Eight months after introducing San Franciscans to the matzah ball margarita and the lox-and-bagels martini, Super Mensch closed this past weekend.
After opening to much buzz in the Marina District, the Jewish deli and cocktail concept will be available for take-out, private events and catering only.
“We thought we had the answers to put a full-service restaurant into a 500-square-foot space with no hood and tried everything we know how to make it work. But at the end of the day, we weren’t able to accomplish it to meet our standards,” chef Adam Rosenblum told J.
Super Mensch quickly distinguished itself from other Bay Area Jewish concepts with its inventive cocktails created by Elmer Mejicanos, a partner with Rosenblum in the business. Mejicanos spent hours immersing himself in Jewish cuisine.
In my November column, I quoted him: “This is probably the best cocktail menu that I’ve ever made in 20 years…. It’s my business partner’s culture, so I want to make sure that I make him proud and be excited about it.” (Despite the development that went into creating the cocktails, they cannot be offered for take-out.)
Rosenblum and Mejicanos opened Rosenblum’s longtime dream business in a former eyeglasses shop next door to Causwells, a bistro that serves smash burgers and other American fare. Much of Super Mensch’s food was made at Causwells, which is the team’s other restaurant, since Super Mensch’s kitchen and bar were so limited in its own small space.
The property will remain in Super Mensch’s hands and will be used for Causwells overflow on busy nights and for private events, at which either the Super Mensch or the Causwells menu can be ordered.
Rosenblum and Mejicanos hope to reopen Super Mensch somewhere else in the future, but “a lot of things will have to line up,” Rosenblum said. “We still very much believe in this concept and all the things it stood for. It was my childhood within four walls. We very much want to see it come back. We just have to make sure we can do it right.”
***
The Ma’lawah Bar, which offered the flaky Yemenite pastry in Palo Alto, has closed. Its last day of service was May 29. I first covered this business, which was started by Doreet Jehassi out of her home, in 2019. I wrote about it again in 2021 when Ma’lawah Bar moved to the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto and, finally, in a home of its own in Palo Alto in 2024.
The closure was announced on Instagram. “While this chapter is coming to a close, it’s also the beginning of something new!” the post says.
***
Nourish is out, and Beta is in at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto.
Beta Cafe describes itself as an “Israeli-American fusion eatery.” Its menu is a mish-mash of items, with schnitzel as the only distinctly Israeli item among them. There are pastries and coffee drinks, turkey or egg salad sandwiches, various salads, burritos, chicken tenders and a pizza.
Nourish Cafe, which operated for years on the JCC campus, closed in 2025.
Nily Shamgar Pessach and Alon Matas are behind Beta, which opened this spring.
“As entrepreneurs, we believe that if the place you dream about doesn’t exist yet, sometimes you have to create it yourself,” Matas said in a statement. “We wanted to bring the feeling of true Tel Aviv cafe culture — the warmth, the energy and the sense of belonging — and so Beta Cafe was born.”
Matas has built five companies, including co-founding and later selling BetterHelp, an online therapy platform. Pessach is CEO and founder of Ankor, the Judaica store at the OFJCC. She relocated to the Bay Area at the onset of the Israel-Hamas War and formerly was a franchise operator of Café Café, an Israeli chain.
Beta is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.