Nothing brings back memories…
… like pastrami. And placemats.
And those letters. The ones where Aleph and Samech become the N and D in 2nd Ave Deli.
So much has been written about the return, about Deli whiz-kid Jeremy Lebewohl taking over the family business, about the lines around the block. Me, I’m going to wait to do a full review for a few more weeks, give em a chance to get up and running (as I would any restaurant). This is just coming from a random New York Jew right now.
It’s wonderful to have it back. Yes, the place has half the seats, the line is as crazy as I’ve ever seen it (even on several Christmas days), and they were out of potato pierogies and gribenes (mmm, fried chicken skins) by 2pm. And yes, it’s on 33rd St by 3rd Avenue. But to have that soup, those latkes and fries, and fried onions so sweet you could eat them like candy (and I needed three sides of them with my latkes and half pastrami/matzo ball combo), to have that back in New York, with so many of the staff faces i recognized (not even a regular, probably, at most, went 6-12 times a year)… it was like Christmastime for the Jews. And in a city where everyone’s a little bit Jewish, we all got pastrami in our stockings this year. What, you’re veggie? Hmmm, uh, mushroom barley soup, then?
Good luck Jeremy. We’re rooting for you.
Welcome home.
I wish I could root for the 2nd Ave Deli. I would if they had a reliable hechsher. Their kashrut issue or in reality the lack of kashrut issue is like this. It’s the same pseudo kashrut certification given to the chain of Bens and Bens Best delis. Go to Bensdeli.net and you can find the same pseudo kosher certification to the letter that I am sure the 2nd Ave Deli has. One rabbi named Israel Mayer Steinberg says that he and other Orthodox Rabbis regularly frequent Bens to supervise the kashrut. Good luck finding out who these Orthodox rabbis are. And good luck finding out who is the rabbi that hangs out in Midtown on Shabbat or the Holidays to supervise the Kashrut of Bens or 2nd Ave Deli. This Israel Mayer Steinberg has to be in his 70s or 80s. I believe he lives in Queens and he and ‘the other ortho rabbis’ supervise Bens delis that stretch from Midtown out to Suffolk County. Let Rabbi Steinberg make public who these other Ortho rabbis who supervise with him are! I doubt there is really anyone on his staff. So in place of that he gets a nice check from Bens and 2nd Ave to say his supervision is reliable and you can trust him of course because he is a musmach from Torah Vodath. So somehow a restaurant open on Shabbos and Chagim can have a hechser that he supervises. Besides that falsehood, One elderly man can’t stretch himself over 100 miles to inspect several restaurants all at the same time or even close to it. And he isn’t supervising at all on Shabbat and Chagim. Bens and 2nd Ave deli’s hechser may taste like pastrami but it smells like treif.
Where do they get their meat from?
Kishkeman: I’ve read your comment through a few times because of my strong reaction to it on first reading. I wanted to figure out what’s been bothering me so much before just shooting back a reply. After thinking about it for a bit, I realized that what’s bothering me is that your post seems to be perpetuating rumors, speculation, and a serious—and unsubstantiated—claim of corruption.
As they say, I have no dog in this fight. I’m a vegetarian and I’m living in Israel at the moment. I’m not about to eat at the 2nd Avenue Deli any time soon. I’m also no particular fan of the kashrut industry. (There’s a reason my mom not infrequently refers to her local kashrut vaad as the “kosher nostra.â€) I have no knowledge of the supervising rabbi, and I am open to the possibility that what you claim might be true. What I object to is your making serious unsubstantiated allegations in a very public forum.
I’m just tired of the swirl of innuendo and lashon hara surrounding kashrut. I’ve been to endless Shabbat meals where people seem to think it makes for fun conversation to trash various hechshers. When I ask what exactly the problem with the hechsher is, the answer is usually something like “I heard from a friend that her 2nd cousin thinks she might have overheard her rabbi telling someone at kiddush not to buy from hechsher X.†I’m not saying that there might not be a problem with hechsher X. What I am saying is that it seems rare for people to have a factual basis for their kashrut claims. Unsubstantiated rumor can have real consequences for restaurants, their workers, and others.
To respond more specifically to your comment:
One rabbi named Israel Mayer Steinberg says that he and other Orthodox Rabbis regularly frequent Bens to supervise the kashrut. Good luck finding out who these Orthodox rabbis are.
If you’re going to call a famous restaurant treyf in a blog that attracts thousands of readers a month who might actually patronize said restaurant, I think it’s incumbent on you to check your facts first. Rather than making a sarcastic comment about how hard you think it’ll be to find out who the other rabbis are, why wouldn’t you pick up the phone and call the rabbi? The information is a click away: http://www.kosherdelight.com/NewYorkKashrutAuthorities.shtml
You can scream bloody murder if you get an answer you don’t like, but you have to ask first.
This Israel Mayer Steinberg has to be in his 70s or 80s.
According to information you can find easily on the web, the man is 71. What’s your point in pointing out his age? There are plenty of healthy people in their 70s who still travel extensively and work jobs that demand attention to detail. I have no idea whether or not this particular person does. But please don’t slam people in their 70s on top of everything else.
Let Rabbi Steinberg make public who these other Ortho rabbis who supervise with him are! I doubt there is really anyone on his staff. So in place of that he gets a nice check from Bens and 2nd Ave to say his supervision is reliable and you can trust him of course because he is a musmach from Torah Vodath.
Did you ask him and he refused to say? Again, I think the onus is on you (or whoever wants to know) to call the rabbi and see what he tells you. Otherwise you’ve essentially alleged that he’s corrupt with no hard proof.
From above: And good luck finding out who is the rabbi that hangs out in Midtown on Shabbat or the Holidays to supervise the Kashrut of Bens or 2nd Ave Deli. and So somehow a restaurant open on Shabbos and Chagim can have a hechser that he supervises. Besides that falsehood… [snip]
While I’m not familiar with the exact halachic mechanics, there are actually a number of well-known kosher meat restaurants with “standard†hechshers that open on Shabbat. In NYC (since that’s where the 2ndAD is), these include Darna, Talia’s Steakhouse (OU supervision), and, until they closed this summer, Park East Grill (Kof-K supervision). AFAIK, these three restaurants only accept Shabbat customers who pre-pay, but I don’t think that’s the issue you’re getting at. If the OU and Kof-K supervise these restaurants AND these restaurants are open on Shabbat, they’ve clearly worked something out concerning hashgacha (kitchen supervision). The same is equally possible of any other certifying organization. Do I think it’s likely that this rabbi has made Shabbat arrangements at the places he supervises? Not necessarily. But you can’t know unless you ask.
Who needs to ask anything when the owner of 2nd Ave Deli gives you the ultimate answer in the last few sentences of this article. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22477027/
And when Talias Steakhouse or Darna or any other sincerely kosher restaurant that is “open” on Shabbat is only going to be open to people that have prepaid and can select from a very limited menu that is prepared in a manner that is made according to the laws of Shabbat. These restaurants aren’t going to ask you to pay for anything on Shabbat. They will check you on a list of people who have already prepaid. 2nd Ave Deli and Bens are not like that. You want to eat? Bring cash and you better bring it 7 days a week. Where is the leniency that a kosher restaurant can accept cash on Shabbat or Chagim?
I am not a Rav. You claim to be a Rav and yet you apparently don’t know this relatively simple contemporary method of how a restaurant can be open on Shabbat. Should I have gone on about the age of the mashgiach? In retrospect, no. I apologize. Why don’t you apologize for not knowing such a simple practice of contemporary Kashrut?