36 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JULY 23-29, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com In Carmel, the sign that summer is really underway is the tempting aroma of rugelach drifting out of a synagogue kitchen. Prep work for the annual Jewish Food Festival begins in May, months before a single latke hits a griddle for the public. The festival itself dates back to 1954, but the countdown to it runs on a very specific weekly clock: Sundays are cooking days. Show up at Congregation Beth Israel on the right Sunday and you’ll find a group of volunteers—a mix of longtime congregation members and newer folks still finding their footing—elbow-deep in dough. The room quickly fills with the smell of apricots, walnuts, cinnamon and chocolate. The rugelach goes first—baked, cooled and marched straight into a freezer to wait out the weeks until the festival, which is both the congregation’s biggest fundraiser and one of the few days a year that manages to snarl traffic on Carmel Valley Road. By post office standards, Congregation Beth Israel sits in Carmel. But on this stretch of road it borrows all the charm of neighboring Carmel Valley. The sun is bright, the coastal fog is a memory. It is a Sunday right after the Fourth of July. The parking lot is maybe a third full and utterly peaceful, so it is almost funny to imagine what’s coming. On festival day, this same lot turns into a chaotic zone of corned beef and pastrami sandwich lines, but a few weeks beforehand, it’s orderly. The door to the main building is propped open, and it takes no time to find the kitchen. Lisa Averbuch, the festival’s chair for four years running and who seems to be everywhere at once, keeping every cooking session on schedule. The challah operation, though, belongs to Peter and Diana Rosenthal. Their recipe is the product of years of trial and error, and Diana will be the first to tell you it’s not the challah her family eats at home. Home is better, she says without hesitation, because the home version gets something different. “We use butter in our home recipe,” she says. The festival version swaps in oil instead, keeping it kosher and pareve, so a slice can sit comfortably next to a corned beef sandwich without breaking any kosher rules. The Rosenthals’ work is surrounded by a rotating cast of volunteers, each parked at a station, each grinning like this is the best part of their week— which it might be. Challah is not a quick job. The dough rises once, gets shaped and then braided by hand, loaf by loaf, until the count hits 150 for the year. Every one of those loaves goes into the freezer to wait, patiently, for its turn in the oven right before the festival opens. Ask people why they buy challah and most will say French toast. Fair enough. But Averbuch has better ideas: egg sandwiches, bread pudding, or— her favorite—just tearing off a piece and eating it plain. That’s exactly how the Beth Israel community treats it every Friday night at Shabbat, and it’s hard to argue with a method that simple. The festival keeps growing. Averbuch says sales climb 15 to 20 percent nearly every year, even as the menu quietly reinvents itself. This year she’s chasing a different mood for the whole event—less Fiddler on the Roof, fewer creaky wooden booths, more contemporary Jewish life. “It will be like a farmers market,” she says, which tells you everything about where this is headed. Some aspects are untouchable, of course, such as the challah and the hamantaschen. But the kitchen likes to experiment. This year brings a cold citrus-ginger borscht (perfect timing for a July heat wave), a regional bagel sampler, stuffed cabbage rolls, eggplant blintzes and limonana, a frozen mint lemonade straight from the machine. The egg cream, sadly, did not survive the cut. One quirk worth knowing before you go: Cash is useless here. Everyone pays in festival “gelt,” purchased in advance. It’s not nostalgia, Averbuch insists: “We just don’t want our food volunteers to deal with money.” Come festival day, the longest lines will form, as always, for latkes and sandwiches. And every dollar spent waiting in them goes straight back into Beth Israel’s educational programs. It might be the tastiest kind of fundraiser. Jewish Food Festival takes place 10am-3pm Sunday, July 26. Congregation Beth Israel, 5716 Carmel Valley Road, Carmel. (831) 624-2015, carmelbethisrael.org. FIRST COURSE The braided shape on top of a challah likely originated from medieval European pagan rituals, which Ashkenazi rabbis later adopted and infused with Jewish symbolism. Challah and other Jewish delicacies can be purchased during the Jewish Food Festival. UP IN SMOKE…Revel in a smokefilled afternoon on Sunday, July 26 at the inaugural Black Smoke Invitational at The Antique Shop in Moss Landing from 10am-8pm. Guests will get to watch a barbecue battle and taste the finished products, watch live fire cooking demonstrations, meet-and-greet with esteemed chefs and enjoy live music all day, with a special performance by The Expendables. $92. 8071 Moss Landing Road, Moss Landing. blacksmokeinvitational.com. IN THE WIND…Good news for fans of the classic American breakfast-lunch-dinner spot The Windmill Restaurant—and there are many in Soledad. Its long-anticipated second location is expected to open soon on N. Main Street in Salinas, filling the space vacated by Ikebana Japanese & Korean Restaurant. The Windmill serves steaks, sandwiches, pasta, salads and much more, down to loaded baked potatoes. Check back for more information. thewindmillrestaurantca.com. BEST BET…The nomination period is open through July 26 for the Weekly’s annual Best of Monterey County® Readers’ Poll. Nominate your favorite taqueria, steakhouse, cocktail (or mocktail) bar, gourmet burger, huevos rancheros—the list of categories is not endless, but it is pretty comprehensive. After nominations close, the top contenders in each category go to the final ballot, where readers determine the best. But your favorite cannot win if it is not nominated. montereycountynow.com. INDUSTRY STANDARD…Woody’s at Del Mesa is showing love to those in the hospitality industry with new Industry Days. The restaurant gives 30-percent off on Thursdays for dinner and Sundays for brunch. Dinner is served 4:308:30pm and brunch is served 10am2:30. 500 Del Mesa, Carmel. (831) 624-1854, woodysmontereyairport.com/ woodys-at-del-mesa. ON COURSE…Tickets are on sale now for a wine dinner hosted by The Caledonian Restaurant featuring wines from the Huneeus Family portfolio. The dinner takes place on Tuesday, Aug. 11 starting at 6pm. Guests will taste their way through a five-course dinner, each course paired with wines from different locations along the Northwest coast. $180. 150 Fountain Ave., Pacific Grove. (831) 393-4210, caledonianpacificgrove.com. By Jacqueline Weixel MORSELS eatanddrink@montereycountynow.com The room fills with the smell of apricots, walnuts and cinnamon. EAT + DRINK DANIEL DREIFUSS Rye Smile Jewish Food Festival volunteers are happy to keep up with popular demand. By Agata Popęda
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