THE EWISH NEWS
This Week's Top S ones
Feeding Souls
Two gastronomes are set to open kosher restaurants
next summer.
JULIE EDGAR SENIOR WRITER
Ellen Magar and Marie Littman: Doing their civic duty.
Ladies In Orange
A couple of senior citizens are helping Oak Park
police nab parking criminals.
JULIE EDGAR SENIOR WRITER
hey may be watching
you.
As part of a volunteer
brigade, they're busy
nabbing inconsiderate mo-
torists who illegally occupy
handicap parking spaces and
fire lanes in Oak Park's public
parking lots. In less than a
month, 67 scofflaws have been
ticketed — at $90 to $100 a
pop.
"Me and my partner put on
our vests and get a camera and
ticket book and we hit the
road," said Ellen Magar, one
of two residents of Prentis
Federation Apartments who
participate in Oak Park's corn-
munity policing program.
Marie Littman, who drives
with another partner — a "big,
husky fellow" named Eddie —
volunteered for the program
for a few reasons, among them
her abundant energy and a
long history of volunteering.
And she has a personal com-
mitment to making sure peo-
ple with physical disabilities
have access to parking spaces.
"I had a handicapped son in
Pittsburgh who was a hemo-
philiac who got AIDS (he died
in 1989). He used to find diffi-
T
culty parking because of self-
ish people who were not legit-
imately parked," she said.
The tools of the volunteers'
trade: an Oak Park Public
Safety Department squad car,
bright orange vests, a camera
and ticket book. Volunteers,
who receive eight hours of
training, go out in pairs and
work four-hour shifts once or
twice each week at shopping
mall parking lots throughout
the city. They are trained to
wait for a reasonable period of
time before issuing a ticket and
always to photograph the of-
fending vehicle. And they are
never, ever to tussle with of-
fending motorists.
Most of the time, that's not
necessary.
"We just wave and they
move. They see us coming and
they run," Magar laughed.
On a Saturday a few weeks
ago, Magar and her partner,
Carol Lopez, issued four tick-
ets, three of them to people
who were illegally parked in
handicap spaces.
Littman hasn't run into any
hostile motorists, either.
"If you saw my partner, you'd
know why," she remarked.
Officer Jim Luxton, emer-
gency services coordinator for
Oak Park, said most of the re-
sponses he's received since the
volunteers hit the road Aug.
4 are positive.
Even a man who was tick-
eted had to conclude the pro-
gram is worthwhile. A parking
enforcement team issued a vi-
olation to him outside a Social
Security office when he was in-
side re-registering his handi-
cap sticker.
"He came in and understood.
He wants to be in the next
training session," Luxton said.
Of 38 people who signed up
for the parking enforcement
detail, only 18 were selected.
Luxton explained that he
screens applicants carefully to
make sure they're not too busy
and they have the proper tem-
perament for the job.
"You've got to watch for the
overzealous kind of people with
a bit of a temper," he said. "I
want people to back off. If they
need help, they just call (on the
police radio)."
That hasn't happened yet.
But it could, and that's why
LADIES page 27
He already has a West Bloom-
• d mushrooms are still
stirring the creative field location in mind for the 80-
juices of two local chefs seat eatery, but he would not say
_ ____.: who have gourmet where it is until financing
arrangements are complete.
kosher on their minds.
Restaurateur Matt Prentice, Kosher wines and an array of
successful purveyor of seasonal carry-out foods will be available,
foods with an emphasis on local- along with catering services.
Kohn, owner of Quality
ly-grown produce, and Paul
Kohn, known for his fine kosher Kosher Catering, plans to open
cuisine, are both planning up- a kosher Italian eatery next
scale kosher dairy restaurants in summer or earlier, in West
Bloomfield, Birmingham or
the northwest suburbs.
A sample of their menus: "Cas- Farmington Hills. It will be his
soulet of wild mushrooms that first venture into the restaurant
will taste like a true cassoulet business.
"I don't want to be deprecating
from France," Prentice offered.
PHOTO BY GLENN TRIEST about the history of
"Portobello mush-
kosher restaurants
room ravioli in a
in this city, but it's
roasted red pepper
never been a food
bisque," Kohn re-
person who's done
vealed.
the restaurants,"
Prentice, head
Kohn said.
of the Unique
"I can fulfill a
Restaurant Corpo-
need that's impor-
ration, which in-
tant," he added.
cludes Morels and
"One of the rabbis
the Deli Unique
here recently said
restaurants in its
to me, 'When some-
13-restaurant sta-
one calls me from
ble, just received
out of town and
kosher superviso-
is
contemplating
ry approval from
Paul Kohn will open his first
moving to the
kosher restaurant.
the Council of Or-
Detroit area, they
thodox Rabbis of
ask about schools,
Greater Detroit
mikvahs
and
(Vaad Harabonim)
how many kosher
for his restaurant,
restaurants there
which he expects
are.' Frankly," said
to open next June.
Kohn,
"if I were
He is trying to en-
moving to a city, I'd
list a dairy farm in
want to know
Michigan to pro-
how many kosher
duce cholov Yisrael
restaurants there
milk — designated
were." Kohn is
as such because
known to fly to
the milk manufac-
New York, Chica-
turing process is
go and Cleveland
supervised by a
Jew — but not be- Matt Prentice wants to give back to dine out.
Because his com-
to the community.
cause the Vaad re-
pany, which han-
quires it. He wants
to meet the highest kosher stan- dles the catering for a variety of
dard if he can, particularly be- Jewish institutions, including
Congregation Shaarey Zedek,
cause he is not Jewish, he said.
"I only want to do the restau- has been under Vaad supervision
rant if I can do it properly," Pren- for years, he already has its ba-
tice said. "The Detroit area has sic approval for the restaurant
100,000 Jewish people and no and its blessing, he said.
"They're thrilled" about the
kosher restaurant, and I think
proposal,
Kohn said.
that's ridiculous. The Jewish
His restaurant will offer fish
community has supported me
now for almost 18 years, and and pasta dishes, along with an
without it I never would've grown assortment of inexpensive pre-
the way I have. Many of my clien- pared foods to carry out.
"I want to be competitive with
tele keep kosher homes and
they'd love to go out and have a
SOULS page 27
kosher meal," he said.