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The Adventures Of Deli Man And BRUW Boy

By Ben Falik

T

hese are the stories of two corner-
stones of civilization — deli and
coffee — and two stand-up guys
toiling to make our lives just a little more
civilized.

STUART LITT, DELI MAN

BRUW filter for perfect cold-brew coffee

Marwil Jewish Film Festival to screen
the documentary Deli Man (“More than
160 years of tradition served up by the
Jewish deli owners … Just don’t tell your
cardiologist.”) with Stuart at Hygrade
Deli, 3640 Michigan Ave., on Thursday,
May 12, at 6:30 p.m. Tickets — avail-
able at werepair.org/detroit — include
Reubens, pickles and Dr. Brown’s.

MAX FEBER, BRUW BOY

we launched a Kickstarter campaign to
prototype and produce BRUW — now
“an innovative double-sided lid with a
filter insert molded into the center” — I
was excited to invest. When my BRUW
Box arrived, I reflexively looked for a
video to show bruwing for dummies.
There was no video, so I suggested he
make a video and now I’m in the video
— really just for my kind eyes and win-
ning smile. Maybe that makes me Betty
Crocker.
You, too, can brew with BRUW …7
it’s true! Get the full set at bruw.net.
Delivery included? You bet.

*

Stuart Litt, owner of Hygrade Deli

Stuart knows corned beef. He knows a
good day is when he goes through 100
pounds of corned beef. He knows St.
Patrick’s Day was a great day — 150
pounds. Like many deli men before
him and elsewhere in the deli dias-
pora, Stuart was born into the blessing
and burden. His dad, Bernie, owned
Billy’s Delicatessen on Seven Mile and
Livernois. In 1972, Bernie bought the
Hygrade Deli.
Hygrade started two decades earlier
and six blocks east at Detroit’s Western
Market. Named for the market’s anchor,
Hygrade Food Products, the deli moved
to its current home when Western
Market became the interchange of I-75
and I-96. This brought Hygrade closer
still to their core clientele at the Detroit
Assembly, the Clark Street Cadillac plant.
There have been lean times in the 30
years since Detroit Assembly closed. (If
you want to see its equipment in action,
stop by the Detroit Historical Museum to
watch a two-story body drop.) Hygrade
enjoyed the Michigan film incentives and
has benefitted from local media expo-
sure, except when Channel 4 preempted
Litt’s deli demo for the President’s press
conference announcing his plan to close
the prison at Guantanamo Bay — thanks,
Obama.
Instead of suffering through Batman
v Superman: Dawn of Justice to see
Hygrade dolled up as Ralli’s Diner (with
waitress Diane Lane), you’re better off
spending that time and money with the
diverse crowd and loyal staff on a Reuben
that will make your heart skip a beat.
And then start beating regularly again.
To honor Hygrade and the majestic,
endangered species of Deli Men, Repair
the World is partnering with the Lenore

Yiddish Limerick

BRUW Bros. Ben and Max mid-vid

Max is unlike Betty Crocker in two
important ways (think Pinocchio at the
end of Pinocchio). He also has a couple
things in common with her. Betty was
the paradigmatic (albeit imaginary)
woman of her era; Max, a junior at
Frankel Jewish Academy and PeerCorps
mentor, captures many of the things
we cherish in our young people today.
Creative, compassionate, entrepreneurial
and just mischievous enough to prove
he’s a real boy. And just like Betty, Max
asks only for a little space in your kitchen
to offer you a lot. Specifically, a cooler
way to brew.
Max got into coffee on Tamarack’s
Western Trip and came home with
dreams of becoming a coffee snob, ini-
tially by googling “how to become a cof-
fee snob.” Then, like all good inventors,
he courted disaster. Max failed forward
from roasting (popcorn air popper, heat
gun, Kitchenaid mixer) into cold-brew
coffee, starting with a paper-towel-lined
colander and encouragement from
Mother Feber: “Such a mess, you’re never
doing this again.”
When his professor in New Business
Ventures, a dual-enrollment course at
Lawrence Tech, assigned the class to
create a product, Max returned to cold
brew and an idea: two mason jars with a
filter in between. He started with a piece
of screen door attached with a hot glue
gun. Nothing happened. When he added
a straw to let the air through, the coffee
came streaming down and BRUW was
born.
I like Max and I like coffee. So when

Deena Martin at the Ynet/StandWithUs
conference

Homegrown
Advocate

Detroiter teaching in
Israel energized
by Ynet/StandWithUs
anti-BDS conference.

Deena Martin
Special to the Jewish News

PASSOVER
Der hoyz* is sheyn pesachdik,** it’s
lichtik un rayn.***
Der tish**** is bedekt mit a
tishtakh***** so shayn.******
Mir trinken di vine,******* di gan
tze fier glezlach.********
Mir essn*********di fish, di zoop
mit di knaydlach.**********
Mir zingen un zingen,*********** but
yetzt mooz ich gayn.************

* Der hoyz — The house
** sheyn pesachdik — ready for
Pesach
*** lichtik un rayn — lit and clean
**** Der tish — The table
***** bedekt mit a tishtakh —
covered with a tablecloth
****** Shayn — beautiful
******* Mir trinken di vine — We
drink the wine
******** di gantze fier glezlach —
the all four glasses
********* Mir essn — We eat
********** di zoop mit di knaydlach
— the soup with the mat-
zah balls
*********** Mir zingen un zingen —
we sing and sing
************ yetzt mooz ich gayn —
now I must go.

— Rachel Kapen

D

uring the past six months, I
have been living in the Ben
Shemen Youth Village in Israel
while participating in the 10-month
MASA Teaching Fellowship Program. I am
teaching English and volunteering at the
youth village school and in schools in Lod
and Tel Aviv. I also have attended many
leadership and educational Fellowship
seminars and participated in programs
sponsored by the Detroit Federation
Partnership2Gether Region.
Fortunately, I was chosen to be a del-
egate representing MASA at the Ynet/
StandWithUs Conference in Jerusalem on
March 28. The purpose of the conference
was to bring passionate people together
to learn how to end one of the greatest
threats against Israel, the boycott of Israeli
products. The conference room was filled
with more than 1,000 energized and
passionate people of all ages. Everyone’s
mission was to learn how to speak and
understand the challenges that Israel con-
fronts daily.
The conference began with opening
remarks from Israeli President Reuven
Rivlin, who captivated the audience with
stories of his grandchildren and why he
gets tears in his eyes every time he sees the
Israeli flag flying. He pledged he will never
stop fighting for the right of Jews to have a
homeland in Israel.

continued on page 8

April 21 • 2016

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