Kosher Info: Although its a great city there is limited spots for kosher food. The Rideau Bakery with two spots has some great bakery items. A location in the heart of downtown on Rideau Street and a newer one on Bank(between Heron and Walkley). The one downtown has a little cafe attached to it. Both location have packaged deli products. They also run a small Cafe in the SJCC. Besides that there is a great kosher section at the Loblaws grocery store in College Square with prepared food and great selection of all sort of kosher food.

Tourist Info: There are some great festivals during the summer. Who new flowers could be so much fun but the Tulip festival attracts so many people that they have added some entertain along the street to hype the crowd! There is the New War Museum, and the great Science a Technology Museum and the Museum of Civilization. How could you leave out a tour of Parliament Hill. Right next to parliament Hill are two hot spots Rideau center and the Byward market.

There are some great hiking and camping areas just outside the city in the Gatineau area.

Jewish Info: Although the community is not that big, there is a synagogue for each type. If you like a cantor look no further than Machzikei Hadas, although its really formal. There is nothing like a dvar torah from the world renown Rabbi Bulka. There is a great Kollel which is right next to the SJCC. Of course there are two Beth Shaloms. There is one downtown which is traditional and the other one is dubbed “Beth Shalom West” is a classical Zionist synagogue (soon to be renamed Beth Tikvah). And of course there is a Chabad (actually I think there are about 4 now in the city).

Kosher Info: One of the few cities that really goes above and beyond a great Jewish experience. As there is so much Kosher food available I will just highlight a few spots which are my favorites.

Restaurants: If you are in the mood for Israeli food, don’t go anywhere except for Chez Benny’s. Beside all the great dishes they also have a mean smoke meat sandwich. If you like Chinese, check out Ernie’s, they have a huge menu and great special for lunch. If you like sushi, Yakimoto is the new great spot but be prepared to drop some serious coin to get a filling meal! If you are looking for dairy, there is nothing like Pizza Pita. The first kosher pizza drive through! Tzvi and Chaim are like brothers with an real sense of making their customers satisfied besides the pizza they have some great sandwiches and some of the best make your own salads! If you are downtown, the Hillel House on Stanley street hosts the Dizengoff Café. They serve a great chicken sandwich! Also downtown is El Morocco which is a bit more fancy but serves some great Moroccan delights!

Bakeries: In my opinion you don’t need to go anywhere but Cheskie’s. Besides the name you would even know it was Jewish the food is so good you are going wonder why all other bakeries are even open! But if you like some Morrcan treats check out Adar in Cote St. Luc or Expression on Queen Mary.

Tourist Info: La Belle Ville has so much to offer winter or summer. Winter time has Winterlude which is jam packed with winter sports and festivals and concerts. Not to mention an underground which connects to at least four major shopping malls. The summers are so jam packed it doesn’t matter when you go. Each ethnic community runs their owns festival which includes great music and dancing and always a great meal (too bad not kosher). The main highlights are the Jazz Festival and the Comedy Festival. The Jazz festival has live shows for free for a whole week every night some with multiple concerts a night. check out the listing as there is always a great Israeli band in the mix! The Comedy Festival still brings in the best of the best in comedy. If you go the Old Port they have great stuff for kids and adults alike. Did I mention the Old Port. If you are young and looing for a good time its the place to be during the summer with a Ben and Jerry’s in the center of it all who needs a kosher dinner.

What each tourist needs to experience is the Tam Tam festival. It has been quoted as the largest unorganized festival in the world! Right near downtown on Park Avenue (Avenue Du Parc) Evey Sunday staing around Lunch time the mountain erupts in a frenzy of fun for the whole family. At the center of it all if a great Jam session with all sorts of musicians and dancers, bring your instruments! I have seen it all there from a full set of drum to guitars, saxophones, violins and everything in between. Did I mention Capoeira circles and sports galore! or maybe just a great place for a picnic!

There are also some great museums and hiking that you can do on the mountain. A great city for biking too! I would also check out the Fireworks Festival!

Jewish Info: There is something for everyone! Every sect or group or denomination is represented in the city. The city has some of the oldest synagogues in the North America. If you are looking for a Carlebach style minyan, look no further than the Ghetto Shul (Makom Rinah) in the heart of downtown (during the University season its a happening place). Now in a new location on Park and Milton there are a few Chabads. I would recommend the one in Westmount. If you like a traditional services, TBDJ or Beth Zion would be great. There is a great Kollel community in Outremount and one of warmest Chasidic communities from Belz to Satmar, and Viznetz.

Kosher can be found all over the place but the major areas are the Van Horne Shopping center, the Queen Mary strip. and the Cavendish Mall.

Kosher Info: Milan’s kosher community is well served by three small supermarkets which carry just about anything that one could want. The following website gives a thorough listing of all kosher and Jewish establishment in Milan and throughout Italy: http://www.jewishitaly.org. If you will be in town over Shabbos the Re Solomone offer complete Shabbos meals which must be picked up there on Friday during regular hours. Please note that many shops and all restaurants close in the afternoon. Jewish Italians eat lunch at 1pm and eat a late dinner, so if you’re hungry between 2pm and 7pm you’ll need to consider fresh fruit. Restaurants charge a cover fee (1-2.5 Euros per adult), but tipping is not necessary.

You can use http://www.torinoebraica.it/listakasher.php to locate kosher food which can be purchased at any Italian supermarket. This list is in Italian (the foods which you might really need … Kellogg’s cereal, tuna fish – Palmera and Rio Mare brands, some cheese (fromaggi), and a short list of cookies and crackers).

Tourist Info: Milan doesn’t offer much to tourists, so if your not comming on business, you’d do well to spend your time in Venice or the Lakes. The shopping however, is great.

Jewish Info: (coming soon)

Major Towns: Deal, East Brunswick, Edison, Elizabeth, Highland Park
Up and Coming: New Brunswick, Linden, Long Branch

Kosher Info: Supermarkets throughout the area feature large Kosher sections, and many store-brand items are certified. Central Jersey is a bit more spread out than its northern counterpart, so there are often itervening areas with little Jewish/Kosher interaction. But fear not – the next Kosher restaurant can’t be more than 15 minutes away.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth (and its surrounding towns like Hillside and Union) rally around Elmora Avenue, including a pizza store, Chinese resrtaurant, and of course, Dunkin Donuts.

Edison / Highland Park

Edison and Highland Park are run through by Raritan Avenue, where you can find pizza, Mei Garden Chinese, the Glatt 27 mini-mart, and some other ever-changing selections of milk and meat. Rutgers University students come over the bridge from New Brunswick to take part in all this, especially the Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins combo store, though they have been know to take a drive westward to Manville and Lin’s Kosher Chinese instead. The alternative for them is the Kosher meal plan at the Chabad house on campus.

Deal

The Deal community is a bit farther southeast by the coast, but has a large community and a few neighboring towns to bolster it. Offerings include the standards: pizza, Chinese, and a more upscale Mediterranean place, with some smaller Milchig (dairy) shops as well. Some will travel farther south towards Lakewood, but that’s another community altogether.

Tourist Info: The Jewish communities are generally more inland residential, but nearby minor attractions (bowling, ice skating, etc.) are close at hand. If you’re in Deal or Long Branch, or can get farther east, you’re already by the Atlantic coast. North is New York City, south is Atlantic City, and southwest is Philadelphia, each with a myriad of visitable locations of its own.

Jewish Info: Central NJ is more open and spread-out area, so the communities are not always inter-navigable. The Elizabeth and Highland Park areas have several Shul options and have their own schools, though some have been known to utilize northern NJ schools and vice versa. Deal is a largely Syrian community, upscale and very active.

New Brunswick, which used to be the cornerstone of central Jersey Jewry, is now limited to one synagogue (the rest moved to Highland Park), but has the benefit on being home to Rutgers students. The Chabad and Hillel houses on campus run daily Minyanim and Shabbat activities while school is in session.

Major Towns: Englewood, Fair Lawn, Teaneck, West Orange
Up and Coming: Bergenfield, Fort Lee, Paramus, Passaic

Kosher Info: Supermarkets throughout the area feature large Kosher sections, and many store-brand items are certified. The Rabbinical Council of Bergen County (RCBC) is the local certifying agency that handles the supermarkets, restaurants, etc.

Teaneck

Teaneck is widely considered to be the epicenter of Jewish – and Kosher – life in northern New Jersey. Most of the activity is centered around Cedar Lane to the south and West Englewood Avenue to the north. Food is available at everything from bakeries to cafés to mini-marts.

Some of the selection on Cedar Lane (always subject to change):

• Butterflake Bakery offers Milchig (dairy) and Pareve selections of breads, cakes, cookies, and other fine pastries.
• Pizza Crave is the one remaining pizza store on Cedar Lane after Jerusalem Pizza closed down.
• Ma’adan is Cedar Lane’s Kosher mini-mart, but also provides significant catering services, from their takeout Shabbat deli and hot food counters to fully-staffed Bar Mitzvas.
• Noah’s Ark deli (and now really also a grill) is a classic by all standards. I still crave their sliced steak sandwich, and even the salami on rye just tastes better there. Bonus points for supplying half-sour pickles. Its sister…er, wife Shelly’s dairy restaurant, now in Noah’s Ark’s original location, offers a decent selection, but has always lacked something when you compare it to the main event.
• A trip to Cedar Lane is always well topped off with a trip to Fancy Delights, where I have been known to buy enough sugar to last me a month but eat within a week.

West Englewood Avenue continues to grow as the Jewish high schools and young married apartments continue to be filled. Local offerings include:

• Glatt Express has been the Kosher supermarket of the area for many many years, providing regular groceries (milk, eggs, fruits, vegetables, cereal, etc.) as well as large bakery, meat, cheese, and specialty Kosher sections.
• EJ’s Pizza is all that’s left for pizza after Plaxza Pizza closed (that’s right, there used to be 4 pizza stores n Teaneck!)
• The Pasta Factory is upscale Milchig, and the nearby Rabica Café is a similar but smaller version for your fish and grain needs.
• Chopstix chinese takeout has been a staple of Shabbat meals in Teaneck and now also West Orange.
• Dougie’s BBQ and grill. Need I say more?

Englewood

Englewood is a fancier, more spread out town, so once you’re driving anyway, you might as well go to Teaneck. Nonetheless, there are several Kosher food suppliers there, and some Milchig (dairy) hangouts to boot.

Fair Lawn

Fair Lawn is significantly westward down Route 4, so coming to the Teaneck/Englewood/Bergenfield area isn’t always easy. As such, in addition to the local supermarkets, they offer a self-standing bakery, Chinese takeout, and a Pita place.

West Orange

West Orange is an outpost a bit farther south and west, but holds down its own with a couple of restaurants while also being nearby Elizabeth in addition to the Bergen County towns.

If you’re really close to the northern border of NY state, you’ll be nearby Monsey and Spring Valley, NY, which is yet another Jewish headquarters of sorts.

Tourist Info: The most major attraction near northern NJ is, of course, New York City. New Jersey Transit busses (and sometimes trains) run throughout the area and will take you to Port Authority (42nd Street) or Penn Station. Some will also take you across the George Washington Bridge and points north, which, offer some great senic views along the Palisades.

Shopping can be found everywhere, from the main streets of the towns where you find the restaurants to the sides of the highways which are like really long strip malls. The Garden State Plaza is the major mall in the area. Other family attractions (like batting cages, driving ranges, bowling, etc.) can be found here and there, mostly in the intervening towns (like Hackensack) which have a more commercial/industrial feel to them.

Of the towns listed, you’ll notice how there is no real representation in the western end of the state. Indeed, the major communities are all much closer to New York City, and as you travel west, you see less dense and more wooded areas until you reach Pennsylvania. The farther north and west you go, the more outdoorsy locations will be available to you. See the post on Manhattan, NY.

Jewish Info: So many choices! Given the proximity of these towns to each other, to central NJ, and to New York, the options for Shuls, schools, food, and every other aspect of life are in large supply. Thus the intermingling of communities and their residents is at a much higher rate than other regions, which provides many options for how to raise your family or meet the right person to start your own.

Minyanim meet at all times of the day, and local parks fill up on summer Shabbat afternoons. While one should take care to ensure that the community they are in matches their ideologies, finding such a community is guaranteed, given the extreme variety to be found in the area.

Kosher Info: Atlanta has the largest amount of Jewish/Kosher resources south of Maryland and north of the southern Florida hotspots. The Toco Hills community is the focal point of this activity, with fully-stocked Kosher sections in the local Kroger and Publix supermarkets, as well as several Kosher restaurants – even a self-standing bakery and Kosher mini-mart!

Toco Hills

• Broadway Cafe and Off-Broadway, located on Briarcliff Road by LaVista Road, are the local Milchig (dairy) and Fleishig (meat) sit-down restaurants. Broadway bills itself as vegetarian (with plenty of fake-meat options) and draws in even non-Jewish diners during the local business lunch hour.
• Bresserie, a BBQ/grill across the street from the Broadways, recently replaced the only pizza place (and Saturday night hotspot). The food is good, but the menu is slim and the ambiance is remeniscent of, well, a pizza store.
• Pita Palace is around the corner on LaVista Road, and also draws an international crowd that favors falafel and shawarma.
• Following LaVista down to North Druid Hills and the Toco Hills Shopping Center leads you to the aforementioned Kroger and Publix supermarkets. Kroger has a chinese takeout station inside (order on your way in, shop for your weekly groceries, and pick up on your way out), and Publix’s deli counter has a sub station (I recommend picking up some subs to take with you to Turner Field downtown should you have tickets to a Mets Braves game). Both have meat, fish, and deli counters, and Kosher bakery sections. There is also a separate Pareve bakery that recently opened near Kroger.

Several hotels and other conference centers are in touch with Kosher caterers, so you should feel comfortable asking for Kosher food if you have business in the area.

Dunwoody

Local Dunwoody supermarkets have Kosher sections, catering to the communities who live there and pass through on their way to the JCC. There is a café in the JCC, as well as some nearby Kosher bistros that cater to the local business crowd.

Sandy Springs

Local Sandy Springs supermarkets have Kosher sections, catering to the communities who live there and pass through on business. Most of the Kosher restaurants are not in Sandy Springs proper, but rather in nearby towns.

Alpharetta

Alpharetta still relies on the metro Atlanta eateries to satisfy its Kosher needs, but local area supermarkets do have minor Kosher sections.

–

See the Atlanta Kashruth Commission’s listing of locally supervised establishments (which include some locations of Bruster’s Ice Cream and Krispy Kreme Donuts) for the latest on locations and contact information in all the previous neighborhoods mentioned.

Tourist Info: The Toco Hills community is north of downtown Atlanta, but its easy access to I-85 and the MARTA public transit system keep it within a 10-30 minute range of all the local attractions. The Dunwoody community is north of metro Atlanta, directly outside the I-285 loop defining the “perimeter” of Atlanta. Public transportation is a little weak, but with a car, you’re within a 20-30 minute range of all the local attractions. The The Sandy Springs community is north of metro Atlanta, directly outside the I-285 loop defining the “perimeter” of Atlanta, and abuts GA-400, which runs from downtown directly north (when the interstates run NW and NE). Public transportation is a little weak, but with a car, you’re within a 20-30 minute range of all the local attractions.

Downtown destinations include the World of Coca-Cola, the CNN Center, the Georgia Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta, Cyclorama, and several other historical sites. Underground Atlanta can provide some shopping (plenty of other malls in the suburbs as well), and Turner Field, Philips Arena, the Georgia Dome, and the Fox Theatre all add entertainment value.

Driving half an hour or more in any direction starts to take you away from the major city centers and into a more natural Georgia. Stone Mountain and Kennesaw Mountain offer hiking and historical sites, and the famous Stone Mountain laser show every May-August evening is a must. The farther away from Atlanta you get, the more mountainous the terrain and the more you’ll see of mountain trails and parks.
North of the city you will find the North Georgia outlet malls, as well as the Discover Mills shopping complex. Gwinnett Arena may have events of interest, too.

Jewish Info: The Jewish community as a whole extends all throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area and even throughout the rest of Georgia, but Toco Hills is the Orthodox headquarters. LaVista Road itself is home to 4 Shuls, a Kollel, a Mikvah, the Atlanta Kashruth Commission, and Torah Day School. Between the Shuls, schools, and food (and even an Eruv), Toco Hills (and Atlanta in general) is clearly a self-standing Jewish community.

It should be noted that Toco Hills is also near Emory University, as well as a home for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thus there are many Jewish grad/doctoral students living in the apartment complexes along LaVista Road, and several Emory professors (including a few Rabbi-Doctors) and CDC doctors are members of the local Shuls.

Congregation Ariel is the Orthodox Shul of Dunwoody, around which the community lives (though it is convenient that it is only a block away from the JCC). Ariel hosts a Kollel, but local kids generally carpool to the established schools, which are in other towns. There is an Eruv here as well.

Sandy Springs hosts Beth Tefillah, the full-service Shul which also serves as the flagship for the Chabd houses of Georgia. The Shul, with a Mikvah, and local community are encircled by an Eruv. Several Jewish schools are nearby, in addition to Chabad’s educational services.

The Chabad of Alpharetta is your source for Orthodox Jewish life in that area, and, as of the writing of this article, is actively pursuing the community’s expansion to include an Eruv and a Mikvah. The community has seen a recent growth due both to the increased business industry in the area, as well as its residential situation. With the Atlanta-based communities becoming more expensive and young-couple housing becoming scarce, Alpharetta has been able to offer newer houses at $100K less than Atlanta, which has attracted several younger families to consider Alpharetta as a place to settle.

Alpharetta is also home to the Atlanta Men’s Synagogue Softball League. While the Orthodox communities are generally farther away, there are many non-Orthodox communities in northern Georgia, making Alpharetta somewhat central to all.
——–

You are welcome to contact the author should you or someone you know be passing through and wish to visit the community for Shabbat or even during the week. Contact Daniel Wenger.

Kosher Info: Since Orthodox Jews make up such a large percentage of New York’s population, NYC is probably the easiest city in the world outside of Jerusalem to find Kosher food.

Buying Kosher food anywhere in New York is fairly easy. Kosher markets exist on the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Washington Heights, and the Lower East Side. However, almost every supermarket: Key Food, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Gristedes, Fairway, and others carry a wide array of Kosher products frequented by the Jewish NYers.

With so many places to eat in Manhattan, I will focus on a few areas that travelers to New York can visit for a quick bite to eat, or for a fancy sit down experience. (There are so many restaurants and general kosher eateries, there is no doubt many will not be on this list. This is a general list for the traveler to NY)

Midtown:

• Jerusalem 2 Pizza (aka “J2″)- the largest Kosher pizza shop in the world; they carry pizza, pasta, sandwiches, and sushi.
• Mr. Broadway – a large no-frills deli frequented by both businessmen and pedestrians; they carry a full menu of deli, BBQ, Chinese, and sushi. Recommend Sushi and Pastrami Burgers.
• Le Marais – famous steakhouse by Times Square; even better post-Broadway show.
• Mendy’s – the only kosher place inside Grand Central Station
• Other places to grab a quick bite: Circa, Milk & Honey, Kosher Delight, Kosher Deluxe…

Upper West Side (UWS)

• Pizza Cave (W. 72nd st.)
• Nargila Grill (W. 72nd st.) – huge portions of great tasting Middle Eastern cuisine
• Talia’s Steakhouse (Amsterdam Ave. & W. 93rd st.) – nice atmosphere, great steak and potatoes
• Deli Kasbah (W. 85th st.) – one of the affordable Fleishig (meat) places in the city
• Estihana (W. 79th st.) – great sushi and other Japanese dishes
• Gan Asia (Amsterdam Ave. & W. 94th st.) – take out Asian
• H&H Bagels (W.80th st.) – 24 hour kosher bagels – yummmm
• Cafe Nana – (W. 115th st. – 2nd floor of the Columbia Univ. Hillel)

Downtown

• Subway (yes, there’s a Kosher one on Water st.)
• Essex on Coney Downtown
• Broadway Kosher Cafe

Tourist Info: Being a NYer myself, I relish living in the greatest city on Earth. There are always new places to explore and people to meet. I will list certain must-sees and must-dos while in the city, some traditional, some personal favorites.

• Empire State Building – observatory tower, landmark
• 5th Ave. – (window) shopping, walk into Trump Tower & FAO Schwartz
• Rockefeller Center – “Top of the Rock”, NBC Studios, ice skating
• Times Square – Broadway Shows, comedy clubs, bright lights – use “TKTS” for cheaper Broadway tickets day of show
• Central Park – walking, sports, picnics, free concerts, relaxing,
• Lower Manhattan – Battery Park, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall Street, WTC site / Ground Zero – future home of the Freedom Tower
• Chinatown
• Brooklyn Bridge – walk across on a nice day, great views
• South Street Seaport – boats, shopping, and the occasional show or exhibit
• Greenwich Village – nightlife, shopping, and interesting people
• Upper West & Upper East Sides – gorgeous apartment buildings, crazy rents, wealthy tenants, great neighborhood
• Madison Square Garden – see the Knicks or Rangers play, or one of many other sporting events hosted in the worlds most celebrated arena
• NY Public Library – like no other library
• Grand Central Station – they dont make train stations like this anymore, worth stopping by, avoid rush hour

Technically not in Manhattan (The Bronx):

• Yankee Stadium – catch a home game of the greatest sports team on Earth; sit in the Bleachers – the cheapest and by far the most fun section of the ballpark
• Bronx Zoo – much bigger than the Central Park Zoo

Parks:

• Central Park – without a doubt! Man-made, but oh so awesome!
• Fort Tryon Park – in Washington Heights (take the A train to 191st st.); great views of the Hudson River, George Washington Bridge, and visit the Cloisters
• Bryant Park – surrounded by office buildings and the NYPL, it is home to many professionals eating their lunch seeking refuge from their offices; hosts free ice skating in the winter, “movies in the park” in the summer.
• Union Square – small park; often hosts fresh food markets, performers, and the weekly protests; great shopping all around the area. Check out Max Brenner’s Chocolate Shop (from Israel) on Broadway. The boxed chocolates are all kosher (all have hashgacha from Israel), but the sit-down restaurant is not kosher at all.
• Battery Park – great views of the New York harbor, Statue of Liberty, and the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Verrazano bridges.

Museums & Zoos:

• MoMA
• The Met
• Museum of Natural History
• The Guggenheim
• Central Park Zoo

Affordable Shopping:

• Century 21
• 34th St.
• Canal St.

Jewish Info: Jews can be found in just about every area of this city, they might as well change the name to Jew York. Minyanim are not difficult to find, and there are nice Mikvahs on the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Washington Heights, and on the Lower East Side.

Orthodox or not, check out the following synagogues:

• The Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue
• The Stanton St. Shul
• Park East Synagogue
• Ohab Zedek (OZ) – Friday night social scene
• Mt. Sinai Jewish Center – Friday night social scene

Contributed by: Dani Klein | Last Date of Travel: April 2008

Kosher Info: Due to Miami Beach’s large Jewish population, there are a number places to find Kosher food. In the 41st area, there is a Kosher Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins, Pizza, and Pita Hut. Additionally, there are Kosher markets: Kosher World and Kastner’s. In South Beach there’s Pita Loca, Tea for Two, and Gourmet Carrot. Further north we can find Sara’s Pizza in North Miami, and China Bistro Glatt in Aventura. Also in Aventura is a large market: Kosher Kingdom. While I didn’t cover all Kosher locations in the greater Miami area, most are here.

Flocks of Jews from up north head down to Miami over winter vacation and again for Pesach. You will find many hotels with special Kosher for Passover programs in the Miami Beach area, and throughout Florida.

Tourist Info: Visiting Miami Beach gives you plenty of opportunity to relax under the sun and swim. Every hotel and building has its own pool. If you decide to leave the beach, check out Lincoln Road and Rodeo Drive in South Beach. Additionally, if you have access to a car, check out Vizcaya, a beautiful mansion and gardens protected by the city of Miami.

Jewish Info: There are plenty of shuls and minyanim in the area. For some reason, the greater Miami area has tons of Chabad’s (which most likely have mikvahs as well). See the map below:

Kosher Info: There are several kosher establishments in San Diego spread throughout the city. Orly’s Cafe and Bakery in the University City neighborhood offers the standard selection of bagels and breads as well as knishes, pizza, cakes, cookies and pastries. Across the street from each other are respectively The Place and The Dairy Place. Both restaurants are under the same ownership. The Place also offers a full selection of grocery items. In the restaurant section of The Place you can find shwarma, schnitzel, steak, soups and other standard fare. The Dairy Place offers fresh fish, pastas and salads. Inside The Dairy Place is also the largest selection of kosher wines, both local California kosher wines and exotic ones as well. The Place and The Dairy Place are situated within what is locally called The College Area as San Diego State University is within the neighborhood.

Tourist Info: San Diego is a beautiful city at the edge of the continental United States only a few short miles from Baja California in Mexico and a two hour drive south of Los Angeles. It is famous for having perfect weather 365 days a year and its coasts are dotted with sandy beaches where one can go surfing, swimming, sailing or any other beach activity. The city is also well known for The San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park as well as Sea World and Legoland.

Jewish Info: San Diego has a relatively large Jewish community of over 100,000 Jews. Two of the prominent Orthodox synagogues in the area are Beth Jacob in the College Area and Adat Yeshurun in La Jolla. Additionally, there are several mikvaot throughout San Diego. One can also find Chabad Houses throughout the city including Chabad of University City, Chabad of La Jolla Shores, Chabad at San Diego State University, among many others.

• Chez Arthur (13 rue Auber) – This steakhouse offers good food in a nice ambiance. I was only disappointed to discover that if you missed the lunchtime plat du jour, the menu offers no French food.
• Restaurant Leshem Chamaym (22 rue Rossini) – This wonderful dairy restaurant is run by and attached to Chabad. It was a most pleasant surprise. The generously portioned food was delicious and the ambiance was great. The staff spoke Hebrew and English.
• Le Kinneret (37 av. Georges Clemenceau) – We ate here a few times becuase the food was French and delicious. It is the only place open during the hours of 2 pm and 7 pm when once cannot get a kosher meal (or any meal) in a restaurant in Europe. It is not actually a restaurant but a bakery and a take out place, but they do have 2 tables where we spent many hours smelling the wonderful aromas, enjoying our food and watching the locals.
• Supermarche K’GEL (18 rue Dante) – We shopped for kosher products here because it was right down the block from our hotel. They pointed us to a boulangerie down the block where we could purchase baguettes. This was the highlight of our trip.

Tourist Info: Nice is a fantastic getaway destination. The weather is sunny and warm about 350 days a year, the sea is truly azure and kosher dining is plentful. What we didn’t expect were Nice’s other attractions, beautiful gardens and villas, to be enjoyed in the warm breezy air. We particularly enjoyed the Villa Rothchild and its gardens just a short trip by bus up the coast. There are also many other gardens and villas open to the public in that area. Nice also offers a host of museums, catering to almost any interest. We visited the Matisse Museum, which is really only of interest if one is a Matisse fan and the Chaggal Museum which is of interset even if one is not a Chaggal fan. The museums are situated within a 20 minute walk – I recommend first heading to the Matisse, unless one much prefers walking uphill.

Jewish Info: (coming soon)