By Lynn Wexler-Margolies & Alan Margolies

Keeping Kosher in Sin City

Where’s the Hechsher?

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“I’m starving. I keep kosher. Isn’t there a decent kosher restaurant anywhere in this doggone city?”

Before we solve our proverbial traveler’s predicament, let’s turn back the clock to acquire a kosher perspective.

The year was 1915 … New York City. It was a bitter cold morning. The thermometer seemed to shudder as it desperately tried to hold on to 3 below. The Bronx was teeming with Russian Jewish immigrants. During the past 10 years, hundreds of thousands of Jews had fled to America. The Cossacks had murdered their men, raped their women, burned their homes and stolen their live-stock. Their time-honored traditions and observances accompanied them.

Three a.m. in the dead of winter on Fox Street can be brutal, but the handsome, strappy 26-year-old immigrant was in the best mood of his life. It was the first day of work, in the first of three butcher shops he would own. isHhhhHis father had beenHis father had been a kosher butcher in Odessa, Russia, and now he was carrying on the family tradition in America. His name was Max Margolies. He was my grandfather. His family, along with most other Jewish immi-grant families, followed the laws of kashrut, or kosher eating. It was their way of life.

It began in 1492, with 23 Sephardic Jews escaping the Spanish Inquisition, fleeing to Greece, the Middle East, England and the Netherlands. By 1654 their descen-dants arrived in the Americas via Recife, Brazil, to New Amsterdam (the name was later changed to New York). They founded

Shearith Israel, a Spanish-Portuguese synagogue, and provided kosher meat for the entire Jewish community. By 1752, Shearith Israel was supervising all of New York’s kosher beef, and even exported beef to Jamaica and Curaçao. And thus these practices spread across America as Jews moved north, south and west, settling the land and preserving their beliefs.

Fast forward to Vegas 2011. We were din-ing at a favorite Italian restaurant. It wasn’t kosher. We overheard a gentleman at a nearby table order a drink from the waiter, “I’ll take mine kosher, with a little ice.” That means you would like your alcohol undiluted. Later that week I was watching the World Series of Poker tournament on TV. The com-mentator whispered, “If the fellow who just took the pot with four aces drops a fifth ace as he hauls in the chips, something isn’t ko-sher. Hmmm … is the player cheating?

The word kosher, or kashrut in Hebrew, is one of Judaism’s contributions to the in-ternational vocabulary. People of many cul-tures and languages use the term to denote that which is proper; and meets, or fails to meet, accepted rules and standards.

As it applies to food, Jews are command-ed to follow the laws of kashrut as specified in the Torah. Contrary to popular miscon-ception, rabbis or other religious officials do not bless food to make it kosher. Rabbi Shea Harlig, Chabad’s head rabbi of Las Vegas, said “that keeping kosher stipulates a number of restrictions and requirements, such as certain foods that Jews are forbid-den to eat, including pork and shell fish;

foods and utensils that must be separated, like milk and meat; and certifications or symbols (hechshers in Hebrew) on food la-bels that make it possible to identify kosher from non-kosher products. There are sev-eral accepted hechshers, but the main one here in America is the OU (certified kosher by the Orthodox Union).

There are three categories of kosher food: meat, dairy and pareve. All fruits and vegetables, for instance, are pareve and naturally kosher, but must be washed for insects. Only meat from animals who chew their cud and have split hooves are kosher, but can only be eaten if the animals are hu-manely slaughtered and cleaned according to the laws of kashrut. Products are kosher if the label displays an accepted hechsher; and a kosher restaurant is either exclusively dairy or exclusively meat, and has a mash-giach on site that supervises the buying and making of the food.

Then there’s kosher style food. “Sounds kosher to me!” Not necessarily. Kosher is not a fashion or trend. The laws must be followed for the food to be certified kosher. When a restaurant calls itself kosher style, it usually means they serve traditional Jew-ish dishes, such as matzoh ball soup, blin-tzes, knishes, etc., but invariably the food is trief, which translates as torn in English, and not certified kosher. The Bagel Café of-fers kosher style food. The food is delicious, and we have never been there without wait-ing for a table, but it is not certified kosher.

Our kosher traveler, by now, is impatient and ravenous for a Las Vegas culinary experi-

Where’s the Hechsher?

OCTOBER 2011 DAVID 49

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ence! Surely, we can find him a fabulous res-taurant here that caters to the strictly kosher palate. We’re one of the world’s restaurant capitals, offering some of the most exquisite and exciting cuisines. Turns out there are only about seven kosher establishments, and most of them are casual or fast food. That’s not to say they aren’t good, in fact they’re great! But it does speak to a void.

What we offered our visiting friend was a kosher Chinese restaurant called Big Dragon, at Flamingo and the 215. The décor is pleasant, the ambience warm and friendly — mostly because of the personal welcome customers receive from the owner, Tyrone Li. The food is excellent, and the portions and prices are reasonable. Being the only game of its kind in town, I assumed Li would be bursting at the seams with business.

“Not as much as I would like,” says Li. “It’s the economy. Ninety per cent of my busi-ness comes from tourists, and that’s way down. Only 10 per cent is local, and no non-kosher business comes through the doors at all.” Rabbi Eli Davidowitz feels the local Jewish community needs to support ko-sher restaurants more. “As demand grows, more kosher restaurants will open,” he said. “Jews who do not observe the kosher laws should be educated about the significance of kosher food for greater health and stron-ger spirituality.”

Mark Attia knows all too well from lack of local support. He opened Summerlin’s Village Steak House in October 2008, “just three weeks before one of our worst reces-sions hit.” But he had plenty of experience

as the general manager of two fine dining restaurants on the strip. “We held our own for two years, but the economy hurt us, plus there was a lack of community sup-port.” The Steak House was the first fine dining kosher restaurant in Las Vegas. Hav-ing dined and hosted several private parties there myself, the ambiance was East Coast-sophisticated, with excellent meat and signature dishes. It was not enough to keep the doors open.

It’s not that there aren’t enough Jews in Las Vegas. According to the Jewish Fed-eration of Las Vegas, there are 70,000 to 80,000. Only about 6,000, however, actively participate in the various synagogues and

community organizations.Attia noted that “… the involved Jewish

community here doesn’t go out that often, and they need to. The Jewish community needs to support itself in order to promote financial prosperity.”

I asked him about the non-kosher cus-tomer. “It’s very difficult to attract them without a lot of marketing, and I was un-dercapitalized. Their impression of kosher meat is not favorable, which is of course misinformed. If I was located closer to the Strip I would have at least benefited from the tourist traffic.”

Nonetheless, it seems Kosher is big busi-ness and would be well worth the invest-ment, given the right gastronomic concept. Menachem Lubinsky of Integrated Market-ing Communications Inc. announced new data in 2010 for the kosher food industry: There are 14 million regular kosher consum-ers, with an additional 45 million occasional consumers. Upward of $40 billion is spent each year on all kosher-certified products combined. There are 150,000 packaged goods items.

So where are the great, upscale kosher restaurants, and what can we do to get them to open and prosper in Las Vegas? Michelle Micek is the GM of etc. steakhouse in Teaneck, N.J. They pride themselves on a fine-dining steak menu and excellent pareve desserts. They also promote their chef and owner, Seth Warshaw, as a local celebrity. Micek says, “The fabulous success of our little steak house is our love of our patrons and the care and time we take to serve them

Crispy potato latke with sour cream and chives.

Baked sea bass on a bed of purple potato puree topped with roasted artichoke quarters and cauliflower carpaccio.

50 DAVID TISHREI/CHESHVAN 5772

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Kosher VegasAdar Pizza(702) 385-0006318 W. Sahara Ave., Las Vegas NVSun. - Thurs. 10 a.m. - call, Fri. 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Sat. Open callwww.adarpizza.com

Big Dragon Chinese Cuisine(702) 220-64004145 S Grand Canyon Dr, Las Vegas, NVMon. - Thurs. 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sat. 7p.m. - 12 a.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.

Haifa Restaurant(702) 940-8000855 E Twain Ave, Ste 101, Las Vegas, NVSun.-Thurs. 11:30 a.m.- 9:30 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. 6:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.www.haifarestaurant.com

Jerusalem Grill(702) 341-55554825 W Flamingo Rd, Las Vegas, NVSun. - Thurs. 11a.m. - 10 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m. to sun downwww.jerusalemgrillvegas.com

Kosher on the Go/ Wok-On-In Mongolian Restaurant (702) 309-59711040 E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas. NVSun. - Thurs. 8 a.m. - 8 p.m., Fri. 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.www.kosheronthegovegas.com

Panini Cafe(702) 558-65552521 S Fort Apache Rd, #100, Las Vegas, NVSun. - Thurs. 10 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m. to sun downwww.paninicafelv.com

Sababa(702) 547-55563220 S Durango Dr, #B1, Las Vegas, NVSun. - Thurs. 10 a.m.- 9 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m.- 3 p.m.www.sababarestaurant.com

Shawarma Vegas(702) 651-18182521 S Fort Apache Rd, Las Vegas, NVMon. - Fri. 9 a.m.- 9 p.m., Sun 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.www.shawarmavegas.com

Kosher Restuarants are closed on the Sabbath andJewish Holidays.

the finest cuisine possible, with excellent service.” She believes understanding your clientele is essential to attracting and keep-ing them. “And our success doesn’t depend on a wine menu. We don’t serve alcohol! But you can BYO … mevushal, of course,” which translates as cooked, but essentially means the wine was prepared in a kosher way.

In New York City there’s Tevere and Va Bene for truly authentic Italian; and Le Marais and The Prime Grill for outstanding steaks and fish. In Chicago there’s Shallots and Morgan Harbor Grill for the finest cuts of carne enjoyed in intimate settings; and Tu Do, offering a delectable Thai cuisine in a posh setting. In Los Angeles there’s Shilo’s Steak House, where I’ve indulged on amazing salmon and to-die-for cuts of beef; and Pat’s, which offers a varied Mediterranean menu and draws a packed daily business lunch crowd. For interna-tional excellence, there is one restaurant that exceeds all expectations, kosher or non-kosher, called Le Télégraphe in Paris. Having sat at the bar once a few years ago, because I could not afford the prices, I can attest that the ambiance, menu selection and service are par excellence.

Including Las Vegas, all of these cities have sufficient Jewish resident and tourist

traffic to sustain this kind of fine dining. And while prices can be higher in this type of restaurant, keeping kosher is a must for many Jews, and well worth supporting for those who do not, especially when the food is superb. Frankly, we would love to be able to dine at a restaurant that served traditional Jewish dishes, like our Bubbe’s yummy brisket and kugel; stuffed cabbage, cholent, soup with kneidlach, gefilte fish and schnitzel! And what about a Persian cuisine, or Mexican? As a kosher Las Vegas resident, I’m feeling inhospitable toward our hungry kosher traveler.

It seems that what separates the suc-cessful kosher restaurants in other Ameri-can cities from our city, which has so few and they struggle, is many-fold. Certainly, the local community needs to care more to come out, spend and consistently support the kosher restaurants. Sufficient capital is necessary for an owner to market to the community at large and tourists. Ambi-ance, cuisine and customer service must be excellent to compete with non-kosher food establishments. And it’s up to savvy restaurant managers to know and cater to their clientele.

There’s one more essential component for the survival and success of a kosher restau-

rant: catering. According to most restaurant managers we spoke with, a large percentage of their business comes from catering out-side events. Said one: “The bread and butter of a kosher restaurant, especially in Vegas, is the catering.’’ He tried to work with Temple Beth Sholom, arguably the largest synagogue in town. “They wanted $200,000 just to get in, a percentage of each contract, plus a room rental charge. I couldn’t afford it, and without it I couldn’t survive.”

Our kosher traveler, now satisfied by his delicious sustenance at The Big Dragon, expressed appreciation for the food tip. We, on the other hand, were disappointed that we could not offer more. We are hopeful, however, that when the economy improves a bit, and the Jews of our wonderful city find opportunities to increase their knowledge of their great heritage, traditions, values and cuisines (thus developing the deep pride and respect that comes from knowing who one is and what one is connected to), we will see diverse and outstanding kosher restaurants springing up here and there … on the Strip and in our suburbs … casual and upscale … but, most importantly, serving up a food that reaches back in time, pays homage to the laws and traditions that link us and would make my Zeidy Max proud.

OCTOBER 2011 DAVID 51

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