“ Doesn't it take away from the ambiance of a fancy restaurant to serve wine in disposable cups? Or will they kasher the glasses after non-frum use? Or just have two sets of glasses, kosher and traif? ”

“ This is clearly not for everyone, but if they can be matsliach without compromising hallacha kol hakavod. To anyone who would not eat there - please understand that this is an orthodox hashgacha and it is a personal decision as to whether or not to eat any individual hashgacha. This is between an individual and hashem (and hopefully his rav to discuss) but not something for the hamon am to comment on. ”

“ that is a disgusting & racist comment ... it's even a chumra on a disgraceful & racist halacha ”

“ Really? That is ridiculous the "hamon am " is the most affected by this , the minute any sort of certification paper goes up in the window ,regardless of who it is the "hamon am" stats eating there. How can a person justify certifying this placeI .
"if I don't give a hecsher people will eat non- kosher et.." doesn't fly anymore , if they don't get a certification they will not make it by the frum yidden period.
If you read the rest of the article ,you will see the owners are quoted as specifically looking for a lenient hechsher.
There is so much to write on this topic , of how these places don't a hechser that it would take up pages . However you have to keep in mind one thing . The rabbi who certifies does it for money only thats it for money only. ”

“ They are going for a Jewish crowd who dont really care about Kashrus too much, but will stop just short of eating 'proper' treif i.e. non-kosher meat and chicken. As long as it stays within the parameters of halacha its a good thing, although I certainly dont think anyone who is makpid on a decent level of kashrus should go anywhere near it. Anyway, good luck Ushi! ”

“ Doesn't it take away from the ambiance of a fancy restaurant to serve wine in disposable cups? Or will they kasher the glasses after non-frum use? Or just have two sets of glasses, kosher and traif? ”

“ This kind of restaurant would do much better in Lakewood than in Soho. In Lakewood they are bored with the same old kosher pizza, burger and schwarma joints so a new cutting edge restaurant with innovative cuisine and top of the line chassideshe hasghacha would go over much better. ”

“ Chassidishe hashgacha is not necessarily better! I can think of at least a few places that had Chassidishe Hashgacha and it was found to be treif or at least have problems.
Better to have a trustworthy one than a Chassidishe one. ”

“ that is a disgusting & racist comment ... it's even a chumra on a disgraceful & racist halacha ”

“ I have lots of doubts about this restaurant's plans-- if they allow ANY walk-in Jewish customers and are owned entirely by Jews, it's hard to see how they can retain a proper hashgacha. And the non-mevushal wine is a perilous and complicated undertaking which is probably not worth the difficulties; there are numerous outstanding flash-heated fine wines. But the disturbing and filthy-minded commentators above should remember that prohibited wine is NOT "treif" (a convenient but misleading shorthand) in the sense that lard is, and does not contaminate everything around it in the same way. And as for some halachic opinions (not to mention the vulgar and behemahdic common parlance of many "observant" Jews), there is plenty of room for appropriate criticism, even condemnation ["lo maalin v'lo moridin"; the teshuvot which prohibit saving a non-Jew's life on Shabbat]. The grandeur of our tradition has NOT kept some authorities and some frum Jews from holding base attitudes toward fellow humans, non-Orthodox Jews, and women. Though there may have been a yerida b'kodesh/ hitkatnut hadorot in some senses, there has also (as Rav Kuk wrote) been an evolution of moral awareness. Thank G-d! ”

“ Rabbi Mehlman is a trustworthy individual. If there are issues here, he WILL drop the hashgocha. ”

“ Proper supervision there on Shabbos is nigh impossible.
The owners repudiate the label Orthodox, i.e. Halachic, Jews.
They name the place after an evil person.
2+2=you do the math ”

“ It's not racist - the halachah is that non-mevushal wine touched by a non-shomer shabbos Jew is not kosher, just like a non-Jew. Nothing to do with racism. (also, of course a frum ger no matter what race his wine is kosher, while the born "Jew" who is not frum it is not - nothing to do with race at all, only religion). ”

“ "Better to have a trustworthy one than a Chassidishe one...."

Agreed. But a trustworthy Chassideshe hashgacha is without a doubt the gold standard for mehadrim and will be relied upon by even the most machmir 'hipster' who tend to be very sophisticated and can check on line for instant updates about whats new in kashruth. The few cases where there were "problems" were really not true chassideshe hashgachos but simply had mashgichim who wore the lvush of a particular chassidus and it was guilt by association. ”

“ Here is a pair of entreprenuers who want to make some honest money pleasing as many people as they can and everyone has to chime in with etzas and comments? When are you all opening up a kosher resturant? I'll be never. Yet you have no problem giving your highfelutin opinon on everything under the sun!
And if you don't know what highfelutin means then look it up in the dictionary! ”

“ Are you out of your mind?
Chasidishe hecsherim do not update anything .
They will never tell you if they found problems In a restaurant
In a million years if the problem is ever caught. We need erliche English reading mashgichim ”

“ Here is a pair of entreprenuers who want to make some honest money pleasing as many people as they can and everyone has to chime in with etzas and comments? When are you all opening up a kosher resturant? I'll be never. Yet you have no problem giving your highfelutin opinon on everything under the sun!
And if you don't know what highfelutin means then look it up in the dictionary! ”

“ Where is SoHo? What are the nearest crossroads? ”

“ Where is SoHo? What are the nearest crossroads? ”

“ 323 West Broadway between Canal and Grand, I drove past today and peeked in, looks mamash amazing. ”

“ You need to be careful about disparaging any Chassideshe hashgacha. These are all big tzadikim and yirai shamayim and do this work le'shem mitzvah. Any shortcomings in their English language skills are more than compensated for by their unique expertise in matters of hashgacha that will be critical to meeting the discerning standards of this restaurant's upscale customer base of ehrliche yidden who want only the best. ”

“ I wanna know what you're smokin'. Chassidishe hashgachas are no better than anyone else's--the real important thing is how erlich is the mashgiach himself. Since many places that called themselves kosher and claimed they had chassidishe schechita or used chassidishe meat were caught actually selling treif. Remember the supermarket in Monsey not so many years ago--just one example ”

“ There are a few concenrs with serving non-mevushal wines 1) there can be no refills since if you refill it into a cup that has leftover stam yayin or if the goy is holding the cup while the mashgiach is refilling it - the remaining wine in the bottle become treif (nitzuk hachibutr)
2) all wine glasses will have to be washed seperately (in cold water) since you don't want to put any amount of treif wine (that is left in the glasses) in the dishwasher that will now be washed hot with all the other dishes of the day.
I hope Rabbi Melhman will at least hire an extra mashgiach to stand by the dishwasher so that no dirty glasses make it in.
3) When having a meal with either non-Jewish family members or business people it is inevitable for guests to move each others wine glasses or even take a sip and one is causing a yid to drink non-kosher wine.

If I were Rabbi Melhman I wouldn't be able to sleep well worrying about this. ”