How is this episode different from all other episodes?

As those who've celebrated a Seder dinner know, the same four questions are asked each year to help remind everyone who has been sitting around the table for several hours why they have gathered together to read through a book, sing songs, and drink wine on an empty stomach before eating dinner. Each year, many Jews attempt to give up their morning bagels for the week of Passover and reflect on the symbolism of this food-centric spring holiday.

In San Francisco, however, forgoing bagels has never been much of a challenge — the city has been oddly barren of Jewish restaurants, delis, and bagelries, compared to other large American cities. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen came along.

Like most overnight successes, Wise Sons had been in the making for many years. Co-founders Leo Beckerman, Evan Bloom, and Ari Bloom took their Hillel college cookouts to a pop-up, after they graduated, and the enterprise has since blossomed into five locations across the Bay Area.

In this episode, you'll hear Evan Bloom tell us that Jewish food is not just for Jews — in fact, the meals that many of us associate with Jewish food has become an American staple, one that blends the flavors of the old country with the abundance and boldness of the new. This fusion of cultures is also something that inspires Bloom's young and ambitious chef, Eduardo Hernández. A native of Mexico and raised in San Francisco's Mission district, Hernández is drawn to learning about a new culture and even hints that he's interested in blending the cuisine he grew up eating with this East Coast inspired comfort food, which he's learned to cook so well.

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