By Rachel Holliday Smith – DNAInfo.com
Until recently, Zalmy Mochkin had no specific experience as a coffee roaster.
But for years he’s been tasting great coffee anywhere he can find it, from San Francisco (where he visited the original Blue Bottle Coffee with his brother) to the Australian outback, where he swears he found a perfect cup while road-tripping to Perth.
“I’ve traveled the world drinking coffee,” he said.
Now, the entrepreneur — who has worked a lot of jobs, from a restaurant in Israel to a phone answering company he ran in Long Island — is getting into the coffee business by opening his own place, Dean Street Cafe at 87 Utica Ave., stocked with his own brand of coffee, Crown Heights Roasting Company, a business begun a year and a half ago with a dream and a national Craigslist search.
“I found a small-batch, five pound roasting machine in Minnesota. And I bought it and paid for the guy to drive it down here and that’s how we began,” Mochkin says inside his new cafe, which will open for business on Monday.
The focus at the new 25-seat eatery will definitely be coffee — single-origin, all kosher and fully caffeinated (or, put plainly: “death before decaf,” Mochkin says) — but will also have snacks like pastries, grilled cheese and avocado toast on the menu to start.
In a few weeks, once a full kitchen is completed in the basement, Dean Street Cafe will also serve more hefty dishes like rice bowls, Portobello mushroom burgers and poached eggs with salmon, he said.
The move to food service makes sense for Mochkin, whose first job was working at a kosher pizza place run by his father on Montgomery Street and Troy Avenue for 13 years.
“I really grew up in the back of a kitchen,” he says.
That pizza shop, The Kretchme, was named for a word meaning an inn, gathering place or “safe haven for peace and quiet,” he said, the sentiment of which Mochkin hopes to bring to his new cafe.
“Coffee’s supposed to bring people together,” he said. “This place will attract people who want to sit down for a while.”
Dean Street Cafe is located at 87 Utica Ave. at the corner of Dean Street.
so should you
You wanna know the “bottom line”? Bottom line is the Rebbe wouldn’t drink a coffee from a cafe that does not have a hechsher!! THAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE and all that matters to any chosid!!!
You misnagdim use sugar on pessach WITHOUT a hechsher for pessach?!
That is unbelievable!!
We are at the other end of the spectrum and either don’t use ANY sugar at all – after all it is a processed product, or else COOK the sugar before pessach so that whatever contamination it may contain is bottel!!
And To Yollie at 49:
Look, if the article would have been about cholent, there would be 500 comments from Yollies.
About 50 comments on a little coffee cafe. You Chabaskers either take you coffee very seriously or you need to get a life.
The Gemara (Bab. Shabbath 21a) tells us that this practice, on some level, dates way back at least to the time of the Ḥashmonaim. the Kohanim would light the Menorah in the Beith HaMikdash using oil in sealed containers bearing an official seal that, unless tampered with, marked that the oil was pure and usable for the Menorah. That is a “hechsher”! There have been products with hechsher in the past, but not as formalized as today. In the late 1700s the Chayei Adam writes that the two ports of arrival for sugar in Europe were Hamburg and Amsterdam —… Read more »
Does the cafe have a hechsher or not?
Did the kretchme (inn/bed n breakfast) of olden days have a hechsher?
When historically did the whole hechsher “industry” start (besides the shochtim under the rav ha’ir / rav ha’machshir)?
A chosid makes his sviva!
If a chosid lives or works at Utica and Atlantic, then it becomes Crown Heights!
Is Utica and Atlantic (Dean is a block before Atlantic) even part of Crown Heights – is it includen in “kan tziva”?
I am proud that you are a growing man – I am proud as a friend, as well as another fellow man. You have wanted to establish such a ‘spot’ and you have put it together in action. May your business grow along with you as a person, and may you continue building life blocks, and accomplish greatness in your journey.
Hatslacha.
Best,
Mosh
See response posted at Number 38.
As far as I know, it doesn’t.
I understand that without one many frum Yidden, might choose not to eat there.
But that does not mean (again, as far as I know, anyway) a place that would not have one, would be violating halacha. G-d forbid.
1. Are you by chance a rov?
You sound a bit disgruntled by “amateurs” answering shaylos – something I heard a community rov recently lament about.
2. Do you work for (or own) a kashrus organization?
You seem to have a bias towards insisting that everyone needs to have a hechsher stamped on their forehead.
Maybe YOU need to disclose where your own negiah (bias) is coming from!
As with any question of halacha, ask your local orthodox rabbi who will hopefully give you a detailed comprehensive answer. Examples of collateral issues in your query: When selling on an e-store, can your “store” do business on shabbos? If the food products are chometz, can you have benefit from pessach sales? Can you sell online to goyim food which is clearly treif (ham, lobster etc)? What about selling to goyim non-kosher wines? Some of these issues are very real and concerning, beyond the scope of this forum and requiring guidance from a competent possek (not an amateur who goes… Read more »
You make some great points. I suppose a person would have to ask a rav in an individual situation, regarding kosher consumers. What about the following? Someone wants to sell a food item online, all over the world. They are just starting out and have no money to pay for a hasghacha. They have no intention to target kosher consumers, but instead want to market to the world, expecting the vast majority of their buyers to be non Jews. They are not marketing the product as kosher (or even as a “Jewish” item.). They plan to market it on places… Read more »
There are several halachic issues of running a food establishment without hashgacha. Primarily, the need to clearly notify consumers by having a noticeable sign that store is NOT under ANY hashgacha. Kosher consumers may unknowingly purchase uncertified products that are assumed to be under hashgacha, when in fact they are not. That is misleading – g’neivas da’as, (a consumer “fraud”). One observes kosher consumers indiscriminately purchasing from various uncertified coffee shops – mistakenly believing that they are under hashgacha since the owner is frum. Indeed, having a frum owner while not being under hashgacha sets the stage for misleading the… Read more »
The place is for the people who live in that neighborhood. Go there if you want to. Leave him alone to make his parnasah. Hatzlacha Rabba.
As far as I know, it doesn’t.
I understand that without one many frum Yidden, might choose not to eat there.
But that does not mean (again, as far as I know, anyway) a place that would not have one, would be violating halacha. G-d forbid.
…Wonder what we are coming to as a community when we are so excited about, and spending so much money on…coffee! It might be “kosher.” But is it KOSHER? Are these our values?
That is exactly the point.
Even someone frum, who you would totally eat in his house, yet, you might not trust him with money, even $1 – and guess what, a food establishment is a commercial enterprise, aka money. There is no trust when it comes to money, therefore hashgacha is not optional but required!
Why would you need to kasher the five pound roasting machine?? It was used for roasting coffee beans?! If you blow torch it, it will be destroyed!
Hechsher increases sales. Even goyim want kosher.
I have given loans on a handshake to people whom I would never eat in their house.
I have also eaten in people’s homes that I would not trust with a loan of $1.
What does one have to do with the other?????
Whose hashgacha will this be under?
Will it be under the HP (Hashgacha Protis)?
Yesher Koach and much hazlaha!!!
Whoa……careful there, buddy. I was waiting to see how long it would take for the Kosher Police to attack. We get that you want things to be kosher…..but where does a loan of a million dollars come into play? Or esrogim?
best Coffee I Ever Tasted
He is a frum guy – we can trust him. Yes, would you trust him with a verbal loan of $1 million? He is a frum guy, of course you would! Kashrus is worth more than $1 million. (How do I know? Well, would you eat bacon if offered a $1 million?!) If it would be foolish to trust ANYONE with a verbal loan of $1 million, how can you trust ANYONE with kashrus?! Don’t ask about eating in someone’s private house doesn’t need hashgacha so why in his cafe – because there is SPECIFIC halachic exceptions to that (sorry,… Read more »
Sounds awesome… I miss the kretchme 🙁 …
Or better yet under who’s supervision was it koshered???
Hatzlocho Rabbah
awesome….good luck from the spiglers
Is there a delivery say once a day to all those who want to try this coffee????
BS”D Hope his Pop joins him
he should have opened closer to E.P. inmy opinion more tarffic even though There is the a/c line near by bUt E.p. area has more foot traffic
I understand this is all about the coffee, however can you please carry decaf coffee for those that are off caffeine? Thanx
It’s the same hechsher as the kretchme
Is this kosher? if yes, under which hashgocho?
The coffee is unreal. Never have I tasted such fresh and good tasting coffee. I can’t wait for the kitchen to be finished! Thank you
mount hagen-freeze dried from germany-ou, the others cacan be located on sage health food store on 13th ave 47th st, you can see what’s on the market,you do not need any fake sugar or sugar, it tast es very good with out anything, it worth the price since your only adding water,hope he adds the organic coffee wish him luck
The coffee is unreal. Never have I tasted such fresh and good tasting coffee. I can’t wait for the kitchen to be finished! Thank you
This place will be a hit.
A Fan in CA
hence the Kretchme 2.0… lol 🙂
We love you zalmy!!! :):):)
Is there wifi? is it somewhere one can sit and work for a couple of hours during the less busy hours (and order, of course)?
A choshuva store for a choshuva guy.
when are you open and what are your hours?
Why not on the other side where jews actually live
Fantastic spot, was there today and zalmy took care of us. Very professional and courteous.
And how far from crown heights central?
Lookin forward
Any Hescher?
Hatzlacha Rabba
Hatzlacha Raabah!’
Zalmy is king!