Served with love Faina’s kosher market is the heart of ‘Little Russia’ in the morning to cook. Or fall asleep here, in a chair.” Her stuffed cabbage is many cusIn the heart of San Francisco’s tomers’ favorite item, though her Richmond District, on a block of housemade gefilte fish (made with Geary Boulevard that’s also home to tilapia, carp, dried saltfish and fried a Chinese grocery store, an Irish bar onions) is popular, as well. Special holand an old-fashioned barber shop, a iday menus around Passover, Rosh decades-old sign juts out from one Hashanah, Chanukah and Purim draw storefront: in additional customers each year; and “Israel’s Strictly Kosher Meat & her cherry and raspberry sufganiyot are Deli Market,” it reads with “kosher renowned in local Israeli circles. meat” in Hebrew and an Israeli flag “And when I told her I was purchasunderneath the English. Below, the ing multiple tastes to share with my costore’s main window showcases a workers, she threw in extra,” wrote one veritable banquet of Eastern person on Yelp.com. European baked treats: piroshki, “She doesn’t know how to cook anybabka, strudel with every imaginable thing in small amounts,” says Maya, filling. “Grandma’s Kitchen — eyeing her mother as she brings out Homemade Lunches” reads another another dish of food. Maya was 10 sign. when her family moved to San Step through the glass doors, and Francisco two decades ago, and she has you’ll encounter shelves upon the slightest trace of an accent. “Always shelves of imported Israeli and food, food, more food,” she says. “That’s Russian goods. Boxes of matzah, why my mother has a saying: ‘There has giant jars of borscht and pickled to be a lot of a good person.’ ” vegetables, gefilte fish in varieties According to the elder Avrutina’s you never knew you wanted. Whole friends — and there are many — no kosher chickens and cuts of beef are one is better equipped to talk about stacked neatly in a standing freezer. photos/cathleen maclearie what being “a good person” really Russian and Israeli wines line the means. As the owner, butcher, baker shelf behind the cash register. The Faina Avrutina serves up some bitochki (Russian beef balls). and, really, sole employee of the homey smell of frying onions fills store, she does more than just feed the community. every corner of the room, while the sounds of chatter She’s helping to preserve a culture. and gossip in Russian rise up out of the kitchen. Against The Russian Jewish community has been a highly visthe back wall, a defunct neon sign reads “Live Poultry.” ible part of the Richmond District for nearly a hundred As a visitor who just walked in off the street, you’d be years, with a wave of Jews emigrating to flee religious hard-pressed to remember you were in the United persecution following the 1917 Russian Revolution. States — let alone San Francisco. Prior to World War II, Russian-owned bakeries and Lack of live poultry aside (the sign is a relic from a other businesses were the commercial backbone of the time before the health department had rules about that neighborhood. kind of thing), this all-kosher market — the last of its And while the area is now home to a diverse mélange kind in San Francisco — is an almost perfectly preof Asian cultures in addition to Eastern European and served taste of the Old Country. Irish groups, immigrants from the former Soviet Union And for the close-knit, deep-rooted Russian Jewish have continued to settle in the area — actually labeled community it serves, owner Faina Avrutina is its soul. “Little Russia” on Google Maps — in steady waves over At 55, Avrutina has shoulder-length reddish hair, an the past few decades. Avrutina, a native of Nikolaev, easy smile and a bashful manner as she flits around the Ukraine, came in 1990 with her daughter and her husstore, preparing a seemingly never-ending banquet of band, Aleksander, who now drives a taxi in San hot food for her visitors: cucumber-and-tomato salad, “She acts as butcher and baker, she cleans the place, she Francisco. beef and potato piroshkis, golden-battered fish, beef balls, She also came with a culinary degree. chicken, seasoned rice, pickled cabbage salad and, of helps every single person who walks in here,” says another It’s mainly first-generation immigrants who have course, an array of strudels and other flaky pastries for friend, one of the many Russian Jews who stop by the store almost every day not only to shop, but to chat with become devoted to her food — and the attitude she takes dessert. toward it. She emphasizes the importance of making food She makes many of these dishes — and more — each Avrutina. On this particular Thursday afternoon, a group of about by hand (“It takes time. If you want it to be good, it always week, typically on Thursday nights, for her regular customers who come in on Friday morning to pick up food five Russian-speaking friends have gathered to sample takes time”), and using not only good ingredients, but also for Shabbat. She’ll often cook up a storm on Sundays, as some of whatever Avrutina decides to cook; over the the best accoutrement. For example, she insists on using real china and glassware when she caters a party, no matter well; kosher parties for bar mitzvahs and weddings keep course of an hour, three more stop by between errands. “If someone can’t afford something, she helps,” one how much more convenient paper or plastic might be. her busy on the catering side. (One friend had Avrutina Avrutina’s shop serves as an epicenter to the concencater his wedding. “It was wonderful,” he says. “So much friend says. “I’ve seen her sell things for less than they cost her. I’ve definitely seen her give things away for free.” trated community in the Richmond District, but she’s food, you wouldn’t believe it.”) “She’s bad with the ‘no’ concept,” is how Avrutina’s known beyond its borders. In 2011, at Chabad of San But perhaps more importantly, Avrutina’s store provides a meeting place for friends — including an estab- daughter, Maya, puts it. “Also, she really doesn’t sleep. When Francisco’s annual menorah lighting ceremony in lished group of Russian speakers who blur the line she’s preparing food to cater a wedding or a party or other Union Square, Rabbi Yosef Langer — a longtime fan of event, she’ll leave the store at night and then come back at 3 Avrutina’s — brought her up for the honor of lighting between customer and friend. emma silvers
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