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Heart And 'Soul'

Beans & Cornbread's home-style soul food has fans near and far.

W

hen a restaurant continually,
year after year, receives awards
from around the country, there
must be proper reasoning as to why ... But
truth of the matter is that not only do the
awards keep coming, but so do the custom-
ers.
The even more amazing part is that a
Southern soul food restaurant like Patrick
Coleman's Beans & Cornbread keeps get-
ting better ... So much so that many people
come to this area already having heard
about it and refuse to leave without visiting
the dining spot.
The Louisiana-style gumbo, for example,
at Beans & Cornbread on Northwestern
Highway in the Sunset Strip, between 12
Mile and Inkster,
Southfield, has
attained national
acclaim that
includes first place
in the highly presti-
gious Steve Harvey
National Soul Food
Awards of which
it has also been a
three-time nominee
Owner Patrick
... Best Soul Food
Coleman
of 2014 by Channel
4 ... Detroit News
Best Gumbo ... Continually acclaimed by
national publications as one of the country's
top soul food restaurants and more ... So
many accolades that, if mounted, would fill a
Metropolitan Museum art wall.
When numerous celebrities and person-
alities appear in this sector of the nation,
one of the first visits are immediate presence
at Beans & Cornbread ... Aretha Franklin,
Lou Rawls, Laurence Fishburne, Evander
Holyfield, Queen Latifah, NBA basketball
stars, Detroit Lions, Detroit Tigers, Thomas
Hearns, etc.
Food prepared for the Rolling Stones,
television personality Steve Harvey, their
entourages and so many others.

Soul food dishes like Harlem
burritos and peach cobbler
waffles are not, to my knowl-
edge, seen on any other soul
food menus.
You might call the yummy
delights at Beans & Cornbread
upscale Southern cooking ...
with luscious best-selling items
like down-home fried chicken,
sauteed salmon croquettes,
Louisiana gumbo salmon,
vegetarian plate, barbecued
baby-back ribs, mac and cheese, sweet pota-
toes, firecracker shrimp, premises-made
meatloaf, New York strip steak, etc. .... And
so many dishes that along with them also
include the "can't get enough" homemade
cornbread and sweet potato muffins.
Seating in the dining room is for 72 and
40 for sit-down dinner or 50 for cocktails in
the private dining Red Velvet room ... Its
next-door Sidebar seats 24, including 14 at
the bar ... Beans & Cornbread dining hours
are Sunday-Thursday, 11-9; Friday, 11-10;
Saturday, noon-10.
Since opening ... 873,000 pounds of
wings, 1,480,000 pounds of sweet potatoes,
760,400 pounds of ground chuck for meat-
loaf, 1,593,600 pounds of catfish, 79,000
cases of collard greens, etc.
Seventeen years that began almost imme-
diately with successful attendance ... and
the even bigger thrill ... the seeing of so
many people continually coming back ... No
restaurant can ask for anything more!
HERE IS NEWS that so many people
have wondered when will someday be told
... One of Michigan's finest former authen-
tic Lebanese restaurant, Le Chef, will open
again ... under another name and new
location ... on Monday, Nov. 17.
It will be called Mandaloun Bistro ...
at the onetime locale of Shiraz restaurant
on Telegraph and 121/2 Mile, Bingham
Farms ... Same wonderful Bitar family ...
Mother/head chef Malaki, with her excel-

lent preparations of Lebanese
favorites and those fantastic
recipes from Lebanon ...
Hubby Fernand, doing the
butchering and other dining
chores ... daughter Melissa, the
hostess and manager ... and
son Eddy, who will be involved
after his back-and-forth trips to
Lebanon.
The name Mandaloun is for
an instrument played back in
Lebanon.
READER MINI REVIEW ... From
Dennis Green . . . "Sharon and I, along with
my stepson, Marc Benkoff, and his wife,
Sarah, recently enjoyed a fine evening of
dining at the new Village Bar & Grille on
Southfield Road in Lathrup Village. It is
the former Salvatore Scallopini's restaurant,
owned by Larry Bongiovanni, who owns the
new Village Bar & Grille and has changed
both its decor and menu. It now features
casual and uncomplicated comfort food that
thoroughly satisfied our palates.
"Marc and I started with the tomato soup,
which was rich and creamy like tomato
bisque, although not called that on the menu.
It was lightly spiced, very flavorful and
served hot. We both opted for Larry's barbe-
cued baby-back rib snacks (4 bones), which
were slow-roasted, very meaty, charred with
a delicious house sauce and accompanied by
chips and slaw.
"Sharon heartily enjoyed the Village burg-
er, which she said was a hearty and flavorful
American cheeseburger served on a brioche
bun. Sharon added sweet potato fries that
she said were excellent in flavor and crispi-
ness. Sarah enjoyed her blue cheese burger,
served with crispy onions.
All in all, it was quite an unexpected treat,
with smiling waitstaff and great service. We
will be back"
HIS STRONG FINGERS that had rippled
over untold amounts of times in staccato
precision again wafted music into the ears

of rapt listeners as world-renowned concert
pianist David Syme played his recent perfor-
mance here.
Eyes closed and fingers intently stroking
the keys with authority, David was the guest
artist for the 100 percent donation event to
benefit the Pink Fund Foundation for Breast
Cancer and the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation
... About 150 jammed the Steinway Piano
Gallery in Commerce Township for his
appearance ... in which the entire evening
was underwritten by Harry Ellman, Walter
Quillico and Jeffrey Gunsberg ... plus before
and after refreshments, including Greene's
Hamburgers, sadly without sauteed onions.
David's dancing fingers did his usual
great renditions ... "Rhapsody in Blue etc.,
among about 20 classic and jazz interpreta-
tions ... Plus requests from the audience
a la his "Human Jukebox" reputation ...
and David's humorous stories like playing
in Prague and a Czech attendee requesting
"My Yiddishe Mama."
OLDIE BUT GOODIE DEPT. ... An
elderly couple go to the doctor and tell him
that they would like to have sex but can't.
He gives them a bottle and tells them to go
into the room and fill it for him.
Soon, the doctor hears a banging, stomp-
ing and grunting. They come out in an
hour all disheveled looking like they had
wrestled a bear.
The doctor says, "I see that you didn't
need me and the man exhaustingly says,
"We tried and tried, we used our right hand
then our left. We tried with our teeth and
without our teeth, but we still couldn't open
the bottle!"
CONGRATS ... To Julie Schaefer on her
50th birthday ... To Linda Gold on her birth-
day ... To Jeffrey Metzger on his birthday
... To Jay Parr on his birthday ... To Robert
Steinberg on his birthday ... To Marilyn
Saperstein on her birthday ... To Irving and
Marilyn Markel on their 55th anniversary.

❑

Danny's email is dannyraskin®sbcglobal.net .

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