“Let’s grab something to eat at the Manischewitz food truck” is likely something that no New Yorker has ever said. But that’s about to change.
The famous kosher food brand — which began in 1888 as a Cincinnati-based matzah bakery — has launched a brand-new food truck in New York City, just weeks before Passover.
Manischewitz unveiled their orange food truck at South Street Seaport on a rainy Monday morning, offering up free samples of matzah ball soup, mini knishes, slabs of warm babka and more to assorted media and passersby.
Known as the Manischewitz Deli on Wheels, the truck will be making its way around New York City and New Jersey over the next few weeks, doling out free samples of a variety of new Manischewitz products, including ready-to-eat frozen matzah balls and blintzes.
After Passover — the busiest time of year for Manischewitz — the truck will become a full-fledged mobile deli, hitting the city’s streets with a “flexible” menu that will include Manischewitz classics like matzah ball soup alongside heartier fare like a split knish topped with pastrami, according to Shani Seidman, the chief marketing officer of Kayco, Mansichewitz’s parent company.
“Jewish food is woven into the tapestry of New York City,” Seidman said. “It makes sense that there would be a food truck that serves iconic Jewish food and dishes to New Yorkers.”
The idea for a food truck, Seidman added, was inspired by a viral tweet she saw last year, in which a Brooklynite opined on the need for a soup truck during brutal New York City winters. Seidman’s thoughts immediately turned to Manischewitz’s matzah ball soup, which she considers the brand’s most iconic product.
“That’s such a no-brainer,” she said, noting that matzah ball soup “is one of those dishes that bubbe, or grandma, makes best, right? It’s something that’s comforting.”
Once a family-owned brand, Manischewitz became a part of kosher food company Kayco in 2019. Last year, just before Passover, the iconic brand got its first glow-up in decades, unveiling a new, modern look that repurposed Manischewitz’s signature orange logo. (The rebrand was part of “an effort to update the cultural relevance with a younger Jewish audience as well as mainstream culturally curious audience,” Seidman told JTA at the time.)
One thing you won’t find at the Deli on Wheels: Manischewitz wine. One reason for that, Seidman explained, is because the Manischewitz name is licensed to another wine manufacturer — the food and the wine businesses are separate.
New York City also generally doesn’t allow mobile food vendors to have full liquor licenses. “I don’t think any food truck could serve wine,” she said.
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