Cafe Mansfeld

About

Address --11 Rupin, Israel Museum Phone ----02 563 6280 Hours --Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday --8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. evenings -- available for special events, can seat up to 120 people Kashrut -- Rabbinute Yerushalayim; all products are Mehedrin Al Mansfeld was the first architect of the Israel Museum, a talented man, born in 1912 in St. Petersburg. His family moved to Germany when he was a child and in 1931 he trained first as an architect in Germany then in 1933 he studied in Paris. In 1935 he moved to Palestine. He became a teacher at the Technion in 1949 and was Dean of architecture from 1954 to 1956. He was awarded the commission to design the Israel Museum with interior designer, Dora Gad, and it was inaugurated in May 1965. He died in 2004. In July 2010 the Mansfeld Café opened under the ownership of Nava Bibi, owner of the Anna Ticho restaurant and current owner of Piccolino. Managing Mansfeld is her daughter, Anat Yazdi. They also manage the cafeteria upstairs in the middle of the Museum. Issam Mashni, who learned at the Holiday Inn in Tiberias, has been the chef since it opened. A particular characteristic of the café and kitchen, since they opened, is employing special needs adults. The family began this with Ticho House and were one of the first restaurants in Jerusalem to do so. They proudly show the Mayor's certificate of appreciation for their support in employing these people. One might ask who comes to the restaurant at 8 in the morning. "We are like a neighborhood café," says Anat. "Most of our customers are not coming to the Museum. People come here for meetings before they go to work and from the Knesset and government offices." When you walk through the main entrance and lobby of the Museum,on the left is a glass wall exposing a room with white tables and chairs for 40 and an ordering and payment area with foods displayed in a glass showcase. A glass wall separates this room from a glassed-in pa