Shin, meanwhile, wants to grow his tap list from 10 to 50 beers. Grunig says he’s starting with a small menu for now and wants to grow slowly to maintain quality he has plans to expand the menu and extend hours once he’s hired a bigger team. Grunig wants to continue this community work in Seward Park with Muriel’s. He’s organized multiple fundraisers through his original restaurant, including a February 19 “Bagel trot” from Rachel’s Bagels & Burritos in Ballard to Zylberschtein’s, which will raise money for Mary’s Place, an organization that provides shelter to homeless families. Grunig thinks this level of support was possible because of what Zylberschtein’s has done for the Seattle community - those within the Jewish culture and those just being introduced to it. The baker was able to open Muriel’s after a crowdfunding campaign (including lots of presales) that raised almost $57,000. Shin approached Grunig in August about partnering to take over the space. Muriel’s lox bagel uses kosher cream cheese. Cafe and restaurant Raconteur, which formerly occupied the space, closed at the beginning of the pandemic. The building has been empty except for the bookstore for nearly two years. There’s also some seating downstairs next to a wall full of high-end beer owner Chuck Shin says the downstairs will eventually house a walk-in beer cooler, as soon as it shows up (there have been delays due to pandemic-related supply chain issues). The other half has a kitchen and two stalls, one occupied by Muriel’s and the other by the third location of Chuck’s Hop Shop. The location is a large building with an arched wood-paneled ceiling, with Third Place Books taking up half the space. “I thought it would be a great challenge, a really good learning experience.” “I didn’t grow up eating a lot of kosher food,” he says. Zylberschtein’s, his popular Pinehurst Jewish-style deli and bakery, is not kosher, so he says the certification process became an impromptu education. He named Muriel’s after his grandmother, Muriel Stein, who was an inspiration to him and loved food and beer. Grunig grew up as a reform Jew in San Francisco without a large Jewish community, but his two businesses have given him the opportunity to explore his Jewish identity through food. Muriel’s and Chuck’s Hop Shop partnered to take over the empty half of Third Place Books in Seward Park. The menu is vegetarian except for the lox and whitefish. In a city with few kosher restaurants, Grunig wanted a space where people could eat, regardless of how closely they follow kosher rules. The new restaurant from Zylberschtein’s owner Josh Grunig opened quietly on January 20 in Third Place Books’ Seward Park location the kitchen is certified Cholov Yisroel, one of the strictest kosher dairy certifications, and the bakery is certified Pas Yisroel, meaning the oven has to be turned on and off under the supervision of rabbis. There are two dish sinks in the kitchen - one for equipment that’s touched dairy, the other in a cordoned-off pareve (no meat, no dairy) bakery. Other rabbis oversee the production of the cream cheese that’s smeared on the lox bagels, starting from when the cow is milked. At Muriel’s, a new kosher restaurant in Seward Park, employees aren’t allowed to turn on the oven where bagels, bialys, and loaves of challah are baked every day a rabbi turns it on via remote control.
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