The only kosher restaurant in the city of Seattle closed its doors over the weekend, JTA reported.
Bamboo Garden, a vegetarian Chinese restaurant that catered to a broad clientele, was the first restaurant in Seattle to become kosher almost 30 years ago, a boon for Orthodox residents since the observant community is too small to support a restaurant that caters only to those who keep kosher. It closed due to coronavirus woes as well as the owner’s wish to retire.
According to local resident Joy Resmovits who wrote an article about the significance of the restaurant’s closing to observant Jews in the Seattle Times, it was the only local restaurant she could take her parents when they visited from New York.
Seattle is home to over 60,000 Jews and fortunately, there are still several kosher restaurants in the suburbs. However, according to Resmovits, those restaurants are all vegetarian and the closest kosher fleishig restaurant to Seattle is several hours away, in British Columbia.
The Va’ad HaRabanim of Greater Seattle announced the restaurant’s closing in mid-July: “The Va’ad HaRabanim of Greater Seattle shares the sad news that after 25 years of serving the Jewish community, Bamboo Garden Vegetarian Cuisine will be closing its doors permanently at the end of this month. They will continue to provide take-out meals through July 31st, but ask that people don’t wait until the last day to order, as it would be difficult for them to accommodate multiple orders on that last day.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
This is bizarre reporting. I’m not from Seattle (nor am I too familiar with the kosher landscape there), but looking at the Seattle Vaad’s website, it looks like they have a few other kosher restaurants. Namely, Einstein Bros Bagels, Krispy Kreme. Island Crust Cafe. Am I missing something?
This is very sad news. I was going to ask them to cater an event at a professional conference in Seattle a year from now.
Someone there should put up a billboard: “Will the last one to leave Seattle, please turn out the lights?”
Thats a shame. Everything they made was from soy and it was the only restaurant I ever ate in that actually made good tasting soy food. It was owned by a nice Chinese family. I wish the owner well.