The cafe at Manchester’s Jewish Museum has won the Cafe or Restaurant of the Year at the 2022 Museum and Heritage Awards. The eatery, which only opened last year, serves a vegetarian kosher-style menu of Sephardi and Ashkenazi dishes.
It also offers new seasonal dishes around the traditional Jewish holidays, and vegetarian takes on Jewish classics, like its ‘Not Quite Traditional Chicken Soup’, which combines a hearty vegetarian broth with mushrooms and matzo balls. The cafe was part of a £6 million redevelopment of the museum in Cheetham Hill, completed over two years. It beat competition from the Stonehenge Cafe and the bistro at Black Watch Castle in Perth.
Alex Cropper, the Curator from Manchester Jewish Museum, said: “It felt so exciting to be at the Museum and Heritage Awards on Wednesday night and to gather to celebrate our sector for the first time since the pandemic - there was a real buzz in the room. And to win an award was the icing on the cake!
"It was an honour to accept the Café of the Year award on stage on behalf of our incredible café team and great to see our name up there amongst such incredible museums in the Permanent Gallery of the Year category.” The cafe’s team leader Joe Davey added: ''It feels great to get recognition at such an important event like the Museums and Heritage Awards.
"Being voted the café of the year proves that we are on the right track, interpreting the traditions in a playful but respectful way. It's a great success of the whole team, including Rachel who's put together the menu and the fantastic work of all our volunteers.”
Other dishes which scooped the cafe the silverware include a vegetarian cholent stew, served with challah bread and bagels with shmear and carrot lox. The redevelopment, of the grade II listed building, built in 1874, included the building of a new gallery, the cafe, a shop, a learning studio and the restoration of the building’s synagogue.
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