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Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery is a bakery and restaurant, located at 137 East Houston Street (between First Avenue and Second Avenue), on the
About 1910, Yonah Schimmel, an immigrant from the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia, used a pushcart to start his knish bakery. As business grew, a small store at 156 Allen Street was rented by Yonah.
By 1916, Schimmel operated knish bakeries at Allen St., 74 Rivington, 44 Ave. B, and 144 E. Houston (across the street from the present knishery location).
Around 1915, Schimmel went into partnership at the 144 E. Houston St. store with Josef Berger, who had married Yonah’s cousin Rose Schimel. Berger eventually took over the Houston St. store, retaining the original name.
In the 1930s, a widening of Houston St. was undertaken in order to accommodate construction of the Subway system’s Sixth Avenue line. At some point in the 1930s the Houston St. store moved from the North side of the street to its present location at 137 E. Houston.
In 1931 Josef Berger passed away, and his son Arthur Berger operated Yonah Schimmel's Knishery until he passed in 1974. Arthur's widow, Lillian Berger, continued to run the bakery until approximately 1990.
Yonah Schimmel's has been family owned since its inception and is currently operated by Yonah's great nephew, Alex Wolfman.
In 1995, the shop's then-owner, Sheldon Keitz, was implicated in a
Official website
1890 establishments in New York (state) Ashkenazi Jewish restaurants Ashkenazi Jewish culture in New York City Bakeries of New York City Jewish delicatessens in New York City Jews and Judaism in Manhattan Lower East Side Kosher bakeries Milchig restaurants Restaurants in Manhattan Romanian-Jewish culture in New York (state) Restaurants established in 1890 {{Lower East Side, Manhattan
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...
of Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, that has been selling knish
A knish or knysh ( or , ) is a traditional food of Eastern European origin, characteristic of Ukrainian and Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. It typically consists of a filling covered with dough that is baked or sometimes deep fried.
In most tradi ...
es since 1890. Its current location on Houston Street
Houston Street ( ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York. It runs the full width of the island of Manhattan, from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson ...
opened in 1910. It is certified CupK Kosher.
As the Lower East Side has changed over the decades and many of its Jew
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish residents have departed, Yonah Schimmel's is one of the few distinctly Jewish businesses and restaurants that remain as a fixture of this largely departed culture and cuisine.
As cited in ''The Underground Gourmet,'' a review of Yonah Schimmel's in a collection of restaurant reviews by Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser (June 26, 1929June 26, 2020) was an American graphic designer, recognized for his designs, including the I Love New York logo; a 1966 poster for Bob Dylan; the logos for DC Comics, Stony Brook University, Brooklyn Brewery; and his ...
and Jerome Snyder, "No New York politician in the last 50 years has been elected to office without having at least one photograph showing him on the Lower East Side with a knish in his face."
History
About 1910, Yonah Schimmel, an immigrant from the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia, used a pushcart to start his knish bakery. As business grew, a small store at 156 Allen Street was rented by Yonah.
By 1916, Schimmel operated knish bakeries at Allen St., 74 Rivington, 44 Ave. B, and 144 E. Houston (across the street from the present knishery location).
Around 1915, Schimmel went into partnership at the 144 E. Houston St. store with Josef Berger, who had married Yonah’s cousin Rose Schimel. Berger eventually took over the Houston St. store, retaining the original name.
In the 1930s, a widening of Houston St. was undertaken in order to accommodate construction of the Subway system’s Sixth Avenue line. At some point in the 1930s the Houston St. store moved from the North side of the street to its present location at 137 E. Houston.
In 1931 Josef Berger passed away, and his son Arthur Berger operated Yonah Schimmel's Knishery until he passed in 1974. Arthur's widow, Lillian Berger, continued to run the bakery until approximately 1990.
Yonah Schimmel's has been family owned since its inception and is currently operated by Yonah's great nephew, Alex Wolfman.
In 1995, the shop's then-owner, Sheldon Keitz, was implicated in a loan-sharking
A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high or illegal interest rates, has strict terms of collection, and generally operates outside the law, often using the threat of violence or other illegal, aggressive, and extortionate ...
scheme. The shop was amongst the locations where loans were repaid.
It is as much a landmark as an eatery and has frequently been an artist's subject. A portrait of the Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery by Hedy Pagremanski (b. 1929) is in the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York
The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is a history and art museum in Manhattan, New York City, New York. It was founded by Henry Collins Brown, in 1923Beard, Rick. "Museum of the City of New York" in to preserve and present the history ...
. Jewish-Irish painter Harry Kernoff
Harry Aaron Kernoff (9 January 1900 – 25 December 1974) was an Irish genre-painter. He depicted Dublin street and pub scenes and Dublin landmarks, as well as producing landscapes, woodcut illustrations, portraits, and set designs.
Early ...
painted this bakery on a trip to New York in 1939. More recently it features in the 2009 Woody Allen
Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...
film ''Whatever Works
''Whatever Works'' is a 2009 American comedy film directed and written by Woody Allen and starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr., Michael McKean, and Henry Cavill. It was released on June 19, 2009, received mix ...
''.
The restaurant offers a number of varieties of knishes, including the traditional potato and kasha
In English, kasha usually refers to the pseudocereal buckwheat or its culinary preparations. In Slavic languages, "kasha" means porridge or puree. In some varieties of Eastern European cuisine, ''kasha'' can apply to any kind of cooked grain. I ...
(buckwheat groats
Buckwheat (''Fagopyrum esculentum'') or common buckwheat is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. Buckwheat originated around the 6th millennium BCE in the region of what ...
) knishes, known for using the same recipe since the bakery's opening, as well as dessert knishes such as Cherry-Cheese, and Blueberry-Cheese, in addition to other kinds of Eastern European food such as borscht
Borscht () is a sour soup, made with meat stock, vegetables and seasonings, common in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. In English, the word ''borscht'' is most often associated with the soup's variant of Ukrainian origin, made with red b ...
, and runs a takeout business. In recent years the restaurant has delivered its knishes nationally through Goldbelly, and has been featured in the site's YouTube series.
See also
*List of Ashkenazi Jewish restaurants
Following is a list of Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, Ashkenazi Jewish restaurants, including some kosher restaurants:
* Attman's Delicatessen, Maryland
* Barney Greengrass, New York City
* Ben & Esther's Vegan Jewish Deli, Oregon; California; W ...
* List of bakeries
This is a list of notable bakeries. A bakery is an Business, establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baking, baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, Pastry, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee a ...
* List of delicatessens
This is a list of notable delicatessens. A delicatessen is a Retail, retail establishment that sells a selection of unusual or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessens originated in Germany during the 1700s. They later spread to the United Kingdom ...
* List of kosher restaurants
This is a list of notable kosher restaurants. A kosher restaurant is an establishment that serves food that complies with Jews, Jewish dietary laws (''kashrut''). These businesses, which also include diners, cafés, pizzerias, Fast food restaurant ...
* Jews in New York City
Jews comprise approximately 12% of New York City's population, making the Jewish community the largest in the world outside of Israel. , over 960,000 Jews lived in the five boroughs of New York City, and over 1.9million Jews lived in the New Yor ...
*
*
References
External links
Official website
1890 establishments in New York (state) Ashkenazi Jewish restaurants Ashkenazi Jewish culture in New York City Bakeries of New York City Jewish delicatessens in New York City Jews and Judaism in Manhattan Lower East Side Kosher bakeries Milchig restaurants Restaurants in Manhattan Romanian-Jewish culture in New York (state) Restaurants established in 1890 {{Lower East Side, Manhattan