together. "You also have to separate
the fact that while you may be critical
of job performance, that doesn't mean
you don't love each other."
Certainly, there is no covering up
the love at Travel-Max in Farmington
Hills, where owner Maxine Weinberg
works side-by-side with her oldest
daughter Jodi Denenberg, 32. Wein-
berg also keeps the books for the
Birmingham hair salon she co-owns
with her daughter Stacey.
"We all have a very close relation-
ship," Weinberg says, interrupting one
call to pick up another from Stacey.
Meanwhile Maxine's youngest, Amy
Grosinger, works with her husband.
"Every morning one checks in, then
another ... it's very nice."
Of course, working together does
run in the family. Weinberg started
out as a travel agent for her mother
and later opened her own agency
while her kids were little.
Denenberg never had any intention
of becoming a travel agent, but when
she couldn't find a post-college teach-
ing position, she became the recep-
tionist at Travel-Max. Gradually, she
worked her way up to travel agent.
The family connection "helps the
business," Denenberg said. "If my
mom is not available, I can help and
the customers seem to like that."
Over at Salon Sydney, Weinberg
said she does more listening than
teaching, since Stacey is the style
expert.
"You need to not only expect
respect, but give respect," Weinberg
said. "They can teach me things, too."
Most important, Stacey declares, is
communication.
"Right, Mom?"
"Yes," Weinberg replies. "That
sounds about right." ❑

Coming Around Again

Ratner's won the reputation as a hangout for older Jews —
now its back door, the Lansky Lounge, is a hot spot for the Gen-X set.

MARTIN ZVI BRAUN
Special to The Jewish News

I

"You're not going to find any
alterkakers in here," says co-manager
Ted Peck, 26, nodding to the cocktail
crowd behind him while using the
Yiddish word for geezer.
The kosher menus for the Lansky
Lounge and Ratner's both have latkes
and matzah brei, but the similarity
ends there. "We're not looking for the
same customer," says Peck.
Like Detroit's Velvet Lounge, the
Lansky Lounge has taken advantage of

is Thursday night, and the back
room of Ratner's is jumping.
The Delegates, a four-piece
jump blues band from Brooklyn,
are wailing away on their instruments.
Young men in suspenders and two-
toned shoes swing to the "Lind)/ with
partners decked out in slinky evening
wear. Floating past the tables toward
the dance floor, a
fellow known only
as Mr. Gerrard —
impeccably dressed
in a pinstriped suit
— cocks his fedora
and lights a Lucky.
1948? Try 1998.
Just a few years
ago, Fred Ratner,
the third-generation
owner of Ratner's
restaurant, won-
dered about his
business' future.
Fewer regulars were
making the pilgrim-
age to the land-
mark 93-year-old
Jewish restaurant on
A hot time at the Lansky Lounge.
New York's Lower
East Side to sample
its famous blintzes.
the Gen-X longing for a golden age of
The younger, more assimilated genera-
romance and sophistication. Swing
tion, raised on pizza, hamburgers and
dancing has been especially popular
the occasional felafel, wasn't clamoring
with young men and women eager to
for Ratner's gefilte fish outside of
mimic the dancehall days of their
Pesach and Rosh Hashanah.
grandparents.
But today, Ratner's is turning peo-
"We wanted to go back to a time
ple away from the door. The back
Saturday, Nov. 7
when
people were treated with chival-
,
door, that is.
vcIalah:
Making
a
Difference
ry,"
says
Peck.
a
Open
just
over
a
year,
the
Lansky
H
sponsored by the Rekindling
Heralding the demise of the slack-
Lounge, Ratner's back-door,
Shabbat young Adult Task
ers, Neil Corl, a club regular known as
speakeasy-style bar, has drawn
dults for a
Force. Join young a
Big Daddy, has a similar theory.
crowds as dense as those on Hester
Havdalah service and volunteer
"We're tired of dressing like slobs and
Street in 1910. A restaurant that
experience at the Pontiac Rescue
acting like animals," says Corl, a swing
time was passing by has found
Mission. Participants Will host a
party promoter, who favors custom
that
twentysomething
nostalgia
7: 1
party for children there.
suits and a thin mustache.
for
the
underworld
of
their
ac.
o nti P5
p.m., 35 E. Huron,
And then there's the mystique of a
er
grandparents can be as prof-
Admission: three cans of non rvpa-
successful club that closes down every
itable as Old World fare.
ishable food to donate. Rese
Friday night for Shabbat.
tions: (248) 2031486.
The old guard at Ratner's has not
Martin Zvi Braun is a
been quite as adventurous as the 800
freelance writer based in
.M7WWW0
or so visitors, including a few celebri-
..,1101%.4
New York.

Happenings

ties, who traipse through the Lansky
Lounge each week. While the kosher
restaurant has seen increased traffic on
Saturday nights as hungry lounge
lizards, eager to escape the packed bar,
slide into Ratner's dining room for a
nosh, Orthodox customers have, for
the most part, avoided the Lounge.
What's more, keeping the peace with
the Orthodox (Ratner's main cus-
tomers) has required a few modifica-
tions. The owners had to build a stair-
case leading directly
to the bathrooms, so
Orthodox diners did-
n't have to walk
through the bar and
be subjected to any
5, immodesty.
.6: Ironically, it was an
old-time Ratner's cus-
tomer who came up
with the idea for what
has become one of
New York's hottest
clubs. Peck's uncle's
family has owned
Ratner's since it
opened in 1905. In
the 1920s, it was a
lunch spot for singer
Al-Jolson, and New
York Gov. Nelson .
Rockefeller made a
tradition of stopping
in the evening before every election,
claiming Ratner's as his "good luck"
place.
But no customer was as notorious
as Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky. Back
in the 1940s, Lansky and his buddy,
Bugsy Siegel, frequently dined at Rat-
ner's for breakfast.
Antista, Peck's 26-year-old business
partner, said they didn't plan to create
one of the Big Apple's coolest clubs.
"Ted was working as a cashier, and
I was unemployed and spending a lot
of time in the restaurant," Antista
says. One day, while eating kasha, they
joked that the elderly waiters could
use that space as a lounge to spend
their final days.
But when Peck started recounting
the old stories about Lansky, they
knew they had something. With the
martini-and-swing lounge scene heat-

11/6
1998

Detroit Jewish News

77