Zayda's Kosher Deli, a landmark butcher in South Orange, is going glatt. It's the first step in what the local Orthodox kosher supervision agency says will bring a major expansion of kosher restaurants and supervision to the area.

The glatt designation means Zayda's will purchase meats and other products under what is often considered the most stringent of Orthodox standards.

Formerly under the supervision of Rabbi Samuel Rosenberg of Elizabeth, Zayda's is now under the supervision of the newly renamed Vaad Harabonim of MetroWest NJ, which is seeking to promote and supervise institutions that adopt the glatt standard.

To Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler, copresident of Vaad Harabonim of MetroWest NJ, formerly known as Vaad Hakashrut of MetroWest, a major factor indicating the direction the Vaad is heading is Zayda's. "It's a major step for the glatt kosher observant community to have a full butcher and old-style deli with catering services," said Zwickler, religious leader of Ahawas Achim B'nai Jacob and David in West Orange.

The name change is part of a push to grow into a recognized kashrut label, according to Zwickler and Rabbi Mendel Solomon of Ahavath Torah of Short Hills, copresident with Zwickler and Rabbi Mordecai Feuerstein of the Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center in Livingston. The Vaad currently supervises 17 local food businesses, including restaurants, butchers, and ice cream establishments.

The Vaad will soon have its own local offices, though final contracts have yet to be signed. It will also have its own logo on its kashrut label as well as an Internet presence. Since its founding in 1990 by Rabbis Alvin Marcus of AABJ&D and Moshe Kasinetz of the Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center in Livingston, the nonprofit organization has been housed in local synagogues.

"We want to establish the Vaad so that it becomes a recognized hashgacha [supervision] beyond the local community," said Solomon. Zwickler offered a vision of the MetroWest kashrut symbol as achieving a status on par with those of kosher authorities in Bergen County, Highland Park, the "Five Towns" of Long Island, and Queens.

Representatives from every Orthodox synagogue in the area, including Chabad congregations, sit on the Vaad.

In the last year, the community has lost two kosher meat restaurants, Moshavi in Livingston, and The Avenue Grill in Springfield. While some critics have said that the costs for the Vaad's services are too high, its leaders — together with Rabbi Avrohom Stone, the MetroWest Vaad administrator who serves in that capacity as rabbinic field representative for the Orthodox Union's kashrut division — insisted that their fees are no higher than those of any other kosher supervisors.

Further, Vaad leaders said, it would be against their own interests as rabbis in the community to chase away businesses that would enable Orthodox communities to thrive.

Zwickler said the Vaad has been actively trying to draw new kosher businesses to the community. Poppy's Bagels, which will offer sandwiches, wraps, and salads, is finalizing its move to the Livingston/West Orange area. A second restaurant is in the early stages of negotiations as well.

"We have the foundation set in the MetroWest area to really take off as a full-service Orthodox community," said Zwickler.

Zayda's owner, Andrew Halper of Livingston, who bought the 54-year-old establishment with his wife, Alison, four years ago, said he hopes that acquiring the glatt certification will grow the business.

"We want to be more than just a neighborhood deli," he said. "If we could expand, that would be great. We have to see what kind of volume we get."

Halper said he believes the new supervision will add to sales of his supermarket line and that he would love to open another storefront. But he plans to grow very slowly, concentrating on maintaining "personal relationships" with all of his customers, he said.

Zwickler acknowledged that before Zayda's made steps to obtain the glatt certification, the store was not acceptable by Vaad standards.

The changeover at Zayda's has taken a year since initial phone conversations in July 2006. The kashering process at the storefront was completed over a period of weeks, section by section, without closing the store.

Most of the products carried in the store already meet the requirements of the Vaad, and none of the recipes for prepared food will change. Behind the scenes, however, there were many changes, led by one major factor: All the meat purchased has to come from glatt kosher purveyors. Every vessel — pots and pans, trays and utensils — had to be replaced or kashered, along with ovens, grills, and cooking and preparation surfaces.

Halper had to break relationships with longtime meat sellers and start new ones with glatt kosher product purveyors.

"I had to make sure the quality wouldn't change when I changed purveyors," he said. While he himself still does the butchering, he no longer does the soaking, salting and deveining, nor does he receive the whole animal at the store.

"But we still cut everything fresh, trim it, and grind it ourselves," he said.

While "glatt" technically refers to an animal with smooth lungs (see sidebar), the term has become synonymous with a stringent level that has become increasingly standard in Orthodoxy.

"In the American Orthodox community, it has come to mean a standard of kashrus beyond the detail of a smooth lung," said Zwickler, talking to a reporter in front of the meat case at Zayda's. "It includes everything from checking meat to checking vegetables to ensure there are no bugs."

There is now also a full-time mashgiah, or kosher supervisor, on the premises. An employee of Zayda's, he reports to the Vaad.

Regular customers so far do not seem to be affected by the change. Lisa Ehrlich, a longtime customer from Springfield who came in to shop on a recent morning, said she would come regardless of the new glatt certification.

A member of Congregation B'nai Israel in Millburn, a Conservative synagogue, she said she was mostly concerned that the prices would not increase. As for the taste, she said, she won't know until she tries it. Halper said that he expects the glatt certification, which became effective July 30, to attract members of the Orthodox community who would not previously have shopped there, but that it is "too soon to tell" what the real impact will be.