HEALTH & FITNESS

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food

Eat Fresh, Eat Kosher

Subway becomes the largest U.S. kosher restaurant chain.

Sue Fishkoff
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

San Francisco

W

hat's the largest kosher
restaurant chain?
Mendy's? Six branch-

Eric Koehler, director of the
JCC of Northern Virginia,

which has never provided
food services in its building.

"In this economy, it doesn't
make sense to have some-
thing that loses $20,000 to
$30,000 a year."
That's why the Mandel
JCC in Cleveland rented

es, seven if you count
the meat and dairy counters at New
York City's Grand Central Station.
Dougie's? Five branches in New
York and New Jersey.
Don't even bring up Nathan's

space to the country's first
kosher Subway in May 2006.
The center had offered only
kosher dining options since
it opened in 1986, but none
lasted very long. When

Famous — it stopped making kosher
hot dogs altogether.
The dark-horse winner is Subway,
the made-to-order sandwich giant. It
opened its ninth kosher franchise Aug.
18 inside the Michael-Ann Russell

Michael Hyman arrived in
2004 as the center's new
director, he closed the build-
ing's last struggling cafe with-

Jewish Community Center in North
Miami Beach, Fla. New Subways
opening in Indianapolis and Skokie,
III., will make it 11 by the end of the

In stepped Ghazi Faddoul,
a Lebanese Christian who
had opened 100 Subways

year. Five more are planned for next
year.

Subway is not the only fast-food
chain with kosher branches. Dunkin'
Donuts, the world's largest coffee and

baked goods chain, has 33 kosher
franchises, mostly in New York, but
also one in Oak Park, Mich., accord-
ing to company spokesman Andrew
Mastrangelo. They serve dairy break-
fast sandwiches, but not full meals.

Subway, the second largest fast-
food franchise in the world, didn't set
out to be No. 1 in the kosher market.

Staffers at company headquarters in
Milford, Conn., seemed bemused by
the news.

"Really?" laughed Kevin Kane in the
marketing department.

Sure, 11 kosher stores pale in com-
parison to the 22,000 non-kosher

Subways in the United States or to the
hundreds of Islamic halal Subways in

England and the Arab world. But it's
more than anyone else is offering.
And it's a creative solution for
Jewish community centers that want
to offer kosher food but don't want
to take the financial risk themselves.

Some would rather offer no food than
violate kosher law.
"There are very few JCCs that run

successful food establishments," says

40

August 27 = 2009

out knowing whether he could
replace it.

in Cleveland and was willing
to give kosher a try with the
clout of a global chain behind
him.

The Dunkin' Donuts at 10 Mile and Greenfield in Oak Park is kosher.

Ham and bacon were removed from
the menu, the "cheese" is made of

soy, and the Seafood Sensation sand-
wich is filled with imitation crab. Two
microwaves and toaster ovens ensure

that fish and meat are kept separate,
a consideration for some observant
Jews. There is a full-time mashgiach,

or kosher supervisor; and the restau-
rant is closed on Shabbat.

"It's been wildly successful," Hyman
says. In June, the JCC of Greater
Washington in Rockville, Md., picked

the building already has an in-house
kosher caterer but no sit-down restau-
rant.

"Bringing in a national chain gives
us real credibility," he explains. "A

brand name like Subway provides
more than a cup of coffee."
The remaining kosher Subways are
freestanding stores: two in New York
City, in Brooklyn and Queens, as well

as one in Cedarhurst in the city's Long
Island suburbs; and one each in Los
Angeles, Baltimore and Kansas City.

up on Cleveland's experience, opening
a kosher Subway in a space formerly
filled by a kosher Dunkin' Donuts.
Executive Director Michael Feinstein

The U.S. stores are the only kosher
Subways. Israel opened the world's
first kosher Subway in 1992 but the
operation, which reached 23 stores at
its peak, shut down in 2004 after the

says the center has been getting much
more foot traffic since it opened, par-
ticularly from Orthodox Jews.

original manager died.
Subway spokesman Les Winograd
says the company used its experi-

"There aren't that many kosher
restaurants in the D.C. area, so it's
nice for the community to have this
option," Feinstein says. "And it's great

ence with halal, the Muslim equivalent
of kashrut, to learn how to deal with
challenges such as sourcing specific
meat and following strict dietary laws.

for us because it gets people into our
building who might not otherwise be
there."

The first halal Subway opened in
Bahrain in 1984, followed by branches
in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United
Arab Emirates, Tanzania, Zambia and
other countries with large Muslim
communities. England alone has near-

The Miami Beach JCC also looked
to Cleveland's example. The center's
director, Gary Bomzer, notes that

ly 60 halal branches.

Kosher Subways are more difficult
to keep open, Winograd says. Some
open and shut, like one that lasted for

about a year in Livingston, N.J., and
a Wall Street branch that closed last
winter when the economy collapsed.
While Winograd receives lots of
inquiries from potential franchise own-
ers in other countries who are inter-

ested in the kosher option, none have
panned out.
"The population has not always
been there to support the business,"
he says.
Subway serves meat, so a kosher

store requires full-time kosher supervi-
sion — an extra expense for ingredi-
ents that already cost more than their

non-kosher equivalents.
Maurice Lichy, owner of the new
Miami JCC Subway, says he's trying

to keep his prices "competitive" and
hopes to charge no more than $1.50
extra per sandwich.
Will he offer a kosher $5 Footlong?
Lichy hesitates.
"No," he says, "but I'll try to manage

a $6 Footlong. Probably tuna or tur-
key; not the corned beef."

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