Ham for Hanukkah?

  Eyewitness News

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A famous Greenwich Village gourmet grocery is feeling some holiday heat after advertising that its boneless spiral ham is "Delicious for Chanukah."

Balducci's, on Eighth Avenue and West 14th Street, apparently had the sign posted in its meat section over the weekend.

Manhattan novelist Nancy Kay Shapiro, 46, told the Daily News that she spotted the kosher faux pas while browsing at the store Saturday.

Shapiro went back Sunday and took photos of the "unorthodox" display, which promoted boneless spiral-cut hams for $8.99 a pound, petite smoked hams for $6.99 a pound and boneless smoked hams for $6.29 a pound.

"I just thought it was funny," Shapiro, a self-described "unobservant Jew," told the newspaper. "I wasn't offended in any way. I just thought, here's somebody who knows nothing about what Jews eat."

On Tuesday, the first night of Hanukkah, the signs had apparently vanished.

A Balducci's official, who didn't want to speak on the record, told the Daily News that it was a mistake. The official pinned the blame on a stock clerk who normally doesn't work the meat department.

He referred all other questions to the company's marketing department in Connecticut.

On its Web site, Balducci's says, "We apologize for this unfortunate error and oversight. It was never our intention to offend anyone, especially during this holiday. We will be reviewing our employee training policy."

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