To Life!
ON THE COVER
What To Eat? from page 33
173 Express
Same Numbers, New Eatery
Sticking with his trademark numbers of "173," Eli Weingarden opened 173 Express
inside the Jewish Community Center in Oak Park. When his signature numbers are
turned upside down, they spell his first name.
He first used the name several years ago on
his now-closed Grille 173 kosher steakhouse
in Royal Oak. Now they grace his new restau-
rant inside the JCC, where he once operated
Subsation.
"I decided it was time to change the menu
and the name he said. "And improve the
restaurant's appearance with $30,000 in reno-
vations:'
The 173 Express — a counter-style, sit-
down restaurant — "is in some ways an
American deli;' Weingarden said. "We serve
double-decker sandwiches like Dinty Moores.
We have a chicken breast made with a unique
Eli Weingarden among customers at
marinade recipe, chicken subs, and we also got
173 Express
into making wraps."
The menu, which is projected on a flat-panel, 42-inch plasma TV, includes traditional
meals, like a chicken plate special, and more distinctive choices like a deep-fried, bread-
ed, poultry concoction called a Chicken Zinger Sandwich.
In an effort to bring in families for more affordable meals, he instituted an all-you-
can-eat Sunday buffet, where kids 4 and younger eat free.
A playroom attached to the restaurant offers "a way for parents to eat while keeping
an eye on their kids while they play," Weingarden said.
An innovative twist to increase traffic on Fridays is the restaurant's "Shabbos special"
menu.
"It includes everything from soup, gefilte fish and salads to deli meats, cholent kits
[just add water and put into your crockpot], shnitzel and kishka," he said.
Rami's
It's Beshert
Rami Mandelbaum's
hope of opening a res-
taurant and another
man's plan to sell one
collided in an Oak Park
kosher kitchen that
became Rami's this
February.
"After working in
food service for five or
six years in Baltimore
while I was in school
there and at BKC to Go
(in Oak Park) in the
Any Mandelbaum helps her husband, Rami, get an order
summers, I decided to
of kosher Chinese food ready for a customer.
come back home and
do something I love full
time he said. "Right about that time, BKC owner Chaim Goldgrab was getting ready
to sell:'
With Mandelbaum's ownership came the new name, a repainting job and an
assessment of food choices.
Instead of altering the menu, he decided to create more affordable choices.
"I introduced lunch specials: combos with entire meals at a lower price he said.
"We are making fried chicken packages in family sizes that cost less [per person]
than individual sizes.
"We also stay open late on Thursday nights and focus on serving cholent and
burgers:'
Rami's also caters small functions and meetings.
"We do anything from tuna and veggie wraps to Cornish hen dinners with orzo,
salad and dessert," Mandelbaum said. And sticking with something that seems to
work for BKC, he said, "We still have a very strong concentration of kosher Chinese
food:'
Harvard Row Kosher Meat
What's for dinner?
Shoppers at Harvard Row Kosher Meat
have a unique choice. They can buy and
cook fresh beef, poultry, veal or the occa-
sional buffalo cut. They can grab a pack-
aged dinner, vegetable souffle, container
of soup or dessert from the freezer.
Or they can ask: "What did Larry make
today?"
Larry is Larry Katz, son of the shop's
owner Johnny Katz, and an enthusiastic
cook.
Working in the family business for the
past seven years, Katz gradually made
a name for himself by preparing barbe-
Larry Katz checks out chickens and
cued beef ribs here and a potato kugel
Harvard roasts in the rotisserie oven.
there until dishes were being roasted,
baked and broiled in the store daily.
His recipe choices are varied, but Friday staples remain brisket and chicken, and
Wednesday is spaghetti and meatballs day. When it comes to poultry, Katz said, "I make
breaded chicken, stuffed chicken, barbecued chicken, chicken cacciatore. And every day
is rotisserie chicken day"
Often seen twirling on the rotisserie oven's rotating spit is the store's signature item:
the marinated Harvard roast, a special preparation of eye of chuck.
Katz's homemade soups include chicken noodle and mushroom barley, and sides
range from stewed green beans to oven-roasted potatoes. For summer, he makes
chopped salad and coleslaw.
Often shoppers pick up enough dishes to make up an entire meal. "Some go home
and put the food in their own pots and pans:' Katz said. "Women tell me, `My husband
doesn't know about you. He'll think I made this:"
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August 30 • 2007
Lincoln Kosher Meat
Keeping The Tradition Going
With the opening of Lincoln Kosher Meat this spring, Michael Cohen continues in the
usiness three generations of his family have chosen for nearly 100 years.
"My grandfather opened Louis Cohen Kosher
Meats with his brother, Willie, in 1915:' Cohen said.
"They were maybe the first kosher butchers in
Detroit:'
Eventually Cohen's father, Allan A. Cohen, came
into the business, and in the late '70s, so did
Michael.
After working as a kosher butcher, first at New
Orleans Kosher Meats in Southfield and later in
West Bloomfield at the now-closed Cohen's Kosher
Meats, he said in recent months he knew it was
time to open a store in Oak Park.
"With the closing of the kosher butcher who had
been in Oak Park for many years, there were hardly
any kosher butchers left:' Cohen said. "I wanted to
make sure the kosher butcher store doesn't die in
Detroit, and I opened this store."
Cohen describes his store as a "full-service, old-
fashioned butcher shop, where the meat is custom-
Michael Cohen cuts meats in
cut the way people want it."
his butcher shop.
The sign on the store says Lincoln Kosher Meats,
but he said, "The actual name is Louis Cohen and
Son, to keep my grandfather's name going.
"In 2015, I can get a 100-year plaque from the state of Michigan:'