Richard Radutzky’s first job was running the elevator at his family’s factory in Bushwick. He was eight years old. “Do not call the Department of Labor,” he said.
Joyva started in 1907 with halvah sold from a pushcart on the Lower East Side. “The immigrants that came here still wanted some tastes of home,” Richard said, “and the fact that there was halvah on a pushcart was familiar, and it was safe, and it was home, even though it was a new home.”
The business grew enough that the family built a factory in Bushwick, and Joyva still makes its tahini, halvah, Marshmallow Twists and Jell Rings there. Richard is the third generation to run it. Sandy Wiener is the fourth.
“My earliest memories about being here are mostly how vast everything was, especially being so little, and it really kind of was Willy Wonka-ish,” Richard said.
Sandy remembers Melvin Campbell, who started as a factory worker and became plant manager. “He would always say, ‘Mash the button,’ and so we would push the button. The tape would come flying out, and we loved doing that because we were, you know, little kids.”
“They didn’t necessarily teach us how to make candy or tahini,” Richard said. “They taught us how to be nice, mensch-y people and do things the right way.” In a family business, he said, the family extends to the other 55 people who work there.
“We’ve always had a very open door policy here,” Sandy said. “If anybody wants to talk to us, they can walk in, and it’s no problem.”
“More than one person referred to us as a 120-year-old startup,” Richard said. “...You can’t blow up what came before.”
This fall, Joyva tahini is in the cold foam on the Iced Maple Latte at every Joe café. Ally Lynch from Joe’s catering team created the drink and won the company’s seasonal drink contest with it.
“It could be coffee, it could be tahini, it could be halvah,” Richard said. “...You just be who you are.”