé Nast Traveler surveyed some big-name Israeli chefs to find out.
Top trends: Locavore dining at hotspots like Santa Katarina; tapas-like small plates at new restaurants like Dinings; market-driven cuisine at hotspots like Shulchan; and a buzzing cocktail scene, with bars like Moonshine — tucked behind a steel garage door and through a restaurant — leading the way.
Politically Incorrect in Texas
A Texas restaurant chain with a Jewish CEO is warning customers that it may offend them by being too “politically incorrect” this holiday season.
“I just got tired of all the news of everybody having to be politically correct,” Berryhill Baja Grill CEO Jeff Anon told ABC News.
The chain posted signs outside its nine Texas locations that read, “Notice: This store is politically incorrect. We say ‘Merry Christmas,’ ‘God bless America.’…. If this offends you, you are welcome to leave. In God we trust.
Bon Appétit: Deli Is Alive and Well
Image by Courtesy of Baz Bagel
Beautiful breakfast from Baz Bagel.
News flash from Bon Appétit: The Jewish deli is not dead!
That’s the word in the magazine’s January issue, which spotlights NYC nouveau-Jewish establishments familiar to Dish devotees: Baz Bagel, Black Seed Bagels, Breads Bakery, and the new deli darling, Sadelle’s, among them.
Kosher French In Israel
“All those newly arrived French immigrants who eat kosher will find a familiar ambience at Dizengoff 67… It feels French, it looks French and it would not be out of place in one of those Parisian quartiers where people in the know go for good food in modest surroundings.” This according to the Jerusalem Post’s JPost on a new Francophile home-away-from-home in Netanya, Israel.
Michael Kaminer is a contributing editor at the Forward.
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