Karl Moore Photos
Owners Yaakov Atia and Nadav Adad at Tuesday night's opening.
Yalies, townies, rabbis, and other members of New Haven’s growing Jewish community gathered over wine and appetizers to celebrate the grand opening of Ricotta, New Haven’s first kosher pizza restaurant and bakery.
Named after a creamy Italian cheese, Ricotta, which held the opening Tuesday night at 1203 Chapel St., pays homage to the progenitors of pizza while also boasting a Jewish culinary flair.
Owned by Israeli Americans Jacob Atia and Nadav Adad, the restaurant offers traditional Ashkenazic baked goods like knishes, spinach rolls, and chocolaty rugelach, all baked in house. The menu features a sweeping variety of veggie pizzas, making it a great option for vegetarians. In keeping with the Jewish dietary laws forbidding the mixing of dairy and meat, Adad and Atia decided to keep their restaurant strictly vegetarian.
Adad, who handles most of the day-to-day operations, said that offering healthful food is one of his main goals.
“We want to offer good food that is also very healthy,” he said.
Adad has been cooking for over 20 years. He dropped out of high school in Israel at 14 (“They were talking too much and I wanted to work”) to pursue a career in food service and owned his first market at 17.
Adad moved to America, where he opened several restaurants, including a pizza shop in Lakewood, N.J. Today Adad owns and manages two other restaurants in New York, Ess & Bentch and Albany Bagel.
Adad and Atia affix mezuzah to their new restaurant.
Ricotta is the newest addition to New Haven’s expanding lineup of kosher restaurants to accommodate a rapidly growing Jewish population. Former Beaver Hills Alder Moti Sandman attributed the growing Jewish population to people escaping high rents in New York. “In New York you can live in a basement for $2,500,” he observed. “In New Haven, for that type of money, you can get a whole floor. And now we’re seeing a lot of New Yorkers come in, and they’re bringing more people and creating markets for more kosher restaurants. We’re really excited about it and very proud to be a part of it.”
Josh Glahn (at center in above photo), a medical student who dines at Yale’s Slifka Center, described Ricotta as a breath of fresh air for Jewish students looking for kosher and casual food: “As someone who keeps kosher, there’s not so many places to eat in New Haven, and it’s really exciting to have a casual place to go to all the time.”
City government Business Development Director Carlos Eyzaguirre, at center, at Tuesday night's opening.
Jon Walker of Hartford dropped by Tuesday night to check out the commotion. He said that he was impressed by the cuisine: “I’m always open to experience new cultures. This was my first-time having rugelach and I was blown away. The pizza was really good, too. This place is a hidden gem.”
Ricotta also offers delivery and catering. The website is currently under construction, but you can contact them by phone or via Instagram.
