Friday Food: Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery
After we toured the Tenement Museum, Jim and I continued to party like it was 1910 and headed over to the Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery. Neither of us had ever had a knish before, and I wasn't even entirely clear on what they were. I'm still foggy on how you pronounce the word (ka-nish? nish?), but after eating one I can tell you exactly what is in them: not much.
Their sign says "since 1910," but Wikipedia claims that Yonah Schimmel has been serving knishes from their Houston Street location since 1890. Either way, they've been there a very long time, and the inside of the bakery looks the part. They aren't too far from the Tenement Museum, and they're right down the street from Katz's Deli— if you wanted to do right but the Lower East Side, you could do worse than spending the day eating your way down Houston Street with a tour squeezed in somewhere between meals.
They have table service, so we sat down and ordered — Jim opted for the plain potato and I went rogue with the jalepeño/cheddar/potato knish special. Jim also ordered his first-ever egg cream, which, despite my warnings, he actually enjoyed. Not wanting to ruin the old New York theme of our meal, I ordered a Cherry Lime Rickey, which I've had before and always love.
When the knishes came, we didn't have silverware at our table so we assumed you ate them with your hands. We were almost done eating before the waitress realized we didn't have cutlery (or maybe we just looked like animals) and apologized profusely. Apparently the knish is most definitely a knife-and-fork endeavor, but if you want to look like a totally clueless tourist than there's no better way than to attack your knish with using bare-hand method.
As for how they tasted, well... They weren't bad, per se. But I don't think I'm going to actively be craving knishes anytime soon. Mine tasted exactly how you would expect dough filled with mashed potatoes and topped with cheddar to taste. It was a bit bland, very, very dense (it was crazy heavy, which I know since — did I mention? —we ate them with our hands) and extremely filling. We both agreed that if we were ever in need of a cheap ($3.50) and lasting meal that you can't go wrong with a knish.
I think the cheddar and jalapeño was a welcome addition to the plain potato, and dipping it in mustard (there were bottles on every table, so we took the hint) helped as well. For dessert we were so full that we decided to split a cherry/cheese knish, which was delicious and more than enough for two. Jim likened the cheese knish crust to pizza crust, which is pretty accurate, and the filling was cream-cheesy and sweet but not overwhelmingly so.
The interior of the bakery is a total time warp, right down to the old man sitting behind us reading the newspaper. If the entire place wasn't so obviously authentic I would have sworn that he was an actor paid to add faux charm, he was so perfectly old New York.
I love all of their hand painted signage and mis-matched décor, and I appreciate their authenticity — they're not trying too hard (or trying at all) to be hip because they don't have to. They've managed to stay in business for more than 100 years and I hope they make it as least 100 more.