"Broadway's Jerusalem 2" Pizza (J2) , now formerly "The Most Famous Kosher Pizza Place in the World", will be closing its doors in it's once popular location on Broadway in Midtown Manhattan. Why? We can't say for sure, but the amount of competition recently (re: Bravo Pizza Becomes Kosher in NYC), coupled with declining quality and rising prices at J2 have likely lead to lower sales and profits at the largest (physically) kosher pizza store in the world.
J2 will be moving to W36th street between 5th & 6th Aves, nearly around the corner, and renaming as "Jerusalem Cafe". Over the past few years, 2 other Kosher pizza joints occupied that space: Aroma Pizza & Mike's Pizzeria; both failed.
Will Jerusalem Cafe be the next victim in the New York Kosher Pizza saga?
H/T to @Koshertopia for breaking the story.
Photo credit: f10ga11ma from Flickr
Thanks for getting the story out that we are moving J2. Don’t worry, our income is actually up by 50% over the past several months as the owners of the prior two years were a bit rough on customers (you shouldn’t have to get yelled at if you ask for an extra salad dressing). We simply decided that we wanted to continue to sell our great variety of fresh food, at charges that don’t ruin your appetite, in a nice place. Redoing the current J2 would have cost $350,000 to run the a new interior ventilation system up over twenty stories, $125,000 to redo the a/c (have you visited in the summer lately, valiant battles with the 1950’s system were only won sometimes) and then the cost to redecorate. While the prior owners were nasty they did introduce a Korean buffet Fresh Salmon and fried fish (delivered each morning from the fish market), pastas and fresh side dishes for $9.85 a pound. Where else in kosher Manhattan can you get fresh salmon and sides for around $10. Our new sushi chef has doubled our sushi sales over the past few months. We have added design your own subs, to our design your own salads along with a number of other new foods. You can now get a number of new desserts. Tiramisu can be delicious without being crazy expensive. However, something had to be done about the place. Over the next several weeks we will be making changes to our new location. This is a place where you can enjoy eating in a nice place. Designed like an upscale restaurant it is now even a nice place for a date (not 8th-or 9th anymore like the current place). We look forward to keeping our very diverse group of customers happy for another 35 years.
Abe
Thank you Abe for your response.
Are you not concerned that your new location is a bit off the beaten path and that you’ll lose a lot of the traffic you had on Broadway?
Dani,
Sorry I did not check back earlier. I have been very busy at the new place. We shared your concern about being off Broadway at the time of the move. However, the new location, only 1 and 1/2 blocks from Macy’s, works well. Having done a “soft opening” to allow time to get things just right, we were suprised at how much traffic we immediately received; and it has continued to grow. Besides our many jewish customers, the new place draws a substantial amount of customers who do not keep kosher. A representative of one company we are dealing with told me that in the short time he was in the restaurant he heard three different groups of people saying they love the new place, and would not previously step foot in JII. Because we are saving so much money on rent, when we moved we lowered our pizza prices to $2.50 a slice $17 a pie, fallafel to $4.95 and a number of other prices as well. We are competitive with the better inexpensive non-kosher restaurants on quality, pricing, and we trump most of them on the look. On street parking in front of the store after 6 p.m. is also nice. Our Menu with great food and prices is also available at J2NYC.com.
Abe T.
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