These days, packaged kosher food can be found almost everywhere, but who keeps tabs on fresh meat and dairy and restaurants and other food-service establishments? JHSGW offers a look at the local kosher world.
Keeping the DC Area Kosher
About the Author
Zachary Paul Levine formerly worked as curator for the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, helping to develop the Society’s new museum. A native of Bethesda, he returned to Washington after ten years in New York (mostly), Hungary and Israel, places in which he cultivated his love for home brewing, mushroom goulash and hummus.
To Market, To Market…
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington sat down to chat with Mitch Berliner and Debra Moser, creators of the Central Farm Markets in MD and VA and several other local food companies before that.
A Very Washingtonian Passover
Matzah isn’t the most popular food, but that didn’t stop hordes of famous Washingtonians, including senators and diplomats, from attending Dorothy and Arthur Goldberg’s annual Seder throughout the 1960s and into subsequent decades.
A Deli Called Friendship
Before it was a bustling shopping district, Friendship Heights was home to small mom-and-pop businesses, including Herman Levine’s Friendship Grocery, which later became Friendship Delicatessen.
Chips Off the Old Block
Did you know that Route 11 potato chips all started with famous DC institution the Tabard Inn? They weren’t even part of the plan, but when life gives you potatoes…well, you fry them.
A Feast for the Eyes (and the Palate)
Do you hunker down with a few cookbooks to plan your holiday menus? JHSGW has a collection of community cookbooks from the 1950s to 1990s that give us a taste of what earlier Washingtonians have made.
Flocking to Union Terminal Market
It may have sleek, shiny counters, specialty shops and fancy food festivals now, but a whole generation of Washingtonians once depended on Union Terminal Market for most of the food that they consumed.
From Custard Shop to Shopping Center
Simon Sherman’s first taste of business and entrepreneurship came in the form of Williams Frozen Custard. From there he expanded out to the suburbs, opening the area’s first shopping mall, Wheaton Plaza.
The Sidewalk Café That Started It All
Can you imagine summer in DC without outdoor restaurant seating? Prior to 1961, DC regulations didn’t allow it. Bassin’s owner Henry Zitelman battled city officials to allow him to be the sidewalk-café pioneer.
Posin’s: Legen-dairy in DC
For 80 years, one establishment was responsible for catering most of DC’s synagogue events, bar and bat mitzvahs and shivas, serving up bagel platters as well as integration in a mostly-segregated city.
