JTA — CookNSolo, the Philadelphia restaurant group co-founded by the Israeli-American celebrity chef Michael Solomonov, announced this week that it would close six locations across two of its fast-casual chains.
In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, owner Steve Cook blamed the closures on inflation, declining lunch traffic and an oversaturated market for fast-casual dining.
But pro-Palestinian activists who have spent more than two years targeting CookNSolo since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel quickly offered a different claim.
“Constantly disappointed in the inquirers sneaky portrayal of key topics. Everybody knows that they’re closing the stores because the boycott is working and yet nobody’s going to mention in this article the boycott??? we’re gonna pretend it’s a shifting landscape in the restaurant business?????,” one user wrote in the comments section of the Inquirer’s Instagram post about the closures.
“It’s not a lack of demand for fast-casual restaurants, it’s a lack of desire to support zionist establishments,” wrote another, which received hundreds of likes.
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The reaction from commenters reflects the sustained campaign against CookNSolo since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, when Solomonov and Cook announced the group was donating $100,000 to the Israeli emergency medical organization United Hatzalah.
In December 2024, dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters targeted Goldie, Solomonov’s kosher falafel chain, chanting “Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide” outside one of its locations and drawing fierce backlash from Jewish leaders in Pennsylvania.
But as the restaurant group shutters locations of Goldie and Federal Donuts & Chicken, Cook dismissed claims that the boycott had contributed to the closures.
“Any time there’s been a protest, it’s always resulted in a short-term increase in business,” Cook told the Inquirer. “This is really an economic decision that goes back many years at this point.”
CookNSolo is not the only Israeli-linked restaurant business to face boycotts in recent years. In February, Tsion Cafe, New York City’s only Ethiopian-Israeli restaurant, closed its doors for regular dining, citing anti-Israel backlash. In September, Tatte Café and Bakery, the Israeli-inspired fast-casual café chain, also faced online backlash after it announced new chains in New York City.
Employees of the New York City Israeli chain Breads Bakery also attempted to unionize earlier this year, demanding “an end to this company’s support of the genocide happening in Palestine.”
The Instagram page “Boycott CookNSolo,” which advocates for a boycott of the restaurant group’s locations, claimed in a post on Instagram Monday that the boycott was the reason behind declining sales.
“Boycotts work! Regardless of the irresponsible journalism by @phillyinquirer at @phillyingfood for ignoring this important aspect of their closures,” the group wrote in a post Tuesday. “Maybe people don’t want to eat your Zionist food!”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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