THE BEST OF EVERYTHING

It's All Kosher!

Sit, Eat

Choose from 5 kugels, 15 salads and a slew of traditional delights
at Oak Park's Unique Kosher Catering & Carryout.

A

s in many cases, it took a differ-
ence of operational opinion to
consummate a final separation

result.
However, in this instance, the business
partners not only went their separate
ways, but also became successful in each
of their endeavors.
Sperber's Kosher Catering partners
at the time, Henry and Marika Sperber,
wanted to concentrate their efforts almost
entirely on kosher catering with carryout
a side business ... The other partner, Rita
Jerome, craved just the opposite, wishing
to have full-service carryout of kosher
products with a secondary concentration
on catering of Jewish events.
This was 27 years ago, in 1982 ...
Sperber's has since changed hands ...
and Unique Kosher Catering & Carryout,
opened then three doors down by Rita
Jerome, in the Royal Plaza, Greenfield,
between 10 Mile and 1-696, Oak Park, is
still going strong ... with the further addi-
tion of sit-down kosher dining.
Rita's new partners in the Unique
Kosher Catering endeavor were a perfect
match ... She as its business head, and,
in the kitchen, Angela Pelak, a European
certified chef, and Maria Hertz, also a
cook, who retired four years ago because
of illness ... Since the first day, Angela's
excellent Hungarian Vegetable Soup with
premises-made dumplings has been a
popular asked-for favorite.
Being a small place, all the space was
seemingly needed for carryout counters
and food preparation ... Then with so
many people asking for a place to also sit
down and eat, a counter, tables and stools
were put in ... These have since been
replaced with five booths and a table for

two ... The result was electric
... Unique Kosher Catering had
become a triple-headed kosher
carryout, dining and catering
operation in a restaurant that
continually draws large acclaim
from its customers who want
only strictly kosher cuisine.
Rita and Angela have wanted
to make some changes in some
of the food preparations, but
customers heartily request that
no alterations be made ... They enjoyed
so much the same wonderful traditional
food of yesteryears that has brought
untold moments of dining pleasure to so
many ... Like Unique Kosher Catering's
highly popular chicken soup, which in
the first week of business saw only five
gallons sold, but today is already over the
30,000-gallon mark, including 200,000 or
so handmade matzah balls ... Its kreplach
and noodles are also large sellers ... The
chickens, too, grilled, roasted, oven-baked,
sweet and sour, apricot glazed, etc., with
well over 175,000 pounds prepared,
including kosher rotisserie chicken, which
Unique Kosher Catering makes on its
popular rotisserie machine.
Unique Kosher Catering is open
Monday-Thursday, 10-7; Friday, 8:30-4;
closed Saturday; and 10-6 on Sundays.
Vegetarian chopped liver was introduced
at Unique Kosher when it opened, although
by no means a traditional dish, while very
healthy for sure ... In the first week, only 10
pounds were sold ... But customers found it
so tasty and much like the regular chopped
liver, that today, 27 years later, almost 60,000
pounds have been consumed.
Seeing people dining on the 15 salads,
five styles of kugel, knishes, stuffed peppers,

barbecued short ribs, stuffed
cabbage, delicatessen choices,
etc., brings to mind for many
the "old school" styles of
kosher dining with its reason-
able prices because you picked
out your own meal and saved
the cost of waitpersons.
Unique Kosher Catering
is supervised by the Council
of Orthodox Rabbis and has
been the somewhat silent
answer to many questions of "Where can we
find a good, little, strictly kosher restauranC
IF THE GENT BEHIND the Sushi Bar
at Shangri-La, Orchard Mall, 15 Mile and
Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield,
looks familiar, it's because he served the
same role at the former Musachi Japanese
restaurant that recently closed in the
Town Center, Southfield ... And the fel-
low sometimes there who also has a lot
of familiarity, is mighty recognizable
too because it is Koje Watanabe himself,
owner of the former noted Musachi res-
taurant that had opened back in 1985
and recently closed ... Koji is assisting
Shangri-La owner Cholada Nancy Chan
with Japanese choices ... The 18-stool
sushi bar is in the restaurant's back room,
but its fare is served in all Shangri-La
dining areas ... Japanese, Dim Sum and
Chinese make up the fine Asian dining
assortment.
LUNCHES ARE presently on hold at
Tribute, 12 Mile West of Orchard Lake
Road, Farmington Hills, with dinner only
now being served ... including the Tribute
dinner no charge on birthdays.
THE FIRST PRESENTATION in this
area of the Hilton-owned Finn & Porter
restaurant, located at the refurbished

Fort Shelby Doubletee Hotel on Lafayette,
Detroit, adds another "something new"
to its agenda of dining ... In the Finn &
Porter restaurant here, a new Soul Food
Lunch Buffet has been added on Fridays,
11-2 ... Regular lunches are Monday-
Friday, 11:30-2:30, only in the hotel's
Round Bar with its counter bar, tables and
chairs plus a 14-stool sushi bar ... Finn &
Porter also serves breakfast and dinner in
the restaurant ... Breakfasts are Monday-
Friday, 6:30-11 a.m. ... On Saturday
and Sunday, 7-1 p.m., a breakfast buffet
is set up in a nearby area ... Dinners
are Tuesday-Thursday, 5-9; Friday and
Saturday 5-10.
MAKING ROUNDS ... To French
Gourmet, Woodward, Ferndale, for salmon
poached in wine.
IS YOUR CALENDAR checked for
Sunday morning, May 17? ... That's the
date of the W.J. and Lillian Kemler Walk of
Ages by Auxiliary for the Jewish Home &
Aging Services at the Eugene and Marcia
Applebaum Jewish Community Campus,
15 Mile and Drake, West Bloomfield ... 9
a.m. registration, Walk at 10 ... For more
info, call Judy Dunn, auxiliary coordinator,
(248) 661-2969.
ERRATA, TYPO, ETC. Dept ... Correct
phone number for tickets to the jazz con-
cert at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield by
Living For Music, June 2, is (248) 661-6344.
CONGRATS ... To Harriet Dunsky on
her birthday ... To Lynn Kasmer on her
60th birthday ... To David Sachs on his
58th birthday ... To Dharlene Norris on
her birthday ... (Correction, it's Louise and
Ray Abrams on their sixth anniversary).

Danny's e-mail address is

dannyraskin@sbcglobal.net .

A, 441,st4

201 S Old Woodward Avenue • Birmingham MI 48009
248.594.7300 • www.forterestaurant.com

150, 110

May 7 2009

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