Totally agree, Rod. It’s the “poke in the eye” mentality. Mockery of deeply held beliefs. People like this have nothing to offer the world except cheap, easy “scepticism”.

So it strikes me as the same problem for many Christians… Namely, faith is entirely internalized and separated from any external rules. And in fairness this is what happens when we regard a “marketplace for religion” as a good thing. Logically, if you can pick and choose a faith without any respect for truth, but only for what fits your market preferences, why not simply pick and choose *within* the faith as well?

Do a web search on ‘Pay Lay Ale’ and you’ll see that an ex-Mormon has taken that phrase which is used in the secret Mormon Temple endowment ceremony. Allegedly, “The words were supposed to mean, in the sacred language used by Adam in the Garden of Eden, “O God, hear the words of my mouth!”
The ex-Mormon has riffed on that phrase and used it as a name for a fictional beer, complete with label featuring images of Joseph Smith and the Salt Lake City temple.
Sacred cows make the best hamburger.

I just think it’s interesting that people go to so much effort to do what, exactly? Pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into a restaurant specifically featuring non-kosher foods (*because* they’re non-kosher) and placing it directly on the border with probably the largest Hasidic community in the country? Spraypainting offensive graffiti would have been a lot cheaper and less time-consuming.
Honestly, I wouldn’t think much of the restaurant, if it wasn’t placed exactly where it’s placed, in what can only be a deliberate attempt to offend. Provocative is one thing, but this seems light years beyond that.

I know you’ove been waiting with baited (is THAT kosher) breath for my reaction: Answer? Barbecue pork ribs, bacon and milk don’t go together. I know he isn’t using two sets of dishes because that’s just too expensive and I don’t have to repeat stereotypes about spendthrift Jews.
You can’t screw up matzo brie and if he ain’t serving it, along with a good pickle and chopped chicken liver (with JUST the right addition of onions and egg), it won’t be worth mentioning.
Niche dining is one thing; good corned beef and pastrami is QUITE another.
So my friend, nosh away! And leave the dreck to others.

I found this paragraph interesting:
“If this was 10 years ago, there’s no way his windows would not be broken,” said Joshie, who felt the need to support Traif in its opening week when he read negative comments on Traif’s blog that he viewed as “thinly veiled” threats from the nearby Orthodox community. Joshie’s two friends—one of whom is the son of a prominent rabbi and who ate non-kosher for the first time nearly a year ago in Las Vegas with Penn & Teller—said the food was truly special, far beyond their expectations. Joshie himself said he owes the owners for a touching evening, which he described as “getting off on a psychological level,” and he added that he is interested in talking with the owners about hosting a meet-up of similarly disoriented former Orthodox Jews at the restaurant once a week.
Is this the culinary equivalent of printing cartoons of Mohammed intended to offend Muslims? Is it a rebellion against oppression, or just culinary provocation?

Nu, so everybody’s lost their sense of humor already? Gloyb mir, this is not so bad we should plotz. What else is on the menu? Hashem browns? Gefilte clams? Camel burgers? Schmeckl tips? Would you trust a chef who wants to cook in a morgue?
But I think this idea has potential. I’m opening an upscale restaurant called Eucharist. Every course guaranteed transubstantial. (We serve consubstantial meals for Lutherans and Zwinglians with digestive ailments.)

Blasphemy isn’t a crime. It might offend the religious sensibilities but really, tough.
If it offends you, don’t go the restaurant. None of us have the right not to be offended. A free society doesn’t work that way, though of late there are alot of people who think their hurt feelings is sufficient warrant to shut people up. Fortunately no one here has, but today there is the news about a Muslim group in New York who are threatening the makers of South Park for depicting Mohammad in their cartoon…well you could not see him because he was in a bear suit, but still.
The point is religion doesn’t get a free ride and is as open to satire as anything else. The faithful might not like it, but living in a free society means someone somewhere will say something you find utterly offensive. There are two positions on freedom on speech, and at the end of the day you have to decide which position you want to hold.

Roland, you have me LOL!
Rod, seems to me that the very point of Southern cooking is to be traif, no? Bacon fat flavors the greens, for cryin’ out loud.
What matters is substance, not appearance. A whitened sepulcher still holds rotting bodies, and one did not find evangelical mega-ministries among the Fathers of the Desert.
So this guy decides to put it out there that his restaurant isn’t kosher…so what? Would you have preferred he name the place “Waffle House” and let those trying to keep kosher find out after they sat down that there’s literally nothing there they can eat?

Grant: Blasphemy isn’t a crime. It might offend the religious sensibilities but really, tough. If it offends you, don’t go the restaurant. None of us have the right not to be offended.
Grant, you’re seriously overreacting to what I wrote. I plainly said I’m glad to live in a society in which a restaurant like this has a right to exist, but that I’m still put off by the concept of building a restaurant’s identity around foods that are off-limits to a group of religious believers. So what’s your beef? Despite what you say, you seem to believe that religious people don’t even have a right to be offended, or even bothered.

“you seem to believe that religious people don’t even have a right to be offended, or even bothered.”
Well, religious people have become a permanently aggrieved class, of late, taking offense to everything. Tweaking the fact that people view themselves as victims has a rich tradition on the political and religious right, so this is just a little of the same tweaking.

Rod, I got what you said and was not really addressing you directly. Sorry if it came across that way. By all means be put off. Don’t eat there. I wouldn’t have it any other way. But in there is a lot people who seem to think their hurt feelings ought to be protected. I mean, this guy’s business will either survive or not. Either the food is awesome or people just hate the concept and don’t go, right? Free market is a great thing.
And no, we do have a “right” to NOT be offended. Context wise, it is worth noting I am writing from the Canadian context where religious groups are routinely using human rights commissions (check out the latest nonsense with Ann Coulter when she came here, or Muslim attacks on a national news magazine for “blasphemy”. ) to undermine free speech. My “beef”, as you put it, is this: free speech trumps, always, ideological or religious sensibilities. Every time. Without exception. Jesus and Mohammed as as open to satire as Richard Dawkins or Gordon Brown. But you know, there is a Muslim group in new york freaking out over South Park today because of blasphemy. It just seems to me there are far far too many people who are think their beliefs need to be sheltered from that which they don’t like.

Of course, you have to keep this in the context of Jewish/Gentile relations in New York recently. The ulta-orthodox Jews have been very busy imposing their beliefs on everybody who dares to move into “their” neighborhoods, doing such things as getting bike lanes close because they object to the clothes that the bicyclists were wearing. Now, I don’t think hat opening a place like this is necessarily helpful, but it is understandable. If you don’t to be poked in the eye, you should refrain from poking others in the eye.

Rod: So what’s your beef?
Definitely traif if you eat it with a cream sauce.
Which reminds me of a discussion I had with some of my Jewish classmates in high school. We were assessing the various physical charms of women (or teenage girls in this case). You know, some are leg men, some are boob men, some like fat, some skinny etc. I said I prefer to shtup nonkosher women. “So what’s a nonkosher woman, you schmendrick?”, asks one guy. Replied I with rabbinic serenity, “oh, that’s one that is both flayshig and milchig.”
And à propos of nothing in particular, civet cat coffee is apparently trayf.

Despite what you say, you seem to believe that religious people don’t even have a right to be offended, or even bothered.
Everyone has a right to be offended, or even bothered. What people don’t have is a right to have their offense taken seriously.
I’ve got one neighbor who is deeply offended that my house isn’t “craftsman” like his. So what? I’ve got another neighbor who’s deeply offended that my front gates are made from metal instead of wood. So what? People get offended about all sorts of things.
Being offended because a restaurant that serves non-kosher food says so in its name seems to be looking for something to be offended about.

Look, the only point I was making is that I think it’s juvenile and a bit troubling to take as your concept for a restaurant the idea that you serve things that break the dietary laws of a religion. Traif could have the same menu and call itself Flibbertigibbet, and nobody would care. If haredim objected to a restaurant serving non-kosher food locating in their community, I would say tough noogies; if a restaurant owner opened a pork and shellfish restaurant in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood and then complained about his lack of business, I’d say tough noogies.
What irritates me about Traif, though, is the willful intent to poke kashrut-observant Jews in the eye. It seems so childish. Is it a human rights violation? Of course not, and Grant, believe me, the sort of thing you Canadians have to deal with makes me ill (and thankful for our Firs Amendment). I think the Traif concept is in poor taste, though I’m sure the food tastes delicious. Everything is better with bacon.

Being offended because a restaurant that serves non-kosher food says so in its name seems to be looking for something to be offended about.
Ah, but plunking said restaurant directly across the street from the largest and most vocal community in the country that would be offended seems to have offending that community as at least part of the goal of the restaurant. Which is fine, I guess – free speech and all that – but I sure wouldn’t bury myself under a mountain of debt to open a restaurant to do it. I can’t imagine feeling the desire to offend someone so strongly that I’d do that.
To me, it isn’t a free speech question – it’s a question of civility, and of how far you’re going to go to rub someone’s nose in it. In 2004, John Powers wrote an extremely interesting book called “Sore Winners”, examining the phenomenon of people who not only would win, but would feel compelled to humiliate their opponents to make sure they knew that they lost, from politics to music to sports. Being a) not a New Yorker and b) quite anti-hipster on principle myself, I may be biased, but I’m wondering just what the Hasidim have done to the hipsters that merited such a transparent attempt to be offensive. Was this really the only location in all of Williamsburg that the restaurant could have been placed in? And would this restaurant have a different reception from its supporters were it placed instead in, say, Dearborn, Michigan?

Yeah, but you have to get the whole Williamsburg thing, too, and the local Jews aren’t really all that offended by it — they’re hard-headed businessmen and they get it.
Plus, seriously — let’s be honest — the Hassidim and the folks who came before the hipsters? Ya. Right. This pales in comparison to the blatant racism the Hassidim have often shown their black neighbors.

“Splodey-doped”? What on earth are you trying to imply– that all Muslims like to blow things up? I thought you were going to stop sneering now that you have a new boss.

Frankly anything you eat is going to be taboo to some religion or other, so people should be more relaxed about it. When I was in India years ago I ordered a bacon cheeseburger, French fries and a beer on a Friday night at the hotel restaurant.
Now 20% of India is Muslim, so the pork would offend them. The Hindu majority wouldn’t have like the beef. Jains would have been offended by the beef and at eating potatoes. I think everyone would have been offended by the beer as India’s pretty conservative about alcohol.

What would happen if you wrapped bacon with bacon? Would it become infinitely delicious?

I think the Traif concept is in poor taste, though I’m sure the food tastes delicious. Everything is better with bacon.
Told a Jewish friend of the restaurant, she laughed out loud and said “everything is better with bacon.” LOL…no joke.

When I was in India I wasn’t too concerned bothered about food or alcohol as the state I was in is religiously mixed and consumes plenty of booze. I was more worried about eating with my left hand.

MH: What would happen if you wrapped bacon with bacon? Would it become infinitely delicious?
No. But the deliciousness does increase exponentially rather that arithmetically. An entire package of bacon is thereby gastronomically orgasmic. Don’t try a second package. You’ll plotz.
Isn’t Yiddish the best language on the face of the earth? I love it. Vos far a shande it should die. A irretrievable loss to literature and to mankind.

My Dearest Beloveds -
Mr. Rod Dreher writes about someone acting “juvenile” as if this were a bad thing, when clearly, the whole point of Christianity is to become just that way – at least, it is if you care at all to listen to the words of Jesus: “And He said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 18:3).
Now, it is promising that Mr. Dreher still fancies things like Civit poop, mislabeled Staubach old man photos, and such. Clearly, his soul is troubled by the oddities that God made to give us – and Rod – amusement and persepctive in a troubled world.
Heaven is not patroled by vicious nuns wielding rulers – it has a ruler whose first and oft repeated commandment was “be fruitful, and multiply”.
And God himself was quite smitten with joy when blasphemies were directed against Golden Calves.
Bless you!

Thank you, Mr. Dreher, for your stand on this issue. As an Orthodox Jew and kosher eater, I sincerely appreciate your solidarity from across the religious divide. I promise I will try to live up to your example by insisting on respect for Orthodox (and orthodox) Christianity in the public square as well.

Here’s a good commentary on the word:
http://www.balashon.com/2009/12/treif-and-taraf.html

Sort of reminds me of a brilliant item I saw in the Onion a few years ago “Georgia adds swastika, middle finger to state flag” with the idea being that they wanted to offend everyone. Being aggressively un-Kosher probably isn’t enough to really hang a business plan on, but it’s like anything else. It gave them a great launch, but they will ultimately have to sink or swim on their food and service. In the big picture of what Jews have endured over the past couple thousand years, I have to think this ranks pretty low on the threat index.
Plus it’s relatively harmless stuff. It could get much more vicious if they had Torah tablecloths or something. They should add a “non-Halal” menu, although un-Kosher covers a good part of that. And while they’re at it, a pot-roast special on Fridays during Lent. If they’re going to go for broke, they could flout the Law of Leprosy and give discounts for wearing mixed fabrics! They could offer a Brigham Young coffee blend…
I would have no compunction about going there if the food was good. On the other hand, I do lots of things that don’t sit well with all three of the Abrahamic faiths, but I do all of them for their inherent enjoyment, not because it gives me some special pleasure to transgress their laws.

Fascinating. Rod expresses his discomfort with Traif…
“What irritates me about Traif, though, is the willful intent to poke kashrut-observant Jews in the eye. It seems so childish.”
…but was utterly unable to see anything but ‘free speech, end of debate’ when a “Christian” mob went into the Castro to gloat after Prop 8:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2008/11/gay-mob-assaults-peaceful-chri.html
It’s an interesting change. Is it because he’s not fighting for The Cause anymore?

Are you really unable to see the difference between supporting free speech, and disapproving of the content of the speech? I strongly support the right of Traif to be where it is, and to carry out its business unmolested by protesters. I strongly support the right of the Christians to stand where they stood, and to say what they wanted to say unmolested by protesters. Any mob that tries to silence by intimidation either Traif or the Christian group ought to be stopped, because it’s a vile thing. But both the residents of the Castro and Jewish residents of Traif’s neighborhood are under no obligation not to be offended by the exercise of free speech. They are only obliged to tolerate it peaceably as the price of living in a pluralistic liberal society.
Why is this so hard for some people to understand?

What would happen if you wrapped bacon with bacon? Would it become infinitely delicious?
Well, not too long ago there was a fad, within my son’s Boy Scout troop, of cooking bacon on a griddle, then deep-frying it in the grease well — in its own rendered fat.
No wonder teenagers have clogged arteries…
Incidentally, part of the intended charm of Traif, I think, is to mix different culinary traditions. Your not going to see a more traditional place use traditional Jewish techniques for cooking non-kosher food, after all, nor couple kosher with traif items in the same entrée.

Actually, I think Traif is pretty funny, personally, and I do keep kosher. Actually, I’m thinking my FIL would probably love to go there for his birthday – he’s 76 years old and still rebelling against his (dead) mother’s Orthodoxy. He’s love it.
Sharon

It’s the inconsistency of your ‘disapproval’ I’m pointing out, Rod – at no stage during the thread on the Christians/Castro thread did you show yourself willing to consider, even for a moment, whether the actions of a gang of gays-are-goin-to-hell Christians – who entered the Castro in a period of incredible pain for its gay residents – may have been (while legally permissible) morally suspect, uncivil and likely vindictive.
Free speech was, in that instance, an handy defence for an unpleasant action that clearly met with your approval.
Free speech notwithstanding, your disapproval of Traif’s bacon-in-the-eye was quick to show, and robustly defended.
It’s a telling dichotomy, I think.

I don’t understand why so many Jews enjoy giving Judaism the finger.
I get it. The food isn’t Kosher. I keep Kosher… so I won’t be going there. But in the middle of Williamsburg and because “It represents who I am, [and] I’m proud of who I am.” What does that mean? You are a Jew who sees no value in his ancestors Judaism? Who likes to poke and prod and generally make fun of his Judaism?
I am not one to yell “self-hater” and I certainly believe that people can make educated choices about their own Judaism but tell sell the concept on your own Judaism bugs me.
But that’s just my opinion… free speech and all…

Get off your high horse. Your issues are faux political correctness and nonsense. “Blasphemy” is a word you’re throwing around too easily and to allude to the fact that they WANTED to be in an old Jewish morgue as another knock at Judaism (which you certainly are doing in your review) rather then just an odd coincidence being that it is an area highly Judaic population, is purely irresponsible. Great job on a crap, inflammatory review.