The Miznon concession stand at Barclays Center in Brooklyn is not kosher certified. Period. The stand, the pita chain’s first location inside a major sports and entertainment venue, opened this year on the arena’s main concourse outside Section 22.
The issue came to a head this week, when Omer Adam played two concerts at the arena. In a reader submission shared with us, the writer described substantial lines at the Miznon stand at an Omer Adam concert, including many visibly Orthodox Jews purchasing food. A friend of his asked a woman buying food there about its kashrus. She answered that she regularly eats at the Miznon near her home in Manhattan, so she assumed this location was kosher too.
The confusion is easy to understand. Miznon Times Square has been kosher certified since January 2024 and is the only kosher certified Miznon in New York City, a distinction the location itself promotes. Miznon’s other Manhattan locations, including Chelsea Market, The Hugh, Hudson Yards, and Rockefeller Center, are not kosher certified, and most of the brand’s more than 25 locations worldwide operate without certification.
Miznon also ran a non-certified stand at the US Open this summer. The concern has also been raised with the rabbi whose agency certifies the Times Square location, according to the submission.
Kosher Miznon locations do exist beyond New York City. In New Jersey, Miznon Kosher at Bell Works in Holmdel is Glatt kosher under the OU, and another kosher Miznon is on the way at American Dream in East Rutherford. Outside the United States, Miznon in Panama City’s Pacific Center is Glatt kosher under Shevet Ahim. The brand’s first kosher location in Israel, in Tel Aviv’s Ramat Hachayal neighborhood, closed in 2025.
The Kosher Option at Barclays Center
Kosher consumers at Barclays Center do have a verified option. The Smash House stand in the arena’s 100s section serves its smash burger menu from a dedicated on-site kosher kitchen under Tartikov hashgacha. The stand operates for all Nets and Liberty home games except Shabbat, as well as concerts, with pregame and halftime kosher buffets available in the arena’s lounges.
My Take
Every person is responsible for checking the kashrus of what they eat. That is true, and it is not the whole story. When a brand has both kosher and nonkosher locations under the same name, the name alone stops being useful information. At an arena packed with kosher keeping Jews for an Israeli singer’s show, that name reads like a hechsher. Miznon itself treats the distinction as important. The Times Square location’s own website states plainly that it is the only kosher certified Miznon in New York City. In my view, the same clarity should exist anywhere the brand serves a crowd full of kosher keeping Jews.
Some in our community are asking sharper questions, using terms like lifnei iver and mesaye’a. I am not a posek, and this article is not a psak; those questions are for rabbonim to address. The practical fix does not need a teshuva. A prominent sign at every non-kosher location, stating that the stand is not kosher certified, would stop the next wrong assumption before it happens. Not fine print on a menu board. A sign.
I have no interest in hurting a Jewish owned business. The kosher Miznon in Times Square deserves support, and I hope it thrives. But goodwill built on the Miznon name should not be spent at a concession stand where customers cannot tell the difference. In New York City, the certification belongs to the Times Square location alone. Until the distinction is unmistakable at every location, kosher consumers should treat any Miznon without its own certification as not kosher.
Locations and Certification
Miznon at Barclays Center is located at 620 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217, on the Main Concourse outside Section 22. It is not kosher certified.
Miznon Times Square is located at 1410 Broadway, New York, NY 10018. It is Glatt kosher and Pas Yisroel under National Kosher Supervision (Rabbi Aaron D. Mehlman), with a mashgiach temidi on site.
Find the kosher Miznon Times Square on the YeahThatsKosher app: YeahThatsKosher.com/app
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