LISTENING POST

Speakeasy Warehouse
Is A Big Surprise

DANNY RASKIN

Local Columnist

It's The "International" Event of the Year.

This New Year's Eve, raise a toast to your home
country at Southfield's Embassy.
It's Metro-Detroit's preeminent New Year's rendez-
rous. At Embassy Suites Hotel® Detroit-Southfield.
Our New Year's package will include a luxurious
two-room suite, managers cocktail reception from 5:00
p.m. to 7:00 p.m., late check-out time, and a made to
order breakfast in the morning.
The evening's festivities will feature a cock-
tail and hors d'oeuver reception to please the
worldly palate, and a gala five course meal
served in a grand dining fashion. Plus an open
bar and champagne toast at midnight.
Entertainment to be provided by a live band
in our ballroom, plus: Disc Jockeys in our
lounge and atrium area. Also, special floor
show to be performed by the internationally
known magic act, The Diamond Sisters.
ALL FOR JUST
Per Couple
Tax
' 25 0 Plus
Black Tie Optional

Please inquire about our space available for private parties.

Make your reservations now for Embassy's
New Year's extravaganza. You won't want to
spend-the Eve anywhere else.

EMBASSY

SUITES
HOTEL

Festivities from 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.
28100 Franklin Road • Southfield • 350-2000

WELCOME 1989
IN STYLE!

DYSAUTONOMIA

MEDALLION

Cleati4,e,ifinattha4 esevkit

• Special New Year's Eve Menu from 5-8 p.m.
• Don Nadel at the Piano until 10 p.m.

I

GALA
9:30
SEATING

Gourmir
veSeBva e
r zCeor Meal

Dancing, Champagne
Party Favors

Please call for your early reservation

4343 Orchard Labe Rd.
A il West Bloomfield
(In the Crosswinds Mall)

68

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1988

Fill a Dysautonomic
child's eyes with hope,
dreams, and life.

Dysautonomia Foundation Inc.

851-5540

1006 Ann Street Birmingham, MI 48009
313/646-3553

T

he surprise party
ended when wife
Linda gave Charles
Soberman an invitation to his
own 40th birthday party .. .
held last week at Mercury
warehouse factory, on
Schaefer.
Party was set in the 1930s,
with warehouse a front for
the "Velvet Room Speakeasy"
. . . Setting was opening night
as Mr. Dom Marconi, played
by Charles, greeted folks as
its owner.
There was a "murder" at
the speakeasy with in-
vestigating detectives . ...
Roles were handled by all
guests, including some as
speakeasy dancers, other
suspects, etc.
Mercury Paint Co. is cur-
rently celebrating its 70th
year as one of Michigan's
premier manufacturers and
suppliers of high quality
paints . . . Charles is the
grandson of Jacob Soberman
who, with Max Milgrom were
the two European house-
painters who founded today's
Mercury Paint after the turn
of the century.
Detroit-based Mercury
Paint has grown to include 11
retail stores, a 56,000-square-
foot factory manufacturing a
million gallons of paint a year
. . . If you had told Jacob and
Max that sales projections for
1988 would exceed $200
million, they'd have thought
you were nuts.
The two had been house-
painting partners for five
years when, with borrowed
capital, Jacob and Max
opened a small paint and
wallpaper store in 1919 . . .
"It was more than a business
relationship," says Nathan
Soberman, Jacob's son and
current chairman of the board
. . . "They were very close
friends:'
Business prospered during
the building boom of the
1920s . . . Soberman and
Milgrom moved their store in
the mid-'20s to a three-story
building with 7,500 square
feet on 12th Street.
Max passed on at the early
age of 39 in 1933 . . . and as
housepainting grew scarcer,
his widow and Jacob Sover-
man reorganized the corn-
pany, reaching out to newer
markets.
Mercury Paint Co. manufac-
tured its first gallon of paint
March 15, 1934, and by Jan.

1, 1935, the company had
made 14,000 gallons.
Louis Milgrom joined the
company in 1946 . . . Nate
Soberman the same year .. .
Myron Milgrom came on
board in 1950.
Charles Soberman, a third
generation, left law practice
in 1979 to join the company
and serves as its president .. .
Paula Milgrom, another third
generation-ite, came into the
Ai
company in 1975 and serves
as its vice president and
treasurer.
NOW OFFICIAL . . . Irv-
ing's Delicatessen-Restaurant
at La Mirage Mall, North-
western Highway, has been
sold.
New owners are veteran
restaurateur Kurt Deeg,
bossman of La Auberge and
Ye Olde Steak House in
Windsor . . . and Harry
Newman, Mitchell's son and
Lou's nephew.
It's now being operated by
Kurt and managed by ex-
perienced and very genial
Kathy Cooper . . . with same
good food, value and service
for which Kurt has been
known at his Windsor
restaurants.
Yetta Laxer, one of the
waitresses at Irving's, used to
wait on Harry years back
4
when he was a 10-year-old
coming into Katz' Delica-
tessen owned then by Sally •
and Jimmy Katz in Oak Park.
And so an era ends as Rose
and Irving Guttman, for the
first time since 1954 in Ham-
tramck, will no longer
operate their own restaurant
. . . It is very unlikely that
'110
they will ever run one again
. . . However, their many
customers can be assured
that Kurt, Harry, Kathy and
staff will carry on the fine
tradition established by Rose
and Irving.
owl
In January, Irving's, under
its new ownership, will be
open again for dinner.
CONGRATS . . . to Lucile
Huler . . . on her 90th birth-
day . . . to Robert and Andi
Newton . . . on their first
anniversary.
ERRATA DEPT. . . . In re-
cent item about their annual
showing by John Darakjian
Jewelers, name of John's and
Bergy's other son with Ara, is
Armen, not Armand.
DR. ALLAN WARNICK,
only American Board of
Forensic Odontalogy denitst
in Michigan, was in charge of
the dental group at last year's
Northwest Flight 255 disaster
at Metro Airport.

