Kossar's Bialys

Infobox Restaurant
name = Kossar's Bialys


image_width = 300px
image_caption = Kossar's Bialys
established =1936
current-owner =Juda and Debra Engelmayer
Daniel and Malki Cohen
head-chef =
food-type = Bakery
dress-code =
rating =
street-address = Grand and Essex Streets
city = New York City
state = New York
zip =
country = United States
seating-capacity =
reservations =
other-locations =
other-information =
website = [http://www.kossarsbialys.com/ Kossar's Bialys Web site]

Kossar's Bialys (Kossar's Bialystoker Kuchen Bakery) on the Lower East Side, Manhattan is the oldest bialy bakery in the United States.cite web |url= http://www.tenement.org/guider.html |title= Food on the Lower East Side: Kossar's Bialys |format= html |work= Lower East Side Tenement National Historic Site website |quote= ] cite web |url= http://nymag.com/listings/stores/kossars-bialys/ |title= Profile: Kossar's Bialys |author= Colleen McKinney |format= html |work= New York Magazine |quote= ]

Background

The bialy gets its name from the "Bialystoker Kuchen" of Bialystok, Poland. Polish Jewish bakers who arrived in New York City in the late 19th century and early 20th century made an industry out of their recipe for the mainstay bread rolls baked in every household.cite web |url= http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june01/bialy_04-05.html |title= Baking History |author= Paul Solman (WGBH Boston) |format= html |work= The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer |date= 5 April 2001 | ]

Kossar's Bialys, known as Mirsky and Kossar'scite web |url= http://www.utexas.edu/law/depts/alumni/utlaw/utlaw_2006_winter.pdf |title= Roy Mersky and the Future of Libraries |author= Allegra Jordan Young |format= pdf. |work=UT Law, the magazine of the University of Texas School of Law (Cover story, p. 26 |date= Winter 2006 |quote= ] when Isadore Mirsky and Morris Kossar founded it in 1936, is one of the few remnants of what was once its own industry in New York City with its own union association, the Bialy Bakers Association, Inccite web |url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40E11FD385B107B93C2AB1789D85F4C8585F9 |title= Suspicious Blast Damages Bakery |format= html |work= The New York Times Business Financial section, Page 52 (Abstract) |date= February 20, 1958 |quote= The Local had been striking since Feb. 1 against Kossar’s and six other bakeries, all members of an owner’s alliance called the "Bialy Baker’s Association Inc."] .

Originally located on Clinton Street, Kossar's Bialys moved to its current location at Grand and Essex Streets in the early 1960s after a union dispute and subsequent fire destroyed the building.cite web |url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40E11FD385B107B93C2AB1789D85F4C8585F9 |title= Suspicious Blast Damages Bakery: Wire, Battery Found Near East Side Shop That Just Signed Pact With Union |format= html |work= The New York Times Business Financial section, Page 52 (Abstract) |date= February 20, 1958 |quote=] cite web |url= http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/comments/bialy/ |title= Bialy |format= html |work= barrypopik.com (Includes additional text from The New York Times Business Financial section article) |quote= ]

Kossar's Bialys was the starting point for former "New York Times" food critic Mimi Sheraton's research for her 2002 book, "The Bialy Eaters: The Story of a Bread and a Lost World."cite book |url= |title= Book Details: "The Bialy Eaters: The Story of a Bread and a Lost World" |author= [http://www.starchefs.com/MSheraton.html Mimi Sheraton] |format= |work= |publisher= Broadway (2000) ISBN 0767905024, ISBN 978-0767905022 |quote= ]

Present day

In 1998, Juda and Debra Engelmayer and Daniel and Malki Cohen purchased the bakery from Morris Kossar's son-in-law and daughter, Daniel and Gloria Kossar Scheinin.cite web |url= http://www.newsday.com/features/printedition/ny-p2page33533778nov10,0,1348851.story?coll=ny-features-print |title= Guided by Cell Phone: An 800 number brings Lower East Side history to life |author= Claiborne Smith |format= html |work=Newsday |date= 10 November 2003 |quote= ] cite web |url= http://www.kossarsbialys.com/times%20coop.htm |title= For Low-Cost Co-op, a Pricing Quandary |author= Nadine Brozan |format= html |work= The New York Times |publisher= kossarsbialys.com |date= 3 February 2002 |quote= (Photo caption) Juda Engelmayer and his wife, Debra, who jointly own Kossar's Bialys with their brother-in-law and sister, Daniel and Malki Cohen. ]

Kossar's Bialys also makes bulkas (small hero sandwich size loaves), pletzels ("onion boards"—focaccia-like flatbreads smothered in onion and poppyseeds), sesame sticks and other baked goods.

Kossar's Bialys is on the Lower East Side and Lower Manhattan tour circuit.cite web |url= http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/20/AR2005122001570.html |title= Hear Here! |author= Anne McDonough |format= html |work= The Washington Post p. C02 |date= December 21, 2005 |quote= ]

ee also

* Bialy
* Bagel
* Bialystoker Synagogue

References

External links

* [http://www.kossarsbialys.com/ Kossar's Bialys Web site]