Long before I moved to Richmond, is lone kosher butcher retired, and the Richmond Jewish community apparently couldn’t manage to find a replacement for him. So by the time I got here, there were no kosher butchers. You could find kosher food in various supermarkets, generally Empire, generally frozen. One or two stores carried fresh beef from time to time, but that’s about it. So I would pack my large cooler with me on my trips to NJ and fill it with kosher meats from my favorite butcher shops there, and freeze it here. That worked fairly well for a long time, but in the last year or so, it wasn’t working out at all. So I tried the shops in Rockville, MD, while visiting readers Jan and Chris in northern VA. That was working mostly okay, though I’m a bit off schedule now.
But at long last, Richmond is getting a kosher butcher of sorts: The Kroger on Quiocassin is setting up a kosher meat section. I spoke to one of the managers tonight (delightful man; his stepfather was Jewish and he learned how to cook from his Russian Jewish step-grandmother), and I’m so glad—I won’t have to drive 100 miles to pick up decent kosher food anymore. Now I can just visit Jan and Chris and Stretch and enjoy the company and not leave early to pick up meat. Well, except there’s that great kosher Chinese restaurant that I love to stop in—nah. I won’t travel 100 miles for kosher Chinese food.
Now, all we have to get is a decent Italian bakery, and I’ll start feeling like I’m back in civilization again.
Backward?
I assume this is going to a selection of fresh kosher beef and chicken – Rubashkin’s and MealMart and Empire?
It’s too bad you won’t be dropping by DC as often, but just think of all the extra petrodollars you won’t be shipping overseas!
Backwards, Eric. Richmond had a kosher butcher. The Jewish community let him retire without finding a replacement.
So, now we’ll have a place to find fresh kosher meats again. It’s not quite a butcher shop, but it’s good enough for me.
If you can get other people in your area interested, Waseerman’s here in Baltimore ships. I know of people who arrange to get a shipment from Baltimore on a regular basis who live farther out than you do. Some small towns make the arrangement through the synagogue.
OOPS typo on the name of the butcher. It is Wasserman.
We’ve had fresh kosher meat for some time at Westbury Pharmacy [on the shelves and by order]; the presence of a “kosher meat slicer” at the Kroger is not new, as a local Ukrops market had one for some time but didn’t always have kosher meat for it to slice. I hope this one will fare better…
Sabbah: we’ve had various kosher meat deliveries from Washington, Baltimore, and Philly to Richmond over the years; unfortunately all it takes is one local Rabbi to say “I don’t support that particular va’ad” [and that did happen once] and the whole project dies…
Silver Spring, MD and Alexandria are both closer to you and have several kosher butcher shops.
IIRC, doesn’t Norfolk have one?
Or, call your local chabadnik and ask him where he/she gets meat.
chsw
Here in Richmond we’ve had fresh kosher meat available for a few years at a local grocer/pharmacy [both on the shelves and by order]. We’ve had several attempts to bring in kosher meat from Baltimore/Washington but on at least one occasion it was torpedoed when one local rabbi declared he didn’t like the Va’ad that certified it and there was a boycot…
Another grocery store has had a kosher meat slicer for years but there was never any kosher meat to slice. I certainly hope this Kroger does better because it’s almost walking distance.