By Jarrad Saffren | Senior Editor and
Dan Joseph | Managing Editor
After a hiatus of more than a year, students at Temple University can once again meet their need or satisfy their cravings for tasty kosher food.
Kosher Corner opened last month at the university’s Morgan Hall Food Court, offering classic deli sandwiches, soups, pastries, vegan and vegetarian specialties and create-your-own options — all prepared and certified to kosher standards.
The new eatery is off to a good start, judging by the comments from some happy customers.
“The kosher food is absolutely amazing,” Kay Williams, a Temple junior, told Philadelphia Jewish Exponent at the restaurant on a recent weekday. Williams said she isn’t Jewish herself, but “being a person who grew up around Jewish family members, I’ve always been intrigued by their food.”
Williams said she often comes by the restaurant in the early afternoon to see what dinner options Kosher Corner is offering that day.
“Every week, they’re getting new orders, new things, so it’s always good,” she said. “I ordered [lunch] from somewhere else today, but around 1:30 I’ll be coming to see what dinner they have. My last dinner that I had was salmon, sweet potatoes and green beans, and it was amazing, it was amazing. So I’m excited to see what they bring this week.”
Isaac Kramer, a Temple sophomore, tried out Kosher Corner soon after it opened and was quickly won over. His first order was a pastrami-on-challah sandwich.
“The staff is really friendly and the food was great and not too expensive, so I’ve been coming here every few days for lunch,” he said. This day, he ordered a salami sandwich, and expressed interest in the salmon. Does Kramer consider himself a regular? “I’m starting to become one,” he said.
Kosher Corner, developed in partnership with Aramark Collegiate Hospitality, is primed for significant patronage. Temple has about 3,000 Jewish students, split between undergraduate and graduate, making up about 10% of the student body.
The restaurant is one of four restaurants in the food court, alongside a Chick-Fil-A, a Freshëns and Panda Express. It essentially fills the role previously served by Zayde’s Delicatessen, a kosher eatery that was inside the Temple Hillel but suffered from a less-than-central location and a limited menu.
“Historically, the kosher concept has been in Temple’s Hillel building. But most of the people who go into Hillel are Jewish. If we wanted to expose more people to kosher food, we had to locate it in a more public building,” explains Jonathan Reiter, Temple’s senior associate vice president of business affairs and administration.
“We opened a Halal Shack last year in our student center. We wanted to do the same thing with kosher food for the same reason.”
In opening the new kosher restaurant, Reiter said, the university was responding to campus demand.
“We also just didn’t have a deli on campus, and that was something we heard from students that we wanted,” he said. “We also use it as an opportunity to educate people. When you go to the Kosher Corner, there’s a hand-washing station with the prayer you say when you eat.”
Reiter notes that Temple has a very diverse group of students, faculty and staff. “Getting them exposure to different types of food is part of the experience,” he said.
The menu for Kosher Corner was crafted in part by Todd Lean, the resident district chef for Temple and Aramark Collegiate Hospitality.
Lean said crafting the menu for the Kosher Corner was truly a labor of love.
“These are all items that I grew up eating, and they take me back to memories of going to brunch with my grandmother,” he said. “When we first started talking about this concept and putting it together, I was just so excited. It is just nice to have a kosher concept like this here right in Morgan Hall in the heart of Temple’s campus.”