U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump canceled his planned visit on Thursday to the well-known Jewish kosher Gottlieb’s restaurant located in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood after the restaurant's owner, Shalom Yosef Gottlieb, died unexpectedly at the age of 75.
Trump was not supposed to dine at the restaurant but was scheduled to meet voters and pick up some dishes in the area. Secret Service agents had already visited the restaurant as part of preparations for his arrival a few hours before Trump's visit.
According to a report in the Forward news outlet, Gottlieb was a beloved figure in Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community and there was much excitement about Trump’s anticipated visit. When the Secret Service inspected Gottlieb's restaurant earlier this week, the rumor spread like wildfire throughout the Hasidic community in Brooklyn.
"The excitement in Williamsburg is palpable," local media reported before the tragedy. "Trump, I imagine, will order something to eat, will possibly eat here, meet and greet people, but I’m not sure how," said Menashe Gottlieb, who now manages the restaurant, to a local news reporter before his father's passing.
He noted that the Secret Service had visited the restaurant on Sunday and Monday. The restaurant was founded 65 years ago by his grandfather, Zoltan Gottlieb, a Holocaust survivor who fled Hungary in 1956 and settled in Williamsburg, where Satmar Hasidic Jews had established a community after World War II.
The popular restaurant, which is often described as embodying "Yiddishkeit"—the essence of Eastern European Jewish culture — features a retro sign at the entrance and serves grilled hot dogs to the delight of its patrons.
It's a popular spot, especially for the Satmar Hasidim, whose community relocated to Brooklyn after the war where it became one of the largest yet most insular Hasidic groups in the world.
Despite this, Gottlieb's restaurant, which seats around 50, also welcomes outsiders such as tourists who praise the menu, which includes various Ashkenazi dishes including five types of kugel, matzo ball soup, pastrami sandwiches, and of course, cholent. Even non-Hasidic Jewish tour guides regularly bring their clients to dine at the restaurant, which adheres to the strictest kosher regulations.