TRIBECA — Sushi doesn't mean just fish anymore.
At Sushein — the new kosher, conveyor-belt sushi spot at Broadway and Worth Street — beef, chicken and even strawberries and chocolate find their way into the rice-wrapped rolls, adding up to nearly 120 sushi varieties on the menu.
"Even if people don't like [fish] sushi, they have options," said Israel Kletzkin, 40, who launched Sushein with his wife earlier this month.
The name Sushein is a combination of "sushi" and "Sheindi," the first name of Kletzkin's wife, who designed the restaurant.
"The name is a present for my wife," he said. "She is everything."
In the Tribeca Roll, named for the restaurant's neighborhood, diners will find cooked, marinated beef, along with asparagus and avocado. For the sweet-toothed, Sushein's Dessert Roll features chocolate inside an omelet and rice-paper roll, topped with strawberries or fried plantains.
In the main dining room, customers can pluck their desired sushi roll or appetizer from a conveyor belt that runs the length of the room, or they can order from the menu's wider selection. In the back is a purple-lit lounge with pink banquettes, which will host meetings and parties.
Kletzkin and his wife first got the idea for a kosher conveyor-belt sushi restaurant — the first in New York, they believe — when they stumbled upon one in Paris and were struck by the diverse crowd it drew.
"My wife told me, 'We have to move it to America," Kletzkin said.
The couple moved from their native Israel to Lakewood, NJ with their five children last year, to be closer to family and try their hand in the restaurant business. Both of them are religious Jews and keep kosher, prompting them to explore options for foods that they would eat themselves.
They spent weeks driving around the city looking at available spaces before picking the L-shaped former Brazilian restaurant at 325 Broadway, which they liked because of the area's strong foot traffic and lack of kosher restaurants.
Since opening almost two weeks ago, the restaurant has earned rave reviews on blogs including Kosher Street, and Kletzkin said business is growing steadily.
If Sushein succeeds, Kletzkin hopes to eventually start a chain, with the next location Uptown.
One of the happiest customers so far is Rachel Roth, who lives around the corner and has dined at Sushein seven times in the past week and a half.
"It's a good addition to the neighborhood," said Roth, who works in finance and stopped in with her husband Friday afternoon. "The food is fresh and it happens to be kosher, which is a bonus."
Roth, who eats only kosher meat, said her favorite dishes at Sushein include the Rocky Sumo Roll, a $14 creation with salmon, imitation crab, avocado and asparagus in a deep-fried tempura roll, and the Caramelized Short Ribs for $26, with endive, bok choy, Thai barbecue sauce and rice noodles.
The menu does not include any shrimp or other shellfish, which is not kosher.
Although Sushein is closed Friday evenings and Saturdays for the Jewish Sabbath, the restaurant stays open until 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, which Kletzkin hopes will invigorate the Sushein's block on TriBeCa's eastern edge.
"This neighborhood, at night, is dead," Kletzkin said. "We try to make it live."
