44 August 1 • 2019
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nosh

Business
As Usual

Kosher operations continue 
despite Epicurean closure.
E

mployees and management 
of the Soul Café and the Milk 
& Honey and Epic Kosher 
Catering companies were shocked to 
receive an unceremonious email July 
20 announcing they were no longer 
employed by the Epicurean Group. 
The Metro Detroit hospitality compa-
ny stated it was severing ties effective 
immediately with everyone affiliat-
ed with the numerous restaurants 
and catering operations under the 
Epicurean umbrella. 
“People started calling and asking, 
‘
What’
s going on? Do I still have a 
job?’
” said Shalom Shomer, director of 
kosher operations for the Epicurean 
Group, which includes Epic Kosher 
Catering, Milk & Honey and Soul 
Café. 
The email from the Epicurean 
Group indicated that management 
would revert back to Stanley Dickson 
Jr., who owned the company prior 
to selling it to Ryan Moore last fall. 
However, this turned out to be false. 
Dickson, who is now retired, had no 
interest in returning to the business.
Shomer’
s first call was to Rabbi 
Levi Shemtov, executive director of 
Friendship Circle of Michigan, which 
sponsors the Soul Café and Milk & 
Honey. Shemtov was already talking 
with members of the organization’
s 
board of directors, who agreed closing 
the restaurant and catering businesses 
was not an option. The group worked 
through the night to figure out a plan 
that would allow them to keep the 
restaurant and catering businesses up 
and running. 
“Levi said, ‘
We have a café to run 
and a community to serve and we have 
to make sure everyone is taken care 
of’
,
” said Shomer. 
According to Shemtov, Friendship 
Circle has taken over the payroll, 
allowing all the employees to keep 
their jobs. Elliott Baum, Friendship 
Circle of Michigan board member and 

longtime supporter of the organization, 
is handling the business side through 
his company, Blue Ribbon Restaurants, 
a licensee of Famous Dave’
s Barbecue. 
His staff is responsible for payroll, 
purchasing, accounts payable and 
receivable and other administrative 
functions.
“When I found out what was going 
on, I had a talk with my accounting 
staff and told Levi we’
ll jump in,
” 
said Baum, whose father, Fred Baum, 
was the first kosher caterer at the 
Southfield location of Congregation 
Shaarey Zedek. “We didn’
t miss a beat 
… we had a great first week.
” 
Epic Kosher Catering is the meat 
division of the catering operation, 
while Milk & Honey provides dairy 
catering out of the Soul Cafe, a kosher 
dairy restaurant. Together, the three 
divisions employ approximately 25-30 
people, including individuals with 
special needs at Soul Café and Milk & 
Honey. 
“We see the entire kosher division 
as something that really needs to be 
together to make the project viable,
” 
Shemtov said. 
Synagogues and other organiza-
tions who rely on the kosher catering 
services, such as the JCC, will see no 
changes. “It’
s business as usual,
” said 
Justin Wedes of the JCC.
While the logistics of running the 
restaurant and catering companies are 
likely to continue evolving, Shemtov 
remains fully committed to the busi-
nesses, the employees and the com-
munity. 
“We have confidence in Shalom’
s 
ability to continue to lead the team 
and in assuring the continued success 
of the business,
” wrote Shemtov in a 
letter to the staff. “Elliott Baum has 
decades of experience in the restaurant 
business … and his leadership team 
will be assisting the Friendship Circle 
and Shalom in anything that is needed 
to assure a smooth transition.
” ■

RONELLE GRIER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

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