A kosher grocery business in Milwaukee has had a number of what owner Mordechai Bates referred to as “spinach moments.”
Those are moments when customers of QuicKosher, 4833 W. Burleigh St., are ecstatic about a new product. Bates said his wife coined the term after seeing shoppers’ reaction to QuicKosher stocking frozen kosher spinach, a product they’d otherwise have to drive to Chicago to procure.
A member of Congregation Beth Jehudah in Milwaukee, Bates established QuicKosher in 2019 following the closure of The Kosher Meat Klub. He pivoted from his plan to pursue a career in medicine and decided to fill a need. QuicKosher started with Bates delivering kosher milk from the back of his car.
Today, the business is a full-service retail operation, complete with a website that allows customers to order pick-up and delivery.
“We basically can provide everything you need for every moment in your life,” Bates said. “Holidays, celebrations, pretty much everything you would need.”
Now, Bates is eying significant expansion.
Although the business is based in Milwaukee, its reach is much wider – and it’s growing.
This past summer, Bates said, QuicKosher began delivering groceries to Madison. As the year closes out, the business is expanding delivery to Green Bay.
And Bates is thinking about what’s next.
Bates said he and his staff have outfitted QuickKosher’s 2,000-square-feet store creatively to maximize inventory. But he wants to provide more kosher goods and services, including takeout meal service. He envisions more products on the shelves, a deli counter and a fish counter. QuicKosher might add sushi, Bates said.
He’ll need a different storefront for that expansion, closer to 5,000 square feet. Bates said he’d like to keep the store in the same area as his current location, so he can continue to serve the customers who have supported QuicKosher from the get-go. The move is somewhat on hold, though, given the state of the real estate market, Bates said.
With or without relocating, Bates said he also wants to offer catering. He may secure kitchen space off-site from QuicKosher’s current storefront so he can move forward with that service.
Down the line, Bates said he also is considering additional brick-and-mortar stores, potentially in Milwaukee’s North Shoreand maybe eventually in Madison and Green Bay, if QuicKosher has enough customer demand to support such operations.
Bates said his goal with QuicKosher is to make the Orthodox lifestyle more accessible outside major cities such as New York or Chicago. In those metros, amenities may be easier to come by. He hopes to help grow the area’s Orthodox Jewish community by highlighting Milwaukee as an attractive, vibrant option for people moving on from big-city life.
“They look across the U.S., there’s a lot of great options,” Bates said. “And they can look at Milwaukee and go, ‘Wow, they have a great store. They have a great basis for family life. I can see myself living there.’”
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