Kosher Blog

I’m hoping a kosher Cinnabon is next.

I emailed the article to my nearly 16 year old. Great, now he says we have to move to Cleveland!

David, if you don’t mind high altitudes, there is a kosher Cinnabon in Mexico City.

Yes, I know. Which is why I can’t understand why there isn’t one here. You’d think there is more of market for it here. I’ve called and emailed the company several times about this, and eventually received the answer that they couldn’t have a kosher location, because they sometimes test market items that are not kosher. Well, duh. Don’t test market those items at the kosher location!

If we’re not allowed to eat cheese on chicken because of confusion/appearences/etc, then why are we allowed to eat pareve cheese on chicken and especially on hamburgers?!

Well, if I recall the original halacha of using pareve coffee creamer correctly… When it’s being served with a meat meal, it should be served alongside the original container (which explicitly states that it’s pareve) so there’s no confusion or ma’arit ayin. (Find R’ Moshe Isserlis’s discussion of cooking meat in almond milk for the source.)

R’ Yosef Zushe Blech addresses the issue more widely in an article on the Montreal Kosher website:

As we have seen, modern food technology has made a variety of heretofore unattainable items within the technical reach of the Kosher consumer. The question we must now ask is the propriety of eating them. When eating certain foods, Chazal are concerned with the concept of Mar’is Ayin - the appearance of an inappropriate act. Indeed, we find that Chazal (Krisus 21b) restricted the way one can consume the blood of fish - which is technically permitted - lest it appear that one is eating non-Kosher blood of animals. While eating blood may seem a bit far-fetched today (unless one is living in Yorkshire), the Rashba (Teshuvos, Vol. III:247) clearly extends this concept to other situations where it might appear that the food is prohibited. Indeed, the Rama (Y.D. 87:3) discusses a concern with the use of almond milk together with meat, lest it appear that one has cooked meat and milk together. The concept of Mar’is Ayin is even cited as one of the reasons to prohibit Gebrukts - soaked Matzoh - on Pesach, lest someone think that the “breaded” chicken contained Chometz bread crumbs instead of Matzoh meal. As such, many Halachic authorities have grappled with the permissibility of many of the new, Kosher “forbidden fruit” that are now available. Most authorities concur that items that are commonly available as Kosher (and Pareve, if applicable) pose no concern, and Pareve coffee creamer, ice cream, and margarine are now so ubiquitous that they pose no real concern. Mock shrimp and cheese burgers, however, may be more of an issue, and a competent Halachic authority should be consulted.

The ubiquity of a product and its popularity are key in negating suspicion. Margarine, pareve ice cream, soy milk, are all prime examples.

This is a happy day… Hmm, when I eventually resettle into Seattle after my schooling is done, mabye Icould open up one of these… Do they have any plans or info yet on what they do during Passover since Chametz is verbotten?

So just because pareve cheese has been available for a long time the appearance of doing a prohibited act no longer exists? It seems to me that most people would be shocked to see an Orthodox Jew eating a cheeseburger and would think that he/she was eating a burger with real cheese. Considering that mixing milk and meat, not eating pork and not eating shell fish are probably the three most well known (and most visible) kosher rules, I would think that we should be most careful about doing anything that could remotely look like we are eating them.

Also, isn’t anyone concerned that eating the pareve versions of all these treif foods will give frum Jews the “taste” for treif foods? You don’t miss (as much) the foods that you don’t know, but it seems that introducing these kosher-ized versions of treif foods is dangerous because it gets really close to the kosher/treif line.

I’d love to see one around here.

Trust me, it’s not such a metziah. They are charging upwards of $7 for a sandwich with only a portion of the meat you can get at any kosher deli. (It’s salad and bread.) I had Subway in the “old days”, and it was something I GLADLY gave up. As for the pareve cheese, as a BT, I can tell you that it never melts right. I rather have real cheese with soy meat (veggie pepperoni, anyone?) any day!

I was there tonight (opening night), and it was quite good (had the meatball, tried my dining partners chicken “parm”).

The kosher Subway is open: First kosher Subway in North America opens in Beachwood

Kosher ground beef and hamburg patties for use in a kosher kitchen of a Jewish children’s camp are very, very salty. Any suggestions for reducing the salt taste with kosher addditives or other suggestions? Can ground beef be washed to leach out the salt?
Thanks,
Ed Samiljan

as a resident of Cleveland, I am happy to see the worlds first kosher subway in the “J” located in Beachwood OH. The food is decent, but remember folks, these are sandwiches not steaks. As they say in the restaurant business (or is it real estate?)the most important thing is location location location. This spot has seen half a dozen kosher food joints fail in the last five years, do I have to name them? If you live around Cleveland, you know what I am talking about. I think the problem is that many of the people that go to the J to work out etc dont even keep kosher, and the people that do live nowhere near the J, hence a catch 22 situation, hence failure, at least in the past. Subway would go over great in a high volume kosher area like the Cedar-Green area of Cleveland, or even better, a place like LA New York, New Jersey etc. Food good - location bad, I hope they hang in there

as i just graduted from college i find myself torn to the corperate 9-5 job or do i want to be my own boss in this world. i am tring the harder of the two in that i want to be my own boss. so i need a product or servise to provide. something smart and new. Kosher Subway is brilliant. i want to persue this idea and find out if it is something i can get into. i live in new york about 5 min from monsey. perfect location. if someone reads this please e-mail me and let me know the approprate steps to getting involved.

Jeff,

Call Subway Headquarters at 1-800-488-4848 and asked to be transferred to franchise services.

Kosher Today is reporting that here will be one in Borough Park any day now.

Deiscane - I think it mentioned Ave J - which is Flatbush/Midwood not BP

You’re right; I had read it too fast. I re-read it and it is indeed Ave J in Flatbush.

THERE IS A BRAND NEW KOSHER SUBWAY LOCATED ON AVENUE J IN BROOKLYN, N.Y. THE FIRST KOSHER SUBWAY EVER IN N.Y. AND IT TASTES ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS-THE MEATBALL SUB IS AMAZING AND SO IS THE STEAK SANDWICH….LETS NOT EVEN GET INTO HOW DELICIOUS THE SUBWAY BREAD IS ITSELF……FIVE STARS!!!*****

I found the Ave. J Subway to be decent, but certainly wouldn’t give it a “five star” rating.

While the fresh veggies and warm bread were certainly a treat, the sandwiches contain a pitiful amount of meat. Three slices of deli meat does NOT make a 6-inch sub worthy of a $6.00 bill. I enjoyed my chicken teriyaki but easily could have made the same sandwich at home with twice the meat and for half the price.

That having been said, I do recommend Subway to anyone that’s looking for healthy take-out in the Ave. J area. There are plenty of low-cal meat options (including the only non-fried sandwich chicken I’ve ever seen in Flatbush), whole wheat rolls, lots of fresh veggies and several fat-free dressings. I’m sure that my sandwich came in at hundreds of calories less than the closest available option sold at Kosher Delight or Chop-a-Nosh.

There’s a Cinnabon in Wilmette, IL (suburb of Chicago) that is working on getting kosher status. I spoke with the owner and he said that everything made there is OUD and that all of the employees know that they are not allowed to bring non-kosher food into the establishment, but that he has to be able to get a rabbi to be willing to possibly stop in on Shabbos in order to get CRC approval. The owner is Jewish (I think he might be shomer Shabbos), but he said that he “sells” the place on Shabbos and does not keep any of those profits. I think there are a couple other things involved in his getting the supervision, but it looks promising.

On a separate note, I have eaten at the Kosher subway in Cleveland many times, and think it is great!

There is a Glatt Kosher Subway opening up in Los Angeles! Check out this site: http://www.glattkoshersubway.com/

I cant wait until they open one up in Los Angeles. I ate at the location in Brooklyn on Avenue J and it was fantastic. Check out the website for the Los Angeles location http://www.glattkoshersubway.com

Anyone know the website for the LA location??? ;)

Check out NY’s Glatt Kosher Subway’s Menu and fair price list on their website at http://www.koshersubwayny.com

http://www.koshersubwayny.com for NY’s #1 and only Glatt Kosher Subway

Methinks that this Nancy is somehow affiliated with the Kosher Subway in NYC… call me crazy [you're crazy! ed.], but it’s a hunch that I have.

well I got to tell you I have been to the kosher subway in cleveland and the kosher subway in brooklyn. The 2 dont even compare to one another. I had a chicken terriyaki at both places and being a new yorker I’m sad to say that theirs was sooo much better. I was in cleveland on thursday and tried theirs again just to be sure, and I’m sure. I also asked the mashgiach how they were permitting the cleveland store to use the soy cheese. He told me that the only reason to not use the pareve cheese is because of maris ayin. He then asked me, which I thought was more of a maris ayin issue, either having parve cheese in the sandwich or a jew walking down the street with a bag that says subway on it. He then pointed out that the cleveland store stickers all their outside bags with a kosher sticker, and if thats not enough just to avoid a second maris ayin issue if the bag was thrown out and the person is eating it at their desk, they also stamp all their papers with a kosher stamp!!! I then started looking around at was else the cleveland subway might be doing differently, but decided that better not to see what else our subway might be doing wrong. I’d rather just be happy with what we got. On the bright side I do travel to cleveland often enough, so I guess I wont always have to settle for second best

I ate my first Glatt Kosher sandwich from the LA Subway store. I can honestly say it was the worst sandwich I ever ate in my life. It actually made me ill. At $1 an inch, someone’s getting rich. Are 3 slices of Glatt Kosher meat on 6 inches of tasteless bread really that expensive?

Cleveland’s Subway @ the J is one of the kosher establishments being evaluated in the first ever Cleveland Kosher Community Survey.

If you are interested in taking the survey, go to cleveland.kosher-community-surveys.com.

Moe,

You are in the great minority. If you wanted more meat (which is not uncommon) double and triple up. The bread is great.

I wish there were more to offer for Cincinnatians

These comments really crack me up. The reason Subway decided to open kosher franchises was that the market is to saturated for any non-kosher subways. You can stand at a corner in Manhattan and see 4 of them.

A Subway just opened up in the 5 Towns as well and everyone went crazy for it. Its about time the kosher community sees non-kosher fast food for what it really is. Its not all that good, just cheap and convenient. I give these subways a few months before the novelty wears off and then will close their doors.

I ate at the Livingston location last week. It was pretty much exactly what a treyf Subway was like. I enjoyed it. For fast food, Subway is a pretty good option, imo.

The Cleveland Subway @ the J did pretty well in the 2007-2008 Cleveland Area Kosher Community Survey. The results of the survey are at results.kosher-community-surveys.com

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