56 Years Of Excellence
In The Ann Arbor Area

DANNY RASKIN LOCAL COLUMNIST

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Here's who your money
helps when you give to
United Way.

W

hen you give to United Way, you help people in
your own community who really need help.
United Way supports more than 140 health and
human service agencies which lastyear served more
than 1.8 million people right here in Wayne, Oakland
and Macomb counties.
United Way is able to direct nearly 90 cents
of every dollar contributed to important services,
since only 10.4 cents is used for campaign and
administrative costs.
We hope these smiles bring a smile to yourface,
knowing that you helped so many find the hope and
help they need. Thank you.

Still the best way to show you care.

United Way

United Way • 1212 Griswold • Detroit, MI 48226

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MICS 2123-1092

I HAPPY NEW YEAR

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Murber • Mvistervi • Comebvi • Stiow

Audience Participation

Friday & Saturday 7-Course Dinner Show

All You Can Eat

Includes Dinner-Show-Tax-Tip

$35

Reservations call 349-0522

Mon.-Fri. • Lunch 11-2 Soup & Sandwich
Sat. Buffet 11-3 (All You Can Eat $6.99)

108 East Main Street, Northville

he year was 1937 ... Her-
man Weber opened his
Hi-Speed Inn on the out-
skirts of Ann Arbor . . . It
was a little restaurant which
seated about 40 people if they
squeezed together a wee bit.
Outside were two Hi-Speed
gas pumps as Herman cooked,
bussed tables and sometimes
pumped gas while wearing his
white apron.
Today, 79-year-old Herman
Weber can look back and smile
at what used to be . . . They
were the good old days for sure,
with a lot of fun and hard work
that eventually paid off.
Now celebrating 56 years, he
has seen that little beginning
grow into one of the few inde-
pendent, family-owned hotel
and restaurant properties in the
country . . . consistently rank-
ing among the nation's top 100
. . . Weber's Inn has rated four
stars in the Mobile Travel Guide
for the past 21 years . . . The
hotel also has received the AAA
Four-Diamonds award for as
long as the Auto Club has rated
travel establishments.
As a full-service restaurant,
it was originally called Weber's,
then Weber's Supper Club .. .
By the mid-'50s, "Supper Club"
had been dropped from its
name which again became just
plain Weber's . . . Herman and
wife Sonja wanted to make an
investment in a new location
that would be within the "wet"
Ann Arbor city limits . . . and ac-
quired seven acres at the new
Interstate I-94's Exit 172 .. .
Webeis restaurant opened in
1963 at the new location.
Now comes the all-new
Weber's Grand Cafe which
opened after a quarter million
dollar investment and is serv-
ing a third generation of
Weber's customers.
Gone is the look of a hotel
restaurant that had the ap-
pearance of an ald German
chalet . . . Instead is a modern
motif with tiled columns and
lighting inspired by the Vienna
Secession style of architecture
. . . The restaurant's low-key,
casual elegance is characterized
by rich wood tones of deep ma-
hogany tables and chairs, gold-
en maple flooring, muted green
cedar trusses and ivory ceiling
beams . . . Murals depict the
Ann Arbor area's rolling green
landscape while giant styro-
foam fruit sculptures (10 feet
tall and weighing over 200
pounds each) of Michigan ap-

ples and pears, hang above the
hammered tin cornice that sur-
rounds the dining room.
There is a new strip of
booths, fancy tile work, beige
linen napkins, custom-made
light fixtures and oodles of new
lighting . . . Gone too are those
black skirts the waitresses used
to wear . . . In their place are the
cafe look of hunter-green slacks
and button-down oxford shirts.
Prior to the new Weber's
Grand Cafe Restaurant, en-
trance was right from Weber's
Inn . . . It now has a separate
lobby and own entry from the
outside.
Herman Weber is chairman
of the board and still comes in
daily, shaking hands with cus-
tomers and giving that great
warm smile people can never
forget.
His son, Ken Weber, 38, and
daughter, Linda, 35, help Dad
operate the business . . . wife
Sonja is its ardent adviser.
Weber's Grand Cafe general
manager, John Staples, has

Weber's continues
a four-star
tradition.

been with the Webers 21 years
. . . Beulah Weber, Herman's
sister-in-law, married to his
brother, Fred Weber, handles
banquets and is a hostess for
them ... She has been with the
Webers 32 years.
Most of Herman and Sonja's
employees have long employ-
ment stays at Weber's . . . and
are highly-`rained in the correct
way of doing things . . . Our
waitress, for example, Cathy
Keller, doesn't do the unthink-
able no-no of reaching across a
table . . . She properly walks in
back to serve from the right and
takes dishes away from the left
... Cathy had been with Chuck
Muer since 1973 as a waitress
at the previous Northville
Charley's that is now Rocky's of
Northville.
Laura Kokkales, dining mom
manager, was general manager
of the year in 1988 when at the
former Livonia Charley's .. .
She started with Chuck Muer
in 1985.
Addle Rush has been at
Weber's 33 years, starting out
in the pantry and day waitress
now for over 25 years . . .
Evening hostess Irma Poegel
has been there about 22 years

. . . 25 years ago, Margaret
Radloff was in the sales office
before becoming restaurant
manager . . . She is now semi-
retired, coming in four evenings
a week to hostess.
Paul Burnett has been cook-
ing for Herman Weber 34 years,
since his Weber's Good Food
restaurant.
Without good, smiling, effi-
cient and loyal employees, the
world's best food can attain a
status of mediocrity . . . That's
why waitpersons like Cathy
Keller at Weber's are so impor-
tant.
A lot of people drive out to
Weber's just for the homemade
desserts and coffee . . . Pastries
are made on the premises by
Ivan Brown . . . and the old fash-
ioned carrot cake is from a
recipe since Weber's beginning
. . . According to a recent study,
about 20 percent of the cus-
tomers at the restaurant have
desserts . . . they're so good .. .
The chocolate chip cookie
topped by vanilla ice cream and
drizzled with hot fudge, called
Chocolate Mountain, is also a
favorite.
The menu of Executive Chef
Gerald Carpenter, formerly
with Chuck Muer under his
corporate chef, Rocky Rachwitz,
has a wide variety of dishes that
make customers ponder which
they should choose.
After patrons at dinner are
given the complimentary
starter of homemade breads,
garlic toast, matzah, cheese
spread, salmon pate and fla-
vored butter, it's on to the din-
ner menu that includes 12
appetizers, eight fish and
seafood items, seven pastas and
about 15 saute, grill and roast
choices . . . Lunches have 10
salads, 13 sandwiches, eight
fish and seafoods along with
chicken and beef selections .. .
Black Angus aged steaks, roast
duckling and stir-fry items have
also been added . . . The stand-
ard menu changes weekly while
chalkboards feature a variety
of daily chef specials.
Dining at Weber's is on over-
sized Mikasa china plates and
includes soup of the day, house
salad and house-baked bread
. . . The reasonable prices are
very much in line and a credit
to the Weber's way of thinking
. . . never ever gouge the cus-
tomer and have them leave
with satisfaction . . . Because of
this, they almost always return.
Lake Superior whitefish at