As the Lower East Side has changed over the decades and many of its Jewish residents have departed, Yonah Schimmel's is one of the few distinctly Jewish businesses and restaurants that remain as a fixture of this largely departed culture and cuisine.

[2][3] As cited in The Underground Gourmet, a review of Yonah Schimmel's in a collection of restaurant reviews by Milton Glaser and Jerome Snyder, "No New York politician in the last 50 years has been elected to office without having at least one photograph showing him on the Lower East Side with a knish in his face.

As business grew, a small store on Houston Street was rented by Yonah and his cousin Joseph Berger.

In 1910, the Bergers moved the business to the south side of Houston Street, at its current location.

[9] In recent years the restaurant has delivered its knishes nationally through Goldbelly, and has been featured in the site's YouTube series.