Monday - Friday: 7am - 5pm
An Israeli Breakfast of boureka, Israeli salad, hard-boiled egg, tahini and pickles is right at home alongside matzo ball soup on the menu at the café inside of Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael’s Santa Venetia neighborhood. Run in partnership with the JCC by Israeli- and California-raised Marinwood resident Dawn Daabul, the all-day café is open for breakfast and lunch. An espresso bar features the usual lattes and hot chocolate; a smoothie bar, popular in the summer when the pool is open, features a Green Smoothie and a Strawberry Banana Smoothie, while the food menu leans into sandwiches, soups and bagels with broad appeal.
There’s a tuna salad sandwich for your great uncle, yogurt parfait for the cousins, and Chinese Chicken Salad because – well, Marin. Daabul makes the boureka – flaky pastry stuffed with potato, spinach and cheese – in-house. Challah comes from @irisbake4u and is used on the schnitzel and fried eggplant sandwiches. Bagels for the egg bagel sandwiches are from Oakland’s Boichick. Coffee is from San Anselmo’s Equator.
The focus on supporting local and, often, Jewish businesses is intentional. The goat cheese on veggie-based The Green Goat sandwich comes from an Israeli family farm in Sebastopol. Doll’s Kitchen Bakery in Novato makes the cookies. Daabul insists on making Eli’s Israeli Salad fresh every day and makes all the tahini and hummus served at the café.
