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A Unique Deli
W
Danny Raskin
Senior Columnist
Pickles & Rye
serves up
unusual soups
and all the
pickles you
can eat.
Linda Collins and Rick Therrien
hen it opened four years ago
this past June, people had heard
about its strange dishes … Like
servers telling guests that the soup of the day
is Dill Pickle … Their curiosity many times
got the better of them and they ordered the
soup, enjoyed it and now come back every
Wednesday for it.
While talking about soup, Pickles & Rye
Deli, Orchard Lake Road, south of Maple,
West Bloomfield, owners Rick Therrien and
Linda Collins also have a Wild Mushroom
Barley soup that brings many raves … and
might be attributed to the blending of vari-
ous types of mushrooms, which is not done
at too many other delis in this region.
It seemed strange that Rick and Linda
would wind up as partners in the same busi-
ness … But it has turned out to be the frui-
tion of what both had originally dreamed of
someday happening … Linda is a wiz at ser-
vice, having been a server herself and later
training others to be excellent waitpersons
… Rick had been a deli busboy, later a fine
director of operations, and also had a certain
obsession about someday going into the deli/
restaurant business on his own … Through
the years, Rick would write down and save
his ideas for better restaurant concepts plus
names should he ever need any of them …
Pickles & Rye is one of those names.
They had met each other 25 years ago
when both worked for Matt Prentice at his
Deli Unique, previously Northgate Deli,
owned by Dick Lichtman and then Dave
Raben … It has been a business partnership
made in heaven.
The formula for success in the deli or
any restaurant, says Rick, is having simple,
good food and good service at reasonable
prices … He and Linda many times tell their
employees that their guests could have eaten
anywhere but chose them, which should be
taken as an honor … “Treat your customers
as though they were guests at your own din-
ner table,” Rick tells them.
They opened Pickles & Rye deli, he says,
because it was sitting there closed and
empty, and both were looking for a site to
open their own delicatessen restaurant …
Each had the same thought … That a once-
vibrant deli location should not be passed up
… “From our past experiences,” says Rick,
“it had great promise as a deli again with
our new concepts and those of when it was a
Deli Unique.”
Their new delicatessen ideas included a
tie-in with the name … Customers can have
all the cut pickles they want … new or old
… continuously … Just say the word and
the cut pickles are again on their table …
You would be surprised at how much cut-up
pickles some people eat … At one sitting
while I was there, I saw a gent eat more
untold helpings of pickles than he did while
devouring his luscious-looking sandwich …
and asked for more … even after paying his
bill.
Pickles & Rye is open 10 a.m.-9 p.m.
Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m.-9 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday … Seating is about 150
in booths and tables … and it offers a menu
that seems to please all taste buds … Like the
popular dinners that include Asian-glazed
salmon or stuffed cabbage and a lunch con-
coction called Deli Addiction, etc.
A unique deli? … For sure, but now it’s
named Pickles & Rye.
MAIL DEPT. … From Sylvia Binder …
“Why do you write so much about restau-
rant anniversaries?”
(I write more than one time about many
restaurants that have been in business at
least five years because those that are doing
a good job or those that have made chang-
es, in most cases, certainly deserve being
noted.)
OLDIE BUT GOODIE … From Rabbi
Jason Miller … Shlomo, a pious Jewish man
and golf addict, awoke one morning. It was
a perfect day for a round of golf but also
happened to be Yom Kippur. After a great
struggle with his conscience, he decided that
he would squeeze in a few quick holes before
going to services. Shlomo lived close to the
course and got there soon after it opened.
Taking his clubs out of his locker, he headed
for the first tee.
Moses happened to be looking down from
Heaven and saw Shlomo on the golf course.
Disturbed, he reported it to God, suggesting
that God teach him a lesson that he would
never forget. God agreed.
Shlomo played the first hole and shot a
birdie. On the second hole he shot an eagle
and, on the third hole, the toughest par four
on the course, he got a hole-in-one! Moses
turned to God and asked, “I thought you
were going to teach Shlomo a lesson. This is
a lesson?”
God replied, “Think about it. Who can he
tell?”
CONGRATS … To Denise Dunn on her
birthday … To Mark Larkin on his birthday
… To Barbara Pollack on her 70th birthday.
Danny’s email address is dannyraskin2132@gmail.com.
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October 4 • 2018
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