Yonah Schimmel’s Knish Bakery has been selling knishes on NYC's Lower East Side since 1890.
As the Lower East Side in New York has changed over the decades and many of its Jewish residents have departed, Yonah Schimmel’s Knishery is one of the few distinctly Jewish businesses that remains a fixture of the neighborhood. In its original location since 1910, it’s a remnant of past culture and cuisine.
As cited in The Underground Gourmet, a collection of restaurant reviews, Milton Glaser and Jerome Snyder speak of Yonah Schimmel’s saying, “No New York politician in the last 50 years has been elected to office without having at least one photograph showing him on the Lower East Side with a knish in his face.” And we can guarantee—whether it’s the original potato knishes, spinach knishes, or sweet dessert knishes—you’ll wanna stuff a knish in your face, too.
PEOPLE LOVE YONAH SCHIMMEL KNISHES
MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS
"ANY TIME I'M IN NEW YORK IN THE FALL, I GO TO YONAH SCHIMMEL'S KNISHES. Sometimes I head to Yonah’s straight from the airport."
BARBARA STREISAND
"THE DIVA SHOWED OFF HER NEW YORK ROOTS BY WAXING NOSTALGIC ABOUT potato KNISHES from YONAH SCHIMMEL’S BAKERY WHILE KVETCHING ABOUT HER DIET"
JERRY O'CONNELL
"THERE’S YONAH SCHIMMEL, AND THEN THERE’S EVERYTHING ELSE. I DON’T BELIEVE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE THE TERM KNISH UNLESS YOU’RE EATING A YONAH SCHIMMEL."
LOCATION
PHONE
(212) 477-2858
LOCATION
YONAH SCHIMMEL KNISH BAKERY
137 E Houston St,
New York, NY 10002
HOURS
Monday-Sunday 9:30AM–7PM
The Story of Yonah Schimmel
About 1890, Yonah Schimmel, a Romanian immigrant, used a pushcart to start his knish bakery. Quickly gaining popularity among the Eastern European immigrant population who loved the small taste of their Old World home, Yonah and his cousin Joseph Berger rented a small store on Houston Street in the Lower East Side to keep up with demand. Yonah left the business a few years later, and Berger took it over, retaining the original name. In 1910, the Bergers moved the business to the south side of Houston Street, and there it has remained for the past century, making it the oldest knishery in the United States. Yonah Schimmel’s has been family-owned since its inception and is currently operated by Yonah’s great nephew, Alex Wolfman.
It is as much a landmark as a knishery, and its clients range from First Ladies (such as Eleanor Roosevelt) to divas (such as Barbara Streisand). It has even been an artistic subject. A portrait of the Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery by Hedy Pagremanski (b. 1929) is in the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York, and more recently, it was featured in the 2009 Woody Allen film Whatever Works.
The restaurant offers a number of knishes, including the traditional potato knishes (a time-honored Lower East Side favorite) and kasha (buckwheat groats) knishes, both using the same tried and true recipe since the original pushcart, as well as more inventive sweet dessert knishes. But it’s about more than the pillowy hand pies. Yonah Schimmel also sells the traditional dishes the founder may have eaten in Romania—latkes, kugel, and fresh beet borscht. The knishes, however, are the only savory offering that can be purchased through their website and shipped overnight, anywhere in the United States.
