BY TEQUILA MINSKY | A aron Gross is a fifth-generation member of the famed Streit’s matzoh family. His great-great-grandfather Aron was the company’s founder.
Today, Gross runs Streit’s with his cousins Alan Adler and Aron Pagoda. Eleven family members are in the business, and they all get along.
“We are not the Durst family,” Gross quipped.
Four old buildings on Rivington St. currently house the factory, where it has been since 1925. However, the buildings’ age makes them hard to modernize to increase the place’s efficiency. Plus, there is simply the high cost of doing business in Manhattan.
As a result, Streit’s will soon relocate from its longtime Lower East Side home to New Jersey. The exact new location hasn’t been announced yet.
They will be baking on the Lower East Side through the summer, though.
“We want to have sufficient inventory to make the transition seamless,” Gross said.
Fifty percent of their sales take place for Passover. The factory employs 40. Some workers will be retiring, while some are still deciding whether they will make the commute and follow the business to Jersey.
Jennifer Karan, who lives on Grand St. by the F.D.R. Drive, stopped in to Streit’s the other week to load up on matzoh, macaroons and other items for Passover.
“This is an institution in the neighborhood,” she said. “I feel terrible that they’re leaving.”
