Arts & Entertainment

THE BES

OF EVERYTHING

A Downtown Tradition

Caucus Club retains legacy of luxurious Detroit dining.

A

n old favorite has suddenly
become a new place to go as yet
another generation has aged
enough to join others in visiting one of the
restaurants that moms and dads always
talked about.
Many of those parents still do with
the time-honored and venerable Caucus
Club on the ground floor of Penobscot
Building, Congress Ave., Detroit, celebrat-
ing its 47th anniversary as one of the
oldest continually open restaurants in
Detroit ... The sister restaurant of the
former London Chop House, still serves
a good deal of the traditional menu that
that has given it so much favor through-
out the years ... Favorites like the Pancho
Burger, Dover sole, Lyonnaise potatoes,
dry rubbed baby back ribs, steak Valez,
the famed sauteed lake perch, Jim Beard's
hamburger, creamed spinach, sliced
London broil, etc. ... Steak tartar is no
longer on the menu but regularly request-
ed and available when asked for by calling
ahead.
Caucus Club is remembered for so
many things and scores of people still
come in and tell stories of meeting Barbra
Streisand, who sang in the Caucus Back
Room dining sector in 1961 before hit-
ting the big time ... Owner Mary Belloni,
who was a Caucus Club waitress in 1991
through 1993, after buying the place in
1992, still thinks of the Back Room as
one of Detroit's original Martini Bars ...
Bullshots and bloody bulls are served
there as always and Tom and Jerrys still
warm many.
The remembering continues to live
on as so many still have their birthdays,
bar mitzvah and wedding receptions,

etc., at what has been a great
prepared tableside.
dining tradition for so many
Sure the English Beefeater
years ... One of the two din-
guy statue still greets you
ing rooms with their heavy
upon entering and those little
woods and dark paneling, or
Ceramic Tobys are still there
the entire restaurant is rented
in all their nostalgic good
out for these and other occa-
looks.
sions.
The many awards given to
Mary thrills whenever she
Caucus Club throughout the
Danny Raskin
sees son Robert Belloni, who has Senior Columnist years is but a reflection of
joined her in the Caucus Club
its continued greatness ...
operation, walk around in his
That so many generations
tuxedo ... He is such a delightful young
are still able to visit a Detroit restaurant
man whose server personality is a true
legend is a wonderful realization ...
joy ... Another son joining Mary, Chip
That Caucus Club continues to live on as
Belloni, is training in the kitchen under
in its days of yesteryears is a major plus
Chef Marcos Yanes ... About Marcos, he
for its 47-year celebration of restaurant
used to peel potatoes when 19 years old
greatness.
at the London Chop House, and, at 47,
IT'S OFFICIALLY open now and after
Marcos has matured into one of the area's
a short span of soft and quiet openings,
better executive chefs.
the site's eighth restaurant is a reality
Seating in the main dining room is 89,
... Invitees to the recent grand open-
the Back Room, 65, including 10 stools at
ing of Italia Fresca, Orchard Lake Road
the bar ... Restaurant hours are Monday-
and Pontiac Trail, Orchard Lake Village,
Thursday, 11-8:30; Friday, 11-9; Saturdays
ordered as they wished from a well-
for dinner only during the theater season
diversified full menu ... Now comes the
... Parking is directly next door in a well-
hope that the venture of owner-chef Sam
lighted and attended lot.
Sharkas will continue to produce good
It is roughly estimated that since the
food and improved service along with fur-
Caucus Club opened in 1952, almost 15
ther developing the little things that befall
million people have come through its doors first-openings ... Sam's two brothers, Lee
to chew on almost three million pounds of at Birmingham Country Club, and Louai
Dover sole, around 25 million pounds of
at Shenandoah Country Club, are both also
burgers and nearly 400,000 pounds of sau- executive chefs.
teed lake perch ... Those have been and
GOOD WAITRESS DEPT. ...
still are the biggest sellers on the Caucus
Karrie Chafetz, days at Buddy's Pizza,
Club menu ... One of the great favorites,
Northwestern Hwy., Farmington Hills
though, is still the Jim Beard Burger rolled
... Great Smile, highly efficient patron-
in peppercorn and flamed tableside with
pleasing 11-year veteran married nine
brandy ... The wonderful steak tartar, for
months to former Buddy's employee Zack
folks who call ahead, is ground fresh and
Chafetz.

WHAT? ... AN EGG substitute that
includes the yolk? ... Yes, but waitpersons
at restaurants will still hear quipping cus-
tomers order egg substitutes sunny side
up ... The new Eggbeater product is low
fat and low cholesterol, with the white and
yolk mixed together.
HE WALKED INTO Sam's Club on
Northwestern Hwy., Farmington Hills,
wearing baggy pants, baggy shirt and
floppy hat, looking nothing like one of the
column's Best Dressed Men of years ago
... Asked where he was going "all dressed
up:' Jack "Jake" Ginsburg looked both
ways and still fast with the lip draw said,
"Shhhh! I'm undercover!"
WHEN HE RECEIVED the first
bicycle of his young 5 years from Sarah
Pitt, little did Steve Blair know that one
day he would own the company founded
and operated by Sarah and her husband,
Irving Pitt ... His dad, Karl Blair, and
Al Pitt, brother of Irving, were close
friends ... Today, Steve not only heads
the Murray's Discount Auto Store cel-
ebrating its 33rd year on Haggerty and
Pontiac Trail, Walled Lake, but is the only
franchise owner of the over 1,300 vari-
ous-named stores, including Murray's
since 2005, owned nationwide by CSK
Auto, Inc.
CONGRATS ... To Beverly Feldheim
on her birthday ... To Brian Sturman on
his birthday ... To Hershal Gross on his
birthday ... Correction, to Lauren Mellin
Partavich on her 33rd birthday, not 37th
... To Bob and Shirley Benyas on their
57th anniversary. LI

Danny's e-mail address is

dannyraskin@sbcglobal.net .

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