To Them, Chain Is Toast

Back in 1989 when Noah Alper opened his first Noah’s New York Bagels shop in Berkeley, he decided to keep things strictly kosher.

Now, to the chagrin of many kosher Jews, the chain, which Alper sold in 1996, has gone treif. In other words, Noah’s is no longer kosher.

A month ago, Noah’s, based in Alameda, began offering turkey and corned beef bagel sandwiches in Southern California to build lunchtime trade and distinguish itself from the growing ranks of competitors selling big, chewy bagels primarily as breakfast fare.

Kosher rules dictate that meat and dairy products (such as the company’s cream cheese “shmears”) not be mixed. And any meats offered must be slaughtered by a kosher butcher.

Since the chain decided to sell such items as a turkey chive sandwich, featuring roasted turkey and light chive shmear on a toasted bagel, writer Judy Gruen of Venice has considered the nearby Noah’s in Santa Monica to be off-limits for her and her four children.

“We really miss it,” she said. “I spent a huge amount of money there over the years.”

Gruen, who notes that Noah’s plays up its Jewishness by displaying mezuzas on the doors and photos of Yiddish grandmothers on the walls, said she understands the decision from a business standpoint. After all, only about 2 million people nationwide keep kosher. Still, on an emotional level, she felt when the lunch menu went up that “the rugelach [had been] pulled out from under us,” as she wrote in the Jewish Journal, making a play on words out of a crumbly, sweet fruit dessert.

Noah’s is now part of the publicly traded Einstein/Noah Bagel Corp., which in turn is mostly owned by Boston Chicken Inc., which runs Boston Market restaurants. Searing rivalries have pounded bagel-business stocks in recent months and sent companies looking for ways to build sales.

Einstein/Noah shares fell to a new low of $5.03 on Tuesday, down 16 cents, on Nasdaq. That’s down from a peak of $33.75 earlier this year.

Sydney Drell Reiner, vice president of marketing at Noah’s, said the company’s sandwich menu is a response to myriad requests from customers and has elicited a “fantastic response.”

She added that the company is sensitive to kosher customers’ concerns and therefore has omitted the luncheon offerings at four of its 41 stores in the region. Two (in Granada Hills and Irvine) are being supervised by rabbis; the others, in central Los Angeles, are seeking rabbis.

Still, the change upsets many devotees.

“It’s kind of sad for the Jewish customer,” said Rabbi Reuven Nathanson, a kashruth (kosher food) director in Los Angeles for Orthodox Union, an organization that sets kosher standards and certifies factories, restaurants and grocery stores. “They made an excellent bagel.”

Martha Groves can be reached by fax at (213) 473-2480 or by e-mail at martha.groves@latimes.com