w

U

Tf
The Michigan Daily--Sunday, F+

Page 2-Sunday, February 17, 1980-The Michigan Daily

poetry

Eat to the Beat

the black bouquet
aftermath
bouquets of children,
long hospital gardens,
blackened petals
yellow shadows,
melted vistas,
ravished rosebuds,
unopened mornings,
napalmed eyelids

Twilight
tolled hard as I
pressed do 4n the dank
streets, factory and alley
zigzagged by in long silence,
a hippie, her little girl drag-
ging approached to beg. Clusters
of youths idling here and there. I
see it from afar, the drunks splayed
on the benches, garbage cans dancing
in front of the once proud Episcopal
church. I tiptoe by as they sputter
anchored in their stupor, slip inside
the tall black ga tes open only to know-
ing eyes. Quietly I wade
through the stalks of nature's muffling
debris past J.P.'s grave and last weeks'
flowers. The stone breath of a shrouded
world chills until up the stairs into the
turret, the "group" circled for the poetry
workshop. Ted Ber rigan was shuffling his
notes, a crowd tense to hear their own torn
later. "Did you hear Ginsberg was robbed a-
gain last night?" There was a housewife still
trying inbetween the No-Doz, a staunch business
man writing like J.P. shocked at the rest of us
On Sunday afternoons, the tourists taxi by St.
Mark's to see J.P., flit away when they see the

A peek in the
reCjpe boxes
of a trio of
l ocal eateries

and

bums
the
Some
into
jazz servi
what it's
book ought


poets
J.P. ORGANpeek
1837-1913 the
Lce in the nave, shake their heads at
all coming to and whisper how a guide-
 to warn a body about places like this


ti

on n Ono

o 0 0 0000
00 0 01

0 0

0 0 000

000\

0 It

o 0 00

01 0 00 00o 00 0 a

By Katie Herzfeld
M Y LAST FOOD column, a history
of chocolate, was written
begrudgingly. I love food - chocolate
especially - and to share meals and
conversation with friends who also en-
joy eating. I love to savor chocolate and
other delicacies in what Julia Child
calls "gluttonous solitude." But I had
no enthusiasm for that article on
chocolate. I mean, who cares about the
stuff when it costs 13 per cent more than
it did last year and the Soviets are in-
vading Afghanistan? -
I began working on this column with
the same reluctance. But after talking
with the cooks and owners of Seva,
Krazy Jim's, and Dominick's, my at-
titude has changed. Fran Longnecker,
Jim Shafer, Chris Gunderman and
Dominick DeVarti are restaurateaurs
of the highest order. They care about
the products they sell and the people
they serve - which, in this day of
theme restaurants that market pre-
fabricated food, is awfully unusual.
Americans have come to enjoy par-
ticipating in the pretentiousness of
"destination restaurants" - those
whose decor contributes more to the
menu's price than the food served. We
have grown dependent on McDonalds
and other chains merely because their
products are predictable. As Chris
suggested, "You can walk into a filling
station restaurant like McDonald's, ask
for three dollars worth please, and
predict the package." We grab for
potato chips before an apple - which
might be bland or mushy. For their un-
pretentiousness as well as their com-
mitment to fresh ingredients, Seva,
Krazy Jim's, and Dominick's are to be
celebrated.
Fran Longnecker offered me her
recipe box while we talked in the war-
mly decorated dining room at Seva
where she is head cook. In a business
known for guarding its secrets, that's
exceptional. Owned by Steve Bellock
since 1973, Seva is known for its
vegetarian cuisine. Its popularity with
both the student and business sectors of
Ann Arbor reflects its comfortable at-
mosphere. The waitri are gracious, not
ingratiating. And the over-used
restaurant decor of classical music and
hanging plants manages in this case not
to be trite.
Longnecker's interest in food stems
from a job she had at Briarwood's
World Harvest. The man she worked
with had been trainedmat Schoolcraft
College in Detroit. "He really inspired
me," Fran says.
"A good cook," she believes, "has
Katie Herzfeld is a member of the
Daily Arts Staff,

to know vegetables and spices. He or
she must respond to the living relation-
ship between them. And then the crea-
tivity comes from within."
"
"I'd like to say that we make
everything from scratch for ideological
reasons," laughs Chris Gunderman of
Krazy Jim's, the restaurant she par-
tners with Jim Shafer. "But pre-fab
food is expensive. It takes me eight
more hours a week to make my own
pies. But it compensates. I know what
goes into them, the customers are get-
ting a better deal because they taste
better, and I'm making something on
them now. Besides, I like to bake."
Since 1953, when he opened the
restaurant, Jim has been making
"blimpy burgers" from meat he grinds
himself. Chris joined him four years
ago after answering a help wanted ad.
"We're a staff of life restaurant," they
say. "People can sustain themselves on
our food for little money."
Chris laughs again. "I just thought of
something funny. Last week a kid came
in with his mother - he wanted to show
her that he eats healthy even though he
doesn't eat at home. And then a few
days ago a guy cancelled his order of
french fries and took cole slaw instead
because, he said, he hadn't had a
vegetable in ten days."
IM POURED himself another cup
of coffee, admittedly fatigued from
his 60 to 70 hour weeks. "Our customers
really are fine people," he says. They'll
volunteer to help us out when we're
busy. And maybe only a half dozen
people in a week won't clear their table
after eating." He believes that their
food and personal service reflects as
much on their customers as it does on
them - as it does with any restaurant.
"One of the things I like about this
place," Chris says, "is that I hold the
person's sandwich in my hand and ask,
'What would you like on it? How about a
little onion - just try a little onion.' And
they'll try it and sometimes they'll like
it. Jim's always getting people to try an
egg on their burger."
"
"What makes a good restaurant?"
Without hesitation, Dominick DeVar-
ti, the owner of the cafe on Monroe an-
swers, "the customers."
A sort of neighborhood pub for the
law school's construction workers, ar-
tists, students, professors - even
classes, Dominick's was originally built
at the turn of the century as a grocery
store. In the 1920's, houses that were on
the property where the law school now
resides were moved away and the quad
was built. During the Second World
War, the store sold sandwiches. "It was
like a deli," DeVarti explains.

i1i@3 */1[[8IIIgo o~a3 1090 flh!8po 000800000o683368008 !) 308001atm OShei D0i]ejJI ujo
iL 1111T10111111111110;111111111 01111 1u0 1111111 111111111111 1111111111111111111111 i
2!2202222 devour its young says nietzsche the revolution doth de 222222222222
33333333330 your its young says nietzsche the revolution doth devo 3333!j3_131333
4 204 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ur its young peanuts ten cents a bag says nietzsche do. 4 4 40,14 4 4 4 u44
5SU o55595th devour its young for ten cents a bag the revolution55555.55550s5
Si s 6 6 s6o6 6 6 is ten cents a bag doth devour nietzsche says peanuts 136 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
1 3113 3131 3113a1 1 83881363a1688111II1688885 J38181188111688818311115338aa13 131
99311 ILIS 9 a "9999 9 e 9119999 9!J!19 s s a99 e 999999991 3 1119 1s s 9J0 99119
t 4 23Si 1 's 1 U 0 a a a o a11 an a 21112 2 i 1 n 2 1 3 1 3 3 in a e a e 1 0 4 e a e a a a a a a S S e e a t i a s a n a n a 1 1 I n 1 a u
SAQO" We

Quaffing beers from the traditional Mason jar
a trio of workers enjoy the warm character of Don

In 1959, Dominick bought the
building, then empty, from its second
owner. "I wasn't doing anything and
the building was deteriorating," he
says. "I started out front, selling piz-
zas." Meanwhile, he reconstructed the
rest of the building. Getting a beer
license in 1972 was the necessary plug
that has made Dominick's a "solid
meeting place. -
"This is the hardest business to be
in," DeVarti claims. "I've got to be the
maintenance man, the pur-
chaser . . . This place isn't large
enough to designate the work to others.
There's no labor market since this is a
university town, and the turnover is
tremendous. People usually work only
a semester at a time."
But DeVarti undoubtedly loves the
place he has created, or, rather, the
relaxed atmosphere that he has allowed
his customers to create. "These people
don't need to be entertained with a
jukebox or anything. They entertain
themselves," he claims. In regard to
the opportunities for poetry readings
and chamber music at the cafe (and at
the British-style wine cellar in the
basement which is in formation),
Dominick says, "the kids tell me what
they want. I let them feel like it's their
own place - within reason, naturally."
"
The following recipes are among the
most popular from Seva, Jim's, and
Dominick's. Don't be intimidated by
the quantity or lack of specific
measurements. You can't really fail in
cooking unless you burn something or
add too much salt. As Chris says, "Just
don't be scared."
donSor s e A pple Crisp
This recipe was developed at Seva
with contributions from waitri and a
short order cook. Printed here as Fran
Longnecker makes it - in mass quan-
tity - it can be broken down easily.
Quartering the recipe will make two
quarts of apple crisp and serve eight
people generously-.
24 apples sliced thin
4 c raisins
4 c sunflower seeds
juice of 4 lemons
7 T. cinnamon
4 c honey

Mix these
spread in p
8 c rolled o
4 c powder
4 c whole w
3 lbs. butte
Mix dry i
combine w
apple mix.
Serve warn
Simple as
is her most
once even
it, saying,
two days
recipe!"
carrots, pe
equal amo
mayor
-salt
freshly gro
pinch suga
raisins
chopped w
Estimating
the ingredi
L
These deli'
addicts. Tt
Dominick
For the c
crust that
egg. (Ann
the first
Epicure i
rich). Roll
Cut into
square froj
old woode
paint first
the pastr3
still on the
til it turns
oil and all
from tube.
Fill with:
ricotta che
sugar
vanilla or
chocolate
chopped cE
Mix the in
increasing

These poems are taken from Dance of Life, a
collection of poetry from Anne-Marie Brumm.
Brumm was a graduate student of Comparative
Literature at the University, and in 1973 she won
two major Hopwood awards for poetry. She
has also won the Bain-Swiggett Prize for tradi-
tional and metered verse. Dance of Life was
published in 1979, by the Parisian Les Heures-
Silencieuses. Brumm is currently an instructor
in the English Department of Kean College of
New Jersey in Union, New Jersey.