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Shelli Liebman Dorfman

continued from page 10

Cheryl Dater and Martin Bogrow at the Starbucks
in Boca Raton where they first met.

loves our routine and insists on keeping our
‘yearly traditions.’
“The first year we visited, Ethan’s father
took us on Shabbat to Chabad of Boynton
Beach, which was just a trailer in the middle
of a field,” she recalls. “Now there is a thriv-
ing Jewish community of shomer Shabbat
families that you can see walking to one of
two beautiful shuls on the same street every
Shabbat and holiday.”

HANGING WITH THE KIDS
The weather is merely a perk of Rhona and
Rob Fidler’s trips to Boca Raton. Contrary
to the many who visit Florida-based parents
and grandparents, Rhona says they travel to
be with “our daughter and son-in-law, Dayna
and Raphi Wald, and our three absolutely
perfect grandchildren, Layla, 5, Joey, 3, and
Evan, 4 months.”
On Feb. 5, while some Florida-based
grandparents came home for Special
Person Day at Akiva Hebrew Day School in
Southfield and Special Friends Day at Hillel
Day School in Farmington Hills, the Fidlers
attended Grandparents’ Day at Hochberg
Preparatory School in Miami Beach, where
Layla and Joey are students, Evan is in the
infant care program and their daughter is the
Hebrew-Judaics principal.
“We try to get there for as many life events
as we can,” says Rhona of West Bloomfield.
She has also flown in to babysit while Dayna
and Raphi have gone out of town and to
help out for a few weeks for each grand-
child’s birth. The owner of Dance City in
Birmingham, Fidler also attends Layla’s dance
recitals in Florida.
During visits, she says, “Mostly we just
hang with our kids and grandkids, doing the
same things we’d probably do if they lived
closer to us.”

WHERE TO EAT?
“Perhaps the biggest highlight of our trips is
frequenting as many kosher restaurants as
possible,” Lisa Gilan says. “It’s even exciting
to see the huge kosher sections in the local

12 February 18 • 2016

Ron Elkus gets ready to order lunch.

Former Detroiters Mel and Marilyn Rothenberg of Boca Raton flank Gerry
Basila at dinner at Ben’s.

supermarkets.”
rent or former Detroiters,
Throughout South
he starts to connect. Repeat
Florida
Florida are eateries on
are met with a
Connection diners
the beach and restaurants
run-down of which other
• The 10th annual JCC
with tables set outside. Yet
Detroiters recently frequent-
Michigan-Florida Reunion
Detroiters are attracted to
ed the restaurant.
Dinner Golf Classic and
the Sanders Hot Fudge,
“Customers always
Games takes place Tuesday,
Detroit-style coney dogs,
remember me from the
March 15, at Indian Spring
National chili sauce,
Stage,” Basila says. “People
Country Club in Boynton
Better Made potato chips,
come in all the time and
Beach, benefiting JCC Day
Vernors and Labatt Blue
ask, ‘Who is the guy from
Camps, Sarah and Irving Pitt
beers on the menu at the
Michigan?’”
Child Development Center
Grand Tavern in Delray
ATTRACTING OTHER
and programs for children
Beach, where patrons can
DETROITERS
and teens with special needs.
watch Michigan sporting
Call Mort Plotnick, (248) 210- “Three years ago, I was
events on 22 HD TVs.
sitting at Starbucks and
The restaurant is owned 8489.
engaged in a conversa-
• For details on the Grand
and operated by the Lucaj
tion with a woman named
Tavern Detroiters group, call
family, former Detroiters
Cheryl Dater at the next
with Grand Tavern restau- the restaurant, (561) 279-
table,” says former Oak
2779.
rants in Farmington Hills
• For information on
Parker Dr. Martin Bogrow,
and Rochester Hills.
Cheryl Daters’ group for for-
who now lives in Boca
For Ron Elkus of
mer Oak Parkers, email
Raton. “We discovered we
Huntington Woods, it’s
totlpkgllc@aol.com. Dater
both were from Michigan
all about the food. In late
also is looking for old photos
— and we were high school
January, he visited his
or videos taken in Oak Park.
classmates at Oak Park
dad, Phil, and stepmom,
High!”
Jeannie, snowbirds from
Dater suggested they plan
Farmington Hills who own
a get-together for former
a home in Delray Beach.
Oak Parkers who now live in South Florida.
The Florida Elkuses have their favorites,
From there, Bogrow created a Meetup
but Ron says, “Sometimes they will scout out
group for former Detroiters in South Florida,
new restaurants and will be excited to share
holding gatherings at various venues. The
their new finds. Usually when we are sitting
down at one meal, the topic will be where we group expanded to include those from other
Detroit-area cities, along with snowbirds and
will be eating the next meal.”
vacationers. Earlier this year, the group —
Perhaps the greatest South Florida con-
with membership of more than 100 — was
nector of Detroit eaters is waiter extraor-
taken over by Grand Tavern’s owners, with all
dinaire Gerry Basila, who grew up in West
events taking place at the restaurant.
Bloomfield and lived in Birmingham. A
About the same time, with an email list
former server at the Stage Deli in West
provided by Bogrow, Dater formed a group
Bloomfield, and 220 and Cameron’s
for participants who met the criteria that
Steakhouse, both in Birmingham, he now
“Dexter-Davidson and Nine Mile had to
greets customers at Ben’s New York Kosher
bring back memories,” says Dater, who
Delicatessen Restaurant and Caterers in
moved to Boca in 2002. She is planning a
Boca Raton.
first event for the end of March.
Basila welcomes new patrons with the
Even without speaking, Bogrow often
query, “Where are you from?” If they are cur-

attracts other Detroiters with his cloth-
ing. “Whenever I wear my MSU cap, I will
meet someone who will say, ‘Hey, you from
Michigan? Me, too!’ and we start chatting,”
said Bogrow, a Floridian since 1985.
With shirts, hats and other gear sporting
Detroit Tigers, Lions, Red Wings and U-M
logos and player names, Rick Dorfman (the
author’s son), a former Detroiter now of Boca
Raton, rarely misses a TV sports event high-
lighting his teams. He usually watches tele-
vised games or attends them in person with
other ex-pats, who often dress their children
as young Detroit sports fans.
A U-M graduate, Dorfman is connected to
the school’s alumni group, the U-M Club of
the Palm Beaches. The MSU Alumni Club of
South Florida is based in Fort Lauderdale.
Detroiters also were brought together
through Temple Shir Shalom’s Jan. 8 “Shabbat
service in Florida” at Temple Beth El in Boca
Raton, Temple Israel’s Feb. 5 “Shabbat in the
Sun” service at a Boca Raton high school and
Congregation Shaarey Zedek’s “Concert in the
Sun” Feb. 14 at B’nai Torah Congregation in
Boca Raton.
“It is a riot bumping into people you
know,” said Elkus, who attended SAJE in
the Sun, the Detroit Jewish Community
Center’s Seminars for Adult Jewish
Enrichment’s Jan. 25 panel discussion for
Detroiters in Florida. (See related story on
page 6.)
“There is a comfort zone or a feeling of
they were brought up the same way; they
understand me,” Elkus says of seeing other
Detroiters in South Florida.
“This trip, I ran into a friend who lives
one block away at home and I haven’t seen
her in a few years; we said we have to go to
Florida to see each other.
“When you go into one of the programs
or restaurants that is 100 percent Jewish,
you almost feel disappointed when you
don’t bump into a fellow Detroiter.”

*

See related story, page 6

