Streit’s Matzo Factory, a Lower East Side staple since 1925, will close in late spring or early summer 2015, after Passover, co-owner Alan Adler has confirmed to amNewYork. The news was first reported by BoweryBoogie.com.
The 90-year-old, family-run business will not cease operations, however. In fact, “there will be no interruption in business,” Adler said.
Though leaving their original digs behind will be a sad day for the fourth and fifth generation cousins proudly running the business, they will continue producing from their Meadowlands, New Jersey location.
“We sold almost exclusively to distributors,” Adler said. “None of that will change.”
Streit’s kosher eats, ranging from matzo and kugel to potato pancakes, will continue to be sold at stores throughout New York City, including Whole Foods, Food Emporium and D’Agostino.
As for longterm plans to reopen shop within the city, Adler said the family is “still examining all the possibilities.”
“Prices are going up, costs are going up and production is going down,” Adler said of the decision to vacate the four tenement buildings at 148-154 Rivington Street, known for their kitchen with street-facing windows that let passersby in on the matzo-baking show.
“We don’t have a loading dock here and it’s hard to do a manufacturing business out of a residential neighborhood,” he said, adding that the ovens are so old they can’t get anyone to work on them.
“New equipment is much bigger; it wouldn’t fit into a Manhattan tenement,” he said.
Streit’s is the last matzo factory on the Lower East Side, and one of the last in the city.
