Ireland’s only kosher delicatessen, Deli 613, which opened in March of this year, is proving popular, having attracted several starving celebrities.
The Dublin outlet, which serves a range of classic Jewish meaty and parev dishes, has already welcomed a range of well-known faces, including Star Trek star, Colm Meaney, and former footballer, Graham Souness.
This week, Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, popped in with friends for a kosher salt beef sandwich. “He and his friends all wanted salt beef, but on the day he came in, we’d run low” says co-owner, Rebbetzen Rifki Lent, who founded the café with husband Rabbi Zalman Lent. “He had the last of it and his friends ordered the bbq pulled beef instead.” The Irish Premier also tucked into latkes and chicken soup with matzah balls.
Rebbetzen Lent, a former Londoner who moved to Ireland in 2000, told the JC that the classic potato-based fritters, cooked by chef Robbie Burns, are popular. “Everyone loves our latkes — but you’d expect an Irish chef would make great latkes! We serve them with apple sauce or with hummus, but people also make their own combinations — some like them in a pitta.”
The deli/café, in the city’s Chabad house in the suburb of Rathmines, is supervised by Chabad of Ireland. Customers can eat on the terrace where there are eight tables or they can take away.
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Kosher salt beef has gone down a storm at Dublin's Deli 613
On the (meaty) menu are also chicken shawarma, falafel, hummus topped with spiced beef and shawarma as well as popular aubergine-based Israeli classic, sabiche. The deli also sells kosher staples including chopped liver, herring, and deli salads to Dublin’s small kosher-keeping Jewish community, to expats and Israelis looking for a taste of home. as well as locally baked challah.
“We have to import our bagels from New York as there was nowhere in Europe that was set up to sell kosher bagels wholesale. They come in frozen.”
