You would think in a small city like Louisville you would not find many places that are kosher. Today I found out that my favorite restaurant is now kosher. I happened to stop at Nancy’s bagels. Not only do they serve the best bagels I have ever had they make their own cream cheeses. They make seven or eight great types of cream cheese like jalapeno, herb, honey nut, lox, etc. If you don’t believe me about how great these bagels are you can ask Patrick about Nancy’s lox. This change makes me so excited because before we only had a kosher bakery, oddly enough across the street from Nancy’s bagels and Graeter’s Ice Cream out of Cincinnati. I bring this up because I have seen a trend in restaurants going kosher. Not only small businesses but large chain restaurants as well.
As the intelligent Sue Fishkoff asks, in an article on jweekly.com, “What’s the largest kosher restaurant chain?”. Her answer is interestingly Subway. Subway plans to have 11 kosher stores by the end of 2010. The five branches of Dougie’s barbecue in Brooklyn are also kosher. Even though Subway will only have 11 kosher stores out of 22,000 subways in the U.S. They are the number one Nationwide kosher group of restaurants. I hope that this is a trend that will continue in the U.S. and spread further abroad. According to findmekosher.com KFC in Israel is going kosher by using soy products. This is both bad and good. Many people want soy because it is a useful alternative to dairy. Some people do not enjoy this as soy is a highly estrogenic product. Completely replacing dairy or meat with soy can cause other dietary issues too. What I can’t wait for is a kosher doughnut shop in my city. There is a kosher Krispy Kream in Virginia and a Dunkin’ Doughnuts in Detroit. How jealous I am.
Why is this issue so important? I believe that this trend can only lead to good things. Knowing that a restaurant has a kosher certification makes me feel more secure that I am purchasing a quality product. I do have to admit the fact that a certification alone does not guarantee the restaurant follows all the rules. This does mean that they are more likely to be in tune with the trend, especially amongst the 20 to 30 some things, to follow ideas like ego-hashrut, vegetarianism, and vegan diets. Although this seems like a very small win, these restaurants signal that the larger population is beginning to understand and cater to alternative groups. I hope this idea will spread into other areas of life.
I find more and more the foods I would choose to buy anyway in a store now carry kosher symbols. We here at Mulberry Manor have made a pledge to make our house kosher. We already are mostly vegetarians and many of our guests are vegan so, we are very conscious of our foods. Now we can buy items in bulk and ensure that we are eating kosher food. Our mantra is “Kosher as F***!”. This may sound crude and a bit radical but a diverse and quite public house is apt to act in such a manner. In short I hope that alternative movements or the punk movement if you will can continue to make strides to normalize diversity, coexistence, and acceptance.
Rivka
