CreamPh fe Crop

She can give you
the "right number'
for soothing jangled nerves

at a telephone switchboard
S ITTING
eight hours a day is far from the

world's easiest job. You must be fast
and accurate . . . ever on the alert. You
can't lose your temper nor your poise
even though you're called upon to put
up with all kinds of people.

So you'll find that telephone operators,
during their 20-minute rest periods and
also at luncheon, usually drink coffee.
And for these very good reasons—
scientific reasons:

Coffee brightens the mental faculties ...
improves judgment and self-control. It
takes the strain off taut nerves • .. in-
creases physical endurance by removing

the very cause of fatigue.
So apart from the fact that there's sheer
pleasure in a cup of coffee, there
are excellent reasons why you should
make it a part of every meal. Research
shows that coffee's pleasant pick-up lasts
only two hours with 97 out of 100 peo-
ple.* So you can enjoy coffee in the eve-
ning and enjoy a good night's sleep too.

'Medical authority on request

FAN AMERICAN COFFEE BUREAU, NEW YORK CITY

RIGHT or WRONG?

Can you score 100% in this I-minute Coffee Quiz?

COFFEE SHARPENS THE MIND

Right? ❑

Wrong? II]

For centuries, the greatest writers and scholars
have turned to coffee for inspiration. And now
scientific writers say that coffee sharpens the
analytical faculties, increases the flow of ideas,
enlivens conversation. Check "Right" above.

COFFEE LEAVES A "HANGOVER"

Right? ❑ Wrong?

❑

It is true that coffee is stimulating, but this
stimulation lasts only two hours.And,unlike most
other stimulants, coffee does not pick you up only
- — to let you down later.
Check 'Wrong"
above.

CHEER UP! —What air

need is another cup

of coffee!

REMEMBER

THIS: To make

C

good coffee,

use enough — a heaping

tablespoonful to each cup

Published by the Pan American coffee producers, for the benefit of the American public, the laryest consumers of coffee in the world.

BRAZIL • COLOMBIA • CUBA • EL SALVADOR • NICARAGUA • VENEZUELA

38

past and present (including Tigers and place. The neighbors were there. Every-
Little Caesars owner Mike Ilitch), body would come and call."
"You could sit and have a sandwich and
Vagiates had a long history in the busi-
cup of coffee at the counter," remembers
ness.
With partner Harry Collias, he opened Mildred Erdos. Her mother always ad-
his first restaurant in 1920 at 412 Pi- monished her, though, to keep away from
quette at Brush (probably not long after the mobsters.
he arrived in Detroit). Three years lat-
"He was a good-looking kid and he
er, Vagiates and partner Christopher came from a very fine family," she says of
Cachias had a second place, this time on Purple Gang member Harry Millman.
12th Street. Vagiates lived around the "But my mother said, 'I don't want him
corner, on Pingree.
coming into this house."
Business was good, but it wasn't un-
"We went there all the time and it was
til 1932, when Mr. Vagiates took on two wonderful," Detroit native Anne
new partners, Constantine Tsangados Michalowsky says. "Everything was de-
and Zacharias ("Zak") Zakaro, that the licious."
restaurant really took off. They put 55,000
Lou Citron lived at 9169 Goodwin, "a
down and incorporated, with Mr.
Vagiates taking controlling in-
terest, or 250 of 500 shares of
stock, in the business. They called
their establishment the Cream of
Michigan Cafe.
John Vagiates worked day and
night to see that his restaurant
was a success. He was crazy about
his clientele.
"He was very, very pleased
with the relationship he had with
the Jewish community," Mr. Va-
giates' son-in-law, Monte Basbas,
recalls Since virtually every cus-
tomer in the restaurant was Jew-
ish, "when I met my future wife
(Mr. Vagiates' daughter) Audrey,
I thought she must be, too!"
Today, Audrey and Monte Bas-
bas live in Massachusetts. An at-
torney and politician, Mr. Basbas
describes his late father-in-law as
"a sweetheart of a guy, the kind
of person who always had a good
word to say about everybody. I
never met a man like him. Hon-
est to God."
In addition to working at the
restaurant, Mr. Vagiates volun-
teered with the Red Cross, offered free stone's throw" from the Cream of Michi-
pies to servicemen on leave from (and lat- gan. He was at the restaurant almost
er returning from) the war, and was ac- every day.
"You saw everybody — the high guys
tive with his Masonic lodge.
Mr. Vagiates' former cashier, Henriet- and the low guys," he says.
"One time my buddy and I went in and
ta Ruda, remembers her boss as a good
we saw two policeman and I asked him,
man for whom it was easy to work.
Henrietta was born in Canada, then `What are they doing here?'
"My friend grabbed my arm and pulled
came with her mother to Detroit. Her par-
ents divorced and Henrietta's mother re- me to the side. 'They come to be
married, to Joseph Jacobowitz (later Joe schmitzed' (paid under the table by the
Shepp). He was kind to Henrietta and de- Purple Gang), he told me."
Mr. Citron loved the restaurant's
voted to her mother.
"He never formally adopted me," Mrs. corned beef and salami sandwiches, on
Ruda says. "But I always wished he had." whole wheat or rye, and always accom-
Henrietta was 16 when she got a job at panied by a pickle and tole slaw. "They
the Cream of Michigan. For the next 10 were gigantic sandwiches."
Jean Stolsky enjoyed the Cream of
years she would serve not only as cashier,
but help with payroll and even put sliced Michigan soup, especially the mushroom-
bananas atop the famous banana cream barley. "Getting in Sunday was impos-
sible unless you were there before 9 a.m.,"
pies.
Harry Fleisher loved those pies, Mrs. she says.
Sylvia Goren knew all about the Cream
Ruda recalls. Fellow Purple Gangster
Harry Millman preferred candy bars, like but she never went there. Her parents
Fifth Avenues. Henrietta always kept a were observant. They had no interest in
seeing their daughter at a treife restau-
few in the back for him.
Elsie Silverman is a Detroit native who rant. So Sylvia went instead to the ice-
graduated from Central High and loved cream parlors or the Jewish Community
the Cream of Michigan. But it was not Center.
But Fannie Raskin Steinberger made
the food that brought her in (though that
the Cream of Michigan a family tradition.
was good, too). It was the atmosphere.
The Cream, she says, "was a friendly Every Thanksgiving she, her husband

ci

