Moishe's Bake Shop

Earlier this year, I shared a real estate listing on Moishe's Kosher Bake Shop in the East Village. At the time, a call to Moishe Perl got a laugh and the statement, "People always put up these things." He said he wasn't closing.

Now the reader who sent me that listing has sent in a report far more alarming.



The Real Deal states: "Investor Jay Schwimmer just inked a 21-year lease for the entire three-story East Village property that’s anchored by neighborhood institution Moishe’s Bake Shop... The lease begins in March and includes an option for Schwimmer to buy the building."

Moishe's owns the building and has been in the East Village since 1974. As the Times once reported, "he hasn’t changed his menu or his recipes one iota in 42 [now 44] years — everything kosher, no dairy except for the cheese Danish and strudel. His bread slicer, which was there when he bought the place, a former bakery that had been closed for a while, is 80 years old, Mr. Perl said. It rattles like a gas-powered lawn mower."

When I heard the real estate news I went by Moishe's and bought some hamentaschen. Mr. Perl was not in. When I asked the women who run the place about the listing--and the bakery's possible closure--they laughed.

"Where'd you hear that?" one asked. On the Internet. More laughter. "People put all kinds of stuff on the Internet," said the other. So everything's fine? "Yeah, yeah."

But you know how these things happen. If I were you, I'd go enjoy the great Moishe's while you can.