by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

September 25, 2008

Blaming slumping sales, Cait & Abby’s Daily Bread in Millburn/Short Hills said it is no longer kosher and is now offering non-kosher meat and other products. The status change is effective immediately.

The bakery’s South Orange location remains kosher, under the supervision of Rabbi Jehiel Orenstein of Congregation Beth El in South Orange.

Owner Raul Saade said the decision to serve non-kosher meat at the Millburn/Short Hills location was economic.

“We were ready to close the store; I had to get rid of one baker. Now we bring all the baked goods in from South Orange,” he said, adding that the non-kosher products at the Millburn/Short Hills location include “chicken, pastrami, corned beef, and turkey. We wanted to bring people in for lunch.”

Saade said the gambit worked. Sales are up 40 percent.

The changes will not affect the South Orange store, located at the town’s train station.

“South Orange has always been good. We have plenty of morning traffic. And our kosher customers there are very loyal,” he said. In Short Hills, “they only come on the holidays. After looking at the numbers, I realized it was not worth it to have a store open all year for just three holidays.”

Cait & Abby’s Daily Bread opened in South Orange in 1995; the Short Hills store opened in 2002. Both had been kosher since they opened.

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