COMMUNITY FOODIE FIVE THINGS YOUR KIDS WILL LOVE THIS MONTH Commonwealth Cafe: Within the Republic of B'ham On the menu: Panache and freshly ground coffee, one cup at a time. By Jeffrey Hermann e want it to be about quality, all the way down to the decisions about the sugar, the salt and the water," said Hubert Yaro, co-owner and operator of Commonwealth Cafe in Birmingham. "We think there are distinctions there that people notice:' Yaro's appreciation — it's actually closer to rever- ence — for cooking's building blocks is a glimpse into his nuanced approach to culinary preparation. He and business partner James Hayosh act as the customers' Beefeaters — guarding their expecta- tions — at Commonwealth. Breakfast can be either base or intricate. Low-key items include the steel-cut oatmeal with brown sugar and almond milk and toast (three bread selections served with honey butter and preserves); vanilla bean yogurt with granola; or a whole-wheat buttermilk waffle. Feeling frisky? There are more complex (yet, not intimidating) items: a fried egg sandwich with guacamole, salsa, Pinconning cheddar and hot sauce on multigrain; Mediterranean quiche (feta, spinach, red onion and kalamata olives); or sweet potato hash. Weekend brunch gives you a few additional options, including the Common Breakfast of Calder Dairy eggs, sweet potato hash, a warm baguette and more. Come later in the day for five-bean chili or the tomato soup and outstanding grilled cheese (Manchego, Boursin and Halloumi cheeses on ciabatta). I especially liked the hearty, but light, Common- wealth salad, with mixed greens, marinated grape tomatoes, sunflower seeds, fennel and shaved Parmesan cheese — served with roasted shallot vinaigrette and a toasted baguette. Though, to get a deeper sense of the Italian cum East Coast-style cafe, I'd be remiss by excluding their coffee in this review. They take the dark, bitter compound seriously — and pride themselves on doing it well. Beans from the world's best growers are on the menu's rotation and roasted in-house.Take heed:Your cup — whether it's a sweet Brazilian, a rich Ethiopian or a light Colombian — will take a couple of extra minutes to make; they only grind beans just before CIRQUE D'OR brewing. But, after the first sip, those lost minutes seem inconsequential.The cappuccino actually gave me pause. Despite other responsibilities (the pair own and operate Royal Oak's popular sushi house Ronin, too), the owners can usually be found behind the counter, chatting with their guests — or even out on the floor with the rest of the personable staff. Hayosh and Yaro designed the Commonwealth interior themselves, giving it an unfussy, minimalist vibe with white walls and high ceilings; the wood farmhouse floors soften the space. Everything at the restaurant errs on the side of freshness, with local and organic produce incorpo- rated as much as possible — depending, of course, on how it improves the food. -"Our standards are high,"Yaro said sheepishly. "For the food, the ambiance, the staff; our heart and our money go into everything."n Commonwealth Cafe 300 Hamilton Row, Birmingham (248) 792-9766; gocommonwealth.com $$ (moderate) out of $$$$ BOOKWORM This is not your run-of-the-mill, daring young man on the flying trapeze-kind of show: The Golden Dragon Acro- bats, representing the best of a tradition dating back more than 25 centuries, scale poles, spin umbrellas with their feet, build human pyramids on moving bicycles and more; there are only two performances of Cirque D'Or at the Meadow Brook Music Festival. Combining award-winning acrobatics, traditional dance and spectacular costumes — for an edge-of-your-seat performance of spellbinding skill and beauty — the Golden Dragon Acrobats are in their 32nd year of continuous tour- ing and made their sold-out Broadway debut to adoring families in 2005. $17 $22. 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 28. Meadow Brook Music Festival, 6 Championship Drive, Auburn Hills. (800) 745-3000; palacenet.com . - FAMILY HOOTENANNY Detroiters, get your wig on! For its third year, the Detroit Wig Out (held April 30, at the Magic Stick Lounge) lets charity-minded revelers don their favorite coif benefiting workshops at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Wait! There's still time for your little wiggies to strut their colors, too, from 3 5 p.m. Sunday, May 1, for a Wig Out Family Hootenanny at the Garden Bowl in the Majestic Theatre complex. Live music by local family favorites Mr. Se- ley, the Aprons and Academy of Music Performance, plus a musical instrument demo; bowling; arts and crafts provided by MOCAD; and, of course, super-fun wig-wearing. $10/ adults; kids are free. Garden Bowl at the Majestic Theatre, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit. mocadetroit.org ; detroitwigout. - COM. OH, THOMAS! It's been more than 65 years since the Island of Sodor — the fictional home to a group of anthropomorphized railway cars and their ilk — began capturing the imagina- tion of children in The Railway Series; and from that collec- tion of stories came Thomas the Tank Engine. Oh, Thomas! For three Saturdays and Sundays only, April 30 May 1, May 7 8 and May 14 15, Thomas, Sir Topham Hatt and the rest of the Sodor-ites will call Greenfield Village their home, offering rides around the village, storytelling, live music, arts and crafts, shopping and more at Day Out With Thomas. (Trains leave every half hour from 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; $11.75-$33.75.) Reservations and tickets for all events are required. Greenfield Village, 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn. (313) 982-6001; thehenryford.org . - - - Not Quite Unforgettable Joshua Foer's book on memory is worth a read if you forget your standards By Yoni Apap he blurbs for Joshua Foer's Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (307 pp.; The Penguine Press; $26.95) promise that the book will remind us how important our memories are to our sense of self. All too often, what proves memorable about Foer's book is what's been incidental to his life, not useful to our own. After covering the United States Memory Champi- onship, which tests skills like how accurately contes- tants retain lists of random words or the speed with which they memorize the order of a deck of cards, Foer decides to train for the event himself.The resulting book is half an in-depth look at how memory works — half chronicle of Foer's training. The look at memory tends to be the more interest- ing half, studying savants who can memorize phone- books and amnesiacs who can't remember if they've had breakfast that morning. He also interviews M OONWALK a memory guru who comes off as a kind ornerol r of self-help huckster and spends time with WITH a teacher who claims advanced memoriza- tion techniques give his high school history EINSTEIN .)t students an edge on the New York Regents Exam. As Foer trains, he JOSHUA FOER learns that imagining what you need to re- T 6 May 2011 I RED TIIREAD member, using concrete imag- es and places, is key. Apparently, the more salacious the image the better, and thanks to him, I have an image of Claudia Schiffer, swimming in cottage cheese in my foyer, stuck in my head. And that's among the more tame images that Foer shares from his preparation. The book requires the scientific reporting skill of a Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers) and the self-deprecating humor of an Al Jacobs (The Year of Living Biblically). Unfortunately, Foer channels neither author here, failing to bring Gladwell's clarity of purpose or Jacobs' humor to his writing. He proves himself capable, and at times quite engaging, when he's not talking about himself. The book's feel is uneven at times precisely because Foer has not fully found his own voice as a writer. In addition, the author fails to follow up on compel- ling leads. For example, covering the World Memory Championships in Oxford, England, Foer reports that women take a totally different and seemingly effective approach to memorizing poetry. given that a woman took first place He then does nothing with the possibility that gen- der affects the ways we remember things. Similarly, Foer only hints at a possible role ethnicity plays. A world-class memory, it would seem, does not impact intellectual curiosity one iota. That's not to say there's nothing to learn from his book. I did remember I had to write this review — by imagining Foer holding a huge promotional poster for the book while perched on the computer in my den. GREEN STREET FAIR Get your family's carbon footprint to downtown Plym- outh on May 6 8 for the fourth annual Green Street Fair to enjoy some family-friendly fun; and, since you're there, educate and inform yourself about the benefits of green, organic and eco-friendly products and services. Enjoy per- formances by the "Pickle Boys,"who will give the gherkin- ders in the crowd a lesson in homemade instruments out of recyclable materials — craft a canjo, a Mom's Day maraca, a kazoo and more. Noon-7 p.m. Friday, May 6; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, May 7; noon-5 p.m. Sunday, May 8. Visit greenstreetfaircom for details and specific event times. - MATTHAEI BOTANICAL GARDENS AND NICHOLS ARBORETUM Created more than a century ago, the Matthaei Botani- just a few blocks cal Gardens and Nichols Arboretum from U-M's central campus — today provides hundreds of secret spots for families to discover in its more than 700 acres. Bursting to life in springtime, Matthaei is rich with trails to explore. In the Gaffield Children's Garden, designed from a kid's-eye view, children can climb into an oversized bird nest, explore a fairy and troll knoll and dart through a maze. Enjoy monthly Sensational Nature activi- ties and classes, like scavenger hunts; the little ones will love the Children's Tea Party with a garden story, cookies and tea, and a wind chime and clay pot to craft (10 a.m.- noon, Saturday, May 14). Also not to be missed is Behind the Scenes at Matthaei, where little green thumbs can learn the secrets of the gardens (10 a.m. noon, Saturday, May 21), $2-$5. (734) 647-7600; mbgna.umich.edu . — - — By Lynne Konstantin www.redthreadmagazine.com