Ahead of her recent headlining performance at New York’s Webster Hall, card-carrying “City Kid” Karina Rykman connected with the head of a longtime Big Apple institution, kosher-style Upper West Side deli and grocery Zabar’s, to produce what we referred to in our review of the show as “perhaps the most perfect artist merch collab in recorded history” for the merch table: “BabKarina,” a Karina-branded, tie-dye version of Zabar’s famous babka. The limited run of 40 BabKarinas produced for the show sold out in minutes.
“Is this my Cherry Garcia? My Phish Food?!” Rykman wondered to Live For Live Music this week. “This is insane. They all went immediately as doors opened and then I heard through the grapevine that there was a whole BabKarina black market. Fans were selling them to each other for insane prices, allegedly. Hilarious.”
Now, Zabar’s will begin selling BabKarina at its flagship store at 2245 Broadway between West 80th and West 81st—an establishment the New York-native Rykman has patronized since her early childhood.
“One of my earliest memories is being in a stroller pushed by my mom in the Zabar’s aisles and Ray, who is still there to this day behind the smoked fish counter, handing my probably 3ish-year-old self a sample of smoked salmon,” Rykman recalled. “Zabar’s is my favorite institution in the world, and the idea that the BabKarina took off like this and could be a mainstay in the store…forever? I’m honored.”
Zabar’s: How a Legendary NYC Deli and Grocery Store Sells 4,000 Pounds of Fish per Week — The Experts
Babka—the sweet, rolled loaf that originated in Eastern European Jewish communities and lives on through generations of grandmas—remains a New York bakery staple despite its relative obscurity outside the five boroughs. But whether you’re a fan of Karina Rykman, a lover of babka, or some combination of the two, you can thank longtime Zabar’s general manager Scott Goldshine for bringing this colorful confection to the people.
“He is an enormous music fan,” Rykman said of the Zabar’s GM. “He sees even more live music than I do! He’s been to more Jazz Fests than I’ve been alive! What a legend. What a vision. What an execution.”
While Goldshine and Rykman often inhabited each other’s worlds from afar for years—Karina as a Zabar’s loyalist, Scott as a live music superfan—they didn’t connect in person until early 2025 at a Galactic concert at Brooklyn Bowl.
As Goldshine explained to Live For Live Music by phone, the idea for BabKarina arrived organically within minutes of their introduction. “We got to talking and I don’t know how it came up,” Goldshine remembered, “But I said, ‘Shit, I could probably make a tie-die babka.’ And she laughed and she said, ‘We’ll call it BabKarina!’ And we looked at each other and I said, ‘This might not be so f—ing crazy. I actually could possibly do this.’ So I started working on it.”
Goldshine knew first-hand that a babka collab was a strong play. “Wherever I go, whether it’s to a doctor’s office, a lawyer, anywhere—certainly, I’ve been feeding the musicians for years, Nova [smoked salmon] and babka—and the babka and the rugelach [another rolled pastry of Jewish origins] are the shit that kills it. … Zabar’s has definitely helped elevate the babka world.”
BabKarina’s research and development phase took several months. After testing various samples, Goldshine planned to put the process on pause while he traveled to New Orleans for Jazz Fest. [Editor’s note: Respect.]
But the pursuit of babka excellence waits for no Fest: As Goldshine explained, “We were pushing it, but in the middle of Jazz Fest, they sent me a sample. It was great. And we did it.”
“I had no idea how many were going to sell,” Goldshine added. “We did 40. We made it a simple label, and it sold out in ten minutes. … I got shit from my wife ’cause I didn’t save one for her.”
The convergence of factors at play in this simple brand/merch collaboration—the music connection, the deep local roots, unlikely supremacy of babka, the name, the quintessential New York City je ne sais quoi of it all—was too perfect for BabKarina not to be a hit.
Karina Rykman – “City Kids”
“This one is hysterical because it fit. It just fit right,” Goldshine said. “Karina is incredible. She’s incredibly sweet. The fact that she’s such a loyal and dedicated customer makes it a thousand times better because she’s one of us, she’s family. This was a labor of love between both of us.”
“My two fish guys that she knows… they don’t even know what a jam band is. They know Karina as Karina and her mother [coming to the counter],” he explained. “I sent them a video when I was at Jazz Fest, when she was at the Joy Theater opening for Mike Gordon. They were blown away. And I guess her mother came in the next day and those guys jumped [out from] behind the counter, they showed her the video… they were like two proud fathers.”
“Right now [the Babkarinas are] in the store,” Goldshine said. “It’s an experiment. I’ll probably put them online. We’ll see how people respond. Judging from some of the posts I saw, it seems like everybody wants one.”
Head to Zabar’s on New York, NY’s Upper West Side to pick up a BabKarina today. Don’t delay—we hear they’re extremely popular. Check out some photos of the Karina Rykman x Zabar’s BabKarina below. Find tickets to Karina Rykman’s upcoming summer tour dates here.
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