Photo of Kosher Luncheon Club

© Shloimy Alman 1977

Kosher Luncheon Club


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During the late nineteenth century kosher eateries opened up all over the East End. They were at first little more than soup kitchens but as the community prospered, so the variety of the menus improved, reflecting the regional dishes brought over by the Jewish refugees. The Kosher Luncheon Club was one of the last of such eateries to survive in East London. It existed for decades in Kasler Hall attached to the former Great Garden Street Synagogue in Greatorex Street and was known as a dairy restaurant, selling fish and vegetable dishes, no meat. It was managed for many years by Conny Shack and Lou Morrison:

'Conny was once a waiter in Bloom's, Lou spent 25 years in the wine trade. It's a first-class combination… There is nothing fancy about the club, but there's plenty on the menu to take your fancy. The cuisine is fish and dairy food, a la carte at an average cost of £1-50.'
Jewish Chronicle, July 15th 1977, p. iii.

'The club is strictly kosher, serves a dairy menu - essentially fish - and lacks a liquor licence. It operates out of the synagogue hall, decked out in Zionist blue and white. Service is assiduous, portions are large, and as well as alluring prices, the food is simply excellent. Bean and barley soup was slightly glutinous - presumably from using potato flour for thickening - but hot and flavoursome; the latkes and gefilte fish managed the optimum mix - crisp outside, hot and moist within; both a fillet of haddock and a lemon sole were perfectly fried, this time in fine matzo meal which makes them less crunchy than the medium version. So who's complaining? Bloom's is the cliche; the Luncheon Club is the real thing. "Just like mother makes", claims the flier. You should be so lucky.'
The Times, November 21st 1992, p. 37.

The club continued to operate until 1994 and is described in Rodinsky 's Room:

'Paul Levine, the owner, greeted us warmly at the door [of the Luncheon Club]… all customers, regular and new, received this kind of welcome, whether stopping for a chat and a glass of lemon tea, or staying to eat a three-course feast of barley soup, herring and gefilte fish. On the back of the menu was a description of the Kosher Luncheon Club and its history… For what remained of the community it was a meeting place. Somewhere to share memories and show off photographs of new grandchildren. The luncheon club became my ace card when conducting my own tours of the area in subsequent years. By then there was little left of the Jewish East End: crumbling buildings, derelict sites, rapidly fading signs. "This used to be ---- now it is a car park." … "If you look really hard you can just make out the mark of a mezuzah here." After traipsing around the streets of Spitalfields, the crowds of tourists invariably were despondent by the end of the tour. Then I would take them to the Kosher Luncheon Club. That was alive and kicking. Crisp white tablecloths, the clink of glasses and the slurp of soup to a backdrop of Yiddish and laughter. It retained the warmth I've so often heard people talking about when they describe the Jewish world of East London. In 1994 the luncheon club stopped trading, another victim in the story of the disappearing Jewish East End. Bloom's restaurant was to close less than a year later, and then Marks Deli in Wentworth Street.'
Lichtenstein, R. & Sinclair, I. Rodinsky's Room. London/New York: Granta Books, 2000, pp. 36-7.

Photograph of Conny Shack at the Luncheon Club, taken in 1977 by Shloimy
Alman

Photograph of Conny Shack at the Luncheon Club, taken in 1977 by Shloimy Alman



Cite This Article

Kosher Luncheon Club, jewisheastendmemorymap.org?feature_type=polygon&id=93, accessed January 2025.

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