r CELEBRITY SHOWROOM E V E N S Arts is Entertainment The Best Of Everything Like Wildflowers Great dinner deals abound at the Wildflower Family Cafe. GLADYS KNIGHT Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, living Motown legend Gladys Knight performs all her Grammy winning hits including "Midnight Train to Georgieand "Neither One of Us (Wants to be the Fist to Say Goodbye) Come see Gladys Knight in a rare Detroit appearance. comes with soup ... All the is the kind of neighbor- sandwich specials at dinner hood restaurant you include soup, too. would like in your neck George sells a lot of chick- of the woods. en dishes ... About 20-25 A lot of home cooking, very cases of chickens a week ... clean and reasonably priced. One of the chicken dishes is On Garfield, just south of a big favorite ... called 19 Mile Road in Clinton Chicken New Orleans ... Township, Wildflower Family DAN NY with red and green peppers, Cafe is one of about 10 RAS KIN sauteed mushrooms and restaurants within a, couple of Local C olumnist onions ... fully topped with blocks ... But people don't provolone cheese ... nestled even know they are there as on a delicious wine sauce. folks pass them to line up at this Seating is for 130 in the seven-day-a- favorite dining spot. week operation ... Monday-Saturday, 6 There aren't too many places any, a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 6 a.m. 3 p.m. more where one can get a complete Home cooking also includes meat- dinner that is priced almost as low as a loaf, of course, and carrot cake, cream sandwich at a lot of restaurants. pie, cheesecake, strawberry cake, etc. With soup or salad, potato, veg- A good neighborhood restaurant is etable and bread basket. beyond worth ... It is a treasure ... Imagine an 8-ounce club steak din- Those who live in the areas of places ner with sauteed green peppers and like Wildflower Family Grill can count mushrooms for $7.45 ... or veal cut- their blessings. lets, $6.75 ... or 9-ounce New York THE ONLY THING wrong with sirloin steak with sauteed mushrooms, the pre-opening media party by the $9.95 ... or chicken breasts, $7.95. new Bamboo Club in Novi was local Remember Chef Dennis Lindinger, magician Dan Fishman changing my formerly at Kingsley Inn, where he one-dollar bill into a hundred ... and used to skin the perch on request? ... Dennis is executive chef at Wildflower, giving me back the dollar instead. He weaved some excellent magic and doing his perch skinning on Friday sleight-of-hand ... but not much more nights. than that by general manager Karry Wildflower owner, George Vanvakas, is no stranger, either ... He used to have the Campus Lounge in Royal Oak ... and Don Hill used to tickle the piano ivories at George's Mediterranean Steak House, former Bon Jour, on East Warren. Just as the Wildflower is a family oriented restaurant ... so is it a family operated one ... George's wife, Nike, is hostess and manager ... daughter Patty Thanasas, is a dining room manager ... son Spiro, washes dishes, is a host, etc. ... plus also being a chemical engineer. Fresh turkey? ... Certainly ... cut right off the bird ... complete dinner, $7.15 ... Also other specials like old- fashioned home-cooked pot roast, $7.45; chicken kabob, $6.95; home- cooked stuffed peppers, $6.55; broiled Alaskan salmon, $7.95. About the turkey, the Wildflower kitchen goes through seven-10 cases a week ... each one holding four 14-20 pound turkeys. George Vanvakas Even Caesar salad at dinner, $5.75, - HOWIE MANDEL A star everywhere you look: television, film and the stage, comedian Howie Mandel has been entertaining audiences for years. Come laugh the night away with Howie, one of today's most successful comedians. LEE GREENWOOD Grammy Winner and one of country music's brightest stars, Lee Greenwood captivates audiences with a variety of musical styles from movies themes to his patriotic anthem "God Bless the USA". CHOOSE ANDIAMO FOR YOUR BAR/BAT MITZVAH, WEDDING, ENGAGEMENT PARTY, REHEARSAL DINNER OR ANY SPECIAL OCCASION. andiamoitalia.com 5/16 2003 106 East 14 Mile Road. West of Van Dyke. Warren, Michigan Dunn and her good group of servers. Karry's pleasant personality and obvious know-how oozes onto the employees ... whose training program certainly must have included a lot of smiling because they were very profi- cient in this pleasantness. Bamboo Club officially opened Wednesday, May 7, at the Fountain _ Walk Mall, off 12 Mile, west of Novi Road ... with a strikingly beautiful interior and impressive variety of choice Pan-Asian cuisine. NEW GREEK restaurant will soon be opened by former Rialto owner, Charlie Pappas, on Monroe in Greektown. IT WON'T BE A little diner any- more ... but that's all that will change at Giorgio's Gourmet Diner in West Bloomfield's Sugar Tree ... With addi- tion of next door, seating will be 85 after an added 45 ... Same menu, same counter,.more booths and tables ... Half of the present wall separating the two areas will be knocked down ... Opening of the new space is hoped to be by the end of June. WITH HIS NEW restaurant now open, Tom Goulas makes it Honey Tree number 20 that he has opened since 1975 ... It's on 14 Mile Road, one-half mile west of Haggerty ... Seating at his newest spot is 145. A GOOD MERCHANDISING man can tell a good thing when he hears it ... And when it happens to be right down his alley, the plus is even bigger. When Raju Sadasvian was merchan- dising gent at Kroger of Michigan, his cooperation led to Kroger and the Jewish News working together on a Jewish com- munity educational program.