Café Rimon is a kosher restaurant chain in Israel with two locations in Jerusalem,[1] and a third one located in Beit Shemesh.[2] The cafe employs both Jews and Arabs despite being the site of multiple terror attacks.[3]
Café Rimon opened its first location in 1953 near Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem. Originally, Café Rimon was a meat restaurant. In 1983 it switched to dairy.
In 2002 Jerusalem Police and Shin Bet arrested three East Jerusalem residents who were planning to poison Café Rimon patrons. Working with Hamas, they developed a poison that would be tasteless and would induce a heart attack approximately fifteen hours later.[9] The perpetrators were: Sufian Bakri Abadi, age 23, head of the group, Utman Said Kianyah, age 23, a chef at the restaurant for three years and Moussa Nasser, age 22, who helped design the poison. All three were sentenced to 5–10 years in prison.[10]
In 2007 Rimon Bistro was added to the Ben Yehuda location, serving as a meat restaurant. This location later closed down. Also in 2007, a second dairy location opened in Jerusalem.[11] In 2014 another branch was opened in Beit Shemesh.[12]
