It’s Not Strictly Kosher : Orange County Has No Restaurants that Cater to the Dietary Requirements of Orthodox Jews

Craving some banana blossom eel soup? It’s on the menu at a small eatery in Westminster’s Little Saigon. In Buena Park, you can hear authentic Sufi Muslim dervish music. There’s a shop in Laguna Beach that sells Soviet Army uniforms from the Afghan War.

With all this diversity and with an estimated 100,000 Jews living in Orange County, you’d think there would be plenty of kosher restaurants.

Guess again. There is not one real--rabbinically certified--kosher restaurant in Orange County, which means that the roughly 250 Orthodox Jewish families living there have to travel to Los Angeles or San Diego to dine out.

“When I want to take the family out for a meal, we go to L.A. or to the park for a picnic,” says Steven Lahat, an Orthodox Jew living in Irvine.

Unlike the majority of Orange County Jews, Lahat and most of the Orthodox community adhere to traditional oral and written codes of Jewish law. Included are rigorous dietary rules.

The Orthodox will dine only at restaurants that have a hashgacha --a certificate that guarantees that the eatery serves kosher food and is run under rabbinic supervision.

Orange County’s few kosher-style restaurants--such as the Kosher Bite in Laguna Hills, Benjie’s in Santa Ana and Cappy’s Cafe in Newport Beach--are off limits for Orthodox or observant Jews because, although they may have potato pancakes, they lack the rabbinical stamp of approval.

At Benjie’s, the county’s oldest Jewish deli, you can get a pastrami on rye, served with a pickle, cole slaw and attitude--but neither the food nor the plate is kosher.

And although the Kosher Bite keeps its Hebrew National meats separate from dairy products, as required by traditional law, owner Irwin Goldberg says, “I just can’t afford to pay what the rabbinical authorities charge. They want about $23,000 a year.”

“It’s about the amount necessary for us to cover our costs,” says Rabbi Nissim Davidi, an administrator for the Rabbinical Council of America’s Los Angeles office.

Although a few hundred dollars a month of the fee goes toward covering the council’s administrative costs, Davidi says most of it helps pay the salary of a mashgiach, a trained full-time supervisor who stays on the site to make sure foodstuffs and cooking procedures meet with Orthodox dietary codes. In addition to the supervision of the mashgiach, spot inspectors visit kosher restaurants.

“Under normal circumstances, a full-time supervisor will make about $1,500 a month,” Davidi says, adding that usually a mashgiach will work as a waiter or cashier in addition to supervising the kitchen.

Rabbi Avraham Teichman of Kehilla Kosher, another certificate-granting institution in Los Angeles, warns that the administrative costs and supervisor’s salary would probably be higher for a kosher restaurant in Orange County than in Los Angeles because not many inspectors live in the county.

“So the mashgiach and the spot inspectors would be forced to make special commutes,” he said.

For owners of small delis like Goldberg, who must rely on his wife and father when he needs extra help, taking on another salary is out of the question. “I just can’t afford it,” he said, “and I think it’s a shame a community can’t have a kosher restaurant just because small places can’t pay for a full-time (inspector).”

Not all rabbinically supervised restaurants in Los Angeles have full-time supervisors. If the owner is Orthodox, the Rabbinical Council and other certificate-granting organizations may require only that the restaurant be spot-checked, confident that the owner knows how to keep a kosher kitchen and will feel the religious responsibility to do so.

Of Goldberg, who is not Orthodox, and his inability to absorb an extra salary, Davidi says: “(Getting a hashgacha ) is his choice. No one is imposing anything on him. If he has the support of the community, like numerous establishments do in L.A., then it’ll be worth it to him. It’s a business choice.”

Most people in Orange County’s Jewish community agree that the county can’t support a kosher restaurant.

“There’s simply isn’t enough of a base (of kosher customers) in Orange County to support the costs involved in running a kosher restaurant,” says Rabbi Eli Spitz of Bnei Israel in Tustin. “There are many people who keep kosher, but they’re too spread out. It’s not like West L.A., where you have a lot of kosher Jews concentrated in one area, in one neighborhood, and could support many kinds of kosher establishments.”

Stan Weinstein, 71, owner of Benjie’s, agrees. “We live in a county where convenience is important,” Weinstein said between taking orders, slicing roast beef and conferring with his waitress. “And while there are a good amount of kosher Jews, people just aren’t going to drive 30 minutes all the time to go out for dinner. Having kosher food would not be cost effective for the number of kosher people we would attract. I’d have to pay twice the price for kosher meats and for a (supervisor) to be on premises all the time.”

To some Orange County Jews, having a kosher restaurant would make quite a difference in their lives.

“Because we don’t have a kosher restaurant here, I can’t ever go out to dinner with my daughter because she’s strictly kosher, “ says Adele Bilewitz, a South African who lives in Irvine.

Bilewitz and many Orthodox Jews buy kosher meats from Orange County’s two kosher markets and cook at home.

Bilewitz believes the Jewish community would support a kosher restaurant because it would serve as a place where Jews of all levels of observance could congregate and get to know each other.

There have been at least two attempts to establish kosher restaurants in Orange County; both closed within a year. One eatery was owned by Irvino Levin, 69, who is now supervisor for Heritage Pointe, a kosher Jewish retirement home in Mission Viejo. The other was in the old Jewish Community Center in Garden Grove.

Levin opened Ervino’s in Santa Ana in 1986, with an eye toward attracting “equal amounts of Jewish and Gentile trade.” So he created a menu featuring kosher French and Italian cuisine.

“When I opened Ervino’s, everyone said there wouldn’t be enough people to support it. But it’s been proven that Orange County diners don’t mind driving a good ways and paying a lot of money for exceptionally good food,” he said. But the restaurant closed in six months.

However, many Orange County Jews say they would support a neighborhood kosher restaurant. Sherry Kessner, an Orthodox Jew, says she’s tired of “schlepping to Los Angeles” every time she feels like dining out. She and numerous other Jews promise they would go out of their way to support any nearby kosher restaurant--even a pizza place.

“Sure, I’d support a pizza place,” says Bilewitz. “After all, it would mean I wouldn’t have to cook so much anymore.”

What Is Kosher * Kosher meat: Must come from an animal that has a split hoof and chews its cud. Examples are cows, sheep and deer. Pork is not kosher. Animals must be slaughtered and cleaned according to traditional law.

* Fowl: Chicken, duck, geese and pigeons are kosher.

* Dairy: Milk products must originate from a kosher animal and contain no animal (or meat) products of any kind.

* Fish: Must have fins and scales. Trout and bass are OK. Catfish and shellfish are not kosher.

* Kosher kitchen: Dietary law forbids the mixing of meat and dairy products. A kosher kitchen has two sets of dishes, silverware and utensils--one each for meat and dairy.