B & H Dairy

B&H Dairy Restaurant is an ancient (for NYC) hole in the wall institution on First Avenue near St. Mark's Place, going back 60 years. Popular with the inhabitants of the Lower East Side, you could get true old time New York Jewish soul food there, homemade pea soup and challah bread, classic giant American breakfast of eggs and potatoes. It's set up like very simple lunch counter deli, all for very, very low prices. Many a starving artist kept body and soul together with their filling home made staples. Nowadays, a bit changed, the old waiters with their famously abusive schtick are gone, replaced by the new wave of immigrants. Many still swear by it, but it can be a bit rough around the edges. There are still vestiges of the old Lower East Side Jewish turn of the last century ghetto life left here and there, and the very few remaining kosher restaurants, such as B&H, Jonah Schimmel, and Katz's are among them. Hopefully they hang in there in spite of the astronomical rise in rents all around them. Another view inside ...