T

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer

hose who think the best place to be is
"where everybody knows your name" have
never been to Unique Kosher Carry Out.
Customers patronizing the Oak Park
restaurant find that it's their food of choice that
stands out for owner Rita Jerome.
"She knows everyone's likes and dislikes," said
Lynn Lipman of West Bloomfield, amidst a recent
crowd of pre-Shabbat shoppers.
Lining the length of the store, 10 employees called
numbers, filled phone orders, weighed food and chat-
ted with customers. Many were regulars, and many
had traveled from the northwest suburbs to do their
usual Friday shopping.
Among them was Tonya Herschfus, whose
Friday regime includes a drive from West
Bloomfield to purchase chicken soup for Shabbat.
But often she is at Unique other days as well.
"There is always something I need, and will grab
during the week," she said.
A former vegetarian, Herschfus points out the
many non-meat items in the restaurant, including
veggie chopped liver, tabbouli, pickled beets, carrot-
raisin salad and three-bean salad.
Today, Unique customer Lipman was choosing
vegetarian items, to accommodate the non-meat
eaters, for a deli rollup tray being served at a weekend
open house honoring stepdaughter Alexa Lipman's
bat mitzvah. Unique staff would deliver the bulk of
Lipman's order, including fruit, homemade pastry
and hummus and tabbouli trays, after Shabbat on the
following night.
Smiling at the store regular, Jerome said, "For sim-
chas only," referring to times when Unique Kosher
Carry Out, in the Royal Plaza Shopping Center on
Greenfield Road, had made shiva trays for the
Lipman family.
Lipman said when her mother, the late Muriel
Tarnoff, was ill and in a Dearborn Hospital five
years ago, "Rita [Jerome] sent her three days'
worth of meals." Praising the deli's "wonderful"
food, Lipman adds that Jerome is special because
"she has such a good neshama [soul] and bends
over backward, glad to please."
Not everyone in the Friday crowd was picking up
carryout orders. In two of the restaurant's four booths
sat members of the Teshuba family from Oak Park.
With an early dismissal from classes at Yeshiva
Gedolah in Oak Park, Zev Teshuba, 14, and brother,
Manny, 17, had brought in their brother, Asher, 5,
for lunch. Manny said when he is "on the run" he
will pick up a rollup and take it with him, often to
his Chess Club meetings at the Oak Park
Community Center, where he goes straight from
school once a week.
In her calm manner, Jerome appears to be thor-
oughly enjoying the hectic,- but organized bustle of
this particular afternoon. She calls the day "a normal
busy Friday — a nice feel for erev Shabbos." ❑

Clockwise from top
on opposite page:

, starting

Tonya Herschfus of West Bloomfield
makes her choices from the full showcase.

Arielle Snow, 2 'hfrom Oak Park
peers over the showcase counter.

N

N

Asher Teshuba, 5, of Oak Park, finishes his
lunch with the help of his brother, Zev, 14.
Mira Yusufov and Elena Andrei
weigh food orders.

Ella Elikhes arranges baked
goods on a dessert tray.

'•*>\ '

'

•

\\*

Unique Kosher Carry Out owner
Rita Jerome takes a phone order
while working the register.

Shelli Liebman Dorfman can be reached at
(248) 354 6060, ext. 246, or by e mail at
sdorfman@thejewishnews.com

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