Black People In Business – World Wide

By SUMATHI REDDY

The plans for Jezebel look like many other SoHo restaurants aiming to draw a hip, downtown crowd.

The difference is in the details: A gold-plated shofar will serve as the door handle. Art work will include familiar pieces but with different faces (Woody Allen in a commissioned re-creation of “The Last Supper”). And an Orthodox Jewish overseer will keep a close eye on the kitchen at all times to make sure all’s kosher. Literally.

“We’re looking to change the norm of where the bar for kosher is,” said Menachem Senderowicz, 34 years old, one of Jezebel’s two owners. “We think we can take it up more than two notches and bring it to a whole new level.”

“We want to become the kings of kosher,” interjected co-owner Henry Stimler, 32.

Messrs. Stimler and Senderowicz are stylish, fast-talking former finance types who plan to open Jezebel in June. It is the first restaurant for their group B&Y Hospitality (British and Yiddish, since Mr. Stimler is British and they both speak Yiddish), and they’ve hired James Beard Award-winning chef Bradford Thompson in the kitchen and Nick Mautone, formerly of Gramercy Tavern, to design the drink program.

The duo, who grew up Orthodox but now classify themselves as “modern Jews,” say the kosher aspect of the restaurant is almost an afterthought, albeit a carefully planned one that will include prepaid Shabbat dinners (and special ovens to keep the food hot) and unpasteurized kosher wine, which can only be handled by observant Jews.

The owners say there is an unmet need for a cutting-edge restaurant for the Jewish demographic that is populating the likes of the nearby SoHo synagogue, where Torah cocktail parties and a Hamptons services are among the offerings, according to the website.

But they insist they are not aiming for a predominately kosher or even Jewish clientele.

“It’s just a wonderful coincidence that everything that comes out of the kitchen is kosher,” said Mr. Stimler.

Jewish food is certainly having a moment in New York, with restaurants such as Kutsher’s Tribeca and Mile End Delicatessen in Brooklyn reinventing old staples like gefilte fish, chopped liver and matzo-ball soup.

But Jezebel is doing the exact opposite. While it will pay homage to certain staples, such as potato latkes, the food is described as modern American fare “that happens to be kosher.”

Roasted bone marrow, lamb bacon and chicken sausage are among the creations that Mr. Thompson, who isn’t Jewish, is whipping up for the menu.

Jezebel isn’t alone in aspiring to cook up gourmet kosher food with crossover appeal. Ladino Tapas Bar and Grill opened last month near Columbus Circle, and Pardes, a downtown Brooklyn restaurant, opened in 2010.

Ladino chef and owner Alexandre Petard estimates that about 35% of his clientele isn’t kosher. Supervised by the Orthodox Union certification agency, Mr. Petard is able to have live music and serve alcohol only on Saturday nights, after the Sabbath has ended and the restaurant opens—when complimentary handmade cigars are also available.

“I’m the first kosher tapas restaurant,” said Mr. Petard, who is French-born and not Jewish.

At Pardes, Moshe Wendel said once he increased his prices after opening, it was more difficult to attract diners who didn’t keep kosher. “Most kosher restaurants aren’t using really high-quality product,” he said. “There’s a very small amount of it, first of all, and the prices are so high. So I out-priced the crossover.”

Perhaps the best known among the new wave of modern kosher restaurants is Prime KO in the Upper West Side, a Japanese steakhouse and sushi bar.

Owner Joey Allaham, who also has two other restaurants, estimated that about 40% of his customers aren’t Jewish. “We don’t only cater to people who are observant,” said Mr. Allaham, who rejects the label “hip,” saying his restaurants are food-focused.

Prime KO, unlike most kosher meat restaurants, remains open on Friday nights for Shabbat dinner. Since money can’t be exchanged once the Sabbath begins (at sunset on Friday) and most hot food can’t be cooked, all dinners are prepaid and prix fixe.

Jezebel, too, plans to remain open on Friday night and has bought two special CVap ovens that are moisture-controlled and designed to hold products for a long period, Mr. Thompson said.

“We want it to be fresh, like you actually choose what you like that night,” he said. “We’re pushing it as far as we can and still staying within the guidelines.”

For Mr. Thompson, the challenges of adhering to a kosher kitchen resulted in a number of challenges. No dairy means using substitutes such as whipped coconut milk for cream and almond milk for cappuccinos.

One unusual aspect of Jezebel: It is among the first kosher restaurant in the city—and possibly the U.S.—to serve unpasteurized, or nonmevushal wine, which must be handled at all times by a an observant Jew.

Most kosher certification agencies won’t permit this. But Rabbi Aaron Mehlman of the National Kosher Supervision agency on the Upper West Side is willing to give it a try.

“It’s an extra level of attention, and it’s very time consuming,” he said. “You have to have one or two people keeping track of these bottles. It’s also a pilot project. If it doesn’t work, I’m going to cancel it. We’re going to be very strict about it.”

Menachem Lubinsky, president of Lubicom Marketing & Consulting, a kosher food consultant, said Rabbi Mehlman is more lenient than some other certification agencies. “There are people who won’t eat in a place that he supervises,” he said. “But he has a strong base of people who will eat there.”

Messrs. Stimler and Senderowicz say they avoided more stringent certification agencies because they may have had a problem with some of their decisions, from the music and artwork (which includes “Jewified” Andy Warhols) to how the hostess dresses.

“We’re taking something that was very outdated and putting a very modern twist on it,” said Mr. Stimler. “And will some people say, ‘Uh, uh, uh’? Of course. But we think we’re doing a very great thing, a very needed thing.”

Write to Sumathi Reddy at sumathi.reddy@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications

Ladino Tapas Bar and Grill, a kosher restaurant, is able to have live music and serve alcohol only on Saturday nights, after the Sabbath has ended and the restaurant opens. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the restaurant was able to have live music only on Saturdays.

A version of this article appeared May 14, 2012, on page A17 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: In SoHo, Kosher Rules Get New Twist.

By JIM FUSILLI

Nashville

Merle Haggard and Buck Owens are the standard-bearers for the stream of California country known as the Bakersfield Sound. Rightfully so: The 74-year-old Mr. Haggard is a formidable singer and one of America’s greatest songwriters; and Owens—who died in 2006 at age 76—together with his band, the Buckaroos, brought international attention to Bakersfield with its loud, clean, twangy style. Between them, the two musicians have tallied some 135 Top-20 hits on Billboard’s country charts.

But as we see in the high-spirited and handsomely mounted exhibition “The Bakersfield Sound: Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and California Country” at the Country Music Hall of Fame here, the sound isn’t homogeneous, took decades to develop and is the product of many hands. To discover Bakersfield’s forgotten artists is to tap a vein of American musical gold.

The Bakersfield story begins with the Dust Bowl. From Boaz, Ala., the Maddox family was among the 70,000 migrant workers and their children who traveled west to California’s San Joaquin Valley. Soon after arriving in 1933, the Maddoxes’ four sons and daughter formed a musical act, the Maddox Brothers & Rose; by 1937 they became the region’s first stars, performing a rocking country boogie they called “hillbilly music.” Thanks to their glitzy apparel and wild stage show, they were known as “America’s Most Colorful Hillbilly Band.”

In the mid-1940s Bakersfield, by now populated with country-music fans, became a rewarding stop for touring musicians. Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing, visited in 1946 and played for a year at the Beardsley Ballroom. Ferlin Husky moved in and had a hit duet with Jean Shepard; their “A Dear John Letter” featured Tommy Collins, Fuzzy Owen, Lewis Talley and Bill Woods. Woods ran the house band at the Blackboard, the honky-tonk epicenter of the city’s music scene. It showcased a lead guitarist from Mesa, Ariz., named Buck Owens.

The Blackboard’s music was designed for dancing and good times. Guitarist Joe Maphis, who recorded with his wife, Rose Lee, was so impressed with the rollicking Blackboard that he wrote “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud, Loud Music)” in its honor.

But it wasn’t until the 1950s that Capitol Records caught on. Producer Ken Nelson brought some Bakersfield musicians to Los Angeles and, with Owens on lead guitar, Collins had a string of hits for Capitol that brought national attention to a spare, echo-free recording style featuring the bite of a Fender Telecaster guitar. But it was Owens’s similar approach as a singer and bandleader that became known as the model for the Bakersfield Sound.

It was a handy mantle for commercial reasons, but it didn’t quite capture the sound’s essence: Maphis played a custom-made double-neck Mosrite guitar, not a Telecaster, and Owens’s music wasn’t much like what the Maddox Brothers & Rose played. Still, the label stuck and Capitol thrived. Meanwhile, back in Bakersfield, Talley and Owen opened their own label and signed Merle Haggard, who was playing bass in Stewart’s band. Mr. Haggard’s own group, the Strangers, featured guitar great Roy Nichols, who had played with the Maddox Brothers & Rose.

It’s said that the Bakersfield Sound was a reaction to the sweetness of Nashville, but that’s not necessarily so. Bakersfield musicians were influenced by Western swing, hillbilly music and to some extent R&B. If Nashville country came out of the church, as Mr. Haggard notes in one of the exhibit’s videos, “Bakersfield came out of the bars.” It was a relief from working in the fields.

Another misconception is that rock ‘n’ roll was seen as a threat. In fact, many Bakersfield musicians recognized it as an opportunity. In time, the Blackboard featured it. Owens was influenced by Little Richard, calling his music “conducive to excitement.” Three years before Elvis Presley cut his version of “That’s All Right, Mama,” the Maddox Brothers & Rose reworked an African-American blues number and came up with “New Step It Up and Go,” a wild rocker that presages the Presley track.

“The Bakersfield Sound” is fortified by vintage television footage from regional programs like Herb Henson’s “Trading Post.” Artifact-filled dioramas give a sense of how a music scene born of poverty rose to glory. Owens’s beloved sideman Don Rich is given ample due, as is guitarist Billy Mize and Bonnie Owens, a sweet country singer who had been married to Buck Owens and Mr. Haggard (and dated Fuzz Owen in between). Fender Telecasters abound.

As comprehensive as it strives to be, the exhibition fails to fully credit the role of Mexican conjunto or norteño music in the development of the Bakersfield Sound. Dwight Yoakam and Chris Hillman discuss it briefly in a video, and accordionist Flaco Jiménez is saluted for his contribution to the 1988 Yoakam-Owens duet on “Streets of Bakersfield,” but elsewhere it goes without mention. Consider that a correctible oversight, and applaud the Country Music Hall of Fame for spotlighting a seminal musical movement that can still thrill and delight.

Mr. Fusilli is the Journal’s rock and pop music critic. Email him at jfusilli@wsj.com or follow him on Twitter: @wsjrock.

A version of this article appeared March 28, 2012, on page D7 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The Fabulous Bakersfield Boys.

By TODDI GUTNER

Q. I was laid off six months ago. I am basically still an entry-level employee even though I got a bachelor’s in 2005 and a master’s in 2007, both in economics from Ivy League institutions. Then I took a job at an investment company that I viewed as a stepping stone. After a few months, the company and I came to the mutual agreement things weren’t working out. I feel like I’ve used every strategy: networking, cold calls, recruiters, company Web sites and direct emails. After a bunch of phone and in-person interviews, I always get the same reaction: “You have a great educational background, but don’t have the experience we want.” How do I get over this hurdle, especially in an economy where people with double the experience will take a lower-level job?

A. You’ve clearly done a great deal to land yourself a new job, says Sheryl Spanier, a career coach. If you’ve gotten interviews based on your resume, this means that your background at least met some set of criteria employers were seeking. Otherwise they wouldn’t have reached out to you, she says.

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Take a hard look at your interviewing skills. Your failure to move past the initial interview stage likely has something to do with the way you carry yourself during the meetings, says Ms. Spanier. “It might be about how you present yourself or the attitudes or opinions you express,” she explains. If this is the case, you’ll want to try and figure out what you need to improve. Practice your interviewing skills — what you say and how you say things — with a friend or mentor and get feedback, she suggests. Hone the “story” you’re telling and try to determine if it is helping you be considered as a viable and committed candidate.

Meanwhile, look for different and creative ways to build your experience and increase your odds of qualifying for more positions. “Volunteering with an organization where you can apply your skills is a great way to accomplish two key aspects of career development,” says John Heins, senior vice president and chief human-resources officer at Spherion Corp., a staffing firm.

Volunteering can help you keep your momentum going, as well as explain gaps in your employment. It can also help you to expand your professional network, as you may be working alongside someone who could be in a position to recognize your talent and drive, says Mr. Heins.

Similarly, you might consider pursuing project work or an internship for six months at a company that interests you, says Ms. Spanier. “You can gain the experience and exposure and [the company] will appreciate your contributions.” In this market, it’s all about trying to showcase your skills and internships are one way to do that, she says.

Write to Ms. Gutner at cjeditor@dowjones.com. If you have a question for the careers columnists, be sure to put Career Q&A in your subject line.