Dougie’s: Closing in Brooklyn, Opening in Great Neck & Baltimore

After more than a decade on 18th Ave on the cusp of Borough Park, Dougie’s will be shutting its doors permanently this Sunday. While the restaurant was able to ride the coattails of the original Dougie’s on the Upper West Side, that too, along with the branch in Queens has since closed. It seems that while the restaurant enjoyed some popularity for the better part of 2 decades, the Kosher observant population moved on to bigger and better things.

Across the Nassau County border, however, Dougie’s has opened in Great Neck, marking the restaurant’s staying power in the NYC area. The restaurant is located at 105 Middle Neck Road.

Additionally, Dougie’s will be opening in Baltimore, Maryland in the coming week or two.

H/T to Elan from GKR for the tips.

The Remaining Kosher Subway Restaurants in the U.S.

Not long ago I compiled a list of Kosher Subway Restaurants across the U.S., which in its heyday numbered 12 across the country, 5 alone in the NYC metro area.

Today, all 5 of the NYC area Kosher Subways are closed and only a total of 5 remain open nationally.

I was recently interviewed by the Jewish Week discussing my (3 main) reasons why I believed the deli sandwich chain did not do well in NY.

Here are the remaining 5 Kosher Subway restaurants that have thrived (not necessarily in places you’d expect):

• Cleveland, OH – JCC 26001 South Woodland Rd., Beachwood
• Los Angeles, CA – 8948 W. Pico Blvd, Los Angeles
• Miami, FL – JCC 18900 Northeast 25th Ave, North Miami Beach
• Baltimore, MD – 706 Reisterstown Rd., Baltimore
• Rockville, MD – JCC 6125 Montrose Rd., Rockville

Now I’m left wondering… what will be the next kosher restaurant fad to sweep the country and will it last?

Surely, the Kosher Subway chain experiment is an eye-opening lesson to would be restauranteurs.

~Dani

Pomegranate Bistro in Potomac, MD to Close Tomorrow

Food was amazing.

Restaurant was clean.

Locals claim that the food was on par with top level steak houses in NY. Was it expensive? Sure. Perhaps slightly lower price level as Abigail’s in NY. However, located in Potomac – a wealthy Orthodox community in MD – it was in the right area.

The local community rallied around the restaurant trying to keep it open, sending thousands of emails to the owner, to no avail.

The restaurant sent out an email saying that despite some packed nights, many nights the restaurant was empty, and no one took advantage of their catering services. The local community was a bit surprised to hear that they did catering at all – because most of the area was unaware that they were involved in this business, which is unfortunate.

Pomegranate Bistro will be sorely missed in the DC area.