Café Rimon

Café Rimon (קפה רימון)
Founded	Jerusalem (1953)
Headquarters	Israel
Number of locations	3
Area served	Israel
Website	http://www.caferimon.co.il/

Café Rimon (Hebrew: קפה רימון‎) is a kosher restaurant chain in Israel with three locations around Jerusalem,^[1] with a fourth located in Beit Shemesh.^[2]

History

Café Rimon opened their first location, near Ben Yehuda, in 1953.

Originally Café Rimon was a meat restaurant and in 1983 switched to dairy. In 2007 they added Rimon Bistro to their Ben Yehuda location, serving as their meat restaurant, in addition to opening their second dairy location in Jerusalem.^[3] In 2014 they opened another location in Beit Shemesh.^[4]

The owner Ronen Rimon, proudly employees both Jews and Arabs at his restaurants, despite being the subject of multiple terror attacks.^[5]

Locations

Café Rimon Ben Yehuda is their flagship restaurant located on Luntz Street.^[6] This dairy location offers a variety of food including soup, salad, pizza, pasta and fish.^[7]
Rimon Bistro, which opened in 2007, is on Luntz Street and is attached to the Café Rimon Ben Yehuda location. Rimon Bistro is a steak house which offers a wide variety of meat options.^[8]
Café Rimon Mamilla, Rimon’s third location, opened in 2007, with the opening of the Mamilla Mall. This is their second dairy restaurant and is known for their large brunch buffets.^[9]
Café Rimon Beit Shemesh, opened in 2014, is located in the Big Fashion Mall in Beit Shemesh.^[10]

Terror Attacks

2001 Suicide Bombings

On 1 December 2001 at 23:30,^[11] two suicide bombers positioned themselves at either side of Café Rimon and blew themselves up simultaneously, killing 10 and injuring 170.^[12]

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat immediately condemned the attack.^[13] Additionally he called for an end to all suicide bombings and acts of terror against Israel.^[14]

Poisoning Plot

In 2002 Jerusale Police and Shin Bet arrested three East Jerusalem residents who were planning on poisoning Café Rimon patrons. Working with Hamas they had developed a poison that would be tasteless and would induce a heart attack approximately fifteen hours later.^[15]

Perpetrators:

Sufian Bakri Abadi, age 23, was the head of the group.
Utman Said Kianyah, age 23, had been a chef at the restaurant for three years.
Moussa Nasser, age 22, helped design the poison.

All three were sentenced to 5–10 years in prison.^[16]