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Last update - 11:54 24/08/2007 In its prime, this kosher eatery By Haim Handwerker NEW YORK - Many restaurateurs have tried to serve glatt-kosher food of high quality, but have failed at the task. If they have succeeded at all, they have not managed to break out of the ultra-Orthodox circle of diners. Even in New York these restaurants are patronized by ultra-Orthodox or Orthodox Jews, and the menu is limited to familiar items that are difficult to define as gourmet. But many celebrities have already visited the Prime Grill, which is located in the heart of Manhattan, among them Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Donald Trump, Bono, Bill Gates and Donna Karan. And at the restaurant's branch in Los Angles, which is also glatt kosher, Paris Hilton celebrated her birthday before she was arrested. "At first, most of the diners were people who kept kosher and they brought along non-Jewish business partners or friends," relates proprietor Joey Allaham, who owns the Prime Grills as well as a kosher fusion restaurant called Solo in Manhattan. "Nowadays we have a combination of a religious crowd with models, business people, Knicks and Yankees players, and politicians. About half of the diners are Jewish and the rest aren't." Steven Traube, manager of operations at Allaham's restaurants, explains: "It's like a snowball. When a few celebrities come in and the gossip page in The New York Post reports that they have eaten here, then other famous people also come in because maybe they will be written about." Advertisement The American openness to ethnic food also contributes, of course, to the success of the Prime Grill in both locations. Although the restaurant is kosher, it serves an unusual combination of steaks and sushi. "My principle is to use the best ingredients. We get the fish from Japan, but the most important thing is the meat, which we buy from a farm in Iowa. At many restaurants they compromise on the quality and sell meat from Argentina or Uruguay, where it is cheaper. In South America they feed the cattle on grass and in the United States they feed it on corn, so that they get more fat and flavor. On the upper floors of the restaurant there are refrigerators where the beef is aged for 45 days. Since we are kosher, I have to do the entire aging process myself," Allaham explains. The most popular dish ordered at the restaurants is barbecued short ribs, which costs $36. The hamburger, weighing 400 grams, costs $22. The flagship item on the menu is prime New York rib, at $49. Without a doubt this is a high price even in New York terms. "I buy very expensive meat and therefore the profit isn't high," the owner says. "In fact, I make the big money from the salads and the first courses." The sushi and sashimi dishes include, among other things, tuna, salmon and bass. Kosher wines are not always considered to be so fine, but the best-seller at the restaurant is Herzog Special Reserve, from Napa Valley. The most popular and finest Israeli wine on offer is Dalton Canaan Red. Allaham does not have one primary chef, but rather five different ones. "When you have a star chef, he begins to feel comfortable pretty quickly and this affects the food," he notes. "With me, the chefs are constantly in competition with one another." One of them is David Kolotkin, a nonreligious Jew, who does not keep kosher. "I have an advantage over religious chefs," Kolotkin explains. "Our challenge is to create food that will appeal to the religious palate, which has never tasted non-kosher food. Because I eat non-kosher food, I try to create the flavors of food like that with kosher ingredients. For example, a religious person has never eaten a bacon burger. I succeed in creating something of this flavor by adding pastrami to a hamburger. The greatest compliment for me is when at the end of a meal there are people who ask for milk for their coffee and I have to say to them, 'Sorry, this is a kosher restaurant.'" Syrian roots Joey Allaham was born in Damascus and came to the United States in 1993 after the Syrian regime opened the gates of the country. Back in his homeland, his family earned its living in the meat business: "My grandfather was a very successful butcher. We served many of the important people in Syria. The meaning of my family's name, Allaham, is 'butcher.' The original name was Cohen, but when the State of Israel was established Jews were forbidden to have Jewish surnames and we had to change it. It isn't easy to be a Jew in an Arab country, but financially we were in good shape, I had friends, and the truth is that I didn't really want to leave all that much." During his first two years in the United States he worked as a delivery boy in the New York meat market and later opened a small business for selling meat. The business was not a success and in 2000 he decided to open The Prime Grill. Allaham: "The beginning was not easy. After the attack on the Twin Towers the whole restaurant industry was having difficulties. At that time I was just starting out and I had also entered an unusual field. When people saw that I wasn't selling pastrami or matza balls in a kosher restaurant, they thought that I was crazy. I change the menu five times a year, and usually at kosher restaurants they never change the menu at all." Now Allaham is thinking about a new concept for restaurants in Manhattan. "I'm planning to open restaurants with a lot of noise. I'd like to have a restaurant where there is a DJ. So that it will be hard for people to talk to each other. The restaurant will be aimed at 20- to 30-year-olds. I want a scene to develop around the bar. This exists at various restaurants, but not at kosher ones. I am also working on restaurants in Las Vegas and London." Allaham also has designs on Israel: He wants to establish a boutique hotel in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem where there will be four or five good restaurants. "It is hard to find good meat in Israel and there is no reason why that should be the case. Religious people from Israel who visit my places say that I have to open a restaurant there. I am in contact with Israeli investors about this project, but at the moment nothing is final." Allaham recalls one Israeli visitor in particular: former prime minister Ariel Sharon. "He ate sushi and lamb chops and his timetable was very tight," he relates. "The security people told me to stop serving him because he had to give a speech, and then he asked where the dessert was. When I said to him that the security people had told me not to serve anything else, he laughed and said, 'Forget them.' I served him dessert and the security people were angry. It amused Sharon and he didn't leave until he had finished." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Smoking kills Tehran slams McCain for saying cigarettes could be used to kill Iranians. Case of deja vu Olmert and his office chief Shula Zaken were accused of similar charges back in 1991.   1.   Prime Grill 20:42  |  Benjamin 25/08/07   2.   Glatt Kosher restaurant in N.Y. Prime Grill 20:54  |  Maerton 25/08/07   3.   Peace and Quiet and Food 18:42  |  Tex 26/08/07   4.   Address 09:25  |  NYer 27/08/07   5.   Rimon Winery Pomegranate Wine 23:20  |  Susan Olson 22/10/07   6.   New Year`s Eve at Prime Grill Beverly Hills 19:17  |  Ricki Averbach 02/01/08

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