Before the arrival of larger, ethnically sophisticated grocery stores in
Austin such as Fiesta and Central Market, finding a substantial supply of
kosher products, even around the Jewish holidays, required a sharp detective’s
eye. Occasionally, the shelves in Phoenicia deli promised some showing of
kosher food among its few Israeli imports.
Interestingly enough, while the assimilation of bagels into the American diet
finds different communities adopting this prominent staple of Jewish cuisine,
Austin supports only one kosher bagel business — The Bagelry. And while each
of the Bagelry’s five locations boast a kosher bakery, the deli’s counter
service is not kosher. Places like the Hot Jumbo Bagel on Fifth, which sports
the inaccurate label “kosher” on its street sign, indicates the growing
adoption of Jewish food by communities undemanding of official certification.
Similarly, the “kosher style” menu at Katz’s Deli & Bar sports all the
fixins of a Jewish restaurant — matzoh balls, reubens, latkes, blintzes, and
nova lox — but though the label kosher promises Katz’s food some
authenticity here too, the restaurant’s kitchen and service is not set up to
keep kosher. This deli does, however, provide food for which secular East
Coast-to-Austin Jews often long — fatty, mustard-drenched meats on rye.
As Austin’s Jewish population continues to grow, so grows the demand for
kosher butchers, delis, restaurants, and caterers. In my eagerness to shop
strictly kosher, I discovered that Austin’s Jewish community supports some
interesting kosher food venues.
Randalls grocery on Balcones boasts Austin’s only kosher bakery, and aims to
offer different breads as fitting accompaniments to all kosher meals. Of their
two ovens, the convection one is designated for pareve breads only
(breads with neither dairy nor meat ingredients), so it cannot be used for meat
or dairy products. Their conventional oven (best for baking sweets, such as
pastry) is designated for strict dairy use. Other pareve and dairy
equipment is separated in the kitchen as well. Despite the kitchen’s large
size, its equipment cannot accommodate meat ingredients in this same space.
Some constraints on production in this kitchen, then, pertain to convection
oven breads with cheese (such as jalape�o-cheddar bread) and baked goods
with meat (such as sausage breads.) With this set up, Randalls must restrict
its products to dairy sweet goods, such as croissant, and pareve breads,
like challah and bagels.
Because most breads in Randalls’ bakery were already produced with Kosher
methods, their kitchen conversion to kosher production (started when this
Randalls was Tom Thumb), did not alter many of their recipes. For many, any
change in product selection is well worth the certification that this bakery
guarantees.
The Austin Kosher Co-op (918-1270), Andrea Herrera’s voluntarily run kosher
meat distributing service, has provided Austin households with
specially-ordered cuts of glatt kosher meat for years. The pre-cut to order,
quick frozen meat arrives direct from a Los Angeles butcher to an in-town meat
market for holding and pick up. The co-op, now about 75 families strong,
arranges such shipments every six weeks, when Andrea sends out a self-designed
newsletter and order forms to its members. In the absence of a local kosher
butcher, responsible for overseeing the preparation of kosher meat, the co-op
sustains the Austin community of Kosher carnivores.
— R.W.
This article appears in December 6 • 1996 and December 6 • 1996 (Cover).