KOSHER DOG FIGHT

It was kosher chaos.

A riot erupted at a Brooklyn restaurant last week when Orthodox Jewish patrons discovered the "kosher" hot dogs on the menu were chicken franks that didn't answer to a higher authority.

What ensued was as unholy as the hot dogs. The eatery's frightened manager was punched in the face and fended off the angry mob with an electric carving knife until cops finally broke up the frankfurter fracas.

"They were yelling at the guy behind the counter," one witness told The Post. "They started spitting and throwing things at him. They were shaking the counter and trying to jump over to search the fridge."

Members of Shomrim, the local volunteer crime patrol, was at the scene before police.

"There were at least 100 people there. We sent everybody out to the street," a member said.

The Torah tussle began when a longtime patron noticed the unusually plump wiener he bought Monday night at Cheskel's Shawarma King in Borough Park didn't fit into a challah roll as usual.

Suspicious, he asked for proof of where the hot dogs were bought. The server brought him the package, which confirmed the Bar S brand jumbo chicken frank was not certified kosher.

Shocked Hasidic patrons, joined by dozens of passers-by, encircled the counter of the 13th Avenue eatery, demanding answers.

At least one patron hit besieged manager Yosef Baron in the cheek.

Baron kept them at bay by waving the electric knife in their faces an image captured on video now making the rounds on the Web.

No one was arrested.

Rabbi Naftali Meir Babad, who had certified the greasy spoon as kosher, determined the hot-dog heresy was the result of a "terrible accident."

Earlier in the night, a non-Jewish restaurant employee was sent out to buy frankfurters from a nearby kosher market.

Instead, the worker went to a Golden Apple Farm grocery across the street and loaded up on goy wieners that just didn't cut the mustard.

The restaurant was shut for two days as rabbis meticulously checked for other non-kosher foods.

Kitchen equipment that touched the offending meat was thrown out, and utensils were cleansed with a flame to purge any remnants of treif, or non-kosher food, in a process known as kashering.

The ultra-Orthodox community continued to boil over the roasted weenies, with talk of protests lingering all week.

"Nobody knows how long this was going on," one man fumed.

Restaurant owner Shmuel Baron, who reopened Thursday, called it a one-time mistake.

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