Above left: Memphis Smoke
is among the newest
restaurants.

Below left: Michelle Kole
lives and works in Royal
Oak.

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Merits of the housing stock aside, real estate
draws a lot of young Jews to Royal Oak. Though
home prices seem to rise exponentially with the
opening of each new coffeehouse, first-time buyers
can still put a roof over their heads for under
$100,000.
Ivan and Amy Katz scoured traditionally Jew-
ish neighborhoods in Oak Park and Southfield be-
fore deciding on Royal Oak.
"For us, the largest factor was property values,"
explains Ivan Katz, who owns a business in Fern-
dale. "We could see they were clearly on the rise."
Besides, Royal Oak is so convenient: Woodward
Avenue, 1-696 and 1-75 are moments away.
"You couldn't live in a more accessible place,"
says 30-year-old Josi Ryke. "It's perfect."
Ms. Ryke and her husband, Brian Fishman,
bought their 1938 two-story from its original own-
ers two years ago. They replaced the "bubbie
shades" on the windows, ripped up the carpeting
to expose the wood floors, added a bathroom and
are supremely happy with their cozy corner of this
mini-metropolis.
"Royal Oak is the poor man's Birmingham," says
Mr. Fishman, `but cooler."
Anyone familiar with the history of the Shrine
of the Little Flower (still a landmark at 12 Mile and
Woodward) and the virulent anti-Semitic ranting
in the 1930s of its priest Father Charles E. Cough-
lin, knows that Royal Oak wasn't always an at-
tractive destination for Jews.
But by the time the artists had settled in and the
Royal Oak buzz began in the early '80s, young Jew-
ish entrepreneurs were among the first to pick up
the scent of cool.
Leo Rosenbloom opened the independent music

store Off the Record on the corner of Main
and Fourth Streets in 1980 and Heidi
Lichtenstein relocated her vintage retail
store, Cinderella's Attic, next door to Mr.
Rosenbloom five years later.
"We saw that this is where we could
start a mini Soho," says Ms. Lichtenstein,
who does a booming business outfitting
Jewish teen-agers for '50s-themed bar and
bat mitzvahs. "(We thought) let's get a cool
area going."
If there hasn't been an overwhelming
influx of Jews moving to Royal Oak, the
consensus among those who live there is
that the Jewish crowd is spending an in-
creasing amount of its leisure time in the
city.
"I think there are a lot more Jewish people vis-
iting Royal Oak," says Ms. Kole, who recently
opened a home accessories/lifestyle store called
Essencha just off Main Street.
Does it matter much to Jews living in Royal Oak
that the kosher-foods section at the local Farmer
Jack carries as minor a selection as they claim? Or
that they might have to drive half an hour to vis-
it the relatives off Orchard Lake Road?
Not really.
"You're across the street from Huntington
Woods; Birmingham is down the street," says Ms.
Woll. "Certainly it's not separated enough to re-
ally feel that the Jewish population is underrep-
resented around here."
"I live in Royal Oak, but I definitely live within
the Jewish community," says Eric Ersher, ex-
plaining that, socially, he spends as much time
with other Jews as he would if he lived further
west.
Despite its virtues, Royal Oak can be annoying:
it's more expensive than ever to buy a house or rent
one of the scarce apartments. Lines at the restau-
rants and bars can be hellacious, parking is a joke
and the tourists — it's like Mackinac Island on the
weekends, complains Mr. Stein.
In fact, Saturday nights are enough to make the
city's super-hip up and move to Ferndale, which is
now on the verge of out-Sohoing Royal Oak.
For the time being, though, the town that
spawned Dr. (Jack Kevorkian) Death remains the
municipality of choice for people in search of an al-
ternative suburban experience.
And according to Mr. Stein, there's only one trick
to achieving happiness in Royal Oak: "Get to know
the bouncers so you don't have to wait in line." L

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