Gourmet Glatt to reopen Tuesday

Gourmet Glatt Emporium, a kosher supermarket on Spruce Street in Cedarhurst, closed due to a Nov. 3 fire, will reopen its doors on Tuesday at noon.

However, Yeoli Steinberg, a store general manager said that he expected the supermarket to reopen in the middle of next week as the store receives a full cleaning, the shelves will be stocked with fresh produce and new store shopping bags. The store announced the reopening on its Facebook page.

“We have emptied the store of all product and everything will be new product, the ceiling tiles are being replaced, we have gone beyond what the Health Department requires,” Steinberg said.

At 4:15 a.m. on Nov. 3, Mayor Gold, the owner of Seasons, a kosher supermarket in Cedarhurst, received a call from Moshe Ratner, the general manager of Gourmet Glatt.

Ratner told Gold that Gourmet Glatt had a fire and he needed someone to take his deliveries. Without hesitation, Gold jumped in to help. Glatt’s deliveries went to Seasons and nearly 20 Gourmet Glatt employees worked at Seasons, alongside Seasons’ employees and Seasons remained open until midnight that Thursday to accommodate Shabbos shoppers.

“Though we are competition, we are friends,” said Gold, who added that Gourmet Glatt did the same thing earlier this year when a day before Gold’s Queens store was to open in April, it too had a fire — deemed arson — and Gourmet Glatt assisted in taking in food from Seasons.

Having the purple-shirted Seasons employees working side-by-side with the green-shirted Glatt staffers is a sight to see, Gold said. “We are very happy to help, they are good people,” he said, referring to Gourmet Glatt’s owners, managers and

employees.

Only a competitor in the same industry could understand what you go through, Steinberg said, who added that Seasons help is greatly appreciated. “All stores have been very cooperative,” he said also referring to Brach’s, another locals kosher food store. “It is a shining example of humans doing good for each other.”

Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department Chief Joseph Sperber said, the fire caused extensive damage to the basement of Gourmet Glatt. He said the fire call came in at 12:39 a.m. and his department, along with Inwood, Hewlett Woodmere and Valley Stream fire departments responded.