One of the more
popular gathering places for Jews in Newark's old heavily-Jewish Third Ward --
especially those living in the area close to Springfield Avenue -- was the Ideal
Vegetarian Restaurant. Its proprietor was Isidor Kriegel.
It was located at 97
Mercer Street, just off the intersection of Prince Street and Springfield
Avenue.
The entrance was
through a store window front. Painted on the window was "Ideal Vegetarian
Restaurant."
Restaurant Interior
The restaurant was a
high ceiling dining room with a turn-of-the-century block pattern metal ceiling
and decoratively patterned ceramic tile floor.
The restaurant had a
double row of rectangular-shaped wood tables, with a single row of square wooden
tables along the side wall where singles or couples might be seated.
The chairs were
walnut-stained hairpin bentwood chairs with wood seats.
Free Rolls on Every Table
A standard feature on
every table was a basket of seeded Kaiser rolls, alongside the sugar and
condiments, which came free with meals.
The waiters usually
worked in white shirts with rolled up sleeves and wearing black bow ties.
Landmark Location
The dairy restaurant
had been a landmark at that location since the 1920s, and earlier, under other
ownership, had been known as the Ratner Dairy Restaurant.
Some Food Selections
The Ideal Vegetarian
Restaurant menu was typical of what one might find at a dairy restaurant in New
York City on Second Avenue or the Lower East Side, in that era.
Popular appetizers
were chopped herring or vegetable chopped liver. The vegetable chopped
liver consisted of a finely-chopped mixture of onions, hard boiled eggs, string
beans, mushrooms, salt, pepper, and ground walnuts.
A typical soup course
might be borsht, potato soup, or vegetable soup.
Fish dishes included
gefilte fish, pickled fish, salmon croquettes, or a baked fish such as halibut.
Vegetables included
pickled beets, carrot with knaidel, spinach, or carrots and peas.
Some of the
specialties included the highly popular vegetable cutlets, or such selections as
mock kishka, lokshen kugel, cheese blintzes; lox, eggs and onions, various
omelets, and motza brie.
The popular vegetable
cutlets were made with a mix of chopped onion, grated carrots, cooked green
beans, eggs, salt, pepper, and matzo meal. They were dipped in egg batter
and griddle-fried with Mazola oil.
Desserts included
baked apple with sweet cream, rice pudding, rugelach, cheese cake, banana cake,
and peanut butter cookies.
Some Patronizer Recollections
Elliott Sudler, a
retired pharmacist, recalled for this memory how his family would travel by bus
to dine at the Ideal occasionally during the Depression era. His parents,
he recalled, would share a single meal between them, while he and his two
younger brothers, all three small enough to escape bus fare, would fill up on
the free rolls from the tables.
Barbara Rothschild, a
South Jersey school teacher nearing retirement age, said the Ideal was a
favorite of her parents. She recalls being taken there for her seventh
birthday celebration.
Ida Mandel, now 87,
recalls going to the Ideal for an occasional Sunday dinner when her family lived
at 167 Broome Street opposite Montgomery Street School. "I don't remember
what I ate there," she recalled for me, "but I do remember that whatever I had
was very good."
Seymour Pierce, a
retired Newark postal worker, also said he remembered the Ideal very well from
his childhood. He couldn't recall what he liked there among the foods, but
told me "My wife remembered the Ideal from when she was 11 or 12 in the early
1930s.
She was there with
family and recalls very clearly she had a baked apple with sweet cream, which
was quite a treat at that time."
Email this memory to a friend.
* * *
