Tableside
Cooking
Available

A4iftavio

Best of Everything/Listening Post

,

West Bloomfield

Classic Mid Eastern Cuisine

in an Elegant Setting

UNBELIEVABLE! NEW! EXCITING!

SUNDAY BRUNCH

ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT! II a.m.-3:30 p.m.

• Scrambled Eggs • French Toast • Hash
95
Brown Potatoes • Bagels • Cream Cheese 0
• Omelet Station • Pasta Salad • Roast Beef
Y Adults
• Danish Assortment • Fresh Fruit • Pita
CHILDREN 6 & UNDER FREE
Bread • Baba Gannouge • Hommus • Etc.

ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT BUFFET LUNCH
MONDAY THRU FRIDAY 11 a.m.-3:30 ..m.

• Variety Of Chicken Dishes • Variety Of
Lamb Dishes • Variety Of Hot Vegetarian
Dishes • Mixed Pickled Veggies • Salad
• Hommus • Baba Gannouge • Bread
Toasted & Regular • Dessert • Etc.

7295 Orchard Lake Rd., North of 14 Mile
On The North Side of
Robin's Nest Shopping Center

737-0160

One of metropolitan Detroit's Most
Beautiful and Exciting Restaurants

Wonderfully Prepared Catering
in Your Home, Office or at Our Restaurant

Fine Dining and Live Entertainment

7 Nights A Week

Stn & DAN WARREN

Tuesday Thru Saturday

GEORGE "STARDUST' GREEN Mondays

28875 Franklin Rd. at Northwestern & 12 mile
Southfield
358-3355

FREE

1

DINNER MON. THRU THURS. , p.
p.___•
m. to 8 p.m.
m

WITH ANOTHER DINNER EQUAL OR GREATER VALUE
• Specials Excluded • Valid With This Coupon

DETROIT J EWIS H

• 1 Coupon Per Table

• Not Good With Any Other Discounts

I BABY SPARE RIBS Mon. & Tues. ° RACK OF LAMB 7 Days

PSYCHIC BELVA. KING Every Thursday Evening

1

Complimentary Reading With All Dinners
I FRESH HEALTHY FRUIT JUICES

elteeD '

Mideastern Cuisine

32425 Northwestern Hwy. Bet. Middlebelt & 14 Mile • 932-2540

DANNY RASKIN LOCAL COLUMNIST

W

$595

DUAL, OUR EXECUTIVE CHEF SINCE OPENING
IN 1985, WILL MAKE WHATEVER EXOTIC
MIDEASTERN DISH YOU DESIRE.

r

DeCillis Expands Savino
From Modest Beginnings

hen having sorbet in
finally got it back on its feet and
a restaurant before
opened a 2,000 square-foot spot
the entree or after din-
in Plymouth for production and
ing, and wishing you
distribution and went whole-
had some of it at home, take
sale with sales to ice cream par-
heart ... you can.
lors and restaurants.
Savino Italian Sorbet has ex-
The decision was a good one
panded its bevy of flavors and
that became even more lucra-
has them all available at local
tive when Stroh's Ice Cream Co.
supermarkets as well as three
signed on as his distributor and
other states.
is still his largest among 10 ...
Owner Lou DeCillis predicts
What started as a joke became
that by the end of
1994, his Savino Sor-
bet will be in cities
across the nation.
Being a 1970 grad-
uate of the Culinary
Institute of America
when it was in New
Haven (Conn.) before
moving to Hyde Park,
N.Y., he knows nutri-
tion well ... His sorbet
is kosher parve ... has
no fat ... no choles-
terol ... no sodium ...
no milk ... is only 27
calories per ounce ...
and all natural.
After graduating
from the CIA, Lou got
a job as a chef in June
-... and was drafted
into the Army in Sep-
tember ... He was the
private chef for the
vice chief of staff, a
four-star general, who
wanted him to stay in
the service ... Lou de-
cided to get back in
civvies and went to Lou DeCillis
work as a cook, cater-
er and ice sculptor.
a legal reality after Lou kid-
Italian ices are big in New
dingly said, "You should let me
York ... he always loved them
use your plant" ... He had only
since a kid ... Lou came to De-
been able to manufacture 4,000
troit for a visit, wanted some
gallons a day two or -three times
ices and went through the Yel-
a year ... Today, Lou puts out
low Pages ... Nobody had any
4,000 gallons about two or three
... dairies, ice cream parlors,
times a week in the over 30,000
distributors, wholesalers ... and
square-foot Stroh building ...
so the birth of Savino, a name
quite a jump, too, from the 250
he took because it was a popu-
gallons a day and 2,000 square
lar one in New York.
feet in Plymouth.
It was 1978 when Lou put his
Until just six years ago, Lou
furniture and a sorbet machine
was making only homemade ice
on a U-Haul in Brooklyn and
cream and red Italian ices ... He
moved to the sorbet-void Detroit
is now on Long Lake Road in
area ... He opened a tiny 800-
West Bloomfield, with an oper-
square foot ice cream and sor-
ation that has grown beyond
bet shop that you couldn't see
Lou's wildest expectations ...
from the street, in Livonia near
sometimes finding it difficult to
a Great Scott! supermarket ...
produce enough Savino Sorbet
Three months later, however,
to satisfy the huge demand ...
the "bread-and-butter" market
Last January, he actually ran
went out of business.
out of merchandise.
Lou had to take a second job
Lou still continually experi-
to keep the store going ... chauf-
ments with flavors ... One time
feuring, working in a rubber fac-
it was a Gin Sorbet for Doug
tory, etc. for three years ... He
Grech at his former Duglass

Duglass restaurant ... He fi-
nally took the best of about 36
and after just a couple, today
produces six flavors, lemon, red
raspberry, Michigan cherry,
strawberry banana, Squirt and
fuzzy navel (peach and orange).
Calls come from all over the
country and Lou sometimes
wonders how big this avalanche
is going to be ... From the looks
of things, the end is nowhere in
sight.
This year saw him
include his own deli-
cious concoctions of
strawberry banana
and Squirt sorbet ...
but don't bet that he
has stopped adding
more flavors.
Also this year, Lou
brought out the com-
pany's first soft-serve
sorbets for places that
had machines ... He
had developed the
line in the mid-'80s,
but didn't introduce it
because of the frozen
yogurt craze taking
place at the time ...
When that industry
seemed to hit a wall,
I Lou jumped in feet
first, feeling that the
time was ripe for soft
sorbet to come to the
front which he makes
at C.F. Burger
Creamery in Detroit
... If the machine has
two spouts, folks like
to mix flavors, like or-
ange and vanilla to give a
creamsicle taste.
He even has a phone number
on his cartons for people to call
and get a recipe of the season
... 1-800-Chef-Lou.
Lou DeCillis and Savino Ital-
ian Ices are on a roll ... a big
climb upward ... There's no
stopping him now ... The only
question left is what flavor he
will come up with next.
FIRST-TIME fund-raising
musical presentation by Sophie
and Harry Hoffman Chapter,
City of Hope, will have inter-
nationally-acclaimed localite,
pianist David Syme, in concert,
May 10, at the Royal Oak Mu-
sic Theatre ... The 800-seat re-
newed auditorium is expected
to be a sellout ... David's won-
derful talent and great person-
ality are drawing power
magnets.
AN ORIENTAL carry-out-
only restaurant that has
cuisines from five different