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Unger’s takes the cake in Cleveland
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By: ALAN SMASON Staff Reporter
Moshe Rosenberg is busy making rugelach when I visit him one snowy morning at Unger’s, the kosher market and bakery he and his wife Malka own.
His thick hands are caked with dough, and he wears a heavily stained apron that only partially works to keep the ever-present flour from his street clothes. Yet, one can immediately discern he is happy in his work.
“Everything is made from scratch n 100%!” Rosenberg boasts of his South Taylor Road institution. “Nothing is packaged.”
He skillfully rolls the dough that holds a heavy dash of cinnamon, adding pecans to the mixture as he goes. “Rugel is Yiddish for a horn,” he continues. “So, rugelach is a small horn,” he says, pointing to several of the crescent-shaped pastries in a nearby baker’s rack, “and that’s my opinion!”
Rosenberg has opinions about many things. He talks constantly about “the bottom line,” a phrase he bandies about as often as people buy his challahs for Shabbat. And you can tell that there is immeasurable pride when he talks about his business and all that he offers his customers.
To his right are huge, 40-pound sacks of rye flour used for baking rye bread. Next to them are similar-sized sacks containing fine cake flour and high gluten flour used to make challah. Pointing out that everything, including the nearby baker’s yeast, is strictly kosher, he barks out orders to his workers who busily cut and decorate cakes at his direction.
“This is a union shop,” he states as he introduces me to several workers who have been with him for several years. “I’ve always worked with the union.” Several of his nearly 40 full-time employees like Don Randlett, a longtime employee, admit that it is great fun to work with the baker amidst this veritable sea of challahs and oceans of pastries and cakes.
The journey to owning Unger’s has been an interesting one for Rosenberg, who remembers his previous life as a printer while living in the former Czechoslovakia. He worked for Pravda dispensing propaganda until 1968 when Alexander Dubcek and the unrest of the “Prague Spring” indicated to him that a move was necessary.
He stopped for a short time in Vienna before moving to New York, where he stayed for nine years. Yet, Cleveland was beckoning.
“My wife’s family was here,” explains Rosenberg as he places the uncooked dough in a gigantic, fiery carousel oven with trays that revolve like a Ferris wheel.
Moshe’s brother Tibor also came to Cleveland in 1977, and the two of them arranged financing to purchase the bakery together from the Davis family who owned it then. “It always was a kosher bakery since 1918,” says Rosenberg.
A split between the brothers occurred three years later. Moshe ended up keeping Unger’s, while Tibor landed at Altman’s Kosher Meats for several years. Eventually, Tibor purchased that location when owner Mike Altman retired, so, the two brothers became owners of very different kosher-oriented businesses serving the Jewish community.
“Tibor is one of my major customers, because I don’t have an outlet in Beachwood” says Moshe. “I buy stuff from him n everything that’s possible n so it’s a very good business relationship now.”
Unger’s Kosher Market has grown from its original 4,000 square feet to an impressive 12,000 square feet with an additional 6,000 square feet of storage located above the shopping area. Wide, black conveyor belts rumble throughout the day, transporting goods both to and from the upstairs warehouse.
Moshe points out the hundreds of empty wicker baskets used for holiday gift baskets. “This is the best,” he says, gleaming. “We do a ton of business at Christmas and Chanukah time.”
Although 90% of his business is ethnic or kosher, many of his customers are not Jewish. He indicates a recent large order from the Ohio State Penitentiary as an example. The Muslim inmates wanted to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, the three-day feast that ends the period of Ramadam, and they required meat that was slaughtered in a kosher or halal manner.
“I got an order for 600 pounds of boneless lamb,” he says, crediting his local and regional connections for the call. Although he placed additional orders elsewhere, he filled much of the penetentiary order from his brother Tibor. “Six hundred pounds is a lot of boneless lamb, and it took me four or five weeks to assemble it.” He stored all of it inside his warehouse freezers prior to shipping it.
Unger’s four busy delivery trucks were the key element that secured that order. Deliveries start most mornings at 3 a.m. He also sends trucks laden with kosher baked goods once a week to Pittsburgh and Columbus for distribution there.
Locally, he supplies the JCC with prepared challah dough ready for baking on Fridays. The challahs Unger’s bakes on site on Thursday are trucked to area stores, including Tibor’s, for distribution prior to Shabbat.
Unger’s has expanded its offerings from the original bakery and now offers deli items and several cooked meats like broasted chickens or sandwiches. Fresh produce, kosher candies and a selection of fine wines are also for sale.
Rosenberg stops the revolving carousel oven and offers me a golden brown morsel from the heated trays. The rugelach is hot but quickly cools, and I enjoy the creamy combination of cinnamon and nuts within the flaky crust.
He credits Malka with making their business a success. She works the afternoon shift, while the mornings are Moshe’s. He leaves the problem solving to her, and she leaves the baking to him.
“Malka is the ‘main man,’” he brags. “She is very good with customer service and very customer-oriented. Nobody likes me,” he says with a wink.
Unger notes that he is the last kosher bakery remaining on South Taylor. Previously, there had been two other kosher bakeries, three or four delicatessens, and three non-kosher Jewish bakeries, all of which have closed or moved.
“I am quite fortunate,” he says. “America and the Jewish community have been very good to me.”
He uses his favorite expression again as we close. “The bottom line is that Hashem smiled on me.”
His thick hands are caked with dough, and he wears a heavily stained apron that only partially works to keep the ever-present flour from his street clothes. Yet, one can immediately discern he is happy in his work.
“Everything is made from scratch n 100%!” Rosenberg boasts of his South Taylor Road institution. “Nothing is packaged.”
He skillfully rolls the dough that holds a heavy dash of cinnamon, adding pecans to the mixture as he goes. “Rugel is Yiddish for a horn,” he continues. “So, rugelach is a small horn,” he says, pointing to several of the crescent-shaped pastries in a nearby baker’s rack, “and that’s my opinion!”
Rosenberg has opinions about many things. He talks constantly about “the bottom line,” a phrase he bandies about as often as people buy his challahs for Shabbat. And you can tell that there is immeasurable pride when he talks about his business and all that he offers his customers.
To his right are huge, 40-pound sacks of rye flour used for baking rye bread. Next to them are similar-sized sacks containing fine cake flour and high gluten flour used to make challah. Pointing out that everything, including the nearby baker’s yeast, is strictly kosher, he barks out orders to his workers who busily cut and decorate cakes at his direction.
“This is a union shop,” he states as he introduces me to several workers who have been with him for several years. “I’ve always worked with the union.” Several of his nearly 40 full-time employees like Don Randlett, a longtime employee, admit that it is great fun to work with the baker amidst this veritable sea of challahs and oceans of pastries and cakes.
The journey to owning Unger’s has been an interesting one for Rosenberg, who remembers his previous life as a printer while living in the former Czechoslovakia. He worked for Pravda dispensing propaganda until 1968 when Alexander Dubcek and the unrest of the “Prague Spring” indicated to him that a move was necessary.
He stopped for a short time in Vienna before moving to New York, where he stayed for nine years. Yet, Cleveland was beckoning.
“My wife’s family was here,” explains Rosenberg as he places the uncooked dough in a gigantic, fiery carousel oven with trays that revolve like a Ferris wheel.
Moshe’s brother Tibor also came to Cleveland in 1977, and the two of them arranged financing to purchase the bakery together from the Davis family who owned it then. “It always was a kosher bakery since 1918,” says Rosenberg.
A split between the brothers occurred three years later. Moshe ended up keeping Unger’s, while Tibor landed at Altman’s Kosher Meats for several years. Eventually, Tibor purchased that location when owner Mike Altman retired, so, the two brothers became owners of very different kosher-oriented businesses serving the Jewish community.
“Tibor is one of my major customers, because I don’t have an outlet in Beachwood” says Moshe. “I buy stuff from him n everything that’s possible n so it’s a very good business relationship now.”
Unger’s Kosher Market has grown from its original 4,000 square feet to an impressive 12,000 square feet with an additional 6,000 square feet of storage located above the shopping area. Wide, black conveyor belts rumble throughout the day, transporting goods both to and from the upstairs warehouse.
Moshe points out the hundreds of empty wicker baskets used for holiday gift baskets. “This is the best,” he says, gleaming. “We do a ton of business at Christmas and Chanukah time.”
Although 90% of his business is ethnic or kosher, many of his customers are not Jewish. He indicates a recent large order from the Ohio State Penitentiary as an example. The Muslim inmates wanted to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, the three-day feast that ends the period of Ramadam, and they required meat that was slaughtered in a kosher or halal manner.
“I got an order for 600 pounds of boneless lamb,” he says, crediting his local and regional connections for the call. Although he placed additional orders elsewhere, he filled much of the penetentiary order from his brother Tibor. “Six hundred pounds is a lot of boneless lamb, and it took me four or five weeks to assemble it.” He stored all of it inside his warehouse freezers prior to shipping it.
Unger’s four busy delivery trucks were the key element that secured that order. Deliveries start most mornings at 3 a.m. He also sends trucks laden with kosher baked goods once a week to Pittsburgh and Columbus for distribution there.
Locally, he supplies the JCC with prepared challah dough ready for baking on Fridays. The challahs Unger’s bakes on site on Thursday are trucked to area stores, including Tibor’s, for distribution prior to Shabbat.
Unger’s has expanded its offerings from the original bakery and now offers deli items and several cooked meats like broasted chickens or sandwiches. Fresh produce, kosher candies and a selection of fine wines are also for sale.
Rosenberg stops the revolving carousel oven and offers me a golden brown morsel from the heated trays. The rugelach is hot but quickly cools, and I enjoy the creamy combination of cinnamon and nuts within the flaky crust.
He credits Malka with making their business a success. She works the afternoon shift, while the mornings are Moshe’s. He leaves the problem solving to her, and she leaves the baking to him.
“Malka is the ‘main man,’” he brags. “She is very good with customer service and very customer-oriented. Nobody likes me,” he says with a wink.
Unger notes that he is the last kosher bakery remaining on South Taylor. Previously, there had been two other kosher bakeries, three or four delicatessens, and three non-kosher Jewish bakeries, all of which have closed or moved.
“I am quite fortunate,” he says. “America and the Jewish community have been very good to me.”
He uses his favorite expression again as we close. “The bottom line is that Hashem smiled on me.”
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