The Green Chicpea is a kosher middle eastern restaurant within 10 minute drive from Newark Liberty Airport and less than a 5 minute walk from Rutgers University
The Green Chicpea is under the Kosher Supervision of the Vaad Harabonim of Flatbush. They offer shwarama, shnitzel and shish kebab as well as a variety of vegan options. The restaurant caters to both Jews and non-Jews, vegetarians and meat-eaters as the owners do not want to limit their customer base and simply want people to come for the good food, fast service and warm vibe.
“This place is a rare find. It’s got fast service and a warm vibe — that’s a difficult balance,” said Bernstein, who formerly worked in the Jewish community and now teaches at North Star Academy, a charter school in the neighborhood. “This place has made my life so much better. It’s nice to have something kosher in the area.”
“This place” is a kosher Middle Eastern restaurant catering to Jews and non-Jews, vegetarians, and meat eaters, on Halsey Street in Newark. While kosher options in Newark are few, owner Martin Weber doesn’t want to limit his customer base. Instead, he wants people to come to Green Chicpea because the food is good.
“Jews find you through word of mouth. Other people don’t even realize it’s kosher,” he said. He loves when construction workers and students from nearby Rutgers University drop in. “One day I had a guy in here who was doing mathematical equations” on the chalkboard tabletops, he said.
On a recent Wednesday morning just before Thanksgiving, Weber and his wife Ronit, who live in Fair Lawn, sat down with a visitor over Turkish coffee and Middle Eastern pastries.
The Green Chicpea is not the Webers’ first restaurant. They had three in Manhattan, now closed, all called House of Pita. (The restaurants got good reviews on Yelp; but after they lost the lease on their original space, they sold the other. The third, they said, was not doing well and had to be closed.)
The New Jersey Jewish News
December 4, 2013