Bahamas to Get Kosher Restaurant After Yeshiva Week Success

By COLlive reporter

Sun, sand, sea and… kosher!

A new Glatt Kosher restaurant will be opening at the world-famous luxurious Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, COLlive.com has learned.

Thousands of Orthodox Jews flock to the island in the West Indies each year. The Atlantis is a favorite destination for many families, being an all-inclusive resort a three-hour flight from New York with water parks and other family-friendly attractions and activities.

Throughout the year, Chabad of the Bahamas directors Rabbi Sholom and Sheera Bluming service the Jewish visitors with open arms. An especially busy time is “Yeshiva Week,” when many yeshivas have winter vacation, and a popular time when many families travel to the Bahamas.

During Yeshiva week, the Blumings arrange 3 daily minyans at the Atlantis Resort which attracts hundreds of Jewish visitors. After davening each morning, Chabad runs a special “father and son” learning program, where fathers join their sons for a period of learning before rushing out for a day of fun.

This year, for the first time, the Atlantis resort, in partnership with the Kosherica cruise and travel company, has offered a full pop-up Kosher restaurant allowing the guests to have fresh Kosher food while enjoying winter break.

Under the strict supervision of OK Kosher and its Director of Restaurant Services Rabbi Kalman Weinfeld, the pop-up restaurant is offering a variety of fresh, Kosher meal options for breakfast, lunch and dinner to the delight of guests.

The menu includes breakfast options such as egg omelets, cheese blintzes, sandwiches and smoked salmon. Lunch offerings include salads, cold sub sandwiches, hot panini sandwiches and pizza. For dinner they have grilled Atlantic salmon with tomato caper olive relish and grilled asparagus, rotisserie chicken with Tabbouleh salad, braised beef short ribs, and Angus beef short rib in red wine jus.

For Shabbos, they offered a special menu which includes Gefilte fish, Moroccan salmon, chicken soup, a duet of cornish hen and short ribs, and Schnitzel and Kugel.

“Bringing kosher dining to Atlantis has been on our minds for the last two years,” Bryan O’Shields, Senior Vice President of Food & Beverage at Atlantis, Paradise Island, told COLlive.com. “Finding the right partners and having the support of Rabbi Bluming has allowed us to make this dream come true.”

Following the success of the pop-up restaurant, the Atlantis resort announced its plan to open a full-fledged Kosher restaurant in May of 2020 at the resort.

O’Shields said the new TLV Restaurant will be a Mediterranean style eatery, serving Israeli cuisine under the direction of chefs who will be coming from Tel Aviv, Israel. It will be in partnership with Kosherica, led by Offy Shifman, who first conceived of the project, and under the supervision of the OK, led by Rabbi Don Yoel Levy.

“Our recipes and food selection will be as authentic as it gets,” O’Shields said, stressing that quality is critical to them, since “in our business, you are only as good as the customer’s last meal.”

Rabbi Weinfeld, who has traveled to the Bahamas for Yeshiva Week (and made headlines during the trip), said he is “very proud” of this new kosher opportunity.

“Kashrus is not only about the food that goes into the body, but it’s a mission for us to provide a way for people to get closer to Hashem,” he said.

“OK prides itself on the very highest standards of Kashrus, and we are so grateful to have the utmost cooperation from the resort, who comply with our every Kashrus request,” he said.

Rabbi Bluming praised the development as well. “After years of effort, we are thrilled that there will be a Kosher option in the Bahamas and grateful to the Atlantis for making this happen,” he said.

“The restaurant will change the future of Jewish travel in a big way, and allow the local Jewish community to experience fresh Kosher offerings in the Bahamas as well.”

VIDEO: Rabbi Kalman Weinfeld Kashers the kitchen