2nd Avenue Deli Set to Reopen
Gothamist and Kosher-NY are both reporting that the Second Avenue Deli, which closed at its long-standing location last year due to rent issues, is set to reopen on Monday, December 17. The pictures that Gothamist has look great. And, in exciting news for carnivorous insomniacs and those of us who work odd hours on occasion, “The new location, on 33rd Street near 3rd Avenue, will be open 24-hours a day starting Monday with a ceremonial salami cutting of ‘nickel shtikel’ links at 11 a.m.”
To avoid the apparently inevitable “my hashgacha can beat up your hashgacha” conversation, I remind you that Kosher Blog recommends that you check with your local rabbi regarding any questions about appropriate kashrut. This, in my opinion, is not the appropriate forum for that discussion, since such decisions are not universally applicable and we prefer to avoid the lashon harah that often accompany these arguments.
Oh… this is just to juicy to pass up.
Marc (YIS), your hashgacha is a pathetic girlie man. My hashgacha could smack yours around with a one-armed blindfolded mashgiach temidi.
Actually, if one can give anecdotes on why this hasgacha is unreliable, it would be universally applicable. And there are plenty of annecdotes that indicates a level of dishonesty (for instance the teudah claiming chalav yisrael when none of the products were).
As a meat restaurant, 2nd Avenue better not be chalav yisroel!
Actually, I heard that 2nd Avenue will be chalav yisroel. Also, the rye will be kosher for passover (only the unseeded – caraway seeds are kitniyot and therefore prohibited).
Oh no…here we go again.
Yes, Howard, and the chicken will be glatt.
Awesome! I’m so there…
I should hope the chicken will be glatt. Non-glatt chicken isn’t kosher, by any standard.
The point about chalav yisrael is that Israel Steinberg’s word is not reliable on that subject. The reader must determine how reliable he can be on any other subject.
Milhouse,
From kashrut.com:
[I]t is clear that referring to chicken, fish or dairy products as glatt is a misuse of the term. In addition, even when referring to meat, it only attests to the status of the lung, but makes no comment about the standards of, for example, the shechitah.
Actually, kashrut.com is a little imprecise. The reasons differ on chicken/fish/dairy as to why glatt is a misuse. On chicken, it is because all chicken must meet the glatt/chalak standard to be kosher. Fish lungs aren’t checked. Dairy is, well, lungless. :)
So saying glatt kosher chicken is like saying cold ice – it’s true, yet redundant. Calling fish or dairy glatt is just garbage.
In other words, Milhouse is correct. Mrs. Crabopple would be so proud.
Actually dairy comes from cows which have lungs, which could be treif, or non-glatt. If the cow is treif or non-glatt then so is its milk. The only way to tell is to slaughter the cow immediately after the milking and do an inspection. Of course we don’t do that, and just “assume” that the cow is healthy. How safe that assumption is is a vexed question among kashrut professionals; nobody’s willing to come out and say that all milk is suspect, but there are worrying stats from actual inspections of slaughtered dairy cows.
But yes, the Ashkenazi custom of allowing non-glatt meat only applies to adult mammals. Poultry, veal, and lamb *must* be glatt, or they aren’t kosher according to anybody.
And some people wondered why I wanted to merely pass along a bit of news and leave well enough alone…
actually, it shows how certain people actually care little about kashrut, as to them it’s a joke.
All I did was point out an anecdote on why this hasgacha could be considered unreliable, which has nothing to do with policies, but a simple matter of how one relates to truth.
I think the ones who “care little about kashrut” are the ones trying to sell that any questioning of 2nd Avenue Deli is just unfair, or those who are drooling at the idea of eating there.
No one has said that the questioning is unfair. Rather, I anticipated the questioning in my initial post. I simply asked that rather than sharing references to anecdotes and then engaging in personal attacks against others (as the two previous commentors have done), people talk to their rabbinic authority before eating at a restaurant where there’s a question about the hashgacha. Since nothing productive or helpful is coming out of these comments, I request that this thread be closed to further comment.