Manhattan Passover Store

[bloviatrix]

The annual Passover store will be opening on March 17th. This year it's at 2409 Broadway (btw 88th and 89th).

[Rachel Perlow]

Is this connected to a synagogue or grocery store? Could you tell us some more about it?

[bloviatrix]

This is an annual thing. Every year some guys rent an empty storefront (this year's location is an old Zainy Brainy) for about 5 weeks and bring in all the products. Basically it's one stop shopping for all things pesadick, which works out well for those who don't have cars. A quick perusal of the flyer shows:

Cheese/Dairy products including passover blintzes

Baked goods

Appetizing

Canned goods

Dried Fruit

Soup mixes

Spices/dried herbs

Salad dressing

Candy

Household products like dishwashing detergent and plates

[alacarte]

Thanks for the advisory!

I've never heard of this before. I've been doing my Passover shopping cheek-to-jowl in the tight confines of Supersol or grabbing whatever's left at the local Food Emporium.

[Gifted Gourmet]

If I fly in for this, I guess I will have to add the price of my airline tickets to the total which will make it my most expensive Passover ever!

Seriously, thanks for telling us in the hinterlands about this annual event! Perhaps some day, we will conceive of such an idea here locally ... nah, it is a NY thing, plain and simple ...

[tryska]

actually i do know people that could make that happen down here, but i just don't think Atlanta would be a viable market for an idea like this.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I really don't think the population warrants it .. Kroger and Publix and kosher meat market will fill the local needs ....

[tryska]

exactly. maybe Miami.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Rather imagine Miami and other large populations of "interested people" will have the same concept ... for the rest of us, suffice it to say, there is now a great deal of new passover food on the shelves which has appeared since I began keeping kosher ... potato chips for Passover! How would the Israelites ever get out of Egypt in time with the loads of new, hip, very clever Pesachdik offerings?

[bloviatrix]

I've been doing my Passover shopping cheek-to-jowl in the tight confines of Supersol

Great description of Supersol. I feel like I have to hold my breath to walk in there.

The good thing about Supersol is they don't raise their prices on prepared foods during Passover. So, the $10/lb they charge for whitefish salad won't change. Their passover fried chicken is pretty good - nice and peppery.

[danger_doug]

Sounds yummy. Do they carry fresh stuff or just the packaged (though truth be told, I like Mrs. Adlers gefilte fish better than fresh)?

And while we're on the subject, this Sunday, March 21st, the Pickle Guys shop on Essex will start selling their freshly ground horseradish (the employees grinding wear gasmasks)... Yum!!!

[bloviatrix]

The Passover store only carries packaged goods. Supersol and The Kosher Marketplace (the other kosher market on the UWS) will have packaged goods, take-out (prepared food) and fresh meat/poultry/fish.

You can buy gefile fish in the jar, the frozen loaves that have to be popped into boiling water, or the loaves already made.

[Fat Guy]

Last year I ran into Jerry Stiller at the Passover store on Broadway. I think that time around it was in a former vitamin shop.

I doubt it could work anywhere else, because it's not just a question of Jewish population but also of Jewish population density. I imagine the Upper West Side of Manhattan represents the densest such population in the diaspora. There's also a question of local product availability without the need for a distribution-and-shipping system.

[bloviatrix]

This year's Passover store will be located on Columbus Ave btw 82nd and 83rd in the old Associated. The phone number is 212-579-7020. It opens on Sunday, April 3rd.

[Fat Guy]

Ah, the Passover store! I hope I'll see Jerry Stiller there again this year. I'm determined to sample more products this year than I have in the past.

[Liz Johnson]

What is the Passover store? All Kosher for Passover products?

[bloviatrix]

Exactly. Just like the swallows return every year to Capistrano. So too, every year once the final hamentasch is eaten the Passover store opens. Their slogan is "All Your Passover Needs Under One Roof."

[amyknyc]

I had four Hamentaschen for breakfast. I think I'll be done long before Passover!

[alacarte]

Exactly.  Just like the swallows return every year to Capistrano. 

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I liken it to a secret club that changes its location ... I never know where the Passover store will be until bloviatrix tells us (though it's always the Upper West Side, I think?)

[Fat Guy]

For as long as I can remember, it has been on the Upper West Side, usually in the 80s. The deal is that they find a vacant store -- a bankrupt pharmacy, a shoe store whose owners have fled to Liberia, a defunct grocery -- and the do a short-term rental for a few weeks. They completely fill the place with Passover items ranging from the predictable to the wildly improbable, and they sell them hand-over-fist for cash to Jerry Stiller.

[herbacidal]

and they sell them hand-over-fist for cash to Jerry Stiller.

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I'm just wondering about this particular usage. Please enlighten me.

[Fat Guy]

You're asking about "hand over fist"? That means basically "as fast as they can," and derives from the way a sailor climbs a rope.

[herbacidal]

Sorry, wrong emphasis. I was wondering about the usage of Jerry Stiller in particular.

[Fat Guy]

Does anybody know the location of this year's Passover store?

[KOK]

Does anybody know the location of this year's Passover store?

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I don't know where it will be (though I'm very jealous of this store - nothing like it here in D.C.), but I AM curious if Jerry Stiller does shop there?

Thanks,

Kevin