Making food is a communal act. We usually don’t just make food for ourselves, other people we care most about are usually involved. That extra ingredient of care and love is what really makes food taste better. 

My name is Josh Grunig, owner of Zylberschtein’s and a career baker. I’ve been working in the food industry for over 15 years. In 2014 I realized my dream of starting my own bakery business. In 2019, I opened Zylberschtein’s Bakery and Delicatessen, a Jewish-style deli in Seattle’s Pinehurst neighborhood. We make everything from scratch including our bagels, rye bread, cheesecake, pastrami and pickles. I love feeding people, the wholesale nourishing nature of Jewish food is my passion. Nothing is more comforting. 

Muri’s Seattle will open as a kosher dairy restaurant and parve bakery in the kitchen space of Third Place Books, Seward Park. We were approached by Chuck of Chuck’s Hop Shop to partner with him on his newest location of his iconic beer lovers destinations. The former restaurant in this space closed at the beginning of the pandemic, leave a space perfect for us to transform into a kosher restaurant. Chuck will handle the libations, and I will be at the helm of the food with Muri’s. 

I’ve had an interest in serving the community in Seward Park for sometime now, and this opportunity is a once in a lifetime chance for a small business owner such as myself to realize this dream. Muri’s will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner Tuesday through Sunday. Our menu will be modeled after the amazing kosher dairy delis of the East coast, while incorporating dishes from the Jewish diaspora. We plan to have bagels, challah, bialys, whitefish salad, tuna melts, bagels & lox, challah grilled cheese sandwiches, soup and a wide bar menu for the beer drinking crowd in the evening with items like carrot fritters with dukkah dipping sauce and Israeli couscous arancini with Aleppo kewpie dip. All bakery products will be made on premises, baked fresh daily.

My Inspiration

My grandmother was Muriel Stein. Her husband, Seymour, had 3 sisters born in France, who once they moved to the states never shook their French accents. Their habit of omitting the final consonant led to my grandmother’s nickname during their 60 year marriage, Muri. I want to honor my family, and especially Muri. She loved life with two open arms, always ready for a nosh, and loved a cold beer. This name is beyond fitting for this partnership with Chuck’s Hop Shop. Both my grandparents grew up in Skokie, Illinois. One of the largest Jewish populations outside of New York. Skokie was a stone’s throw from Chicago.

Muri’s will be built around 3 foundational tenets. 

1. Community 
Building community involves our staff, the residents of the Seward Park neighborhood, and the greater Seattle area, including the purveyors we source product from. Something I learned over the past 20 month is is the importance of making decisions based on best practices for the welfare, health and safety of our staff. The support of a loyal customer base (that’s you Seward Park neighborhood) helps us survive and strive to be the best restaurant we can. And without business partners in and around Seattle we wouldn’t be able to create all of our amazing food recipes. We want to give a gigantic bear hug to everyone who chooses to be a part of Muri’s.

2. Utilizing Recipes of Old 
We want to dig deep in the kosher recipes from both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions. My family also has a trove of  delicious recipes that will work perfectly at Muri’s. We want to look backwards for inspiration to honor the culinary traditions of the Jewish diaspora. 

3. Sourcing only the highest quality ingredients 
Muri’s is committed to using the highest quality ingredients we can get our hands on. This begins with partnering with local distributors like Merlino’s, Seattle Kosher and Washington Producers like Smalls Family Farm and Cairnspring Milling for our flours. The PNW is home to some of the best quality fish, produce and grain in the world. We plan to make use of it all.

How we will use funds raised
Funds raised through this campaign will help us open. We need equipment, kosher certification, staff, food, remodeling, and several kitchen updates to get open and serve our delicious menu. Support from the Seward Park community is critical to the success of Muri’s. We will be part of this neighborhood and we want to make people in the hood happy through our food. Getting financial support for this project is everything. 

How much we hope to raise
We need about $80k to get Muri’s open. We are seeking to raise $50k from this campaign. The remainder will come directly from my household income. I believe deeply in the success of this project, and am ready to fund as much from my own pocket as I can. 

Perks & Appreciations
These perks are geared to make you a regular. We hope you will visit us weekly, or more than that. We want to tantalize you with our fresh baked bagels. Show up in the best looking Muri’s swag. Just thinking of these perks makes me hungry. 

We plan and hope to reach our funding goals for this campaign. If we fall short, I still plan to open Muri’s. Not reaching our funding goals could lead to delays in our January 2022 opening date. We may not fully equip the space, or open with limited capacity. Help us make Muri’s a reality in Seward Park.