Non-Kosher Hot Dog Incites Rage At Jewish Eatery
It was an all-out frankfurter frenzy this week at a popular Jewish restaurant in Brooklyn, as a certain hot dog caused a near-riot.
It's not what you would expect: a worker in a NYC eatery caught on tape fending off a group of Jewish patrons with an electric knife.
"I was petrified - stuff was going through my mind," a patron who didn't want his name used said. "I want to live. I don't want to get stabbed for a hot dog."
The long-time patron says the chaos broke out when he and a rabbi noticed the frankfurters on the grill were non-Kosher, in a restaurant that's supposed to be dishing out the Kosher variety.
"The package didn't look Kosher," the patron said. "It was the last piece in the package."
Some customers were quick to defend the worker, who was surrounded by, according to some witnesses, a hundred enraged people.
"He just got angry," the patron said. "He wasn't about to do anything to the guys."
The rabbi, who originally certified the Shawarma King restaurant Kosher, has written a letter to the community in a Jewish newspaper. In the letter, he calls the frankfurter mix-up a "terrible mistake."
"It was a one-time incident," Borough Park resident Yosi Stern, who translated the Yiddish letter for CBS 2, said. "They caught it before it was even served to the consumers."
The rabbi tells the community that a worker was sent out to buy hot dogs, and that he went to the wrong market and bought non-Kosher hot dogs.
Neighbors say the owner is an honest man.
"He's a very religious man," one neighbor says. "He studies every morning, and he's not the type of guy to fool people."
The popular spot on 13th Avenue was shut down for several days as rabbis examined the premises for non-Kosher food, and threw out equipment that came in contact with the uncertified meat.
Customers, and the restaurant's owner, say they're hoping similar incidents don't come up in the future.
The restaurant's owner says that, in addition to throwing out equipment, utensils were cleansed with a flame to purge any pieces of the non-Kosher food.
Perhaps this will be followed by weeks of burning cars all over the metro area, and riots in Newton and Brookline, Massachusetts.
