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Restaurants Continued from Page 1
the shop’s takeout-friendly
hummus and falafel are avail-
able at his restaurant on Friday,
Saturday and Sunday. Frizwit
will return as an offsite pop-up
once a month.

Musi is offering the “Jew-ish
Dinner,” a multi-course meal
inspired by the Jewish holidays
that is available until the end
of November in both takeout
and dine-in iterations. Menu
items include chopped liver
croquettes, Jerusalem artichokes
and pretzel ball soup.

The restaurant only started
offering outdoor seating in
September. “We just felt completely
unsafe in trying anything
before we felt comfortable that,
you know, we could handle it
and do it safely and with inten-
tion,” Miller said.

There is also a chef’s counter
menu option, Ari’s Two Top,
which allows two people to dine
inside with the whole restaurant
to themselves. This can only
happen once an evening.

Miller plans to extend
outdoor dining options into
the fall by providing diners
with laundered blankets and
outdoor heaters. Even so,
he doesn’t expect to offer it
20 OCTOBER 15, 2020
Cheu Fishtown is not seating guests inside.
past November, when the
business will return to offering
primarily takeout. He said he
may continue to offer Ari’s
Two Top as an indoor option
depending on safety.

“We’re working to be as safe
as possible. We’re not looking to
be aggressive or trying to pack
people in or doing anything
more than just serving food
with as minimal interaction
possible,” he said.

A lack of outdoor seating
won’t change much for Espresso
Cafe & Sushi Bar, owner Sharon
Abergel’s kosher eatery in
Rhawnhurst. Although outdoor
seating has been allowed for
several months and indoor
seating at limited capacity has
been allowed since September,
many of Espresso Cafe & Sushi
Bar’s customers still seem to
Photo by GraceD Photography
prefer to order in.

Before the pandemic, the
business relied on catering Jewish
events, but new restrictions led
them to turn to takeout.

“Catering is not really there
like it was before. There’s a little
bit here or there with brises or
small parties that are starting
to open up, but not a lot,”
waiter Yoram Beniflah said. He
estimated that 90% of sales were
takeout orders, which means
business could remain stable
into the winter months.

He also said the restaurant
has been relying more on social
media, particularly Facebook
groups, to post advertisements
for takeout and delivery options.

Ben Puchowitz, chef and
co-owner of Asian fusion restau-
rants Cheu Noodle Bar, Cheu
Fishtown, Nunu and Bing Bing
Dim Sum, said his restaurants
streamlined their menus to cut
down on prep time and lower
labor costs in the spring. Over
the summer, they slowly added
items back, and now they are
taking them away again in antic-
ipation of decreased business.

He said his restaurants
will continue to seat patrons
outside as long as possible with
the help of the outdoor heaters
he bought.

“The saving grace of all this
happening is we wouldn’t have
been able to survive without
doing outdoor seating,” he said.

Cheu Noodle Bar and Cheu
Fishtown’s main menu items
are soups, including brisket
and matzah ball ramen. As a
result, these restaurants see a
dip in business every summer,
JEWISH EXPONENT
Musi chefs and co-owners Nicole Suanlarm and Ari Miller prep food in
their kitchen.
Photo by Mike Prince
Brisket ramen from Cheu Noodle Bar
when a hot bowl of noodles and
broth may not appeal as much
as a refreshing salad. This
could be a potential advan-
tage during fall and winter,
however, as diners who still
want a restaurant experience
might prefer heartier dishes.

Bing Bing Dim Sum, which
serves dumplings, small plates
and other Chinese dishes with a
Jewish twist, typically performs
well in the summer and
continued to do so this year as a
result of ample outdoor seating.

“Bing Bing does even better in
the summer because we add on
42 outdoor seats in addition to
the 55 we normally have. So you’re
almost doubling your potential
revenue,” Puchowitz said.

However, he foresees a huge
dip in business once outdoor
seating declines. Even if
indoor dining is allowed and
customers decide to go for it,
seating at 50% capacity is a
significant loss.

Photo by Jessica Kourkounis
Still, takeout may help keep the
falafel steamed buns and matzah
meal turnip cakes coming.

“We’re going to have to
either get lucky and sell a lot
of takeout food, and luckily
that place does sell a lot of
takeout, or shrink our labor
model, shrink costs, shrink
everything,” he said.

Puchowitz thinks many
restaurants are going to close by
the end of February. His business
has already suffered one casualty:
Cheu Noodle Bar’s last day of
service was Oct. 11. The business
model of serving a large number
of customers in a short period of
time was not pandemic-friendly,
and the owners decided it was
time to close.

The other three restaurants
are still performing well.

“One out of four ain’t bad,”
Puchowitz said. l
spanzer@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0729
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM