plates
Adventures
In Dining
Get through winter's waning
days at these delicious dining
destinations.
BY LISA BRODY
A new coffee spot to help ward off the
chill is Bean & Leaf Cafe on Main Street
in Rochester. Enjoy pastries and bagel
breakfast sandwiches, with soups corn-
ing soon. The restaurant's Royal Oak
location, also on Main Street, offers two
soups daily, deli sandwiches, breakfast
sandwiches, muffins, scones and vegan
items. A few miles away, in Beverly Hills,
a great new deli option, Detroit Deli, is
located on Southfield Road between 13
and 14 Mile roads. You'll find 34 combo
sandwiches, salads and soups, along
with other deli mainstays (chopped liver
ado
Sunday Scrumptious
The venerable Sunday brunch is making a delicious comeback.
STORY BY ANNABEL COHEN I PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANGIE BAAN
Restaurant brunch, from the looks of
so many eateries adding this course to
their offerings, is getting to be a more
popular concept — especially in an
economy where food prices are rising
and paychecks are dwindling. People
who want to eat out are opting for the
Sunday brunch because it's generally
less expensive than other meals and
tugs at our taste buds with sweet and
savory flavors that promise to keep us
sated throughout the day.
Though there is no shortage of
great plated breakfast places in town,
a good buffet in the neighborhood
isn't always easy to find. Most offer
the same-old, same-old, often in sur-
roundings that are as blab as the food.
I was happy to discover Kruse and
Muer in Troy a few months ago as
another venue for Sunday brunch.
Located at Crooks and Big Beaver,
the newest of six Kruse and Muer
eateries in our area serves lunch and
dinner six days a week and brunch and
dinner on Sundays. In surroundings
B6 •
MARCH 2009 •
JN platinum
designed by Ron Rae, complete with
rich, dark woods and an appealing
black-and-white motif, the restaurant
features Sunday buffet stations located
throughout.
Note that Sunday brunch here
won't have you loading up on bagels
and lox. If you're looking for a Jewish
deli-style breakfast, look elsewhere.
General manager Mike Brady
explains that a similar concept at the
company's highly successful Lake
Orion location inspired the Troy res-
taurant, which began offering Sunday
brunch nearly a year and a half ago.
Instead of the typical fare, and beyond
the standard omelet and beef carving
stations, are numerous more gourmet
choices, including hot chicken dishes,
Parmesan and panko encrusted grou-
per, decadent cheddar hash browns
and signature pancakes and French
toast (when I went, the French toast
was "key lime," and the pancakes were
"creme brulee").
Still other stations offer a variety of
salads; plank-roasted or poached salmon;
shrimp with cocktail sauce; grilled vege-
tables; those famous "Charley-style" soft,
warm poppy-seed rolls; and sweets.
And beyond the chic surround-
ings, summer patio eating, a cash bar
(beginning at noon), white tablecloths
and an all-you-can-eat meal, Sunday
brunch at Kruse and Muer is afford-
able: $17.95 for adults and $5.95 for
kids under 12 (drinks are extra). When
you think that anyplace you go sells
omelets alone for about $9, this place
is a relative bargain.
Kruse & Muer On Wilshire
911 Wilshire Drive, Troy
(248) 362-2700
Sunday Buffet Brunch:
$17.95 adults
$5.95 kids under 12 (drinks extra)
Hours: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays
and potato latkes) in this carryout loca-
tion. Northville's in the for-
mer MacKinnon's restaurant on Main
Street, serves modern American bistro
fare, with a regularly changing menu
of roasted chicken, fish, steaks and
rack of lamb. Table 5 also features
homemade desserts and an interesting
and affordable wine selection. The bar
serves a tapas menu and a happy hour
meal each day. Over in Ann Arbor, Rick
Halberg, a favorite area restaurateur,
is back in the game. He has joined
eve as partner/general manager. The
restaurant, in Ann Arbor's Kerrytown
at Fourth and Kingsley, is an eclec-
tic gourmet's dream, with a creative
menu and wine list. Halberg should
mesh well with owner Eve Aronoff, a
classically trained Cordon Bleu chef
known for melding Indian, Moroccan,
Mediterranean and other unusual fla-
vors with French-inspired dishes. The
Westin Book Cadillac's fourth restau-
rant, 24,.-.0!e, has opened in Detroit,
overlooking Michigan Avenue. It's cozy,
casual and urbane, with such lunch and
dinner items as truffle white cheddar
mac and cheese, sweet potato brulee
and steak and seafood entrees. Looking
for a certifiably healthy place to eat?
Head to Waterford's on W.
Huron St. — one of only three certified
green restaurants in Michigan. This new
drive-through restaurant serves salads,
sandwiches, burgers, soups, baked
goods, breakfast wraps and vegetarian
dishes.