Delis around New York are experiencing a Knish drought. The reason for it is a fire in September that destroyed the Gabila’s factory in Copiague. Gabila’s is the largest source of knishes in the state and produce more than 15 million a year of the square treats. Ben’s Deli in New York was one of the top distributors of the Gabila factory Knishes. Its five locations in New York sell more than 10,000 combined Gabila knishes a week. The fire has brought that production to a screeching halt.
Deli owners everywhere are saying if they could get square knishes, they would. It’s an impossible task at the moment. Kenny Kohn, the chef at Katz’s Delicatessen on East Houston Street says there is absolutely no way to get a square Knish right now. “All I have are round baked knishes, no fried square ones,” Kohn told CBS News “If you have a suitcase full of money I can’t get you one."
Since the fire completely shut down all productivity of knishes, Ben’s Deli has been making their own but it hasn’t lived up to the Gabila's factory recipe. Delis all around the tri-state area have been forced to do the same. The drought will continue for one more month as the Gabila’s website says they will not be able to produce any square Knishes until after Thanksgiving.
“I’m a little upset about it,” said knish customer Christopher Miller to CBS News. “I came all the way from southwestern New Jersey to eat a knish, and they don’t have any square knishes.” Another customer said they wanted their “fix” of Gabila knishes. Business owners are taking round knishes and squaring them out but knish purists know it isn’t the same.
Gabila’s says they have produced more than 1.3 billion knishes worldwide. The factory moved from Williamsburg, Brooklyn to Copiague in 2006.
[Source: CBS]