BUSINESS

Taste of Minsk

Minsk International Foods brings former Soviets
a taste of home.

AMY J. MEHLER

Staff Writer

y

elena Kapitulskaya
gets cravings for Rus-
sian food.
Salty red and black caviar;
paltuse, a Russian style
smoked fish; kopchonka, a
kind of smoked ham; zefir,
chocolate covered mar-
shmallows.

Fortunately for Mrs.
Kapitulskaya and other
transplanted Soviets, there's
now a way to satisfy their
appetites.
Minsk International
Foods, opened April 9 in
Southfield, is fast becoming
the newest meeting place for
New Americans. Customers
talk in Russian beside
display cases filled daily

with fresh Russian-style
sausages, milk products,
cheeses, fish, and tortes.
They discuss news from
home over copies of Kalei-
doscope, a Russian language
weekly newspaper. They jot
down concert and movie
dates from hanging fliers.
"It was always my dream
to have this kind of store,"
said Minsk owner Elizabeth
Orman.
Mrs. Orman and husband
Mikhiel left their native
Minsk with their two chil-
dren three years ago. In
Minsk, Mr. Orman worked
as a professional painter;
Mrs. Orman worked in day
care.
"It wasn't until we came to
America that I started to
think about opening a store
of my own," Mrs. Orman
said. "But we had no money

and our first job was finding
our place in this new coun-
try."
In Detroit, Mrs. Orman
enrolled in beauty school
and found work in a subur-
ban beauty salon. Her hus-
band found work as a
painter.
It wasn't until speaking to
friends in Chicago that Mrs.
Orman's hopes became a
reality.
Their best friends, who left
Minsk 15 years ago, offered
to lend the Ormans $15,000
to open their international
food store.
"We were shocked by the
offer," Mrs. Orman said. "I
would never have asked for
such a loan. They are the
most wonderful friends.
They told us we could pay
them back when the store
starts making money."

The Ormans moved their
store to the former kosher
meat market at New
Orleans Plaza on Greenfield
Road. They started from
scratch, buying all new
equipment and doing most of
the renovation and paint
work themselves. That was
four months ago.
The Ormans worked day
and night in preperation for
their opening. Mrs. Orman
likes to do all the ordering
herself, using warehouses
and factories in Chicago,
New York and Los Angeles
that specialize in foods from
Russia, Yugoslavia, Poland
and Hungary.
"I wanted the store to have
a certain look and feel famil-
iar to Russians," Mrs. Or-
man said. "When they come
here, they should be able to
recognize some of the
labels."
Mrs. Orman has customers
coming from as far as Flint,
Troy and Hamtramck.
Her customer Yelena
Kapitulskaya, who left the
Ukraine 21/2years ago, likes
to look for old, familiar
labels.
"You can really buy
authentic Russian food
here," said Mrs.
Kapitulskaya, now of
Southfield. "Now I get meats
and cheeses I ate maybe 10
years ago in Russia. For
years, we could only dream
about such kind of food."
Sasha Vitlin of Bloomfield
Hills heard about the Minsk
store and came by to have a
look. He found some old fav-
orites among jars of
chocolate candies.
"I haven't seen these in a
long time," said Mr. Vitlin,
who left Russia 10 months
ago. "I don't remember the
stores in Russia looking this
good."
Mr. Vitlin also was sur-
prised to find kefir, the Rus-
sian version of yogurt, in a
plastic milk container.
"When you could get it in
Russia, it came in glass
bottles," he said.
Mrs. Orman also has a
wall filled with different

Photos by Gle nn Triest

.

Elizabeth Orman, proprietor of Minsk International Foods.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

53