N o sh

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

Sperber's North has come to the rescue
of the kosher-keeping community with
the city's only sit-down restaurant.

Inset:
Sperber's owner
Alan Linker
works with his
whole family,
including wife
Peggy and
daughters
Elana, 6, and
Rebecca, 2 1/2.

o say Alan Linker was
hesitant to open his cafe-
teria on a Tuesday night
is a bit of an understatement.
"I didn't really want to do
it, to be honest with you," he
said.. "But we were really the
only kosher meat facility avail-
able. I felt the need to open."
So Mr. Linker did. Now,
close to two months later,
nearly 200 people jam the
cafeteria at the Jewish Com-
munity Center in West
Bloomfield every Tuesday
night to sample the fare he serves at
$9.95 a meal — an entree complete
with homemade soup or a garden
salad, steaming vegetables and a
freshly baked roll.
Although customers comment on
the high quality of the meal and the
reasonable prices, they admit that
the one thing that brings them to the
JCC cafeteria has nothing to do with
the tenderness of the shoulder
brisket.
Yudi and Mary Goldberg of Oak
Park meet friends in the cafeteria
every Tuesday evening. They used
to dine at Classic Coney Island in
Southfield, the last area full-service
kosher restaurant before it closed
late last year.
"We usually eat together every
week," Mrs. Goldberg said, "but now
we don't cook."
Instead, the brightly lit cafeteria
serves as a meeting point for the
kosher-keeping community, a place

.

to hang out on a weekday night.
This past Tuesday, dozens of fam-
ilies found their way through the
JCC lobby, catching a whiff of the
food cooking several yards away. The
diners greeted each other with loud
"hellos" and waves as they sent their
kids to secure a spot in the dining
room. Gossip and other news was
traded between tables before, dur-
ing and after the meal.
Mr. Linker, who runs Sperber's
with his in-laws, Henry and Marie
Sperber, said the Center hasn't seen
this kind of activity in almost a
decade. Then, the JCC served din-
ner three times a week. But the
opening and subsequent growing
popularity of a kosher deli in Oak
Park pulled business away from the
JCC cafeteria dinners. The number
of nights dipped accordingly until
dinner was no longer served.
It took the December closing of
Classic Coney Island to prompt Mr.
Linker to action.
"People in the community had
nowhere to go," he said. 'They need-
ed a place to go to in terms of a sit-
down [kosher] meat operation."
Among those happy he made the
decision is Rabbi Elliot Pachter of
Congregation B'nai Moshe. As a
partner in the cooking responsibil-
ities of his household with his wife,
Naomi Weckstein, the existence of
the Tuesday night JCC dinners
means one less meal to make for his
hungry brood, including children
Gabriel and Jonathan. 0

Right:
David Tanzman
chooses his
next bite.

Below:
Leo Steinmetz
flips burgers.