Israelis open city’s only kosher bakery

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An Israeli-owned restaurant has opened as the only kosher retail bakery in San Francisco.

Friends Isaac Yosef, Avi Edri and head chef Yanni, who goes by one name, opened Taboon last week at 132 Sixth St., near Minna.

As Oakland’s Grand Bakery was scheduled to close on Dec. 23 after 55 years of operation, Taboon was opening San Francisco’s only true kosher bakery.

Taboon offers challah, pita, bagels, babka, rugelach, borekas, sufganiyot for Hanukkah and more. The recipes are taken from Yanni’s great-grandfather, an Iraqi Jew who migrated to Israel and owned a bakery in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market.

The bakery has been churning out 1,000 pitas a day and selling out most of its items daily. “I really wanted to believe it would be a success, but I didn’t think it would be that much of a success,” Edri said. “It’s packed all day long.”

Two other kosher-certified bakers, Irving’s Premium Foods in San Francisco and Vital Vittles in Berkeley, do not have retail locations but supply baked goods to stores and restaurants. Izzy’s Brooklyn Bagels, which is kosher-certified, has locations in Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. Some locations of Semifreddi’s are kosher as well. — jta & j. staff