A new era of Jewish food in the US

By Joe BaurFeatures correspondent

From Kossar's to Gertie's to Shalom Japan, these traditional, modern and fusion eateries are pioneering a new era of Jewish food in the US.

Few places are as synonymous with Jewish food as New York City. Manhattan's Lower East Side neighbourhood served as a culinary cauldron when it was home to the largest Jewish community in the world in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, blending centuries of diasporic gastronomic knowledge.

It was here that Jews with roots in modern-day Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia and Romania merged their spices and tastes with German and Hungarian Jews and their Gentile neighbours. This blending of recipes created Jewish-American cuisine as we know it today – think bagels with lox and schmear (cream cheese-based spreads), pastrami, matzo ball soup and loaves of freshly baked babka bread oozing with cinnamon or chocolate.

Know before you go

The Jewish culinary pioneers of the early 20th Century have created institutions that are must-see stops on any foodie's visit to the city. The stacks of pastrami at Katz's Delicatessen, the smoked whitefish of Barney Greengrass and bagels with lox and schmear from Russ & Daughters are legendary juggernauts.

But here we're highlighting the lesser-known denizens of Jewish food history and the new era of sandwich slingers who are maintaining New York City as the epicentre of Jewish-American cuisine.

1.      Shalom Japan

Japanese and Jewish cuisine might not seem like natural partners. But it takes just one bowl of Shalom Japan's matzo ball ramen with garlicky chilli oil built on a foundation of chicken broth with char siu chicken, spring onions and nori to change anyone's mind. Suddenly, dishes like their lox bowl with sushi rice, ikura (salmon caviar), avocado, Japanese pickles, fried capers and chilli mayo make complete sense.

Married co-owners, Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi, play off their respective heritages to create a truly one-of-a-kind experience at this Williamsburg eatery. There's a chic izakaya (Japanese tavern) vibe marked with tasteful Jewish kitsch – like the photo from a 1960s ad showing a Japanese boy holding a sandwich next to a bag of Levy's Jewish Rye bread with a message reading, "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's real Jewish Rye".

Fortunately, travellers can now recreate their Shalom Japan experience at home through Israel and Okochi's cookbook, Love Japan: Recipes From Our Japanese American Kitchen.

Website: www.shalomjapannyc.com

Address: 310 S 4th St, Brooklyn

Phone: +1-718-388-4012

Instagram: @shalomjapan

2. Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery

For those in the know, the name Yonah Schimmel is synonymous with knish – the once-beloved Ashkenazi snack of baked dough stuffed with potatoes, kasha (buckwheat), onions and spices. These are hearty, dense snacks on-the-go with roots in the Pale of Settlement (modern-day Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Ukraine, eastern Poland and Latvia). Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants and refugees brought them in the early 20th Century to the predominantly Jewish Lower East Side, where Yonah Schimmel's still stands today.

These days, the noble knish is largely relegated to nostalgia with ever-fewer bakeries and restaurants selling them. (Historically, they were sold by street vendors.) Thankfully, the 113-year-old Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery is holding down the fort for the knish with Ellen Anistratov (a descendant of the original owner) steering the ship that the eponymous Yonah Schimmel, a Romanian Jewish immigrant, started on the streets of New York.

To this day, the knishes are handmade in the bakery's basement kitchen and lifted to the storefront using the original dumbwaiter. You can still get the original mashed potato knish, but they've since expanded their menu to include additional savoury options, like cabbage, spinach, sweet potatoes, broccoli and jalapenos. You can also try a sweet cheese knish with your choice of fruit filling.

Website: www.knishery.com

Address: 137 E Houston St, New York

Phone: +1-212-477-2858

Instagram: @yonahschimmel

3. The Pickle Guys

The Pickle Guys and Kossar's (below) deliver a one-two-Jewish punch of deliciousness on the corner of Grand and Essex streets in the Lower East Side. It's hard to stop by one and not at least peek into the other.

An incredible assortment of barrels fill the front of the shop, with each one fermenting pickles of all kinds – tomatoes, peppers, olives and, of course, gherkins. A casual passerby might think they've peered into a distillery.

Pickles are rooted in the history of Essex Street (which was once known as The Pickle District), with different shops operating since 1910. The Pickle Guys are the only ones left standing. But just because they no longer have competition doesn't mean they've slacked off. To the contrary, they're now offering as many options as a Netflix queue. Horseradish pickles, hot sour pickles, bread and butter pickles, half sour pickles, pickled apples, pickled watermelon, pickled pineapple – name a fruit or veggie and they've probably pickled it.

Most people shop at The Pickle Guys and take their goodies home. But for those who can't wait, co-owners William Soo, Alan Kaufman and Mike Chu have opened a snack bar next door called Diller where you can crunch into their signature kosher fried pickle.

Website: www.pickleguys.com

Address: 357 Grand St, New York

Phone: +1-212-656-9739

Instagram: @pickleguys

4. Kossar's Bagels & Bialys

Part two of the Grand-and-Essex combo is Kossar's. Their bagels are good for a nosh, but their bialys make Kossar's stand out on the map. Like Yonah Schimmel's with its knish, Kossar's is keeping a centuries-old tradition alive with its bialys – a baked bread roll that resembles a bagel but with a depressed centre usually covered with onions or poppy seeds.

The name stems from the Polish name Białystok and followed Jewish immigrants to New York City in the late 1800s. The bialy quickly became a staple of Jewish bakeries in the Lower East Side and throughout the north-eastern US. But over time, they were overshadowed by their much more popular cousin, the bagel. The fact that Kossar's is holding up this vanishing Jewish culinary tradition makes a visit all the more essential. Who knows how much longer the bialy has before it's relegated exclusively to cookbooks.

Bialy fanatics can rest soundly knowing Kossar's will continue to prop up their prized attraction. In fact, nearly a century after they opened their doors, they debuted a second shop on the edge of Hudson Yards last year and they're planning to open a third location in the Upper East Side.

Website: www.kossars.com

Address: 367 Grand St, New York

Phone: +1-212-473-4810

Instagram: @kossars

5. Gertie

Nate Adler and Rachel Jackson's Gertie ushers in a new era of "Jew-ish" dining in New York City. It's got that pintele yid (essential Jewishness) in a modern Williamsburg brunch-and-lunch spot with bright, playful colours and without a hint of nostalgic schmaltz.

Gertie elevates deli classics without overcomplicating or deviating too far from the soul of the original. For starters, you can build a sandwich off a bagel or a bialy. The classics kick off with an egg-and-cheese sandwich complete with pickled peppers and hot sauce. Bigger appetites can add mushrooms, bacon, house-smoked ham or brisket. The Best Bialy comes with hot smoked pastrami salmon, dill, caper schmear and pickled onions. Then, The Yenta offers up a whitefish salad with scallion schmear and pickled peppers on an everything bagel.

And those are just the classics. Staff favourites include smoked trout with tomato, plain schmear and hot honey mayo on an everything bagel as well as house-cured and smoked ham with melted Swiss cheese, rocket and their signature aioli on a griddled plain bagel. Their cheekily named Call The Lox-Smith sandwich pairs their Acme lox with a pickled beetroot, dill-flavoured cucumbers, a hard-boiled egg and a dill-and-caper cream cheese with tahini ranch on an onion bialy.

Website: www.gertie.nyc

Address: 357 Grand St, Brooklyn

Phone: +1-718-636-0902

Instagram: @gertienyc

6. B&H Dairy 

This no-frills East Village restaurant is one of New York's many unsung heroes of Jewish cuisine. It's one of the last "dairy restaurants" (an establishment that only serves dairy-based dishes to adhere to the kosher provision against mixing meat and dairy) on 2nd Avenue, and a true hallmark of historical vegetarian kosher food. The wide-ranging menu covers breakfast, lunch and dinner with Jewish staples like matzo brei (matzo sheets soaked in water or milk with eggs) served with apple sauce or sour cream, and optionally, maple syrup; a knish with your choice of potato, kasha, sweet potato, mushroom, broccoli, spinach or a mix of vegetables; and sweet or savoury blintzes (rolled pancakes).

Abie Bergson and Jack Heller opened B&H back in 1938, and in 2003, Fawzy Abdelwahed and his wife Ola took over. Although kosher observance has declined among American Jewry over the decades, B&H served as a refuge for observant Jewish immigrants where they knew they could get a kosher meal.

Like the restaurant world at large, it's been a tough few years for B&H, weathering pandemic closures and a robbery. Nonetheless, they continue to persevere thanks in part to their diverse staff, who speak a mix of Arabic, English, Spanish and Polish. B&H embraces its evolving identity, most recently with cheeky T-shirts reading, "Challah! Por Favor".

Facebook: www.facebook.com/BHDairyKosherRestaurant/

Address: 127 2nd Ave, New York

Phone: +1-212-505-8065

Instagram: @bandhdairy

7. Tsion Cafe

Many might not realise this, but Ethiopia was home to an ancient Jewish community called Beta Israel that evolved for centuries in isolation from other diasporic Jewish peoples. Beejhy Barhany's Tsion Cafe brings her story and the history of her people to Harlem.

Photographs of Ethiopia by local artists adorn the red-brick wall. The menu speaks to Barhany's harrowing journey from Ethiopia to Manhattan with brief stints in Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and France before her family finally reached Israel. She spent four years working on an Israeli kibbutz (an agricultural Israeli settlement), where she gained a newfound appreciation for fresh, local ingredients.  

Barhany first visited New York City in 1996 on a personal trip throughout the Americas following her service in the army. "I fell in love with the vibration and the diversity of New York City and I wanted to be part of it," she said. Upon her return, she formed a non-profit devoted to telling the story of Ethiopian Jews that led to her opening Tsion Café. "It was an opportunity to use food as an entry to cultural exchange and introduce the delicious flavours of Ethiopia to New Yorkers."

Barhany envisioned Tsion Cafe as a place where guests could nourish their bodies and souls. That approach is felt the moment you walk underneath the Ethiopian angel hovering over the door. The menu offers a blend of Ethiopian staples, like wot (stews) with ground chickpeas, slowly cooked red lentils or chicken. Dishes like the malawach (a traditional Yemenite Jewish flatbread), and shakshuka (eggs poached in a tomato sauce) hint at Tsion's Jewish roots. The spiritual and corporal sustenance comes together on select evenings when live music or poetry fills the air (dates are posted on their Instagram).

Website: www.tsioncafe.com

Address: 763 St Nicholas Ave, New York

Phone: +1-212-234-2070

Instagram: @tsioncafe

8. Agi's Counter

Like Gertie, Jeremy Salamon is part of a new generation of Jewish restaurateurs inspired by their Eastern European ancestors. In Salamon's case, Agi's Counter (named after his paternal grandmother) sweeps diners to Hungary with a high-end spin on Old World classics. That's obvious with a quick glance at the menu: leberkase (literally, liver cheese) made from pork pate with roasted apricot jam, and a fried egg on a soft potato bun. Their palacsinta (rolled crepes) come with fresh cheese, brown butter and toasted caraway.

Agi's bills itself as a breakfast, lunch, dinner and pastry shop focused on ingredients that are local and seasonal. At the bakery, you can find Ferdinand Buns (Hungarian sweet vanilla butter rolls), caraway shortbread cookies and a prune-and-rye streusel coffee cake. Grab a slice of New York-style cheesecake on Thursdays and Fridays as part of their weekly special.

Dinner at the 25-seat Crown Heights restaurant starts as early as 17:30, with the menu turning over to a blend of "noshes" (appetisers), mains and sides. It wouldn't be a Hungarian restaurant without some hot paprika, which you can find in the chicken paprikas a la plancha – a traditional Hungarian stew of paprika, onions and stock with a brined chicken topped with a smoked paprika vinaigrette that mirrors the flavour of the stew. You can pair it with your choice of Hungarian wine, including a selection of whites, reds, rose and even orange wine.

Website: www.agiscounter.com

Address: 818 Franklin Ave, Brooklyn

Phone: +1-718-822-7833

Instagram: @agiscounter

(Joe Baur is a food and travel writer who has studied Jewish cuisine – with a focus on Ashkenazi foodways – for several years, publishing stories and recipes in numerous international publications.)

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