Three Strikes for Spike

On Sunday night some friends and I braved the cold winds to attend Chef Spike's Latke Mania at Sixth and I Historic Synagogue, a spiritual and cultural space located at 600 I Street, NW, in Chinatown. Having only seen a few minutes of Top Chef, I wasn't really sure what to expect for this latke making demo, but what I can say is that I had NOT imagined 500 people (!) piled into the historic sanctuary ready to rock the latke. Expectations hardly mattered, though, because what we did get was an hour of nerve-grating potato grating courtesy of Spike Mendelsohn and his nagging mother (who both work here: www.goodstuffeatery.com). So, may I introduce you to Spike's Three Strikes?

Here's a picture of Spike getting ready to light the menorah on fire. Note the look of the interpreter.


Strike 1 - He didn't know how to light a menorah - The evening kicked off with an intro to Mr. Mendelsohn and then a menorah lighting ceremony for the first day of Hanukkah. Spike was in charge of both reciting the prayers (turns out there's three of them on the first night) and lighting the candles. The prayers were spoken in the wrong order (he tricked the sign language interpreter) and with unbelievably poor pronunciation. But that wasn't the worst of it. For giggles, Spike fired up his kitchen torch to light the shamus, a feat that is not so easy as you'd believe. After finally getting it to light, Spike aimed his torch at the first candle, much to the horror of the audience. "Noooooo!” they shouted, but Spike didn't get it. He tried again. They pleaded again. He finally got it - he dropped his torch and lit the first night's candle with the shamus, as custom dictates. If they meant to bring him in for Jewish credibility, he lost me by minute number 5.


Strike 2 - Spike's awful mother - Really, this woman was just terrible! Unclear who conceptualized her joining Spike in the demo, but it gets a big 'ol FAIL from me. I didn't know anything about these people before I showed up, but it turns out that Mama Spike has long been a restaurateur. She also seems to hold her son in contempt with his Top Chef fame. The end result was her bossing him all around the stage in front of a large crowd. Maybe it was supposed to be cute or funny or "Jewish". No clue. I just thought it sucked.

Strike 3 - Halfa Latke! - My friends and I were nervous that, given the enormous crowd, we had saved our appetites for nothing. About a half an hour into the event Spike announced that we should not fear! Though the audience was large, he promised that 500 latkes had been prepared and were ready for munching in the social hall following the demo. Well, we didn't wait until the end to score us our latkes. Sporting the face only a poker player could love, one from our group busted into the social hall and asked, "We have to leave early for school tomorrow and wondered if we could get our latkes now?" To my surprise they agreed. To our surprise, each plate contained a mere HALF LATKE! What the?! Need I say that it wasn't even that good? To be fair, they taste by far the best coming right outta the pan.