Now all you need in Tel Aviv to determine the standard of kashrut at a restaurant is a smartphone.
The Tel Aviv Rabbinate has started issuing kashrut certificates with quick response bar codes, enabling diners to scan the code to receive kashrut information about the establishment.
One can find the level of kashrut, ranging from regular to mehadrin, as well as the phone number of the kashrut supervisor.
A Kosher Checker app, or Bodek Kashrut, also is available for download.
Meanwhile, consumers without a smartphone can call a 24-hour line, provide the bar code number of the kashrut certificate and acquire the same information.
The bar codes are designed to prevent restaurants from offering fake or expired kashrut certificates.
Smartphone app for coffee lovers in Tel Aviv
A new loyalty program called CUPSTelAviv allows consumers to pay an all-you-can-drink fee per month or a smaller fee for one cup of coffee per day. An app locates the coffee shops and kiosks participating in the program; servers put a code into the app on the smartphone.
A half hour after ordering, coffee fiends can order a refill — or go to another shop sooner for a second cup.
Most of the 40 participating cafes are independent, neighborhood coffee shops. The program started last September with nine locations.
The $45 fee may be worth it, considering a cup of the Israeli favorite cafe hafuch — the equivalent of a latte — is about $4 a cup.
CUPSTelAviv CEO Alon Ezer told the Times of Israel that he is ready to expand beyond Tel Aviv.
Absolut-ly Tel Aviv
Israel’s city that doesn’t sleep, Tel Aviv, will be enshrined in a special edition Absolut Vodka bottle.
The bottle is being released as part of the Absolut Blank series designed by Pilpeled, or the artist Nir Peled, Ynet reported. It is dedicated to the ficus-tree streets of Tel Aviv, and the design is inspired by the night life of Nordau, Rothschild and Chen boulevards.
A limited edition of 150,000 bottles will be released.
Record-setting Shabbat table?
The central Israeli city of Bnei Brak set what is believed to be the world’s longest Shabbat table.
At 197 feet long, the table set with china plates, crystal goblets and silver candlesticks, as well as traditional Shabbat foods, comfortably seats more than 300, Ynet reported.
The municipality, in conjunction with the Bnei Brak-based Coca-Cola company and the haredi Orthodox advertising agency Meimad, set the table in an attempt to set a Guinness record.
The table is also gunning for the world record for the best-set table.
— JTA News and Features
