Kashrut Announcement from Desserts Plus

To The Winnipeg Jewish Community,

It is with great sadness that we are announcing that after over 35 years of providing kosher food, we are no longer able to do so. Although we have some very strong supporters in our community, it simply isn’t enough to support a business.

It has been driven home to us that there isn’t support for kashrut within the greater community. This reality has been made especially clear when we witness community organisations host events at non-kosher restaurants and facilities.

At the same time, we have been experiencing growing demand from the non-Jewish community, both in our restaurant and for catering. Not only are these customers looking for options we aren’t able to provide as a kosher business, such as enjoying a deli sandwich in the restaurant, having to close not only for Shabbat but also on all Yom Tovs chases away these people that are keeping us in business.

We will continue to offer our vegetarian menu and hope that those who keep kosher but are comfortable eating dairy and fish out will continue to come to us. Unfortunately, the ever increasing cost of kosher meat and the logistics of bringing it in means that we will be using mostly non-kosher meat.

We do hope to continue to bring in kosher meat by special order and are working on bringing in kosher chicken using the same format.

Our final day operating as a kosher restaurant will be Wednesday, October 31st. Our new menu will beginNovember 1st.

This was a very difficult decision to make but after a number of discussions with key people in our community, we recognize that this is our only option.

The Reisses