Let These Houston Restaurants Prepare Your 2024 Rosh Hashanah Feast

Dessert Gallery, Kenny & Ziggy’s, Hamsa, and Houston Catering Company are helping families celebrate two of the most important Jewish holidays of the year

Fall marks a significant period of celebration and reflection for the Jewish community, including some of the most important holidays of the year. From Wednesday, October 2 through Friday, October 4, families will observe Rosh Hashanah — the “head of the year,” or Jewish new year, which in Jewish tradition marks the creation of the world. Yom Kippur, running from the evening of October 11 through October 12, marks a period of prayer, atonement, and repentance. This period of the high holidays comes with plentiful feasts and platters of delicious traditional fare, including honey cakes, carrot-sweet potato tzimmes baked with dates or prunes, round challah, and more.

Fortunately, some Houston restaurants are commemorating the high holidays in 2024 by offering special menus featuring holiday-ready dishes, as well as Kosher meals and platters that can be enjoyed at home. Here’s what’s being offered:

Dessert Gallery Bakery & Cafe

The Houston location of this dessert shop will offer a range of desserts available for pre-order for the High Holidays, including:

• hand-decorated Jewish New Year butter cookies ($29.70 for six)
• deep dish apple tarts ($50 each)
• lemon and chocolate vacherin ($50 each)
• chocolate and white chocolate concorde cake ($36.50 for 6-inch, $62.50 for 9-inch),
• Apple Brown Betty ($62.50)
• Homemade raspberry sauce ($10.95) and bittersweet hot fudge sauce ($9.95).

Orders can be placed online at the Dessert Gallery website within three to five days of delivery or in-store pickup. Lead time varies depending on the item ordered.

Kenny & Ziggy’s New York Delicatessen and Bakery

Kenny & Ziggy keeps up its 20-plus-year tradition of offering a menu of traditional foods, with a pre-fix Erev Yom Tov menu that feeds 4 to 6 people, with soups, matzo balls, chopped liver, tzimmes, and a large, round plain or raisin-filled Challah. For $249 plus tax, diners can choose between a prime Angus brisket, apricot-roasted chicken, stuffed cabbages, or a combination of chicken and brisket, and a variety of sides, plus kugels, and a trio of desserts. Diners can also order from Kenny & Ziggy’s a la carte menu, which features around 100 dishes, including sides, main courses, soups, salads, desserts, breads, and condiments. A Yom Kippur Break the Fast package is also available for $279, which includes a pound of Nova lox, whitefish salad, tuna salad, egg salad, challah, a dozen assorted bagels, cream cheese spreads, a sweet noodle kugle, chocolate bobka, and a dozen rugelach.

Rosh Hashanah orders must be placed by Wednesday, September 25, with pick-up offered between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Wednesday, October 2. The restaurant will be closed on October 2 and October 3. Those already thinking ahead for Yom Kippur can check out K&Z’s special packages and a la carte menus online. The deadline for Yom Kippur orders is Friday, October 11, with pick-up on Friday, October 11. The restaurant will be closed all day on Saturday, October 12. 1743 Post Oak Boulevard.

Hamsa

Celebrate the holiday with a spread from this Rice Village Israeli restaurant. From September 20 through September 29, Hamsa will offer 8-ounce portions of its popular salatim for $9 each, or $75 for all of its variety. Dips include squash and lemon tahini, labneh, beet salad, matbucha, muhammara, amba pickles, baba ganoush, and harissa carrots. Diners can also score 16-ounce containers of hummus for $19, challah for $8, a braised lamb shank with roasted vegetables for $70, and its apple and honey babka for $15.

Houston Catering Concepts

Diners looking to build their perfect Rosh Hashanah Feast can also order from Houston Catering Company, which has a full lineup of appetizers, soups, salads, main courses, and desserts. Highlights include the following:

Breads and Smears

Becca Wright

• Plain Round Challah ($9)
• Bagels ($18 per dozen)
• Scallion ($12 per pint)
• Nova lox ($15 per pint)

Starters

• $4 Blintzes
• Chopped liver ($16 per pound)
• Whitefish salad ($23 per pound)

Soups & Salad

• Poached pear salad served with raspberry vinaigrette ($35 for serving for 10 to 12 people)
• Meridian salad, made with chopped hearts of romaine lettuce and spring mix with tomatoes, cucumbers, sliced strawberries, and candied walnuts; served with white shallot vinaigrette ($35 for serving for 10 to 12 people)
• Israeli salad ($8 per pound)
• Chicken Soup, serves 2-3 people ($12 per quart)

Entrees

• Brisket, smothered in tomato sauce with carrots and potatoes ($24)
• Apricot chicken (8 pieces for $19)
• Ginger teriyaki salmon ($136)
• Honey Glazed Corned Beef ($31 per pound)

Sides (available as half pan for 15 to 20 people, or a quart, which feeds four to six people

• Roasted corn souffle ($45)
• Broccoli casserole ($45)
• Herb-roasted tri-color potatoes ($16 per quart)

Desserts

• Sponge cake ($24)
• Honey cake ($12)
• Chocolate babka ($16)

Orders for Rosh Hashanah should be placed online by Wednesday, September 25, with pick-ups on Wednesday, October 2 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Orders for Yom Kippur must be placed by Friday, October 4, with pick-ups scheduled on Friday, October 11, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.