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2 Jewish delis and a modest falafel joint are among the ‘100 best restaurants in NYC’
(New York Jewish Week) — The legacy Upper West Side appetizing store Barney Greengrass and the hot new “Jewish luncheonette” S&P are among the Jewish eateries on the New York Times’ list of the city’s top 100 restaurants of 2023.
Other Jewish and Jewish-adjacent restaurants on the list are Falafel Tanami, an unassuming kosher falafel counter in Midwood, Brooklyn, and Mark’s Off Madison, which offers eggplant parm alongside smoked fish, freshly baked bagels and Jewish rye bread.
The list, compiled by restaurant critic Pete Wells, includes 65 spots in Manhattan, 19 each in Brooklyn and Queens, four in the Bronx and two in Staten Island.
Barney Greengrass, a neighborhood icon on 541 Amsterdam Ave. that has been open since 1908, is feted for its herring, latkes, scrambled eggs and smoked fish.
At Flatiron’s S&P Lunch (174 5th Ave.), which reopened and reinvented the classic Eisenberg’s deli in 2022, Wells calls a lunch there a “time-honored Manhattan ritual.” With the updated menu, “the pastrami, tuna-salad, chopped liver and so on are as easy to love as the atmosphere was all along.”
Wells calls Mark’s Off Madison, a bakery and restaurant, a “career retrospective” from Mark Strausman, who once was the chef at Freds at Barneys and Campagna.
As for Falafel Tanami (1305 East 17th St.), “Your options are basically falafel or sabich,” Wells writes, referring to its fried eggplant and hard-boiled egg sandwich. “The falafel are extraordinary. The thick cushions of pita, baked to order, may be better yet.” The food is “as fresh as if you were standing in a market in Tel Aviv.”
Also mentioned is the Lower East Side’s Shopsin’s General Store, which occupies Stall #8 in Essex Street Market (88 Essex St.). The eponymous diner and its extensive menu was run by the Jewish and famously eccentric Kenny Shopsin from 1973 until his death in 2018. “Seeing the restaurant he founded on this list would kill Kenny Shopsin if he weren’t already dead,” Wells writes.
Nearby at 86 Allen St. is Amanda Cohen’s vegan restaurant Dirt Candy, number 60 on the list, which has been open since 2008. “I have a big family and we spend a lot of time together around the Jewish holidays, so to me that’s always been a really important time in my life,” Cohen told Life & Thyme in 2016. “Those are certainly the moments I love food the most, because it’s about the people.”
Israeli-inspired Middle Eastern restaurant Shukette (230 9th Ave.), whose name is a riff on the Hebrew and Arabic word “shuk,” meaning market, gets a nod, though Brooklyn-born chef Ayesha Nurdjaja is neither Jewish, Israeli or Arab. Wells names the spicy house pickles, labneh, hummus, pita and laffa brushed with za’atar in a mouthwatering sequence.
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The post 2 Jewish delis and a modest falafel joint are among the ‘100 best restaurants in NYC’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Exclusive: Israeli Officials Harshly Critical of Steve Witkoff’s Influence on US Policy on Gaza, Iran, i24NEWS Told
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Amid growing disagreements with the Trump administration over the composition of the Board of Peace for Gaza and the question of a strike on Iran, officials in Israel point to a key figure behind decisions seen as running counter to Israeli interests: Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
The officials mention sustained dissatisfaction with Witkoff. Sources close to the PM Netanyahu told i24NEWS on Saturday evening: “For several months now, the feeling has been that envoy Steve Witkoff has strong ties, for his own reasons, across the Middle East, and that at times the Israeli interest does not truly prevail in his decision-making.”
This criticism relates both to the proposed inclusion of Turkey and Qatar in Gaza’s governing bodies and to the Iranian threat. A senior Israeli official put it bluntly: “If it turns out that he is among those blocking a strike on Iran, that is far more than a coincidence.”
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EU Warns of Downward Spiral After Trump Threatens Tariffs Over Greenland
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman
European Union leaders on Saturday warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” over US President Donald Trump‘s vow to implement increasing tariffs on European allies until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on X.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said tariffs would hurt prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, while distracting the EU from its “core task” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” Kallas said on X.
“Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity. If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO.”
Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 countries will convene on Sunday for an emergency meeting to discuss their response to the tariff threat.
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Israel Says US Gaza Executive Board Composition Against Its Policy
FILE PHOTO: Displaced Palestinians shelter at a tent camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer/File Photo
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday that this week’s Trump administration announcement on the composition of a Gaza executive board was not coordinated with Israel and ran counter to government policy.
It said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar would raise the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The statement did not specify what part of the board’s composition contradicted Israeli policy. An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment.
The board, unveiled by the White House on Friday, includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Israel has repeatedly opposed any Turkish role in Gaza.
Other members of the executive board include Sigrid Kaag, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process; an Israeli‑Cypriot billionaire; and a minister from the United Arab Emirates, which established relations with Israel in 2020.
Washington this week also announced the start of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s plan, announced in September, to end the war in Gaza. This includes creating a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in the enclave.
The first members of the so-called Board of Peace – to be chaired by Trump and tasked with supervising Gaza’s temporary governance – were also named. Members include Rubio, billionaire developer Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.