Legendary Lakeview deli The Bagel gets new owner, yet tradition remains
At 78, Chicago business owner Marvin Barsky is at the peak of his career. It wasn't his heyday as a NASCAR speedway baron, or his gilded age as a shared...
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Keepers of the flame: Jewish restaurants in Chicagoland honoring tradition while forging new paths
As Hanukkah celebrations get underway, Jewish restaurants across Chicagoland are ushering in this year's Festival of Lights in ways as resilient as they are delicious. After all, the holiday is...
Keepers of the flame: A final interview with The Bagel owner Danny Wolf
Sometimes, customers stopped by Lakeview's The Bagel Restaurant and Deli just to see Danny Wolf, the thin, bright-blue-eyed patriarch of a 72-year-old family business. On July 3, Wolf died at...
Keepers of the flame: Galit nabbed a Michelin star ‘for hummus, falafel and pita’ — and it’s just getting started
If simplicity is an illusion, then Galit is a magic show. Many diners at this Lincoln Park restaurant have no clue the hummus is prepared over multiple days, that the...
Keepers of the flame: Jewish brisket tradition stays afloat at Milt’s, Chicago’s only kosher-certified barbecue joint
When the rest of the world thought beef brisket was too leathery to eat, Ashkenazic Jews proved them wrong. For centuries, they braised the cow's breast low and slow, unlocking...
Keepers of the flame: Chicago’s only kosher sushi bar, Hamachi, is ‘going to be here forever’
In 2011, sushi chef Tee Shakya threw out the best job offer of his life. Fortunately, his mom convinced him to uncrumple and read the letter, which he mistook for...
Keepers of the flame: How the world-famous sausage gets made at Rogers Park’s Romanian Kosher
Despite the legions of Romanian Kosher fans around the world, second-generation owner Arnold Loeb, who died in 2020, never shipped his meats beyond state lines. So instead, diehards came to...
Keepers of the flame: How Sam & Gertie’s makes Jewish classics vegan with its ‘seitanic rituals’
To find out why Andy Kalish opened the world's first vegan Jewish deli, look no further than his business partner and wife of 27 years, Gina Kalish. Her philosophy of...
Keepers of the flame: Tel-Aviv Kosher Pizza, one of Chicago’s oldest kosher restaurants, is one man’s ‘diamond mine’
An order of 100 garlic knots would have been a breeze if Momi Mirzai, Tel-Aviv's manager, had known how to make them. Though this braided bread wasn't on the menu,...
Keepers of the flame: As Kaufman’s nears 50 years in Skokie, deli’s ingredients — and attitude — stay wonderfully fresh
"Do you have anything fat-free or sugar-free?" a customer recently asked the guy behind the counter at Kaufman's. His reply: "Yes — if you go up to the register, they...