The following is via COL:
Basil Pizza and Wine Bar, the popular dairy Crown Heights eatery, had their Kosher certification removed on Monday.
Owner Danny Branover said the certification by the OK was removed “without warning,” due to personal reasons, not related to Kashrus.
Branover issued a statement to COLlive:
“The OK removed their certification from us without warning because of personal issues, and without giving us any time to obtain an alternate Hashgacha. We are working diligently to obtain a new high level certification.
“In the interim, Basil will continue providing our customers with the highest levels of Kashrus, under the self-certification of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, with a staff of mashgichim on premises from open to close. As before, all products are strictly kosher, Cholov yisroel, pas yisroel and bishul yisroel.”
Branover said he will update the public as soon as a new certifying Hechsher is obtained.
Rabbi Don Yoel Levy, President and Rabbinic Administrator of the OK Kosher Certification, told COLlive.com: “Basil New York violated the Kashrus standard of their contract with the OK.”
Rabbi Levy said that the removal of the certification was not sudden and that it has been an ongoing issue that Basil’s owners and managers “did not keep to the standards that we require of them and were not willing to adhere to our protocol.”
He added that “our responsibility and loyalty must be with the consumer who relies upon us. Therefore we had no choice but to remove our certification.”
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6 Responses
Again, we have a total lack of transparency on matters of kashruth. Both sides use vague terms such as “personal” reasons to explain the loss of OK certification as if this is some type of petty dispute. Why not come out and explain exactly what “protocol” was violated. These types of broigas occur with all too much frequency and result in the loss of public confidence in hashgachos. The fact that the interim mashgiach has a name that coincidently is the same as the Rebbe Z’TL a few days before his yahrtzeit is especially confusing since he is not necessarily employed by one of the gold standard chassideshe hashgachos.
What were the standards that were violated?
We thought it was because of a competitor issue.
It seems to me; if the store is stating it was for personal reasons ; then OK has a duty to either put up and state why- or (pardon my French) shut up.
I don’t know about Basil’s kashrus, but the pizza is absolutely the best.
GadolH: So you want the OK to reveal their reasons. And then our resident expert in Shmiras Haloshon will turn around and claim it is loshon harah. From the letter above it just states they removed their hashgachah; it doesn’t say that the store is “treif”. It was only after the owner claimed it was for “personal reasons” did the OK respond that it was a violation of their contract.
BB: Why doesn’t the owner disclose the supposed personal reasons? As I stated above, the OK stated the store violated it’s contract. For all we know they may not have paid their bill on time.
Good afternoon this is Basil.
Hi, i wonder if you could help me. I am visiting from out of town and i heard you are a must see restaurant.
thank you sir.
may i ask what standard of kosher is your restaurant?
only the strictest standards of kosher are observed here. chalav yisroel, pas yisroel etc.
ok great.
and do you have a kids menu?
yes we do sir.
great.
and what type of music if any is played in the background?
any goyishe music including “sexual Healing” we like to keep our ambiance modern and classy we look forward to your patronage and am sure your kids will enjoy.
o well thank you so much want wait to come.
NOT
busha and cherpa that in the lubavitcher rebbe community this restaurant blasts goyishe music.
is there not enough jewish or ” parev classical/elevator/hold music” to set the tone?
hashem gives parnasa.
what should i explain to my children?