Pure Cold Press, a kosher vegetarian restaurant on Harvard Street in Coolidge Corner, will celebrate its tenth anniversary on June 7.
Owner Haim Cohen grew up working in his father’s falafel and shawarma restaurant, Rami’s, which celebrates 35 years on May 31. After a stint on the West Coast learning about juicing and the health food scene, Cohen returned to Brookline and opened Pure Cold Press next to Rami’s. Cohen says that the block has something for everyone between the two family restaurants.
“It feels really good to walk into work every day,” says Cohen. “The employees aren’t just employees, they’re family. They’ve been there, most of them for 10 years, and they’ve stuck with me through the ups and the downs.”
Cold-pressed juice, made on site, is one of the highlights of the menu, but Pure Cold Press is also known for its hearty salads, smoothies, acai bowls, and flavorful sandwiches. It caters to almost every diet, from vegetarian and vegan to gluten-free.
The most recent menu addition is pizza, which is available with regular and gluten-free dough. Cohen says they invested in a special pizza oven that can produce crispy crusts in less than two minutes. Getting customers served within five minutes of ordering is one of the café’s goals.
“I’m trying to launch a new menu item every two weeks from now until the end of summer,” says Cohen, who always brainstorms new ideas for the restaurant.
For Brookliners, one of the draws of Pure Cold Press is that it’s kosher. But this year, the restaurant became kosher certified for Passover and stayed open during the holiday. Passover kosher has a much stricter set of rules than day-to-day kosher. Cohen says they spent a full 24 hours preparing the restaurant for the holiday. The effort pays off; Cohen says sales double or triple when they’re open for Passover.
Pure Cold Press has stayed open for Passover three different times during its ten-year history. It does so whenever the dates of the holiday align so that it can feasibly prepare the space and then maximize customer availability. According to Cohen, it was the only Passover kosher-certified restaurant open in the Boston area during the holiday.
Cohen is expecting the birth of his first child this spring, but after he expands his family, he’s hoping to expand the restaurant. The dream of expansion would begin with another restaurant in the Boston area and then expand from there.
“The dream is to have one of these in every major city, to have a kosher option,” says Cohen.
In celebration of its ten-year anniversary, Pure Cold Press is offering free coffee on June 5. They use Barrington Coffee roasted in Lee, Massachusetts, to keep things local, and Cohen says it’s a must-try.
After 30 years in the restaurant business, Cohen believes in one major thing above all else.
“It’s about making sure everybody’s happy,” says Cohen. “If people are smiling, I’ve done my job.”