Arts & Entertainment THE BEST OF EVERYTHING A Keego Keeper Harbor Steak House has been a dining beacon for 47 years. B ack in 1961, it was a little bar serving just hamburgers and maybe another sandwich or two ... Today, as the Harbor Steak House, renamed in 1996, on Orchard Lake Road between Keego Harbor and Commerce Road, Keego Harbor, it has become one of the area's fastest growing restaurants in popularity. Forty-seven years ago in August, origi- nal owner Angelo Giordano and his sons Louie and Donald opened the then named Harbor Bar ... It was taken over in 1996 by Donald's son, Jeff, and Louie's son, Tony, who made improved interior appoint- ments. But food and service became the more important things to go along with price ... And Harbor Steak House has made certain not to be lacking in either of these ... Back in 1972, its best seller, prime rib, was sold only on Friday and Saturday evenings, and usually ran out ... Today, the 16-ounce USDA Choice piece is 22.95, and an extra-thick 24-ouncer, $27.95, are daily menu items ... Since the restaurant's opening, almost 2 million pounds of prime rib have been sold ... The popular 5-9 Friday Night Fish Fry, still remains. Both Jeff and Tony were in the kitchen when it was owned by their dads ... Jeff was executive chef, and Tony sous chef ... 12 years ago, Jesus Ramirez came on board as executive chef ... Salo Bako, two years after, is their sous chef ... The cousins still keep their hand in the food preparation on Friday and Saturday nights, helping out where needed ... But Ramirez and Bako need little assistance for the roasted rack of lamb that Harbor Steak House has four times a week, or the usual eight-fish daily specials (over 200,000 pounds sold since opening) ... Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are much all-you- can-eat crab legs, with more than 100 pounds usually sold in the three days, and over 300,000 pounds chowed down by lovers of the tasty mollusk. Ramirez and Bako pride themselves on a couple of dishes they say cannot be found else- where ... The amaretto shrimps sauteed with almonds and amaretto, and orange roughy Rockefeller with a crab and spinach mixture, topped with cheese ... Popular items like the eight-ounce filet with sauteed mushrooms, baby back spare ribs and frog legs, broiled or deep fried, are large favorites. One of the Harbor House employees, Nancy Deacon, has been behind the bar 27 years, and waitperson Diana Stutsman, has served folks more than 22 years ... Jeff's wife, Tina Giordano, has been a ser- vice favorite more than 16 years. Seven-day restaurant hours are Monday- Friday, 11-11; Saturday, 1-11; Sunday, 1-10 ... Seating is 190 in two rooms ... Dinners include soup or salad, about four potato choices or rice pilaf or vegetable. On seeing the Harbor Steak House for the first time, folks may not be aware of the good dining experience that awaits them inside the doors ... But the renovation inside enhances a clean, relaxing atmosphere to go with the carefully prepared food and service that have made regulars out of many first-time "let's try it" customers. THERE'S NO BUSINESS like the res- taurant business, Lazar Izrailov has always said, even though Irving Berlin wrote the show biz hit with other words ... And so Lazar is out of restaurant retirement and back at his original love. Not that he ever really left the food game, still holding on to his Lazar's Catering after selling the two Orchard Family Restaurants he owned from 1983 to 1996, first on Orchard Lake Road south of 14 Mile where Best Buy is now located in Farmington Hills, and then Farmington Road, north of 15 Mile, West Bloomfield. Seating at his new 855 Deli, named after the delicatessen's phone number, at the former locale of Hello Deli and Boris' Deli on 15 Mile and Farmington Road, West Bloomfield, is for about 30 at nine tables, plus a window counter with six backed stools ... The seven-day operation is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Monday- Saturday, 7-8; Sunday, 7-3. Knowledgeable restaurant people are smart ... They surround themselves as much as possible with experience ... Which is why 855 Deli preparations are made on premises with much savvy ... The cooking is by Lazar and Dave Johnson, who was trained by the late Jack Goldberg at Stage & Co. in West Bloomfield and worked there over 15 years ... And before that by Rose Guttman at Irving's Deli on Greenfield in Southfield ... Dave teams with Lazar in prepara- tions of whitefish, short ribs, beef brisket, stuffed chicken breast, spinach pie and so much more ... Lazar also makes the excel- lent chicken soup with traditional noodles, not those curly pastas, and deliciously chunky chicken pieces. There is little match for experience, proven once again by Lazar and Dave ... And because 855 Deli is loaded with this know-how, it is the small kind of Jewish delicatessen that a neighborhood commu- nity enjoys with many open arms. GOOD WAITRESS DEPT. ... Vera Djonay at George's Honey Tree, Northwestern Hwy., West Bloomfield ... One of owner George Lukaj's hard-work- ing, gracious and efficient service gals, she is his longest-standing wait person, more than eight years, and one at whose station many people look to sit. FINDING TWO PENNIES on the JCC Maccabi Games track, superstitious-type Nicole Meisner stuffed the lucky cent pieces into the Spandex shorts under her uniform and sprinted to nine gold medals in track and field ... She is the daughter of Mort and Leslie Meisner and on the track team at Berkley High ... Nicole's long curly hair is 15 inches shorter, too, after recently cutting her tresses and send- ing them to Locks of Love for youngsters who lost hair due to cancer-related treat- ment ... For which she certainly deserves oodles more gold medals. REUNION DEPT. ... New name and contact phone number for Detroit Central High's 50th reunion, Saturday, Sept. 13, is Sandra Baren Matthews, (248) 553-8899. CONGRATS ... To Mollie Moglovkin on her 90th birthday ... To Sheldon Yarsike on his 52nd birthday ... (correction, it's Sharon Edelman on her birthday, not Adelman). ❑ Danny's e-mail address is dannyraskin@sbcglobal.net . 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