Evil Ronnie wrote:Any word on the street?

I passed by on Monday, hoping that a chopped liver and pastrami sandwich to go would be possible, and there's a big trailer out front, and signs saying "Re-open as soon as possible".

Never did get that sammy. Ended up eating an Arby's Beefoid & Cheddarish instead. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either.

HI,

On their website, they now estimate a May reopening:

Dear Customers,

Please forgive the ‘radio silence’ and lack of updates on our website; it’s a bit tough to give everyone an update when there isn’t much solid information to share. We would like to thank you all for your calls, good wishes and prayers over the last 2 ½ months; this has been a challenging time for us. I would also like to personally apologize for my own ignorance when I said, the day after the fire, we would re-open in a few weeks…. little did we know.

We have been planning, negotiating, arguing and talking to the landlord, the Village, the banks and the insurance company. We believe, while there are still many pieces that must fall into place, we are getting closer. It has been a slow uphill battle, frustrating with roadblocks at many turns – but we do keep moving forward with baby-steps and are making headway.

At this point our re-opening looks to be sometime in May. As the parts of the puzzle fall into place we will continue to up-date the site. Your support and well wishes strengthen our resolve to keep looking ahead. We apologize for the amount of time it is taking.

We look forward to welcoming you back soon! We miss you all.

Warmly,
Judy & Bette Dworkin
Kaufman’s Bagel & Delicatessen

Their experience parallels what I heard from Chuck of Chuck's Southern Cafe and from Doug (and his Dad) about Hot Doug's post fire experiences. The only place that has defied convention has been Andy's.

Regards,

bummer on the delay. Any recs for some good corned beef and rye bread?

Elfin wrote:bummer on the delay. Any recs for some good corned beef and rye bread?

Hungarian Kosher is not far, on Oakton just West of Crawford and they have great corned beef. They don't bake their own rye but usually have some locally-baked available.

With Purim only a week away, it looks like I'll be missing my annual Hamantaschen fix from Kaufman's. Any thoughts on where one can get Hamantaschen similar to Kaufman's.

For Hamantachen you can go to Hungarians as well - other locations are the Jewel on Howard in Evanston, Breadsmith on Dempster or Tel Aviv Kosher Bakery on Devon in West Rogers Park.


For Corned Beef head over to Romanian Kosher Sausage 7200 Clark in Rogers Park IMHO the best corned beef in the city not to mention their salami, pastrami and hot dogs -

I'll second Tel Aviv and add The Bagel to the list.

As to the hamentaschen, you could just make your own, with Gale Gand's recipe. Not a lead-pipe cinch, but not THAT difficult. Give it a shot. Odds are that you already have all the ingredients on hand, too.

Hi- I just checked Kaufman's facebook page, and they are making an announcement about their upcoming reopening on May 15th. It sounds like they might be reopening sometime in August. Hope this helps, Nancy

August?! That means October! I miss the rye bread!

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

On their website, they now estimate a May reopening:

Dear Customers,

...I would also like to personally apologize for my own ignorance when I said, the day after the fire, we would re-open in a few weeks…. little did we know.

We have been planning, negotiating, arguing and talking to the landlord, the Village, the banks and the insurance company. We believe, while there are still many pieces that must fall into place, we are getting closer. It has been a slow uphill battle, frustrating with roadblocks at many turns – but we do keep moving forward with baby-steps and are making headway.

Their experience parallels what I heard from Chuck of Chuck's Southern Cafe and from Doug (and his Dad) about Hot Doug's post fire experiences. The only place that has defied convention has been Andy's.

I'm glad they're making progress. Since their experience is common, just what are the roadblocks that villages, banks, etc., throw up in the way of reopening a place that once was doing fine? I mean, naive me figures that if the place was to code and profitable and adequately equipped before it burnt down, all they should need to do is build it again the way it was and the various constituencies should be happy. Just looking to further my education here.

riddlemay wrote:I mean, naive me figures that if the place was to code and profitable and adequately equipped before it burnt down, all they should need to do is build it again the way it was and the various constituencies should be happy. Just looking to further my education here.

To the best of my knowledge, they must build to the code in place now, not the code that was in place when the building originally received its license/permit.

For example, code some municipalities require new residences to have indoor fire sprinkler systems. When the code was introduced, they couldn't retroactively require existing homes to comply. However, if you had an existing home that complied and it burned down, you would be required to include sprinklers in your new house. If you'd want to rebuild in the event of a fire, you may want to insure the replacement cost vs. value.

For businesses, I believe there is a law and ordinance insurance which would cover the same issue plus ADA, environmental/pollution, zoning, etc.

-Matt

There's also always an issue as to how they want to rebuild an what the insurer is willing to pay. If you get a business "do-over" the wish list is always going to be greater than the budget. Then there's the issue of not owning the building and fighting out what the landlord's insurer is willing to do and what your business requires.

Add to all of that the number of people who need to be in a room to get any decision made and things that should take a week end up taking a month, and so on.

Even in the best of circumstances construction projects take time. Some tasks have to be done in a particular sequence, and a delay in just one step can have repercussions down the line.

When I relocated my business years ago the new place only needed interior work (nothing structural) plus new lighting. I didn't have to deal with insurance companies. The contractors all were reliable and did fine work, and my landlord was a tremendous help in dealing with the City and finding resources.

But the previous tenant failed to vacate in time and I had to cancel the carpenter who was supposed to come in the first week. He was in high demand and it wasn't easy to reschedule him. That put everything else back with lots of rescheduling of other contractors. The initial delay was only a few days, but it added weeks to the total project.

The bottom line is that a small and fairly simple project took almost four months to complete.

Kaufman's has to deal with a far more complex and difficult situation. Besides dealing with the insurance company, food service businesses have to comply with a stricter code than most other businesses.

If they rebuild in under a year, I'll be surprised -- and very pleased for them. I do miss them and wish them the very best.

FWIW, last weekend I noticed that the Jewel on Skokie Blvd just south of Golf has Kaufman's bagels in its bakery area. I bought a few and found them as good as those I used to get at the store.

There appears to be some progress being made at Kaufman's. I drove by there yesterday and a big green construction fence is now up around the entire property. It looks like new dumpsters and some construction equipment is there as well. Here's hoping that whatever hurdles have been standing in their way are now behind them.

The target is now September:

http://skokie.patch.com/articles/kaufma ... -in-skokie

http://skokie.patch.com/articles/galler ... o-10080571

stevez wrote:There appears to be some progress being made at Kaufman's. I drove by there yesterday and a big green construction fence is now up around the entire property. It looks like new dumpsters and some construction equipment is there as well. Here's hoping that whatever hurdles have been standing in their way are now behind them.

Yep, I was about to report the same. There is now signage chirping where the financing came from. Thank goodness, they finally pulled this altogether.

There are so many empty lots in this immediate area, it is a bit startling. I was a bit worried one was once Kaufman's until I finally reached their lot.

Regards,

The owners of Kaufman's ended up buying the property, so they are now their own masters. I'm sure that cleared up quite a bit of the red tape they were going through. I'm surprised they didn't own the building already.

Kaufman's Update

Construction is well under way. They've added some new construction to the front of the building, which will increase their square footage, but will decrease their already limited parking. My sources tell me that the new addition will house a small restaurant area for your dining in pleasure. From the looks of things, a late fall opening is not out of the question.

I saw that yesterday as well. I drove completely around the building because the parking issue is a puzzler. Lack of parking has killed more good businesses in my observation. I hope they have something up their sleeve.

I'm already salivating over the thought of a roast beef sandwich and their tuna salad and their lox and bagels and their rugelach and their hamentashen and their.....

I really hope they can open before Rosh Hashona.

LAZ wrote:I really hope they can open before Rosh Hashona.

Doubtful. From the looks of things, there's an outside chance for Hannuka.

From their Facebook page

The GC tells us we are on target for opening the week of October 1 barring any inspection issues. They do make periodic visits for approvals at each stage so we continue to hope we’ll be able to hold to that schedule.

Sneak Peek: Kaufman’s looks toward fall reopening

http://skokie.suntimes.com/news/14665610-418/sneak-peek-kaufmans-looks-toward-fall-reopening.html

On their Facebook page today:

"September 29, 2012 Kaufman’s Bagel & Delicatessen Update
Dear Customers ,
Thank you again for your patience, e-mails, support, calls & advice – it’s kept us on track with our eyes always on the target.
While we had hoped the date would be sooner, the re-birth of Kaufman’s is requiring a bit more time.
So here it is folks- Kaufman’s Bagel & Delicatessen will open its doors on October 29th. We’ve
been assured by our contractor, architect, rabbi, priest, suppliers, the village elders and our neighbors that the 29th is it.
We apologize for this final delay – but vagaries of construction are something we have little control over.
We’ll be waiting for you on Monday, October 29 with open arms and all those favorites you’ve been desperate for!
We’re so excited to welcome you back and be a part of the Community again. We wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Joy-filled New Year and we’ll see you at Kaufman’s….
Bring your appetite !
Oh, and for those of you who are counting…. That’s just approximately 695 hours away from the posting of this update…."

great news, many of us have missed them.

From the website:

Due to some unforeseen scheduling issues in the inspection process, we are revising the opening date of Kaufman’s Bagel & Delicatessen. We apologize for what we hope is this final delay but it could not be avoided. If all goes according to plan, we will be able to start cooking late next week and be ready to open the doors on November 5th. Please be patient for a few more days – we know it’s been a longer than everyone hoped and your frustration level matches ours. But good things come ‘to those who wait – and this is going to be good !

UHG!!!!!!!I am dying for some rye bread, chopped chix liver and extra lean corned beef!