After Thanksgiving and before Christmas, South Florida is in the midst of an annual transformation as snowbirds head south in droves to escape the cold weather of the Northeast.
Many of them will flock this year if Eyal Shani’s latest bet is correct. marcathe Israeli celebrity chef’s latest venture, an upscale kosher meat restaurant that opened this week in West Palm Beach. This is the first Florida location for Shani’s kosher concept Malka, which also has two locations in New York City and one in Tel Aviv.
Opening a kosher restaurant in this quiet corner of West Palm Beach, just across the bridge from Palm Beach Island, is a bold move. Most of the area’s observant Jews live 30 miles south in Boca Raton. But Shani offers quality Israeli food in a beautiful setting (the 10,500-square-foot space was designed by a prominent Israeli architecture firm, and all construction materials were imported from Israel by container ship). I am sure that it will attract customers from all over the world. The area, whether they are Jewish or not.
“In the first week, they housed about 150 people and have a waiting list of 300 people each night,” Shani said. jewish insider In an interview on Wednesday. “I think we’re doing a really great job.”
The shop’s signature dish is schnitzel, which is fried with not only chicken but also mashed potatoes, and is so popular that it has been described as “the most famous Marka schnitzel.” of rest of menu They stick to the same cheeky tone: “Hummus ragu could be even closer to perfection,” “Bloody pizza, no blood,” “Fish roasted whole in a horrible fire.” (Cooking over an open fire is Shani’s specialty.)
Shani, a 65-year-old man with curly gray hair and glasses, has led the world from Miznon, a casual pita stand that pioneered serving whole cauliflower as a main dish, to HaSaron, a trendy restaurant-nightclub fusion. There are currently 40 restaurants open. Serving upscale Israeli cuisine with DJs to diners in Miami, New York and Las Vegas. Chemonnet in New York’s Greenwich Village was awarded a Michelin star last year. Shani also has restaurants in the UK, France, Austria, Singapore, Australia and Canada.
Of those 40 restaurants, his four Malka locations and one kosher-certified Miznon in Times Square are the only kosher restaurants. He decided to open his first kosher restaurant after realizing that the majority of Israeli Jews keep kosher and cannot go to his own restaurant.
“They would often stand there and look at my restaurant like they wanted to swallow it, but they couldn’t because they were Orthodox and they were eating kosher,” he recalled. . “Then I said to myself, my purpose in life is to cook for people, and these are some of my people.”
The idea to bring a kosher Israeli restaurant to West Palm Beach wasn’t Shani’s. He was invited there by Terry Cassel, a philanthropist who lives in Palm Beach. She had already identified a location for the restaurant, but needed a world-class chef.
“‘Please join me in building a Jewish community in Palm Beach,'” he recalled her saying. Malka is West Palm Beach’s second kosher restaurant.
Located in a former butcher shop, Malka was designed by Kimmel Eshkolot Architects, an Israeli firm behind major national projects such as the Western Wall tunnels, the Tower of David Museum, and the Davidson Center at the Western Wall. All materials in the restaurant were sourced from Israel, including marble, metal, and concrete. The backyard is lush with olive trees and other Mediterranean foliage, and the walls are decorated with custom artwork by Israeli artist Michal Rovner.
Shani’s success has made him something of a cultural ambassador for the Jewish state, a mission he takes seriously, while also portraying himself as the godfather of modern Israeli cuisine.
“Maybe it’s not very nice to say something about myself, but in the end I was the main inventor of Israeli cuisine,” Shani said.
He began his culinary journey with no knowledge of cooking, other than occasionally preparing recipes from Julia Child’s cookbooks. He opened his first restaurant in Jerusalem in 1989 after his girlfriend liked his version of childe bouillabaisse, a traditional French fish soup. (Mr. Shani’s speeches are peppered with philosophical references as he describes common foods like tomatoes and cucumbers, but he maintains that he has no formal culinary training.) “I’m dedicated,” he said.
Since opening his first restaurant in Jerusalem in 1989, Shani has been on a mission to bring a consistent identity to Israeli culinary traditions.
“As a citizen of Israel, I understood that there is no way for a nation or a people to unite under a nation without its own cuisine,” he said. “It’s like if you’re married and have kids and you live in an apartment and your apartment doesn’t have a kitchen. That doesn’t last long because the kitchen brings everyone together.”
The October 7 attack and the aftermath of the war in Gaza tested Shani’s goal of promoting Israeli cuisine around the world. To emphasize this point, he compared Passover in restaurants in 2023 and 2024. Last year, his restaurant remained full during the Jewish holiday, even as many Jews left New York and others observed Passover dietary restrictions. This year, his restaurant felt noticeably empty during Passover.
“We still feel it. There are so many demonstrations against us,” Shani said. After October 7th, people People who had never been to his restaurant started leaving bad reviews online. Some people called restaurants, shouted “Free Palestine” and then hung up.
But he thinks people will come back to Israel – and Israeli food will make that happen.
“It made me so proud of our little place in the world that makes some of the most beautiful food in the world,” he said. “Through food, the world will reconnect with us. That is my belief.”
