Manhattan’s largest Kosher food hall, Milk Street Cafe at 40 Wall Street is slated to close its door permanently this coming Thursday. Sources have shared with Koshertopia that there will be no relocation in New York but the original location in Boston will remain open. Milk Street Cafe, which opened in June, has been a direct casuality of the Occupy Wall Street protests.
The most precious and costly commodity in Manhattan is space. Because of this spacial deficiency, even some of the cities finest restaurants are no more then a glorified nooks. The expense is simply too great for most establishments to maintain, especially in certain neighborhoods or streets that cause the cost of space to borderline on the ridiculously excessive. So when I say to you that the Milk Street Cafe, the new kosher restaurant located at 40 Wall Street, takes up no less then twenty three thousand square feet, it should tell you in no uncertain terms how seriously owner Marc Epstein takes the business of building a successful restaurant. Embodying the “Go big or go home” ethos, The Milk Street Cafe opens up to a spacious front end ornamented tastefully with modern sensibilities. The stone floor is intricately decorated and stretches out into eight thousand square feet of equally well decorated prep stations. These stations offer a vast, almost mind boggling variety of foods, that run the gamut of Cafe style items. Diners can customize pasta, salads, and sandwiches on top of being able to get sushi, bakery, soups, and prepared grill items. What makes The Milk Street Cafe truly unique though is not that they offer so many items, it’s that they offer them in both dairy and meat.
Whereas most restaurants need to restrict their menus to either of the two options, The Milk Street Cafe has found a way to merge the two modalities of kosher restaurantism with an elegant, if not grandiose solution that is their prep kitchens.
Stretching out behind Milk Streets front end, are several kitchens, who’s space equals triple that of the main dining area. These kitchens are separated by corridors, and each kitchen is distinctly marked by it’s different color floor tile, which signifies if it is the dairy, meat or parve kitchen. When working in these kitchens, the culinary staff wear an apron and hat that is specific to each kitchen. The kitchens themselves are glorious monuments to modern day culinary production. Every bell, whistle, and kitchen appliance you could possibly need is neatly squared away at it’s corresponding prep station. This allows The Milk Street Cafe to do far more then act as a breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot, but also as a catering company, capable of servicing large corporate events or meetings.
What I really liked about the Milk Street Cafe, outside of it’s many dining options, it’s innovative structure, it’s willingness to push the envelope and it’s very affable owner, is the food. The food is very good. I ate mostly the meat options as meat is my preference. I highly recommend the Peppercorn rubbed roast beef with red peppers and horseradish sauce, and the Smoked Turkey Salad with sun dried tomatoes. Both these sandwiches are served on wonderfully fresh bread, that has a nice crunch crust with a soft interior. To me that is paramount for a good sandwich, and so the combination of the excellent flavors of the meat and the texture of the fresh bread make for one of the better sandwiches available in New York. A friend of mine chose to go the milchig route, and had the fettuccine with wild mushrooms in a light cream sauce. He said that he found it to be “very tasty and very filling”. I also recommend trying an offering from the Milk Street Cafe’s rotisserie. In particular their KC BBQ brisket, which is smoky, sweet, and cooked to a melt in your mouth perfection.
As I sat sampling my sandwiches, I realized that The Milk Street Cafe caters to all walks of life. A non-kosher eater could easily walk into the restaurant and never know they were at a kosher establishment. It so flawlessly integrates the different cuisines in such a graceful and well thought out way. that the effect is seamless. Owner Marc Epstein says that he is “Living the dream” in that he has his successful restaurant in Boston that he has now brought to New York as well. But what I don’t think he realizes is that he is actualizing the dream of a number of kosher consumers as well, by providing a kosher environment that feels like dining in a high end cafe that just so happens to be kosher. It’s just one more large step towards the main-streaming of kosher food. Personally, I can’t wait to go back and continue to work my way through their extensive menu
Milk Street Cafe
40 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
Its finally ready! Koshertopia has confirmed that Boston’s favorite Kosher cafe, Milk Street is opening this Thursday. The new 23,000 square foot gourmet food hall is opening at 40 Wall Street (Trump Building). Milk Street is under the supervision of the OU and maintains 3 separate kitchens (milk, meat & pareve). The cafe boasts several gourmet food stations including: a barista station, made-to-order breakfasts, made-from-scratch breads, desserts and pastries, pasta bar, Asian specialties, sushi bar, two create-your-own salad bars (one vegetarian, one not), homemade soups, a grill, a rotisserie and a carving station.
Milk Street Cafe
40 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
Koshertopia has confirmed the much awaited opening of Downtown’s newest Kosher eatery, Milk Street Cafe located at 40 Wall St. will be June 13th. Milk Street will be supervised by the OU and will offer Meat, Dairy and Pareve options.
Stay Tuned for opening specials and more information.
Koshertopia has confirmed that Down to Earth located at 312 Main Street (Between Corlies Avenue & Allen Avenue) Allenhurst, NJ is now under the Supervision of JSOR (Kosher Supervision for the New Jersey Shore). Down to Earth is an all natural restaurant, serving a wide range of vegetarian, vegan, dairy, and fish dishes. Down to Earth as well has a full service juice bar and sushi bar.
When I heard that Tiberias, a new 24 hour Dairy cafe in midtown was getting sushi, I was a little disappointed. I have been a fan of theirs since they opened this past summer and I was disheartened that they were falling into the disturbing trend in kosher dining where every restaurant, regardless of style offers sushi to its customers. The problem isn’t so much that I don’t like the option of ordering sushi, though occasionally I find it out of place, the problem is really that most of the time it’s at best uninspired and at worst a few days old from a refrigerator.
Luckily, this is not the case for Tiberias. They deliver some of the most creative rolls that I’ve ever seen and the quality and variety of rolls offered rivals most dedicated sushi restaurants.
This success stems from Tiberias’ approach. When they decided to bring sushi to the restaurant, they didn’t just find a place to order some rolls, they teamed up with Sushi Tokyo out of Brooklyn. This afforded them the ability to have access to some of the top kosher sushi chefs, not only in their store, but for catering purposes as well. Tiberias sushi chefs cater high profile parties all over Manhattan, and have even made tempura rolls while cruising the Hudson.
My first taste of Tiberias sushi came only a week ago in their 34th street store. I began my sushi experience (it really was an experience) with the volcano tempura roll – a California style roll, but topped with spicy Tuna and fried onion crunch paired with a wasabi mayo – which was outstanding. The tempura was crispy and not at all oily, and the wasabi mayo only had a hint of spice which was a really nice contrast against the warm tempura roll.
Next came a classic cucumber roll and the Narudo roll. The most striking thing about the Narudo roll is that its contents – cooked salmon, avocado, Portobello and something crunchy – were rolled in cucumber, not seaweed. It took a few bites to get used to the unique texture but as soon as I did I found it to be truly delightful, and although I’m not sure about the nutritional value, it felt healthy. The cucumber roll was exactly what you’d want a cucumber roll to be, solid – a great roll for kids or sushi newbies.
The last 2 rolls we had were called the Mexican roll and the Kamikaze roll. The Mexican roll had spicy tuna, spicy salmon, crunch, and a great salsa essence. The sauce it came with was a really intense chili sauce, which isn’t for the faint of heart – it was even a bit too hot for me – but having this roll on its own, was still a mildly spicy treat. The Kamikaze roll had tuna, and yellow tail topped with olives and drizzled with my favorite, spicy mayo. Upon special request they added orange masgo caviar on top. The caviar and olives gave the roll a nice subtle saltiness that differs from the saltiness of soy sauce you may usually associate with sushi. It was unexpected, but it really struck me and was easily one of the highlights of the meal.
When I walked into the restaurant I could not have imagined myself leaving happy, but I could not have been more wrong. The sushi is moderately priced and really well made. Each roll has its own unique character, and there are over 100 variations on the menu so there is always something new and exciting to try. I work a bit too far away from Tiberias to conveniently go there frequently, so hopefully I’ll have an excuse to have their sushi chefs cater one of my parties soon!
Tiberias
45 East 34th Street
New York, NY 10016
(212) 481-4222
Koshertopia has confirmed that the midtown dairy restaurant, Gusto Va Mare located at 237 East 53rd Street (between 2nd Avenue & 3rd Avenue) has closed its doors. The restaurant, closed for over 3 weeks has not shared publicly whether the closure is permanent or temporary (the interior remains untouched).
Stay tuned for more details.
The second location of the popular midtown dairy restaurant The Vegetable Garden located at 347 Lexington Avenue (between 39th and 40th Streets) has closed. The restaurant, open for less than six months, was not able to sustain its rent at the rather large space on Lexington Avenue.
Raise your hand if you’ve heard of this brand new restaurant before reading the title of this review. Odds are you haven’t and you really should fix that.
Walking into the restaurant for the first time my friend and I were greeted warmly by the owner, Craig Solomon, and shown to our table. The restaurant is spacious, very well lit (a restaurant that wants to let me see my food), and stylishly designed with a clean take on classical Italian motifs.
As we were seated, the waitress brought us a basket of delicious, home-made crispy, baked, Parmesan crusted bread. Our meal began with a selection of soups, a classic tomato garlic soup and a zucchini with mint soup that while good on their own, became sublime as vehicles for the bread.
After the soups we got a couple appetizers, risotto poppers and tuna tostadas. The fried risotto and wild mushroom balls served with an oregano mayonnaise sauce were extremely rich and buttery – and as someone who likes mushrooms, I loved them, but they are certainly not for everyone. The tuna was perfectly pan seared and served with cucumber and avocado on a crunchy tostada and topped with an excellent chipotle aioli.
Our appetizers were followed by four mains: pesto pizza with roasted tomatoes, striped bass, feta and spinach stuffed flounder, and cappelletti with fresh mozzarella. Pesto pizza is a tricky thing, it’s often dry, overly salty, or tastes only of garlic, but none of those problems plague this pizza. This is a truly delicious pizza, moist and flavorful. One thing that I was thrilled not to find on the menu was sushi. There is a bit of an epidemic in kosher dining that all restaurants, from pizza stores to steakhouses must have sushi! Craig, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, and trained with Bobby Flay for 2 years, takes his fish dishes in a more elegant and creative direction. The striped bass is seared and served with it’s crispy skin still attached. It is served sitting regally atop a bed of cilantro lime rice and mixed vegetables. Both the presentation and taste were spectacular. The flounder, stuffed with spinach and feta cheese, was quite possibly the first feta cheese dish I have ever enjoyed, since it managed not to be too salty. The homemade cappelletti pasta was served with mozzarella, made in house, that had an outstandingly soft texture, though the sauce it was served with was a bit standard given how flavorful everything else was.
Up until this point the meal was very very good, great even, but dessert is what really put the meal over the edge. It started with an out of this world flying saucer, or ice cream sandwich, made with home made cinnamon ice cream, on a freshly baked chocolate oatmeal cookie topped with a delicious caramel sauce. This was followed by a flourless chocolate cake, one of many gluten free options on the menu, that was as rich as you could possibly hope for. Then came the highlight of the meal, the autumn carrot cake. This cake, teeming with chunks of carrot, was topped with a super rich cream cheese frosting garnished with candied lemon and orange zest. It is an absolute must have.
Ariel’s restaurant may be a bit out of the way – it’s in Englewood – and a bit under the radar, but don’t let those things keep you from checking out one of the finest and most affordable (dishes range between $15-$20) dairy restaurants around today.
Click Here for the Ariel’s Restaurant listing
