The Rise of the Dairy Restaurant in New York City
The proliferation of restaurants serving an Ashkenazic-style dairy cuisine in New York City after 1881 can be attributed to the unique historical confluence of events and ideas.
The historically unprecedented growth and concentration of a Jewish population provided a ready base of customers with a knowledge of, and taste for, Eastern European dairy dishes. Within a few years of their arrival, some of the immigrants and their children had amassed enough capital to go into business for themselves. The restaurant business was booming in New York and as everyone ate and cooked at home thet felt they had the skills to enter this field. Their clientele, in the aftermath of the meat strikes of 1902, were happy to avoid meat all together and trusted that their landsmen would handle the dairy and parve foodstuffs according to their commonsense understanding of Jewish dietary law---professional certification was unnecessary. The clientele was also spurred by an awareness of the vegetarian and pure-food movements. The health giving and ethical benefits of a dairy and vegetable-based diet were popularized in the Yiddish and American press. The model for their new dairy restaurant was readily found in the omnipresent American dairy lunchrooms. Here was a decor devoid of Old World associations and organized on the scientific principles of sanitation and food handling. Finally, between June and August of 1906, the 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘴 serialized a Yiddish-language translation by Abraham Cahan of Upton Sinclair's 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦---an exposé of the brutal and unsanitary conditions in the slaughter- and meat-packing houses of Chicago. Sinclair noted that his celebrity came about "not because the public cared anything about the workers [depicted in the book], but simply because the public did not want to eat tubercular beef."
According to Marcus Eli Ravage it was the Romanians "who, out of a complex desire to serve his stomach and his faith, brought forth an institution which has now become universal in America---the dairy lunch-room---which, owing to the exigencies of religion, was originally just what it is called, a place where nothing but the most palatable dishes built out of milk and milk products were to be had, and where no morsel that had been in the vicinity of meat could be obtained for love or money." ["My Plunge into the Slums," in 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘦𝘳'𝘴, April 1917]
-- Ben Katchor / The Dairy Restaurant
Photo of busy Nassau Street looking south from Fulton Street in the financial district. March 3, 1926.
have to admit i never ate at b&h. looking at the prices now it must have been so cheap 25 years ago when i lived on 10th st and b.
b&h the electronic place?
B&H Dairy kosher diner, 2nd ave between 7th and St Marks.
Is that the place with the spleen sandwich?
The Sicilian-style restaurant Focacciaria on 1st ave between St Marks and 9th, made the vistedda - beef spleen - sandwiches. Hard ricotta cheese and beef spleen fried in lard served with shredded parmigiano reggiano on a roll.
never ate the spleen, had the same with chickpea fritter
the one in brooklyn is even older I believe
https://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/ferdinandos-focacceria/
yeah, considering the idea of the dairy was that it was meatless, though fish seems to be acceptable, spleen was unlikely.
I ate there from time to time. I read an article somewhere predicting its demise due to covid.
https://viewing.nyc/vintage-photograph-shows-a-crowded-nassau-street-circa-1926/
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The Rise of the Dairy Restaurant in New York City
The proliferation of restaurants serving an Ashkenazic-style dairy cuisine in New York City after 1881 can be attributed to the unique historical confluence of events and ideas.
The historically unprecedented growth and concentration of a Jewish population provided a ready base of customers with a knowledge of, and taste for, Eastern European dairy dishes. Within a few years of their arrival, some of the immigrants and their children had amassed enough capital to go into business for themselves. The restaurant business was booming in New York and as everyone ate and cooked at home thet felt they had the skills to enter this field. Their clientele, in the aftermath of the meat strikes of 1902, were happy to avoid meat all together and trusted that their landsmen would handle the dairy and parve foodstuffs according to their commonsense understanding of Jewish dietary law---professional certification was unnecessary. The clientele was also spurred by an awareness of the vegetarian and pure-food movements. The health giving and ethical benefits of a dairy and vegetable-based diet were popularized in the Yiddish and American press. The model for their new dairy restaurant was readily found in the omnipresent American dairy lunchrooms. Here was a decor devoid of Old World associations and organized on the scientific principles of sanitation and food handling. Finally, between June and August of 1906, the 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘴 serialized a Yiddish-language translation by Abraham Cahan of Upton Sinclair's 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦---an exposé of the brutal and unsanitary conditions in the slaughter- and meat-packing houses of Chicago. Sinclair noted that his celebrity came about "not because the public cared anything about the workers [depicted in the book], but simply because the public did not want to eat tubercular beef."
According to Marcus Eli Ravage it was the Romanians "who, out of a complex desire to serve his stomach and his faith, brought forth an institution which has now become universal in America---the dairy lunch-room---which, owing to the exigencies of religion, was originally just what it is called, a place where nothing but the most palatable dishes built out of milk and milk products were to be had, and where no morsel that had been in the vicinity of meat could be obtained for love or money." ["My Plunge into the Slums," in 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘦𝘳'𝘴, April 1917]
-- Ben Katchor / The Dairy Restaurant
Photo of busy Nassau Street looking south from Fulton Street in the financial district. March 3, 1926.
- bill 8-25-2020 8:42 pm
have to admit i never ate at b&h. looking at the prices now it must have been so cheap 25 years ago when i lived on 10th st and b.
- dave 8-25-2020 8:51 pm [add a comment]
b&h the electronic place?
- Skinny 8-25-2020 10:22 pm [add a comment]
B&H Dairy kosher diner, 2nd ave between 7th and St Marks.
- steve 8-25-2020 10:23 pm [add a comment]
Is that the place with the spleen sandwich?
- jim 8-25-2020 10:29 pm [add a comment]
The Sicilian-style restaurant Focacciaria on 1st ave between St Marks and 9th, made the vistedda - beef spleen - sandwiches. Hard ricotta cheese and beef spleen fried in lard served with shredded parmigiano reggiano on a roll.
- steve 8-25-2020 10:50 pm [add a comment]
They also served pasta con sarde - sardine, fennel and currents.
- steve 8-25-2020 10:54 pm [add a comment]
never ate the spleen, had the same with chickpea fritter
the one in brooklyn is even older I believe
https://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/ferdinandos-focacceria/
- Skinny 8-26-2020 9:16 am [add a comment]
yeah, considering the idea of the dairy was that it was meatless, though fish seems to be acceptable, spleen was unlikely.
- dave 8-26-2020 10:47 am [add a comment]
I ate there from time to time. I read an article somewhere predicting its demise due to covid.
- steve 8-25-2020 10:17 pm [add a comment]
https://evgrieve.com/2020/08/a-reality-check-from-b-dairy.html
- steve 8-25-2020 10:20 pm [add a comment]
https://viewing.nyc/vintage-photograph-shows-a-crowded-nassau-street-circa-1926/
- bill 8-26-2020 9:16 am [add a comment]
Orchard street in the 80's still had that vibe.
- steve 8-26-2020 3:09 pm [add a comment]
guess i missed it. still amazed that in the 20s the jewish population in the city was nearing 30% of the total. though a rough estimation based on 2010 census data has jews at 37% of non-hispanic white new yorkers while at about 12% of the population overall. latinos were at 28% black 25% asian 13% non-hispanic white 33%.
- dave 8-26-2020 4:26 pm [add a comment]
if it wasnt for bagels it would be a pretty big cuisine fail.
- dave 8-26-2020 4:28 pm [add a comment]