Classy “M Restaurant” has closed it’s doors in Flatbush and will be reopening in Manhattan in the near future. No specific date or location has been announced for it’s reopening, but we look forward to trying it when it does.

One of our Twitter followers was pretty upset upon the hearing of this place closing:

@YeahThatsKosher I passed it last night I almost crashed into a poll when I saw they closed!! I freaken loved that place!!

— E F (@EFnews) January 11, 2012

In the past half year, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, the popular Los Angeles kosher cafe, has now opened 2 locations in NYC. This new location has been open for less than a month.

This joins the Times Square Coffee Bean which opened this past summer.

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.

In the Peninsula Shopping Center in Hewlett, NY, a new Glatt Kosher restaurant is coming in replacing a non-kosher Pinatas Mexican Grill. The new restaurant is called Ahuva’s Grill, but we do not have any other details at the moment. We will update this post when we receive more information.

Over the past few months, businesses downtown have been hit hard by a combination of Occupy Wall Street protesters and subsequent NYPD barricades. Combine this with high rents in a large space, and that is likely what did in Milk Street Cafe on Wall Street, which was doing well before the September protests began. Milk Street Cafe will ultimately close this Thursday.

We reported on multiple occasions (1. Occupied by #OWS, Milk Street Cafe on Wall St. Needs Our Patronage and 2. Milk Street Cafe on the Verge of Closing on Wall Street) about this impending situation.

Ultimately, this business succumbed to the local environment not being able to support a large kosher business.

It’s a sad day for us kosher observant NYers who work downtown.

Burgers Bar on Central Ave. in Cedarhurst, NY has closed.

While this is sad for us BB lovers in the area, I can’t say that I didn’t see it coming.

My last 2 experiences there, the food was not up to par. Additionally, with some newer options in the area, including Carlos & Gabby’s (who make some of the same cuisine, and often better), as well as 2 schnitzel places, there was too much competition.

A lesson to all restaurant owners: don’t become complacent with your restaurant. Keep it fresh, up do date, clean, and always give reasons for people to keep coming. If you don’t, you will close. It’s only a manner of when.

According to this source, even though some of Milk Street’s business has bounced back since the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street protests began a few months ago, many of the NYPD barricades still remain on and near Wall Street despite the closing of Zuccotti Park as a campsite for the movement.

Marc Epstein, the owner of Milk Street Cafe, claims that his sales are still $2,000 – $4,000 lower a day than before the protests began.

As a community, there are two things we can do here. We can lobby Mayor Bloombergs office, and we can eat there.

(Im not writing about the plight of this restaurant over the plight of others. I personally think they got a bad deal and the City of New York / the NYPD is not cooperating with the small businesses to make sure theyre not adversely affected. I fully understand the security concerns the city and mayor have, but at this point, numerous business will either close or lay off more workers due to the barricades.)

Its truly a shame that this hit the restaurant only months after it opened in a large beautiful location. If theres one thing this teaches us is that when opening a restaurant anywhere, one must take in all factors and parties, and in this case its the local government / politics.

Let us know what you think about the situation by commenting below.

(Photo credit to the NY POST)

JetBlue’s T5 JFK terminal is well stocked and Kosher-friendly.

If you’re hungry and flying through JetBlue’s new (and beautiful) T5 terminal at JFK Airport, you’re in luck! I did a scan of the new terminal’s offerings and to my surprise, I found numerous Kosher options offered at all of the terminal’s CIBO Express shops*. The main CIBO Express shop is more of a food court type of store located in the center of T5. One of the open refrigerated areas contains 10 different offerings from FreshKo (cobranded with CIBO Express) with a Star-K hashgacha. 

Here’s what I found in one whole section of the main (and even the smaller of the) CIBO Express shop:

• Grandma’s Classic Egg Salad on multicolored rye
• Herb Encrusted Chicken Sandwich w/ creamy hummus on a ciabatta 
• Fresh Roasted Turkey Sandwich on Artisanal whole grain rye bread
• Signature Tuna Fish Sandwich on 100% Mixed grain artisan baguette
• Fresh Mozzarella Sandwich w/ pesto and oven roasted plum tomatoes on a baguette
• Curry Chicken Salad Wrap w/ raisins and apples
• Gluten Free Red Pepper Power Wrap 



• Gluten Free Turkey Power Wrap
• Chicken Caesar Wrap
• Basil Pesto Bow tie Pasta w/ Fresh Mozzarella and Sun dried Tomatoes 
• Wall Street Chicken Salad w/ balsamic vinaigrette (not found in the main CIBO Express)

FreshKo offers pre-made sandwiches, wraps, salads, and other prepackaged kosher foods to numerous institutions in the NYC area including office cafeterias (including where I work at the World Financial Center — and I’ve grown extremely tired of their 4 consistent options), universities (including my alma mater), and other such places. The difference here is the sheer number of options JetBlue has commissioned FreshKo to produce for T5. In addition to these 10 meal options, I found a FreshKo-made yogurt parfait, which looked just as good as the non-kosher version sitting next to it. 

Additionally, I also found Vegan Noodle meals with an odd “K Kosher” hashgacha on them. The brand is called “Super Lunch” made by “Eco Meals”. I cannot vouch for the kashrut of these meals. 

Another exciting find were large cupcakes made by “Sweet Sam’s” with a Triangle-K (Dairy) hashgacha. This was found only by the main large CIBO Express. 
Throughout all the CIBO Express shops were numerous snacks, bars, drinks of all kinds that were kosher should you not desire a sandwich or a meal. 

In one of the smaller CIBOs I found a display of Sabra Hummus + Pretzel containers. 

All in all, there were MANY options for the hungry kosher JetBlue traveler. JetBlue’s T5 JFK terminal is well stocked and Kosher-friendly. 

Of course… My favorite kosher JetBlue snack is onboard: the Terra Blues – blue Terra potato chips.

On my return trip via JFK, I was delighted by the terminal’s design, brightness, and modernity. It was a refreshing change from the staid terminals down in Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) FL, where I just returned from.


*In the CIBO Express shop by the baggage claim, I did not find any of the aforementioned FreshKo sandwiches or meals. If you’re in dire need of a meal upon arrival, make sure you get it in the main terminal after you land.

PS- be prepared to spend upwards of $9 per sandwich. They’re not cheap.