(New York Jewish Week) — It’s the most wonderful time of the year — and I don’t mean Christmas. Rather, it’s the season of “best-ofs,” when publications across the boroughs and from coast-to-coast share their selections for the year’s best books, music, restaurants and more.
Last week, the New York Times food critic Pete Wells published a list of the “most memorable” things he ate in the city this year, “Top 8 New York City Dishes of 2023.” They include just one dessert: the Black-and-White Seven-Layer Cake from Gertrude’s, a Jewish bistro that opened this summer in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
“Many liberties have been taken since Hungarian Jews carried the recipe for Dobos torte across the Atlantic,” Wells writes. “Gertrude’s monumental version, almost as dense and moist as pudding cake, alternates chocolate and yellow layers like piano keys.”
The delicious concoction is a mashup of two popular Jewish desserts: black and white cookies and seven-layer cake.
Black and white cookies are about to hit the mainstream in January, when Oreo releases a new version channeling the Jewish New York classic. But at Gertrude’s, the Black-and-White Seven-Layer Cake is one of three desserts on a highly curated menu designed to “push the Ashkenazi tradition,” as co-owner Nate Adler told us in August.
Other inventive, Ashkenazi-inspired items on offer include a burger that can be ordered “Reuben-style” (a beef patty topped with melted Swiss cheese, Russian dressing and sauerkraut on a challah roll), latkes and a Nicoise salad made with smoked sable.
Gertrude’s is run by the same folks behind Williamsburg’s popular Jewish diner, Gertie. Both restaurants are named after Adler’s maternal grandmother, Gertrude Aronow, a Jewish woman whom Adler describes as “a really colorful and eccentric human being who was the life of the party.”
As it happens, in September, the New York Jewish Week published its very own roundup of top Jewish dishes to eat in the city, “25 Jewish Dishes to Eat in NYC Right Now.” Gertrude’s also made our list — but not for its dessert. Rather, we selected the bistro’s Seder Plate Margarita, a unique, refreshing beverage made with Passover flavors like bitter orange, parsley and salt water, plus lime and mezcal.
Other must-try items on the New York Jewish Week’s list include a cheddar jalapeno knish from Yonah Schimmel’s and jachnun from 12 Chairs Cafe. And if you’re looking for something sweet, there’s malawach churros from Balaboosta and New York-style cheesecake from the S&S Cheesecake, a Bronx institution founded by Holocaust survivor Fred Schuster in 1960.
Wells has touted Jewish eateries in the city before: In April, he named two Jewish delis (Flatiron’s S&P Lunch and legacy Upper West Side appetizing shop Barney Greengrass) and a tiny, Israeli-owned falafel joint, Midwood’s Tanami Falafel, as three of the 100 best restaurants in the city in 2023.
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