By Tien-Shun Lee
Within three hours after its grand opening party Monday night, Shapiro Catering Hall, a new glatt kosher restaurant in Forest Hills, had 22 reservations for parties.
“Glatt kosher is very important to us. There are not very many places available — only a handful of places,” said Jonathan Alberman, a Forest Hills resident who went to the opening to check the place out for his 12-year-old daughter’s upcoming bat mitzvah. “There is a need. I hope they stay in business.”
At 167-01 Union Turnpike, Shapiro Catering Hall is decorated like a wedding hall, with bronze drapes, Greek columns and round, 10-seat tables, each topped with a large bouquet of fresh flowers elevated on a pedestal. At the front of the restaurant is a stage equipped with smoke machines, and dining room lights can be dimmed or set to flash disco patterns.
The menu, which had yet to be written as of Monday night, will include only foods that have been prepared according to strict glatt kosher standards, which means that meat and dairy cannot be mixed, and all animals must be free of injuries, diseases or abnormalities called “treifot.” All packaged products, including juices and sauces, must be stamped with the kosher “ou” symbol, which is written as a “u” inside of a circle.
“Every meat comes in kosher. Everything is blessed,” said Rabbi Gabriel Iliev, who works at the restaurant every day from open to close, making sure all products that come in are kosher. He also monitors the preparation of food as glatt kosher, a term which some restaurant patrons explained as meaning “super kosher,” or kosher with stricter standards.
According to glatt kosher laws, fish must be served before beef or chicken. At the opening night, dinner started off with an assortment of spreads, including hummus, tahini and spicy eggplant, accompanied by carrot, cabbage and beet salads, and a plate full of garlic bread topped with four types of smoked fish and garnished with an umbrella toothpick.
Main courses were brought out one by one while entertainers, including seven singers from Israel, France, Singapore and England performed music ranging from traditional Bukharian Jewish music to more popular Russian pop songs.
“It’s very beautiful. I didn’t see any place like this before,” said Rena Yelecarova, a reporter for Menora, an international Bukharian newspaper, as she tasted the first entrée of tilapia cooked in a lemon sauce with a side of baked potato.
Other entrees, which were slowly brought out as the night progressed, included lamb cooked in a hot garlic and mushroom sauce with rosemary inside, a soup with meat, potato, cilantro and chick peas, and chicken stuffed with rice.
“It’s a mix of Russian, Italian, Israeli, French, Asian food,” said Ruben Abrams, 22, who owns the restaurant with his partner, Aron Kuknarieyv, 24. “Anyone who wants to eat good food can come to our place.”
Abrams and Kuknarieyv immigrated to the United States from Uzbekistan when they were young teenagers. According to Abrams, in Uzbekistan his and his partner’s families lived together in a 42-room house. Now they live in a 21-room house in Jamaica Estates.
About five years ago, Kuknarieyv’s parents opened two family restaurants in Kew Gardens and Forest Hills. After they sold them, Kuknarieyv and Abrams opened a medical office in Jamaica together, which lasted for three years.
“From that little business, we want to go to a big restaurant,” Kuknarieyv said. “Everybody’s dreaming of something good, so I guess me, too. I hope it’s going to be good.”
After testing the food and soaking in the atmosphere for a few hours at Shapiro’s Catering Hall, Alberman appeared to be won over.
“It’s very good and we’ll probably have a party here,” he said. “My ex-wife said, ‘Wow. It’s a Caesar’s palace.’ ”
The restaurant is open Monday through Thursday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to around midnight, and Saturday night after the end of shabbat at around 5:30 p.m. Anyone interested in making reservations can call 1-718-591-1187.
Reach reporter Tien-Shun Lee by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com, or call 1-718-229-0300, ext. 155.
