(TEE END)

La Difference fine dining kosher
restaurant closes.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFIvIAN

Staff 'Writer

lir

hile some may look at the July 26
closing of La Difference as a confirma-
tion that Detroit Jewry remains
unable to sustain its kosher restau-
rants, owner Paul Kohn says it should instead be
looked upon as a stepping stone toward future
endeavors — by others.
Kohn sees his 2 1/2-year struggle trying to sustain
the West Bloomfield fine dining facility as paving "the
road for a successful kosher restaurant in the area."
More than a dozen carryout and sit-down restau-
rants have opened over the past nine years, since
Rabbi Joseph Krupnik joined the Southfield-based
Vaad Harabonim (Council of Orthodox Rabbis of
Greater Detroit) as kashrut director.
Of the six kosher restaurants in a metropolitan
region of 96,000 Jews, ranging from the 3-month-
old In-line Grill in West Bloomfield to the 8-year-old
Unique Kosher Carryout in Oak Park, only one —
Taste of Class in Oak Park — is primarily a sit-down
restaurant. The others are cafeteria-style restaurants
or businesses with limited seating that focus on take-
out orders. La Difference was the first fine dining
kosher restaurant in the Detroit area in many years.

From Lemons To Lemonade

With seemingly limitless energy, endless ideas and sud-
denly more time, Kohn plans to turn his past loss into
a focus on his future in the dairy catering business.
"This is an area that does not see significant vol-
ume anywhere," Kohn says.
"We are working on developing and researching
new menus within the concept of fair-priced dairy
catering," says executive chef John Schmidt, who,
along with general manager Sandy Singal, are the
only two La Difference staff members who will
remain there with Kohn. The hope is for other for-

Related commentary: page 5

8/3
2001

16

mer employees of the restaurant to be absorbed into
Kohn's main business, Quality Kosher Catering,
housed for 23 years at•Congregation Shaarey Zedek
in Southfield, or into the dairy,catering operation.
La Difference, which began as a dairy restaurant,
switched to a meat menu in mid-April, in hopes of
increasing business.
Regarding the La Difference building, Singal says, "We
are still here for bridal showers, birthday and anniversary
parties, sheva brochos [seven wedding blessings]."
Parties held there will offer meat, fish and vegetari-
an service. Affairs held in private homes, hotels and
at the Shaarey Zedek and B'nai Israel synagogues in
Southfield and West Bloomfield, respectively, where
Kohn is in-house caterer, include both meat and
dairy options.
While Singal spent July 27 canceling future meal
reservations, private parties that have been booked
will be dealt with on an individual basis.
"We didn't stop being a catering operation, just a
public restaurant," says Kohn. "We can't do a
brunch for 20, because there is no longer an existing
brunch, but we continue to be a rental facility for
private and corporation functions."
His lease ends in 2004, with an option to contin-
ue. Kohn says parties will continue until a new ten-
ant for the restaurant can be found. The restaurant's
liquor license also is for sale.

Chuck Ehrenreich, who owns the family-style,
family-run Taste of Class kosher restaurant at Royal
Plaza in Oak Park with his wife, Miriam, says, "The
thing that kept us alive was that my family works
here. But even with that, we're still just starting to
break even after three years."
Ehrenreich, for whom Taste of Class is a first-time
food service endeavor, believes "restaurant experienc
is also a must to be profitable."
Rabbi Krupnik agrees, but adds, that mere food
service experience is not enough. "Catering is very,
very different from the restaurant business," he says.
"When you cater a party, you know how many peo-
ple to cook for. If the weather is bad, people still go
to a wedding, but maybe not a restaurant."
Local kosher diners offer their own feeling on why
La Difference failed, ranging from inconvenient loca
tion (at the rear of Robin's Nest Plaza on Orchard
Lake Road, just north of 14 Mile) to pricey menu.
They attribute the short life of many of Detroit's
other kosher restaurants to everything from lack of

Kosher Dining

• ALL-IC
Dairy, vegetarian. Carryout with limited seating.
26035 Coolidge, Oak Park. (248) 547-2626.

• IN-LINE GRILL

What Went Wrong?

Despite the frequent appearance of a thriving, busy,
100-seat restaurant with diners lined up at the front
door, Kohn says, overall, the volume was not enough
to keep the business going.
"We were not able to generate enough business," he says.
The cost of maintaining Kohn's standards — such as
cloth towels at the washing station, fancy food presen-
tation and gourmet recipes — kept his Jewish and
non-Jewish customers raving, but drained his wallet of
"a significant sum of personal money," he says.
"Even with gradual improvement in volume, there
is not one day since we have been here, that we have
broken even. "
He believes success may come to future kosher
restaurateurs in the form of a family-run, casual din-
ing restaurant.

Meat, vegetarian. Counter-style with seating area.
Inside West Bloomfield Jewish Community Center,
6600 W. Maple, West Bloomfield. (248) 661-1000.

• JERUSALEM PIZZA
Dairy, vegetarian. Seating for 12.
26025 Greenfield Road, Southfield. (248) 552-0088
• SOUP BOWL DELI
Meat, vegetarian items. Cafeteria-style with seating.
Inside the Oak Park Jewish Community Center,
15110 W. 10 Mile Road, Oak Park. (248) 967-4030.

• TASTE OF CLASS
Meat, vegetarian, casual. Sit-down.
25254 Greenfield Road, Oak Park. (248) 967-6020.

• UNIQUE KOSHER CARRYOUT

Meat, vegetarian. Carryout with seating for 18.
25270 Greenfield Road, Oak Park. (248) 967-1161.

