Jacko's Street

About

by Sybil Kaplan Photographs by Barry A. Kaplan Agripas St. 74 Phone 02 581-7178 email: [email protected] Kosher - Rabbanut Jerusalem (all meat is Chalak bet Yosef or Mehedrin; vegetables are Gush Katif) Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; 5 p.m. until last customer Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday evening, 1 hour after Shabbat ends until last customer Zakai Huja has been around the shuk all of his life because his dad is owner of Avner Dagim, the fish store on Tapuach Street. After graduating the culinary program at Hadassah College and working as a chef at Canella, Cafe Kadosh, Angelica and Laura (where we met him), he and two friends, Rafi Revivo and Yotam Nissim, decided they wanted to open an upscale, gourmet, kosher restaurant near the shuk. In March 2013, Jacko's Street opened (Jacko is Zakai's friends' nickname for him). After more than a year running with people continually calling days ahead for reservations, Mor Revivo, manager, says Jacko's is as popular as ever. Looking in from the bar side or the restaurant side, Zakai and three Jewish chefs are clearly visible in the kitchen, working and enjoying themselves. Outside on Shikma are round wood tables looking through glass windows into the restaurant; one window is filled with wine bottles. Come down a few steps into the divided main dining room--off-white planks make up one wall with some high tables and bar stools seating 8; further back is the bar with 10 seats. Behind the bar, one can look into the open kitchen. On the wall above both sides of the open kitchen are decorative street signs. A column by the restaurant side of the kitchen serves as a bulletin board with customer's comments. The main restaurant dining area, including a booth and tables, only seats 20 but another 3 can sit at a counter looking into the kitchen. Don't worry about hurting the glassed-in floor area with wine bottles underneath; it's fun to walk over. The rest of the restaurant floors are rough cement; the walls