Reuniting the Shtisel bros was just the start…
The actors, the art, the food and the fruit. Brigit Grant was on a mission in Israel this summer
Brigit Grant is the Jewish News Supplements Editor
IN THE BEGINNING
On landing at Ben Gurion, entry to the country can be swift and painless or
a lengthy balagan. How this goes is governed by other passengers so, if more than 20 on your flight are told to sit down before seat belt signs go off, they are ‘first at the buffet table’ types who will race you to the baggage hall.Of course, everyone is thinking “yalla, yalla”, but leave Ben Gurion too fast and you miss one of Tel Aviv’s finest pieces of art. 
Beyond the exit is The Menorat Hashalom created and gifted by Salvador Dalí to mark Israel’s 50th anniversary and came with a card from the artist saying: “You Jewish people, the chosen ones, sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for your determination to maintain traditions, for the joy you celebrate and sanctify your festivities, I created this ‘Menorah’. While you pray with your unshakable faith for the glory of your ancestors and the triumph of truth, I want to see in the radiance of these clear and joyful lights, a great tribute to your people.”
The seven-foot gold Dalí sculpture is symbolic of your trip to a city brimming with culture. And that’s where it started for me…
First Night....The Vera, an industrial chic boutique hotel is cleverly squeezed into Lilienblum Street. Next-door construction is underway for a Six Senses hotel, but The Vera has nothing to fear. Owned by Danny Tamari and designed by Yaron Tal, it’s a little gem with staff you would drink with, so it’s handy to see a free-flowing wine dispenser in the lobby. For guests!
Ahead of our arrival, Olga, front of house manager, reserved a table at Santa Katarina, a popular haunt because its chef is Tomer Agay. Adjacent to the not-so-great Great Synagogue, it’s a Middle Eastern café, somewhat overpriced and no match for chef Asa Schwartz’s breakfast at The Vera.
We returned for another after checking out, but the choice of bread, cheeses and fruit juices (nectarine and cardamom) deserved an encore. The hotel’s rooms are small but tasteful, the beds are comfy and the four-storey staircase etched with brazen lines by Charles Bukowski is smart (above).
A communal lobby and two large roof terraces are good for meeting other guests, and I spoke to Londoner Judith Blechner, who had come to see her new grandchild and booked in for a month. That’s 30 breakfasts, Judith! http://theverahotel.com
Art’s Everywhere!
Renowned for its Bauhaus architecture and bold graffiti, art is in most Tel Aviv alleys and doorways. It was the air con that tempted us through a gallery door but, once inside, canvasses of Swarovski crystals embedded on screws dazzled. Russian-born artist Zygo is Orthodox and has the patience of a saint as he manually fastens the screws onto the canvas, one of which had 5,000.
“I love the crystals because they play with light and colour,” he says and Swarovski likes his work. “To look at them together inspires me to know it is possible to have big dreams.”
One big dream is Zygo’s proposal for The Clothespin Tower in Dubai. Already a familiar name there, his clothespin statues – an expression of the divine love of two halved souls – have sold and a developer has chosen them as the template for a building.
The peg with one bent leg –“an expression of happiness” – will overshadow other towers once it’s built, but Zygo doesn’t know when. For now, his more modest sized work is available at his galleries or http://saatchiart.com
Remember When….
Neve Tzedek, the Hebrew word for ‘abode of justice’ appeared when Jaffa got too overcrowded in 1883. A jeweller named Aharon Chelouche pitched up first and, much like Marbella this summer, 50 other families followed. The low-rise Art Nouveau-style houses soon attracted upcoming artists and writers and does still – if they have a trust fund, as properties are Hampstead prices.
I struggled to grasp the size of Neve Tzedek as there’s no boundary, but our next hotel, The Elkonin has the postcode.
It was opened in 1913, also on Lilienblum, and the owners of Tel Aviv’s oldest hotel, Malka and Menachem Elkonin, welcomed Albert Einstein and local David Ben-Gurion.
Now Franco-Israeli Dominique Romano is the boss, and his fascination with its rich heritage explains the sympathetic restoration. Somehow, designer Adriana Schor managed to meld the original stairwells, floors and paintings into her French Rivera theme and we got the best room (in the middle of the building), though there’s a view to rival the one from the balcony at the rooftop pool.
A pool is rare in this part of town and The Elkonin has a gym and a Clarins spa. Talk is centred on its restaurant L’Epoque, the first Robuchon in Tel Aviv, which honours the late French chef Joël Robuchon.
Awarded the title of ‘Chef of the Century’ in 1989, his mashed potato was legendary they say, and my husband confirmed as he ate it all. For more history when you stay, speak to guest relations manager Alexandre Assedo. http://elkonintelaviv.com
A SHTISEL STARRY REUNION
The last time we saw Shulem Shtisel, he was drinking soda with his brother Nuchem and son Akiva in the final episode of the last season entitled Where Does Everybody Suddenly Go? And that’s what we all want to know. It was never going to be easy to accept that our favourite Charedi family had left the Jerusalem building for good and the weeping of die-hard fans went unnoticed at Netflix. But I was in Israel.
To leave without reuniting all or at least a few of the Shtisel clan was not an option. Find out what happened here https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/the-shtisel-brothers-back-together/
Where Next?
Airbnb has served us well over the years, but our apartment in Shuk HaCarmel was the first to be described as “sunny” without having windows.
The second flat entry by the fire escape had light, a balcony and nightly demolition work on the road, but we were within stretching distance of seedless watermelon, so we stayed awhile. Living within the shuk meant we were up, down and across it each day buying fruit, more fruit, hamsa trinkets, replicas of the Spurs player Manor Solomon’s shirt and oven-hot challah on Friday.
Also on Fridays is another market – a colourfest of craft – on King George. Puppets, posters and biblical lithographs and the sellers love to explain. So I let them, while the husband walked on.
In Allenby, we ate hummus at Humus HaCarmel at the synagogue-turned-café, danced while a Yemeni DJ made malawach sandwiches and devoured Phil Rosenthal’s champion eggplant sabich on Tchernikhovski Street. The shuk is so big it was still next to us when we moved from the shabby shack to a spacious stylish studio on salubrious Shenken Street. This is where Israel’s cognoscenti have coffee, look fabulous and shop vintage at designer prices.
The boutiques are inviting and some are affordable, like Marock, where French-Jewish jeweller Charlène Amsellem lets you browse with no pressure to buy, so you do.
On personality alone, Yoav Glass deserves to sell his knafeh (a Middle Eastern dessert) and there’s a bench by his shop, Knafeh Sheinkin, to eat it.
Everyone in Israel has a story about their ancestry making aliyah or, in Yoav’s case, the opening of his Arabic bakery with a partner from the West Bank. “You only hear about conflict between Arabs and Jews, but we have a partnership that stands on the principles of peace and love,” he says. There’s a reason his cakes are so sweet.
What A Beach
Banana, Frishman, Bograshov, Trumpeldor, Jerusalem, Tel Baruch, Mezizim Hilton... just some, but not all, of the beaches in Tel Aviv, with their own identity and clientele. The Dogs Beach was my top pick, but that’s for the Pet page, but for sunbathing beside physically-perfect Israelis, head to beach bars pumping music on Friday/Saturday afternoon.
The Gordon is a very good beach, away from the crowd, so the Gordon Beach is the hotel at which to stay and it is newly-renovated by the Fattal chain, which has given it South Beach sparkle.
Pink, the subtle shade, is the colour of the corridors leading to rooms with deco furnishings and the lounge bar honours the period with statues and feathers. There is a gym, a spa and all of Tel Aviv just a walk away, so stepping back in time has never felt so now.
http://fattal.co.il
Book A Table… Or Not
Discard all the good things you’ve heard about Israeli food because when you get there it’s even better. The freshness, the flavour, the unfathomable way they make a salad so delicious is on another level.
In Tev Aviv, choosing where to eat is the singular task of the day, so best warm up for it in Carmel Market on nuts, dates and a smoothie from juice bar Shenken 7, whose citrus fruit has been waking people up for 30 years, then eat breakfast at the Yom Tov Café.
I kept a note of places harder to find in the dark, so got back to carnivore delight M25 and Olà-Olà, a kosher a la mode dairy restaurant reinventing pasta and salads.
The root salad at Herzl 16 is just carrots, cabbage, beetroot and sprouts in yuzu vinaigrette, but if it were available in London I’d have it every day. Herzl 16 is a hub for cool people; it features bands and has a New Orleans’ French Quarter palm courtyard.
Kilometrage, on the other hand, is inside Browns Hotel, but the menu – broiled asparagus in lavender butter with parmesan crumble – is unforgettable.
Tortellini in salted caramel butter, another tastebud tingler from chef Idan Bushari whose signature dish – seabass fillet, spinach tortellini on a bed of cream cheese and tahini – made him the winner of the reality show, The Next Chef of Israel and his prize was the restaurant.
The Raanana-born gourmand known as Pompey (grater in Hebrew) has a movie-worthy backstory and the name Kilometrage symbolises his journey. Working in a New York kitchen, the stress and isolation made Pompey turn to drugs and he returned to Israel an addict, but was then rescued by chef Assaf Granit.
Then came the TV win. “I went a long way, and I learned,” says Pompey, who now helps youth at risk by bringing them into his restaurant. “You have to go through things, make changes and get to a better place, but that’s not the end of the road.” https://brownhotels.com/kilo#
Cake By The Ocean
The moment dodging scooters and beach tannoys gets too much – that’s when you need a Dan. The Dan Tel Aviv and Dan Panorama are elder statesmen among the newbie properties, as the group’s history goes back to 1947 when Yekutiel and Shmuel Federmann opened their small guest house. Dan Tel Aviv has an air of grandeur and a trusted reputation that suits visiting dignitaries, the well-travelled and rock stars, including Sir Paul McCartney, who played piano in the lower atrium.
From the comfort of the relaxed King David Executive lounge, I watched 50 darting bat and ballers by the sea while eating cheesecake. It may be Israel’s most prolific desert but, in my opinion, the Dan serves the best, so another reason to stay in the grand hotel. At the Dan Panorama in Haifa, I had cheesecake for breakfast, but had to sample the rolls, eggs and salmon to reach it.
Visiting Technion had brought me to the city of hills and, from our comfortable room on the 19th floor, the view was stunning. A vista of twinkling lights on the sea at night, by day became part of the Bahai Gardens and the 1,500 steps without having to climb them. Back at the Dan Panorama Tel Aviv, I ate cheesecake facing the port of Jaffa in another elegant business lounge.
The hotel has 476 rooms and head of guest relations Michal showed me the spa, the gym and pool, the city’s biggest.
Enjoyably empty for the number of guests, we stayed until late afternoon as I clicked with Michal, who is praised in reviews and allegedly makes great cheesecake. Of course I got her number.
http://danhotels.com
As a whirlwind visit in the heat drew to a close, “yalla, yalla” was the last thing on our minds. The people, the food and the places….we had barely touched the sides. But there was one more stop. To Save A Chid’s Heart in Holon. https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/israels-gift-to-africa-the-west-bank-and-gaza/ After that how could anyone leave without taking Israel home in their heart?
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- ben-gurion
- Menorat Hashalom
- @thevera
- @Tomer Agay.
- @Danny Tamari
- @Asa Schwartz
- theverahotel.com
- @Zygo
- The Elkonin
- @Dominique Romano
- elkonintelaviv.com
- Shtisel
- Dov Glickman
- Sasson Gabay
- @ManorSolomon
- Hummus HaCarmel
- @Marock
- @Charlène Amsellem
- @Yoav Glass
- @Knafeh Sheinkin
- Gordon Beach hotel
- @Shenken 7
- @Herzl 16
- @Kilometrage
- fattal.co.il
- @IdanBushari
- Dan Tel Aviv
- Dan Panorama
- Tel Aviv Tales
- israel travel
- Brigit Grant
