Amid all the woe, a glimmer of good news: Mamaleh’s is expanding. The Kendall Square Jewish deli will open a second branch in Brookline this summer at 1659 Beacon St.—steps from the much-missed B&D Deli—focusing on takeout service. The original location launched in 2016 with lox, bagels, blintzes and egg creams. Right now, the Cambridge branch is exclusively focused on takeout and delivery (even to the suburbs!), and the Brookline spot will follow suit for the time being.
The opening plans came about, fittingly enough, at a small bar mitzvah.
“They needed a minyan, so it was just two families. The other family lives in Washington Square and told us about a vacant Dunkin’ Donuts. We went to look at it, and it was great,” says owner Rachel Miller Munzer.
For now, she says, “The concept is what we’re doing in Cambridge—casual counter service and fridges and freezers filled with all the things: matzah ball soup, blintzes, take-home meals.” She also plans to add outdoor seating.
She’s using a new, local crowd-funding model, NuMarket, wherein donors can contribute and receive dining credits when the shop opens. Anyone who adds to the deli’s $180,000 campaign can use their earned credits to order dine-in, takeout, catering or delivery, with a 20% additional return on investment: $100, say, will get you $120 in credits when they open.
NuMarket plans to support other local restaurants in the coming months, says platform founder Ross Chanowski, who calls his meeting with Miller Munzer “beshert.”
Want to contribute and help bring lox to life? Visit numarket.co/mamalehs.
