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Community Corner

Glencoe Grocer to Slice Cooked Briskets for Passover Customers

 This week, cooks throughout the North Shore are preparing their list of ingredients for the traditional family Passover brisket.  While they may not agree upon combination of spices and seasonings, they do agree that having it professionally sliced makes for the perfect presentation.

 

The problem, however, is that very few have access to a commercial meat slicer found at butcher shops and deli counters.

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Enter The Grand Food Center in Glencoe, known to many still as “DJ Foods.”

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“We’re one of the few stores this Passover allowed to slice our customers’ cooked briskets,” says store manager Arnold Jacobson.  The tradition of bringing a prepared Passover brisket back to the local butcher to be sliced for Passover has long faded, he laments, because few butchers remain in this era of “chain” grocery stores.  

 

“Another reason,” he adds, “is the need for strict rules regarding sanitation.”

Village of Glencoe Sanitarian Lynn Hoette understands both sides of the issue. The debate on cleanliness and public health began, she says, began with a customer complaint years ago in Northbrook.  The village would later ban the practice, as did the Village of Skokie.  

 

“Some customers have an issue with this (slicing a customer’s cooked brisket), and some don’t,” says Hoette.  “Typically, when food leaves the grocery store,” she adds, “it can’t be brought back inside.”

 

Hoette, who also serves as village sanitarian in Northbrook and Wilmette, says that a few independent grocers in the area approached her about a possible “sanitation variance” for the holiday. The Grand Food Center—along with its Northbrook competitors Sunset Foods and Elegance in Meats—each submitted for her review proposed, detailed sanitation procedures for the two-day holiday. 

 

The plans outlined how the slicers would be sanitized before and after each slicing, and how sanitary conditions would be maintained throughout.  The plans also outlined procedures for accepting the cooked briskets, and how instructions would be included on how to properly reheat. 

 

“I was glad that each store put serious thought into it how to make this workable,” Hoette says. “It’s such a short period that I think it will end up working to everyone’s satisfaction.”

 

She says the only stipulation is that the customer first purchase the brisket there.  

The Grand Food Center says its customers will happy.

 

“It took a little extra work on our end, but I think our customers who celebrate Passover will be extremely pleased to see that we wanted to help continue this tradition,” says Arnold. “Our customers are loyal, and we owe it to them to keep this Passover tradition alive.”

 

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