Eyal Shani’s Miznon on Times Square to go kosher

Eyal Shani’s Miznon on Times Square in NYC is going kosher, according to a report in New York Jewish Week.

The pita-focused eatery opened towards the end of last year with a kosher’style menu meaning glatt kosher meat and no dairy products. But on Sunday, January 21, the kitchen will be thoroughly cleaned and prepared according to kosher guidelines, and a certificate of kashrut is expected to be issued that week. Since the location has been serving glatt kosher meat from the start, prices for the food under rabbinic supervision should not be affected dramatically.

The Miznon location will be Shani’s second kosher establishment in New York City — the first, Malka, opened on the Upper West Side in November 2023. There are two other Miznon restaurants in Manhattan which are not kosher.

The decision to turn a second Miznon restaurant in New York into a kosher eatery was both an ideological and pragmatic one, says Mika Ziv, CEO of Good People Group, Shani’s global hospitality brand. “We always knew there was a need and desire for people to eat our food — we didn’t understand fully to what extent,” she said. “Now that we opened Malka, there has been such a beautiful welcoming to New York. We have been getting people asking about lunch, about delivery, about catering. Malka is doing amazing. We are getting so much love which is so exciting to us.”

“There are no compromises because it is kosher,” she adds. “It is a happy place in this very unhappy time.”

Shani himself does not keep kosher, but five years ago he opened Malka in Tel Aviv — which, at the time, was the only kosher restaurant in his portfolio. He told the New York Jewish Week last year that he first opened a kosher establishment because he saw that kosher consumers were “craving” his food but they couldn’t eat it because it was not kosher.

“These people are part of my nation,” Shani said. “Part of my people. How can I make food without letting half of my people eat it?”

Shani’s team decided to turn the Times Square Miznon outpost into a kosher restaurant because of its location close to the Diamond District, the Theatre District and the Garment Centre — all areas that are frequented by observant Jews.

“Upgrading the inclusivity of the restaurant by adding kosher certification has taken on an added importance since the war between Israel and Hamas began,” Ziv says. “Everyone became more open and connected to being more accommodating and close to our roots. “Just as we always make sure there are vegan options, and we make such a big effort to accommodate so many others, it is not complicated to approach kosher restaurants, especially since our restaurants outside of Israel are places where Israelis and Jews can come together.”