Christmas Eve Challah

Miriam and Israel Lefler run Kosher on the Go, the sole kosher restaurant in Utah.

Christmas Eve is usually a time of gathering with friends and family to ring in the biggest holiday of the year. While I got around to that eventually, my main focus this Christmas Eve was to use the Friday off from work to scout out some challah from Kosher on the Go, the sole kosher eatery in the state of Utah.

Located up the street from the local Chabad in Salt Lake City’s hip Sugarhouse neighborhood, Kosher on the Go is a labor of love run by Israel and Miriam Lefler, an Orthodox couple who have lived in Utah for 30 years. The Leflers started Kosher on the Go as a side business about five years ago. They’re only open for a few hours midday on Friday – the rest of the week, they offer food on demand for delivery and pickup.

Catering for the out-of-town crowd constitutes 99 percent of their business, Israel Lefler told me. His family is one of maybe five orthodox families of more than 300 Jewish families in the Salt Lake City area, so the demand from locals is light. However, contracts with local resorts and hotels to provide kosher meals to guests keep the Leflers busy, especially during the winter months that draw skiiers to the region’s world-class slopes and, of course, the famed Sundance Film Festival.

“When people come in from out of town, they don’t want to drag food with them,” Israel Lefler said.

That’s where he and Miriam come in. The Leflers live in a mixed-use home that sports a commercial kitchen in the front. It’s here that Miriam whips up schnitzel, salmon, challah, corned beef sandwiches, and a number of other kosher dishes for takeout or delivery, all made to order. Customers have to place orders 24 hours in advance, giving Miriam enough time to defrost kosher meat that’s been imported from California or Denver or to give the dough for their from-scratch breads and rolls enough time to rise.

Interestingly, one of the Leflers’ larger clients is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although Mormons leaders don’t eat kosher, they often host guests who do, from rabbis and leaders coming to town for interfaith relations – sometimes all the way from Israel – to Jewish writers in town to review the LDS Church’s extensive genealogy archives. Israel Lefler said he’s catered for up to 30 people for the LDS Church before.

“I like to do business with them,” Lefler said. “We’re open to working in harmony with everybody.”

The Leflers moved to Utah three decades ago when Israel Lefler took a job as an electrical engineer at Hill Air Force Base, about a half-hour north of Salt Lake City. They moved to Salt Lake a few years ago because it offers a larger Jewish community. Utah’s been a great home, Israel Lefler said.

“Because of all the Mormons, it’s warm, friendly, quiet, and there’s not a lot of crime,” he said. “It’s a nice place to live.”

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