Paul Kohn and his
executive chef John
Schmidt, in the dining
room at La Difference.
Shabbat dinner carryout.
A Sunday evening buffet also will be held
weekly. "We are encouraging a family
night," Kohn says of the ethnic food-themed
meals. We want to bring in the kids."
He also will offer an early-evening week-
day-dinner seating with a reduced-price
children's menu.
Sunday brunch, formerly dairy, will
become parve. "We won't have real cream
cheese, but we'll be able to add items like
caper sauce," Kohn says.
Kohn also is going to offer a country
club-type membership to his restaurant, in
an effort to encourage dining and increase
cash flow.
"We hope to perpetuate the restaurant
with a membership concept," he says.
Organizations, clubs, synagogues who
become members will be invited to special
wine-tasting parties and dinners with the
restaurant's chefs.
Kohn understands the change may cause
an increase in cost to customers.
"Our dairy prices have been very compet-
itive with the outside world," he says of his
full-service catering and carryout business.
"But the cost of a meat dinner will probably
go up. Hopefully; it will not be significant
because of the synergy we've developed with
catering and Hiller's Markets."
That new sideline will put his fresh food
items in the supermarket's area stores.
"Our overall volume," Kohn says,
"should be large enough to help us buy in
quantity to help keep costs down."
Most menu prices have not yet been
determined, but the Sunday night buffet
cost has been set at $24 for adults; $12 for
children through age 7, and $2.95 for
those younger than 7.
In making changes, Kohn says, "We
want to be able to perpetuate the choice
of eating kosher food out. We're listening
to what people are saying they want.
"We will continue to offer fish, vegetari-
an foods and pasta, while also embracing
the carnivores of the world."
He's hoping, too, to encourage more
family dining on Sundays while still offer-
ing a quiet dinner during the week.
"The restaurant remains La Difference,"
Kohn says. "We're here to service the com-
munity. We try every day to earn the right
to do that and we need the community to
support our efforts as well."
Too often, Kohn sees customers who
frequent the restaurant only when escort-
ing a relative or clergy member who keeps
kosher. He maintains the meals and serv-
ice at La Difference stand on their own,
with or without the kosher label.
"People say, 'I love the food, but I'm not
kosher,"' Kohn says.
To that, he answers, "Just come for the
food — because your friends are there —
because you are one of us." ❑
La Difference is at 7295 Orchard
Lake Road, West Bloomfield; (248)
932-8934. Open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
and 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday through
Thursday; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday;
Saturday nights in the fall and winter.
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ROSNER
CARRYOUT
On April 3, Paul
Kohn began offering
a line of packaged,
fresh, kosher-for-
Passover food items
in all area Hiller's
Markets.
The items include
entrees, chicken soup,
-matzah balls and side
dishes, including
charoset, potatoes
and carrots, and cake
and cookie trays.
After Passover, the
line will continue
with prepared,
kosher, non-Passover
food items. CI
PASSOVER
DDOIM1 OUT
Alan Linker of
Sperber Kosher
Caterers is offering a
first-time Passover
barbecue dinner 6
p.m. Thursday, April
12, at Congregation
pizzas and make-your-own pizzas and will
ship them to other cities upon demand, as
they have to New York.
"If someone wants to do something spe-
cial, they'll send a Sephardic pizza some-
where," he says of the restaurant's eggplant,
feta, cucumber, red onion and tomato
pizza.
Jerusalem Pizza also offers 18 kinds of
hot and cold sandwiches and many vege-
tarian items, including vegetarian chicken
parmesan, vegetarian Canadian bacon and
veggie meatballs and hamburgers. Low-fat
choices include broccoli spinach patty
sandwiches and vegetarian chicken
nuggets .
SOUP BOWL DELI
Inside the Jewish Community Center,
15110 West Ten Mile Road, Oak Park;
(248) 967-4030. Open Monday through
Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"We're in the center of the Center," says
restaurant manager Kathy McCarthy of the
eatery inside the Oak Park JCC's Jimmy
Prentis Morris Building. The 8-month-old
restaurant, owned by Meyer S. Cohen
Kosher Catering, sells mainly what the
name announces — soup and deli items.
Open only during the lunch hours, the
sandwich menu includes egg salad, tuna
salad, corned beef and turkey. Hot dogs,
fries, a variety of soups and veggie salads
are also available.
Cafeteria-style service is quick, as Cohen
prepares many items in advance for pur-
chase from a refrigerated display case.
"We are open to the community,"
McCarthy says of the 64-seat restaurant.
"But a lot of our customers are employees
of the building, moms who come in with
their children after a class or parents wait-
ing for their kids to get out of preschool."
TASTE OF CLASS
25254 Greenfield Road, Oak Park; (248)
967-6020. Open 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m to 3
p.m. Friday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.
Chuck Ehrenreich says when his cus-
tomers announce, "I don't need a menu.
I'll just have a No. 10," it means a newly
added concept is working in the restaurant
he owns with his wife, Miriam.
In addition to the weekly buffet of rotat-
ing ethnic foods and family-style meals they
offer, Taste of Class in Oak Park now has a
line of specialty sandwiches. The restaurant's
meals range from a $1.99 children's hot dog
to a steak or lamb chop dinner. "And now
we have triple-deckers and four-decker
sandwiches, too," says Ehrenreich of the
family-run restaurant that includes the new
addition of son David as the cook.
The 3-year-old eatery has seating for 90
and includes conference-style tables for
meetings and lunch-and-learn sessions.
Having always hosted showers or small
parties, Taste of Class recently began to
open upon request on Friday nights and
Saturdays for b'nai mitzvah meals for those
within walking distance of the restaurant.
And for those interested, Ehrenreich says,
"A No. 10 is a Dinty Moore
a corned
beef sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes and
Russian dressing on three pieces of toast."
—
UNIQUE KOSHER CARRYOUT
25270 Greenfield Road, Oak Park; (248)
967-1161. Open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Monday through Thursday; 8:30 a.m. to
4 p.m. Friday; Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Diners in search of a simple turkey
sandwich for one, a 3-foot-long deli meat
sub for 20, a veggie rollup or a bowl of
chicken soup and hot Hungarian goulash
can find it at Unique.
Maria Hertz, who owns the 8 year old
-
-
Oak Park restaurant with Rita Jerome, says
a choice of chicken, short ribs, veal chops,
meatballs, meat sauce spaghetti and vege-
tarian meals can be found daily for diners
who choose to eat in the 18-seat restau-
rant. A separate menu offers choices of
specially prepared carryout items.
"Everything is handmade, not frozen,"
Hertz says. "Our Hungarian cook makes
food like it's homemade. Our chicken soup
is made from scratch, like at home. It's made
from the chicken, not from the broth."
Trays for parties, meetings and Shiva din-
ners also are available. ❑
Beth Ahm.
Dinner will be
cooked outside, but
eaten inside using
disposable tableware.
It will include hot
dogs, hamburgers,
chicken, grilled veg-
etables, baked pota-
toes, coleslaw, tossed
salad and kosher-for-
Passover buns,
"We planned this
because there is
nowhere to go to eat
on Passover," says
Linker of the all-you-
can-eat-buffet. By the
time the barbecue
rolls around on the
sixth night of
Passover, Linker says,
"people will be
Pesached-out."
For information or
to make reservations,
call the Beth Ahm
office at (248) 851-
6880. Cost $25 for
adults, $15.50 for
children age 5-12,
$9.50 for children
under 5. ❑