arts & entertainment >> the best of everything
City Of Champions
Detroit's restaurants rank with the best anywhere.
A
s we give thanks on the Jewish
New Year, let's add our gratitude
to Mike Ilitch and the Detroit
Tigers for another opportunity to show
America that Detroit is far from being a
gastronomic desert as too many out-of-
towners are led to believe.
The Tigers reaching the Major League
Baseball playoffs that begin tomorrow
(Friday) is another big step forward in
the restaurant resurgence of Detroit ...
Recent openings by Joe Muer Seafood
and Texas de Brazil, along with standbys
like Detroit Seafood Market, Caucus Club,
Andiamo Riverfront,
Coach Insignia, Roma
Cafe, Mario's, Opus One,
Pegasus, Fishbones,
Mosaic, Roast, Saltwater,
Wolfgang Puck,
Iridescence, etc., await
j
changes of opinions and
many more dollars as
Mike Hitch
visitors fill our Detroit
restaurants perhaps in
comparison with their
own ... They'll find out
that Detroit's dining
establishments are far
from the mediocre ones
they may have been told
about.
Dan
Thanks also to sports
team owners and Detroit
upswing involvement
players like Ilitch, Dan
Gilbert (whose late
dad Sam Gilbert co-
owned and operated his
own good restaurant,
Saksey's, back during
Peter
Detroit's restaurant
Karmanos Jr.
glory years) and Peter
Karmanos Jr., etc.,
Detroit has surprised a lot of people.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
there was the downsized
DEPT. ... "I know that it
Topinka's on the Boulevard
was named Baker's Keyboard
and its rival the Steering
Lounge, but when I used to go
Wheel, both in the downsized
there in the '60s to hear the
shadows of the Golden Tower
terrific jazz music, I was told
of the Fisher Building housing
that it used to have a great
high noon motor mouth J.P.
pianist, too, that played there
McCarthy interviewing every
even when it had the other acts.
celeb that hit town to perform
And I think I used to see com-
at
all the dine-and-wine clubs.
Danny Raskin
ics there, too. But, wasn't it sold
"To
the west in Hazel
Senior Columnist
to someone else then because
Park, Stan Kazmarek's Moon
I heard another name of the
Supper Club lit up the night
owner?" ... Sidney Urshal
with Drummin' Man Buddy Rich's big
[The house pianist you're thinking
band while the Golden Coach just blocks
of was Pat Flowers, a big favorite ...
away pulled in similar celebs as Mamie
Clarence Baker took it over from his dad,
Van Doren, Al Martino, Dick Haymes and
Chris Baker, and the jazz greats were
Tony Martin. Clarence Baker's Keyboard
regulars there ... He leased it to Solace
Lounge kept the true jazz believer happy
"Solly" Hartstein and wife, Fay, who put
with the piano stylings of Meade Lux
in comedy with the jazz, like Redd Foxx
Lewis, Earl Hines and Mary Lou Williams.
who played both Baker's and nearby Club
A way south, the oddly named Crystal
Alamo on Livernois.]
Pistol on Monroe's doorstep popped off
MAKING ROUNDS ... To Caucus
each evening with melodic mayhem from
Club, Congress, Detroit, for Dover sole
Gladys Knight's Pips. So far out of Motown
... To Mario's, Second Blvd., Detroit, for
that the Dean of Nitery Scribes, the Free
chicken piccante ... To Mosaic, Monroe
Press' Chuck Thurston, had the grit to
Street, Detroit, for cedar-roasted whitefish
make the hour-long drive to cover one of
...To Andiamo Riverfront, Renaissance
the many versions of the Ink Spots or the
Center, Detroit, for veal ribeye steak ... To
reinvented Platters.
Detroit Seafood Market, Randolph, Detroit,
"Nearer home Mickey's Backdoor had
for crab-stuffed flounder ... To Pegasus,
Dearborn all to itself with local entries
Monroe Street, Detroit, for lamb chops ...
like Fat Bob the Plumber [Bob Taylor],
To Roma Cafe, Riopelle, Detroit, for veal
but it was all about to be passed up by a
scallopini marsala.
Ford as Hank the Deuce [Henry Ford II]
I REMEMBER WHEN ... From
was putting together DB's in the Hyatt
William Garwood, former publicity gent
Regency Hotel which Bob Crosby called
in Detroit, now a nationally known author
the Mausoleum, the hotel not the club.
and reviewer of Western books ... "The
DB's highlighted such showbiz fireballs
supper clubs of yesterday in the Detroit
as Jerry Lewis and James Brown and the
area are not easy to forget. Up north was
infighting for talent between two show biz
the Port of Three with great food and
giants, Windsor's Elmwood Casino and
offbeat entertainment. To the northwest
Detroit's Michigan Palace which grew out
and growing by leaps and bounds were
of a boomdock bar, Lofy's."
Topinka's and the Raleigh House. Then
THE INAUGURATON of a first at
THEATRE
Become a Sleuth. Collect the Clues.
Solve the Case.
Danny's email address
is dannyraskin@sbcglobaLnet.
0, 4
MURDER
MYSTERY
DINNER
the 2011 Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of
Fame Induction Dinner, Monday, Nov. 7, at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Southfield,
could hardly honor too many better per-
sons for its new Special Recognition seg-
ment of contributions to athletics by those
who were lost or injured in war without a
chance to further their athletic dreams.
"Little Joe" Bale and his brother, "Big
Joe" Bale were both local sports figures at
Central High School ... "Little Joe" was
awarded the Distinguished Service Cross
posthumously when killed while destroy-
ing enemy tanks with his bazooka during
World War II.
His citation reads, "For extraordinary
heroism in action on 30 Jan. 1945, near
Wihr-en-Plaine, France, when his bat-
talion was attacked and halted by enemy
tanks, which rolled over the assault
riflemen and killed others. With 88 mm
machine gun fire and rifle grenade fire,
Pfc. Bale fearlessly attacked with his
rocket launcher, ignoring shells exploding
five yards away and machine gun bullets
which raked the position, he knocked out
an enemy tank, forcing the Germans to
withdraw. Later the same morning when
his Bn. Op. was attacked by another tank
at 100 yards, he braved shell fire in a sin-
gle-handed attempt to destroy it, but was
mortally wounded:'
After the Pfc. Joseph L. Bale Post #474
of the Jewish War Veterans was formed in
his memory, it became the Department of
Michigan's largest post, headed today by
former Hall of Fame honoree Willie Stone.
CONGRATS ... To Mort Meisner on
his 58th birthday ... To Hope "Cookie"
Chimoff on her birthday ... To Beverly
Keller on her 70th birthday ... To Nate and
Ellie Rubin on their 64th anniversary.
SEATED 'WINE & TAPAS EVENT
TOURING ITALY; VIA GLASS & PLATE
11,
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11 4 7-9P
Dinner/Show Package
Oct. 1, 2011 7p.m.
Andiamo Bloomfield
$50 Per Person
Does not include tax, gratuity
and alcoholic beverages.
per person
plus tax & gratuity
For reservations call 248-865-9300
October 14 5
Tickets: $45
Andiamo Bloomfield
Doors Open: 6:30 p.m. Show: 7 p.m.
56
Se ptember 29 • 2011
1
. \1
P.1.0i).\11 I t I I) lrOWNSH tr
6676 Telegraph RD
Bloomfield Twp., MI
248-865-9300
: .