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Dining Al Fresco
Danny Raskin
Senior Columnist
Café Cortina’s patio
getting ready to
welcome spring.
Rina Tonon
Outdoor dining might be as
old as Adam and Eve … She
wouldn’t have been much of a
hostess if Eve didn’t once in a
while invite good ol’ Adam to
share an apple while sitting on a
rock under some tree.
In today’s world, restaurant
owners who can have patios and
don’t are missing out on a lot
of business and many happier
customers … The healthful and
comfort qualities are invaluable
… Those able to provide any
kind of patio, large or small, with
lamps, heat pits, etc., may be
doing a big favor for their cus-
tomers and themselves … The
value of outdoor dining to many
is priceless.
Café Cortina, 10 Mile, east of
Orchard Lake Road, Farmington
Hills, is highly notable as mag-
nificently beautiful and starry-
eyed-looking to many who adore
the award-winning outdoor
patio that was originally just a
large flower garden after Rina
Tonon and her late husband,
Adriano, took over the location
in 1976 … Rina later coveted
the space and always wanted to
create a beautiful hideaway for
romantic dining … designed as
an Italian escape like so many
enjoy today in Italy … Many of
the original trees have been left
in place … and later she added a
lovely stone fireplace that would
resemble the feel of rustic places
Rina and Adriano enjoyed when
they lived in Italy during their
youth.
Today, outdoor patios are
used for all occasions … roman-
tic engagements, receptions
and everyday dining … serving
exceptional foods like that at
Café Cortina … Amid other
awards, House Beautiful maga-
zine selected it among America’s
most romantic.
Now comes still another won-
derful outdoor appointment
added by Rina … She has also
included an outdoor patio sec-
tor with soft-cushioned seating
for people waiting to be seated
on the much-acclaimed din-
ing, drinking and ultra-styled
patio … Where folks may have a
drink or whatever to enjoy the
wonderful dining offerings of the
day by chef Jeffrey Hoffman and
his sous chef Louis Ciscernos …
both graduates of the Culinary
Institute of America at Hyde
Park, N.Y.
And wonderful al fresco din-
ing is taking another step with
the much-acclaimed outdoor
covered terrace at Steven Lelli’s
Inn On the Green, 12 Mile Road,
just west of Halsted, Farmington
Hills, which is utilized 12
months a year … It was once
just an outdoor porch, but now
the almost 200 seating capacity
is within the confines of true
elegance … Television screens
all over, nonslip stone flooring,
beautiful draperies, portable
dance floor as needed for occa-
sions, fire pits, etc. … Even tall
heat lamps when desired … with
excellent food, too.
But all outdoor dining locales
… large or small … serve many
desired purposes … not the least
is their access for the numerous
patrons who sometimes travel
to warmer climates to avail
themselves of this much-wanted
dining delight.
ABOUT STEVEN LELLI’S
Inn On the Green, by the way
… Date has been set to honor
the wonderful Checker Bar-Q of
yesteryears … It’ll be Monday,
June 4, 5-11 p.m. … Steven Lelli’s
is usually closed on Mondays
but will open for this excellent
tribute.
EARLY THIS MAY is hoped-
for completion of George Lukaj’s
fifth restaurant … Station Square
… at the former site of Papa
Vino’s on Coolidge, South of 15
Mile (Maple), Troy … The new
240-seat Station Square, a free-
standing restaurant edifice, will
open in Troy’s Midtown Square
Center and in front of the Troy
Transit Center that deposits
people coming into the city …
It’ll join others in the big out-
door patio boom with two …
one for 35 and one for 100.
SO MANY TIMES numerous
people keep wondering and ask-
ing why a food law has never
been passed to make it manda-
tory that true sirloin beef is used
N OT T I N G H I L L
of W EST B LOOMFIELD
in menus that say sirloin beef in
chopped sirloin … Many people
may remember when Ben Kasle
and his Berman’s Chop House
on Times Square, Detroit, used
to have his cooks cut off the
corners of sirloin steaks and put
them into electric grinders to
make his true chopped sirloins.
REVIEW MIRROR … When
Wally Kostere owned a dance
license for more than 20 years
but never put in dancing at his
Kostere’s restaurant!
OLDIE BUT GOODIE … The
husband came home one night
slightly inebriated and handed
his wife his pay envelope. She
opened it, looked inside and
shouted, “This is only part of
your salary. Where’s the rest of
it?”
“I bought some things for the
house,” he said.
“How nice,” she smiled. “What
did you buy?”
The slightly tipsy hubby
replied, “A couple rounds of (hic)
drinks.”
ERRATA … Plymouth’s
Cantoro Italian Market is on
North Haggerty between 5 and 6
Mile roads.
CONGRATS … To Dharlene
Norris on her birthday … To
Leslie Pardo on her birthday …
To Nancy Hearshen on her 75th
birthday. •
Danny’s email address is
dannyraskin2132@gmail.com.
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jn
April 26 • 2018
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