Yonah Schimmel Knishery

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Yonah Schimmel was an immigrant rabbi who sold his wares from a Lower East Side pushcart before opening this modest spot in 1910. From all appearances, not much has changed since then. Still run by his family, the shop turns out soft, handmade knishes that continue to be cooked in the basement brick oven; a dumbwaiter transports the fresh-baked mounds to the shabbily-nostalgic dining room. Noshers can choose from eight savory potato blends, Eastern-European standards kasha and cabbage, new world innovations like mixed-veggie and broccoli. Five sweet-cheese mixes like blueberry and apple are wrapped in the yeasty dough, as well as bagels, kugel, latkes, and a hefty bowl of borscht. Many movie-goers love the knishery's proximity to the Landmark Sunshine Theater, so much so that they'll forgo Sno-Caps for fist-sized treats to go. Yet there’s definitely an advantage to staying and truly experiencing a relic of the neighborhood's rapidly-vanishing Jewish past. — Kathleen Squires

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