Hoo boy, that restaurant’s menu is so retro, it’s cutting edge bland.
“Bring us some fresh wine! The freshest you’ve got. This year! No more of this old stuff!”
— Navin R. Johnson / Donald J. Trump
Commentators accept the need to attend a meeting in a non-kosher restaurant in order to preserve one’s employment, but not to eat non-kosher food therein. To eat treif food merely as a gesture of politeness? No. To save a life, certainly.
The trickier subject is the decision to eat food that is kosher in the non-kosher restaurant.
Agreed, though the fact that he likes to present himself as a paragon of classiness and taste, and then eats his steak as though he’s at Ponderosa, is amusing, at the least.
And I noticed it was nearly an hour after the reporter’s arrival that he was finally served his four strips of bacon. I guess it’s not a place to go to if you’re actually hungry.
And did the bacon come with ketchup?
Nah, the ketchup came with the eggs. 
Are we sure this isn’t how the money got laundered? 
Most interesting bit was Farage hanging around like a bit of toilet tissue underfoot.
Given how close Ivanka and Kushner seem to be to his inner circle, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if his hotel has a small kosher kitchen for their exclusive use. It wouldn’t have to be large or regularly staffed.
Not to derail the thread, but that’s not a complete answer. The problem of maris ayin remains: doing a halakically permitted act that nonetheless appears to an observer to be forbidden.
Let’s imagine that Yedidiah is known to be pious and observant. One day, people see him eating at a non-kosher restaurant. There are three possible poor results:
[ul]
[li]That Yedidiah isn’t pious at all! What a jerk![/li][li]Hmm, Yedidiah eats here. The place must be kosher.[/li][li]We see Yedidiah eating here, and we know that he is observant and that the restaurant is not kosher, but since Yedidiah knows the Torah so well,it must be one of those prohibitions that isn’t all that important.[/li][/ul]
All of these are evils that marit ayin seeks to avoid.
To head off nit-picking: yes, I am aware that technically I am including chashad in the maris ayin. Sue me.
But not in a cup or mug? (Bit off-topic, but curiosity piqued given your phrasing.)
It’s possible – depends on what material is involved.
There are two considerations. A regular cup may be rendered unusable because of a concern that it held milk in the last 24 hours. This in turn depends on the particular individual and whether he insists on cholov yisroel, milk obtained under Jewish supervision. (See slightly more detailed discussion here., but in quick summary, cow’s milk can’t be mixed with milk from non-kosher species, and the question here is how certain must the Jew be? One side argues that in the United States today it is virtually impossible for cow’s milk to be mixed with other species’ milk, because of agricultural inspection. So even though the inspection is not religious,or done by a Jew, Jews may rely on the milk (chalav stam, or plain milk). The more strict opinion is that regardless of the secular inspection laws, there is a necessity of Jewish supervision, and only milk thus produced is acceptable (cholov yisroel).
Glass is safe regardless, because it is said to not absorb hot material it contains. And obviously a disposable cup is fine as well. Glazed chinaware is generally not acceptable, because it’s said to absorb material or flavor from hot foods. Earthernware is also right out.
Now, all these are general principles. The linked thread is an example of two authorities reaching different conclusions on milk in the U.S. Even under the tent of Orthodox Judaism, there is disagreement on points.
It would had been more like nightmare to me !
Steak broiled at 1700 degrees??! Oh:
At least they agree that french fries should be served with mayo (hold the cilantro in my case):
French Fries / Cilantro Mayonnaise / 11
That menu is just plain weird. Look under salads. One says Baby spinach/Maytag . . .
What on Earth is “Maytag”? Unless they are butchering clothes washers back there . . .
Grilled slices of the Maytag Man’s baby?
A kind of bleu cheese dressing.
Aha! Thank you very much. One of those times when the wrong answer overwhelmed the google attempt.
I should have thought to add the word “recipe”. :smack:
As for the bacon appetizer, I suppose with a name like “BLT” they sort of have to be serious about their bacon. But they don’t even have a BLT appetizer. It seems like an odd name for a steak house. If I’d been looking for steak, I’d have assumed that was a sandwich shop and kept walking.
Looking at the “Prime” menu, it’s clear that the “B” is David Burke. Who is “L”?
P.S. on the “Prime” menu, the seafood section is called “Ocean Meats.” :roll eyes:
If Jewish people are allowed to be only served by Jewish catering staff and waiters ( as I assume there’d be a wee bit of fuss in New York if a gentile insisted on Gentile Only staff ), it might be difficult for owners to keep a Jewish waiter permanently on hand to serve the odd occasions when observant kosher preferrers enter.
And suppose an owner advertised for a spare Jewish waiter or waitress, and the main qualification was their religion/ethnicity ? Would it not come across Discrimination if a muslim waitress or a christian black waiter was refused the job based on their religion/colour ?
Anyway, I adore the title of this thread, and may borrow/modify it for a fawning biography:
The Trump Nobody Knows
When I spoke of Jewish supervision above, it was related to supervision at the dairy. But it’s true that there are requirements for a kosher restaurant guest that could only be met by having Jewish staff – a non-Jew pouring a glass of wine can make the wine undrinkable for an observant Jew.
Without expertise in the area, I suspect that requiring Jewish staff in a kosher restaurant or to serve kosher guests is a “bona fide occupational qualification,” and a restaurant that wished to do it could safely do it.
Oddly enough, an Islamic waitress might be of greater value than a Christian one. One reason the wine issue arises is concern that that the non-Jew was an idolator and intended to use the wine for idol worship – but Muslims, unlike Christians, are not idolators (in this framework–obviously as a Catholic I don’t concur with the assessment!)
Of course, they could serve mevushal wine, which has been boiled, and is exempt from the restrictions discussed above.