A year after the second of two fires ripped through the Baker Street premises of Reuben’s Deli and Restaurant, owners have confirmed that it will reopen this week.
Tomorrow — Monday August 25 — the meaty restaurant, which claims to be the “longest-running kosher restaurant in the UK” will reopen after having been closed by two devastating fires — in February and August of 2024.
Owner Mr Landau explained that on Bank Holiday Monday the Federation-licensed meaty restaurant will open its doors (at 79 Baker Street, London W1) for a soft launch fortnight, offering a takeaway service and limited dining at the restaurant’s salt beef bar. “Our official launch will be on September 8 when we look forward to welcoming everyone to our completely renovated Reuben’s.”
Reuben’s is not the only kosher restaurant set to open in the next few weeks. In Golders Green, two new venues will be launching in September.
In the unit vacated by Sami’s at 118 Golders Green High Road, Neta Segev and Aviv Baum co-founders of Camden’s kosher shwarma and falafel restaurant Mazal are almost ready to welcome diners into the pair’s second restaurant, Bracha. Like its older sibling, the new outlet will offer an Israeli-influenced menu.
Segev says at Bracha they’ve created a different menu to Mazal, with food cooked on a griddle instead of on skewers on a grill. “The meats will be a different shape with different flavours and condiments. And we’ll be doing proper sabich, with brown eggs and aubergine which is peeled soaked overnight before we deep fry it. It tastes incredible.”
Segev added that they’ll also be offering burgers and a range of marinaded chicken and starters not offered at Mazal. “The design is retro with a 1950’s/60’s inspired colour palate with a bit of a Bauhaus Tel Aviv vibe. Young and modern but with an homage to the old days. We’ll have an image of the Dizengoff fountain on the walls and the front of the shop has an image of fancy, well-dressed ladies in Tel Aviv in the 1950’s eating pita from an Arab guy in Jaffa. It reflects what we’re all about.”
The unit (supervised by Kehillas Federation) will have a more grab and go focus, with counter service and large shared, communal tables.
A few doors down, at 96 Golders Green High Road, Or Golan, is set to unveil Pukush which will also be supervised by Kehillas Federation. I have not seen much of Golan, an Ottolenghi-trained chef since before the pandemic when his kitchen career included time spent with Soyo, helping launch Delicatessen and also helping create the food at the innovative charity shop/café hybrid Headroom.
I currently have little more than a series of enigmatic posts on Instagram to go on, but hope I will be able to share more news next week after the soft opening — set to happen within the next fortnight.
Further north, a new Israeli restaurant has opened on Radlett High Street. Ariele has popped up on the site of what was Daisy’s & Co — at 219 Watling Street, Radlett, Hertfordshire, WD7 7AL.
Owner, Ari Rahamin has renovated the interior of the premises which is adjacent to Radlett railway station. If the menu looks familiar, it is reminiscent of Rahamin’s most recent venture, Mill Hill’s Ananas. Although this venue is not kosher, Rahamin has a long history of running kosher and Israeli restaurants.
On the menu, all-day breakfast, pastas, salads and sandwiches and melts. Expect a full review next month.
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