Elegance is a relative term, but most people know it when they see it. One could have made the case that evening dining at Kinneret Grill has been elegant for a while now, according to Karen Chriqui, owner of the restaurant along with husband Avner. Regardless, she is planning to turn the elegance dial up a notch or two now that the holidays are in the rearview mirror.
In lockstep with this new focus is a significant shift in hours of operation for the eatery. No longer is Kinneret Grill open for lunch, now starting its service day at 3 pm, and closing at 8:30 pm daily, Sunday through Thursday. The restaurant is closed on Friday and Saturday. The new hours of operation reflect the reality of doing business in an area where demographics simply do not support a lunch trade, Chriqui said.
“We’re rebranding the restaurant and making it a newer, more exciting experience; a more elegant experience — white tablecloths, a larger selection of wines (from Israel), a broader range of new items on the menu. We’re focusing on our dinner shift to make it more elegant, a different experience for our guests — a different feel to the place,” Chriqui stated.
On its face, more elegant generally means more costly for patrons. But Chriqui stated that the new emphasis on a more elegant dining environment actually will accommodate Jewish diners-out at various price points, including the value end of the spectrum. “What we’re doing, the dinner menu is going to expand in two directions. We’ll have more high-end offerings and also more value-added offerings,” she said. At the time of this interview (late September), the new menu had not been completed, but pondering the items to add had begun.
“The high end will be items like short ribs (as an entrée), some nicer steaks, some high-end appetizers, and that sort of thing, but we’re still in the process of filling it (the menu) out. At the high end, two sides will come with it. At the value-added end there will be some new sandwiches that don’t exist now, such as a barbecue brisket sandwich at night. Now, in the dining room at night, you cannot get sandwiches at all. They are not offered. So, with the new menu, we’re going to have flights of sandwiches for the value-end of the menu.”
The brisket sandwich will be in the style of a pulled chicken sandwich, the brisket shredded in the same fashion. Then the barbecue sauce is added and placed on the sandwich platform, which could be a bun or conventional bread slices. Also in the new sandwich category will be some form of chicken or chicken-salad wrap, again, not available currently. “The sandwiches are a value option for our patrons, and they will be available in a fine-dining environment,” Chriqui said.
In the five years since Kinneret Grill opened its doors, Chriqui has identified three tiers of patrons, she said. “You have those who want a rib eye (steak) who don’t care about the price; if it’s $60, that’s okay. They want the steak. Our regular entrée offerings (in the $25-30 range) are not that high, and really not very expensive (in comparison to other fine-dine experiences in Greater Cincy). Those prices are okay with most of the people who dine here. They’re normal,” she claimed.
“And some of our customers are more orthodox, or are older seniors, and that’s expensive for them. And so, for them, we’re going to have those flights of sandwiches and a flatbread with meat on it like a pizza, but not a pizza.”
Among appetizers, Chriqui said that the recent addition of chicken poppers to the menu has inspired her to do more in that area. The poppers are Kinneret Grill’s answer to chicken tenders, only better according to Chriqui. “We start with chicken breasts, so the poppers are chunks of chicken breast. We use the same batter as (used for our) wings, and they come out crunchy and very good. People love them! We make our own garlic aioli sauce to go with them, and you can have the bourbon barbeque sauce too. So, the poppers are really popular,” she stated.
New hours, new menu, new high-end entrée offerings, and new sandwiches, now at Kinneret Grill.
See you there!
