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A Delicious Tradition

For 60 years, the Caucus Club has been a Downtown Detroit treasure.

L

ike a locomotive racing through a
own two feet.
heavy bed of flames and coming
In the Caucus Club's 60 years,
into the clear, a Detroit renowned
it is estimated that well over 3
restaurant has emerged unscathed from
million people from every walk
the ravages of time.
of life imaginable have entered
Celebrating its wondrous 60-year anni-
the front entrance where the
versary, the Caucus Club in the Penobscot
English Beefeater statue has
Building, Congress Street, Detroit, that late elegantly greeted folks, genera-
owner Les Gruber once called his second-
tion after generation.
ary home, continues to hold its head up
That they enjoy the food and
high with a scintillating reputation.
intimate ambience is without
The former "little sister" of Les' onetime
question, dining on almost
prestigious London Chop House remains
300,000 pounds of the great,
an exalted dining icon that suffered with
fresh lake perch of which so
the rest during the low economy, but like
many acclaim "is no better anywhere
others who came
lightly dusted and
through, never closed
sauteed in butter;
its doors.
over 400,000 pounds
That its owner
of its luscious fresh
Mary Belloni has
filet of Dover sole
kept the Caucus Club
lightly coated in
open as the favorite of
Caucus Club's made-
many is admirable in
on-premises bread
itself ... But to con-
crumbs and then
tinue serving excel-
broiled; at least
lent food, with hardly
300,000 pounds of
a hitch certainly says
London Broil, well
volumes for this culi- Owner Mary Belloni stands next to
over 200,000 gallons
the English Beafeater statue in the
nary giant that has
of the very choice
Caucus Club front lobby.
weathered the rough
chowder, etc.
times and comes out
Still being gra-
smelling like a rose.
ciously served is the wonderful marinated
Few restaurants can boast of the repu-
broiled beef flank steak laid across toasted
tation held by the Caucus Club ... But
rye, with mushroom red sauce and hash
it wasn't all peaches at the beginning,
brown potatoes, plus many dishes not seen
forced to play second fiddle to "big sister"
on the menu of other upscale restaurants
London Chop House, then also owned by
including the original Pancho Sauce by
Les and Sam Gruber, which had achieved
Executive Chef Pancho Valez who concoct-
much greater acclaim and success ... The
ed his mixture for both the London Chop
Caucus Club many times was simply satis-
House and Caucus Club.
fied to be happy with big sis' overflow.
In fact, the Pancho Burger (Caucus
When the original mighty Chop was
Burger on lunch menu) remains one of the
sold by Les and later finally closed its
top sellers, with Caucus Club selling about
doors, their prestigious Caucus Club
400,000 in the 60 years ... Now available
across the street achieved a reputation of
both lunch and dinner, with CC presently
being more than capable of standing on its preparing more than 5 gallons of Pancho

Sauce a week! ... The evening
menu has the same Pancho
meat and sauce listed as ham-
burger steak, which can, if
wanted, be gotten atop rye or
as the sandwich.
A waitress at the Caucus
Club before buying the
restaurant almost 20 years
ago, Mary has seen Detroit
in many stages and says,
"The city now has become
as vibrant and exciting as I
have ever seen it!" ... Many
will attest to this, especially when visiting
Caucus Club, which has changed very little
and looks as it has for 60 years.
Seating, amid Caucus Club's soft, elegant
dark and clubby surroundings with
ceramic Toby mugs still on the ledges, is
89 in the front room and 86 in the back
room where 19-year-old Barbra Streisand
in 1961 got her biggest start, accompanied
on the piano by local keyboard artist Matt
Michaels, and left Detroit to appear on the
Tonight Show with Jack Parr ... The rest is
legend.
Caucus Club's bar lounge has 12 stools
and 30 chairs, many filled with folks
drinking Bull Shots, a mixture of beef
broth, vodka and spices that was conceived
at Caucus Club and has been served there
since 1962.
Caucus Club is open for lunch, Monday-
Friday ... Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday.
It is high credit that such wonderful
food can be produced by Executive Chef
Matt Vogelei from the small kitchen that
separates the two rooms ... and with
such goodness in the quality ... But being
a graduate of the Culinary Institute of
America in Hyde Park, N.Y., says much.
The Caucus Club in its present-day
entirety has never stopped being good ...
And is certainly a magnificent tribute to
history.

NO MORE CONFUSION ... The mix up
has ended ... The outside sign and menu
that formerly said George's Honey Tree
have been replaced and now both read
Georges (no apostrophe) Restaurant, on
Northwestern Highway, West Bloomfield.
AMONG THE MAIN requisites that a
new restaurant should definitely secure
before opening is the services of a good
executive chef ... This the new Garage
Grill & Fuel, expected to hopefully open in
Northville by October, has done.
It will be Steve Siekierzynski, whose
wonderful food preparations were stand-
outs as executive chef at Greektown Casino
and La Dolce Vita, both in Detroit, and
Assagi in Ferndale.
His main menu concept at Garage Grill
& Fuel will allow him to cook a wide
variety of American foods without being
"pigeon-holed" with a particular style or
genre of cuisine.
OLDIE BUT GOODIE DEPT. ... An
out-of-towner in New York at the height
of the tourist season decided to revisit an
uptown restaurant he'd enjoyed on a previ-
ous trip to the city ... Finally catching the
eye of an overworked waiter, he said, "You
know, it's been over five years since I first
came in here ... "You'll have to wait your
turn, sir," replied the stressed and now
irritated waiter, "I can only serve one table
at a tim'
CONGRATS ... To Douglas Goldberg
on his 60th birthday ... To Lisa Ingram on
her birthday ...To Florence Blau on her
90th birthday ... To Rick Messinger on
his 61st birthday ... To Jerry Zuckerman
on his birthday ... To Martin Zide on his
birthday ... To Nancy Zide on her birthday
... To Paul Chosid on his birthday ... To
Rob Schweers on his birthday ... To Fran
Ball on her birthday ... To Lonny and Gail
Zimmerman on their 40th anniversary.

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Danny's address is dannyraskin@sbcglobal.net.

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September 6 • 2012

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