Surprisingly, few students realize that the basement of Talbert Hall not only houses Bert's, but also offers up a deli that serves kosher meals right next door.
Every Monday and Wednesday, the Kosher Deli receives a week's worth of meat and poultry. The food comes from The Will Poultry Company (WPC), located at 1075 William St. in Buffalo. The WPC is state and federally inspected and has been serving the Buffalo area for 85 years.
The reason why the deli is different from all of the other eateries on campus is because all of the food is kosher. Kosher foods are foods that follow certain rules and regulations of the Jewish religion. For fish to be kosher, it must have fins and scales. For meat and poultry to be kosher, the animal must be slaughtered properly and then blessed by a rabbi. In addition, meat and dairy cannot be eaten together, so the deli has parve cheese, which contains no meat or dairy.
The Kosher Deli has been on UB's campus for around 20 years, and each year the business rises and more students discover the small door near Berts. The deli serves Israeli-style meals, and sometimes the cooks prepare special theme meals, such as Sushi night, Stir Fry night, and Monday Night Football Specials. Customers can call ahead and pick up orders. Orders are accepted up until one hour before closing.
The deli is open for the breakfast meal exchange Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The lunch meal exchange from Monday to Thursday is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., on Friday lunch ends at 2 p.m., and the dinner exchange is from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday through Thursday.
According to Willy Haddath, a cook at the Kosher Deli, there are approximately 200 customers per day. There are 19,395 undergraduate students who attend UB, which shows that one percent of the UB population attends the deli per day.
"Our most popular orders are wraps, chili, and matzo ball soup," Haddath said.
The kosher deli has three types of chili: meat, turkey, and vegan. Usually it has matzo ball soup and another soup of the day, which varies each week. There are three wrap choices as well: the Maui chicken wrap, the vegetable wrap, or the sweet and spicy wrap. In addition, students have the ability to create their own wraps, on either a whole wheat or regular wrap.
"Even though I grew up in an Italian household eating macaroni and sauce every day, I love going to the kosher deli and getting a knish. They're actually delicious," said Lauren Orlando, a freshman nutrition major. "The food there tastes real, unlike a lot of [the] other on-campus food."
The deli also prepares grab-and-go meals, such as turkey deli sandwiches, pastrami on rye, bagels with cream cheese, salads and chicken salad pita; all are served at Sizzles in the Ellicott Food Court every day.
"Not only is the food so good, but the workers there are really nice, too. I was sick once and they gave me free matzo ball soup. I can basically call Kosher [Deli] my second home for the amount of time I spent in there," said Alexandra DeFeo a freshman undecided major.
Email: features@ubspectrum.com
