Another repeat customer is lobbyist and public relations consultant Ezra
Friedlander. When the New Yorker comes to Washington for a meet-andgreet
with a congressman or communal leader, he can always be found
with his guests at Char Bar, probably enjoying his favorite, the Texas Toast.
“Absolutely, all the time,” Friedlander enthuses. “As a matter of fact, my
guests often don’t even realize it’s a kosher restaurant. At the end of the meal
they might ask for coffee, and only when they’re told they can’t have milk do
they realize it’s kosher. And then they just say, ‘Oh, wow, this is kosher.’ I mean,
they don’t put two and two together until it’s pointed out to them.”
Friedlander adds what most impresses him is that although Char Bar is the only
glatt kosher restaurant in town, the staff operate it at a standard “as if they had the
most competition in the world.” Needless to say, he has his share of stories about the
place.
“I was having dinner here with someone
from the Liberian embassy, when I saw Ivanka
Trump walk in with her son,” he recounts.
“I walked over and introduced myself, and
to her credit, Ivanka was very friendly. I told
her my wife admires her, and you know, I
gave her privacy. I didn’t try to engage her in
lengthy conversation because she was there
to be with her son, but she was very, very
accommodating, more than she needed to be.
That’s the kind of fun you have when you walk
into Char Bar — you could have a US senator
in the booth next to you. You could have a very
conservative personality back to back with a
very liberal personality.”