Leah Aronn’s first class of the day ends at 12:30 in the afternoon, also known as lunch hour. She needs to eat, but her next class starts in one short hour. As a student at Baruch College, located on Lexington and 23rd Street, her lunch options should be unlimited. Leah keeps kosher, a dietary restriction kept by many Orthodox Jews, and that narrows her lunch options down to the vegetarian Indian Restaurant or Baruch’s kosher cafeteria sandwiches.
There are hundreds of Jewish students like Leah that face the same dilemma every day, and the common solution is to pack lunch, or not eat. The choices that are offered are so few and far between, they include Indian food, unappetizing packaged sandwiches and salads at Baruch’s Cafeteria, or foods that can closely resemble a lunch at Duane Reade.
So when the weather is warm, students like Liya and Liat go to the East 30’s, for a selection of restaurants and foods that they like and can afford on a budget. On the days that Liat picks up a snack around school she spends around five dollars. In the Fall or Spring she says “I’ll go out five or six times a month, to 34th Street.”
The restaurants that cater to the area are mainly oblivious to the high demand for kosher food, particularly by college students that don’t have the time or the means to travel to eat lunch. Eden Wok, a kosher Chinese food restaurant that Leah frequents, attracts patrons because it is the only kosher Chinese restaurant in the area. They cater to everyone: students, corporate affairs, and the occasional passerby. When asked who they advertise to, Alex, the manager says “We don’t, we’ve been around, and people all around New York City know about us”.
Eden Wok certainly does have a reputation; patrons love their General Chicken, sushi, and Sesame Chicken. They also offer pocket friendly lunch menu options, most under ten dollars. If you are a student at Yeshiva University, you get a free can of soda with your order.
Another popular eatery in the area is actually located in the Empire State building, Rosa’s Pizza. In the city, however, it’s like an insider’s secret, you can only hear about it when someone tells you it exists. That’s because they don’t advertise either, outside of their ad in the Village Voice of Long Island, the owner’s hometown. Nonetheless, it’s hard to find an open table during lunch time rush. Manager Jack Mordechai says “It’s the Grandmother Slice, Rosa’s specialty, made with Grandmother’s tomato sauce and extra cheese.”
But if you are not in the mood for pizza or Chinese, there is also a Kosher Dunkin Donuts in the area, or get a burger. Still, Liya Koss says “It’s ridiculous that all of the kosher restaurants in the city are bunched in the East 30’s, or the West 70’s.”