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- A New York entrepreneur with South African roots has found great success in the city that never sleeps.
- Jack's Wife Freda was opened in 2011 and now has five locations throughout the city.
- News24's deputy lifestyle editor Kaunda Selisho shares her experience of the quaint New York restaurant.
I can't remember when I first heard about New York - but, for as long as I can remember, I have been enamoured with the idea of the city.
When I got my first atlas for a school project, I paged through it for hours, listing cities I had heard about that I'd like to visit one day - and New York filled the first spot on that list.
I finally got to fulfil a lifelong dream on a recent visit to the city and it was everything I had ever dreamed of.
I landed at JFK after hours in the air - with a stop-over at London's Heathrow airport - and made my way to Soho in a shuttle, taking in the sights with my beaming face at the window with child-like wonder.
One of the great things about travelling is that each city you visit has a unique character, but when it comes to New York, that character changes with each area you move through. It really is a sight to behold.
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During my trip, I stayed in the trendy, iconic SoHo district, located south of Houston Street.
Clothing stores from iconic brands line the streets, dotted between countless restaurants offering cuisine from every country imaginable.
But, it was the quaint little franchise, called Jack's Wife Freda, that stood out as one of the highlights of my trip.
During a leisurely afternoon with my hosts and the famous face set to host the upcoming Let's Do Dinner event, Nomzamo Mbatha, we discovered that this New York City favourite, with five other locations throughout the city, had some South African roots.
When you click on the "about" section of the website, the first thing that pops up is a picture of Jack Jankelowitz and his wife, Freda, in Johannesburg in 1980.
The restaurant describes itself as "an immigrant love story, times two".
This is because Freda and Jack met and married in Johannesburg in the 1930s. Years later, their grandson, Dean Jankelowitz, packed up and moved to New York City, where he met a woman named Maya.
She, too, had emigrated to New York to find that 'special something'.
Sparks flew, and another immigrant love story was born. They were married in Maya's homeland of Israel, at their spiritual centre of the Western Wall in Jerusalem."
After getting married, the pair worked in the hospitality industry for years, sometimes separately, other times together, before taking the leap and opening Jack's Wife Freda in 2011, on Lafayette Street in SoHo.
To Dean, his grandmother, Freda, was a wonderful host, gracious and warm with family, friends and strangers alike - and she always made sure there was lots of food, so her hospitable spirit sparked an idea for the name of the establishment.
"Freda was a Jewish grandma and, like her, nothing gives us more pleasure than happy and well-fed guests," said the founders on their website.
As we sat in the SoHo restaurant trying to decide what to eat, a light bulb went off in Nomzamo's mind. She decided to look into the history of the restaurant after seeing some peri-peri flavoured wings on the menu because you just don't get that flavour anywhere else.
To our delight, she was right, so we ordered the wings along with an array of dishes to share. In our selection were meals like the signature Jack's burger, fried zucchini chips, kefta kebab, spiced beet dip with feta, sesame and pita as well as some roasted cauliflower.
I ordered some Malva pudding because it is one of my favourites, but it sadly paled in comparison to the Malva you get here, at home.
Keeping in line with her role as the host of Stella Artois' upcoming event, she ordered a cold brew which came served in some branded glasses. The restaurant is one of the few establishments in the city that carries the beverage.
"The menu at Jack's Wife Freda tells the story of the dishes we know and love from our childhoods in Israel and South Africa, as well as New York’s Jewish food and culture, emphasising bright, fresh ingredients and beautiful presentation.
"Our love for our adopted hometown is reflected in everything at Jack's Wife Freda, from our lively atmosphere, all-day dining hours, effortless ambience and joyful sense of community," said the owners in the blurb on their "about us" page.
"The restaurant also boasts a colourful variety of guests who "come from all walks of life and all over the world, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in our cozy banquettes, enjoying breakfast, lunch, brunch, cocktails and dinner."
And that is exactly what we were, visitors with roots in countries like South Africa, Poland, Zambia, Nigeria and America, sharing a meal and connecting about our commonalities.
And that is what we'll get to do again on 25 October at the Let's Do Dinner event in Johannesburg.
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- Kaunda Selisho was hosted in New York by Stella Artois.
