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Thursday, November 30, 2000 By Susan Jacobs , Post-Gazette Staff Writer
On a recent weekday, Cheryl Cohen joined three friends for lunch at Sari's, a kosher eatery that serves pizza, sandwiches and salads in Squirrel Hill.
"We've never been able to get something kosher like this in the city before," said Cohen of her portobello mushroom sandwich. "The pizza here is fantastic."
Until recently, Squirrel Hill's selection of kosher restaurants was limited to two, one of which has closed.
That has changed. Anyone who keeps kosher now has a choice of four restaurants from which to order Italian, Israeli, Chinese and American food, often in interesting combinations. The four businesses -- Sari's, Milky Way, Platters and the Golden China International Cuisine -- are within three blocks of each other on Murray Avenue, Squirrel Hill's main business street.
The term kosher does not refer to a particular style of cuisine, as some people think. It refers to the Jewish dietary restrictions that prohibit the consumption of foods such as pork and shellfish, as well as the mixing of dairy products and ritually slaughtered meat. This separation of meat from dairy means that you won't find a pepperoni pizza in a kosher pizzeria or a cheeseburger in a kosher sandwich shop. The two pizza places have dairy kitchens and the two Chinese places have meat kitchens.
When Sari's opened in September, it became the latest kosher restaurant, replacing an older, kosher pizza place called Yacov's that closed in July.
The new owners, Aaron Siebzener, Ari Naiditch and Jeff Margolis, ripped out Yacov's decades-old orange booths and redid the interior with pastel walls and light-colored flooring. Replacing the booths are small wood tables, creating an intimate, cafe-style atmosphere.
"I've been saying for years this town needed more kosher restaurants," said Dan Schwarcz, a 41-year-old engineer who has visited all four restaurants. Over the years, he said, people argued that a community that barely supported two restaurants would never support four.
Sari's, 2109 Murray Ave., 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday; and 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday. 412-421-7208
Milky Way, 2120 Murray Ave., 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday. Opens approximately one hour after sundown, closing about midnight on Saturday; 412-421-3121
Platters, 2020 Murray Ave., noon to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; closed Friday and Saturday; 412-422-3370
Golden China International Cuisine, 2209 Murray Ave., noon to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; opens approximately an hour after sunset Saturday; 412-422-1800.
He continues to disagree. "Four good restaurants will do more business than two bad ones. If there are good restaurants, people will eat out more."
Cohen speculated that the Milky Way, which serves falafel and Israeli salads as well as pizza and other Italian foods, will become a hot spot for teen-agers, while Sari's will cater more to adults.
As if proving his point, a handful of teen girls from Hillel Academy were lunching on pizza and French fries at Milky Way on a recent weekday afternoon. Their school allows eleventh- and twelfth-graders to leave campus for lunch.
Ariela Fox, 17, said she and her friends prefer Milky Way to Sari's. "This is more teen-agerish," said Fox. "It's more open, less formal."
"You don't have to be quiet here," added Sarah Kantz, 17.
Most of the other customers that day were adults catching a quick bite during their lunch hour. Many wore the garments associated with Orthodox Jews, but others did not.
"Everyone comes here," said Yerucham Friedlander, co-owner of Milky Way. "Everyone feels comfortable to come here. That's something we're striving for."
All four restaurants face the challenge of appealing to customers who wouldn't normally go out of their way to eat in a kosher restaurant. Even optimists agree that the observant Jewish community -- the main supporters of kosher restaurants -- cannot on its own support four restaurants.
From the outside, Golden China International Cuisine looks like other Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood. Inside, there are obvious differences.
A kosher certificate hangs on the wall near the entrance, giving the restaurant the endorsement of a local rabbinic board. A Hebrew blessing for a business hangs on a plaque above the register, pictures of Jerusalem decorate the dining room and the owner and many of the customers wear yarmulkes (skull caps) and tzitzit, fringes that men wear on four-cornered garments to remind them of God's commandments.
When the restaurant is busy, it is bustling with conversation and the clink of metal forks against ceramic plates (no chopsticks here).
At Golden China, it's possible to overhear the kitchen staff speaking Hebrew and customers can order falafel to go with their Moo Goo Gai Pan, or a hamburger and an order of vegetable lo mein.
"We made a bridge from the Far East to the Mideast, right in the middle of Squirrel Hill," said Uri Fakiro, brother and unofficial adviser to owner Gabe Fakiro, an Israeli immigrant.
It's the Israeli menu that helps distinguish Golden China from Platters, which in addition to serving Chinese food, also offers deli and American-style dishes. Platters, the oldest of the restaurants, has been around for nearly two years.
The relatively small size of Pittsburgh's Orthodox Jewish community has kept local rabbis from encouraging new kosher restaurants in the past. But the right of business owners to embark on their own ventures has prevailed.
"Every citizen has a right in his own city to do what he can to make a living on the public thoroughfare," said Rabbi Yitzchak Chinn, the head of Pittsburgh's Vaad HaRabonim, a board of rabbis that certifies kosher restaurants.
Jewish law protects businesses from unfair competition in some cases, but the Vaad decided that the four kosher restaurants would create healthy competition, giving the community more choices.
"The Torah allows for competition as long as no one is taking away livelihood from each other," said Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld, the rabbi who supervises Platters.
Cynics in the Orthodox Jewish community say to enjoy the variety while it lasts, because four restaurants won't be around for long.
Ari Naiditch said he hopes all of the restaurants will be successful, but knows it won't be easy.
"Do I think four places will be making money in six months? No," said Naiditch, a partner in both Sari's and Platters. "It's easy to open a business; it's harder to make a living."
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