New suburban Detroit restaurants bank on patrons' prosperity

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 29, 1997 by Carolyn Walkup

OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. -- The automobiles made in Detroit come off assembly lines, but the newest trendsetting restaurants here are one-of-kind.

The latest crop of homegrown restaurants is designed to appeal to a demanding, well-traveled suburban clientele, residents of northwest suburban Oakland County, one of the most affluent counties in the country. The captains of auto-related and other industries who live nearby eat out often, encouraging restaurant operators to bank on steady business.

Among the newest operations in the area are Andiamo Italia West in Bloomfield Hills, Forte in Birmingham, Northern Lakes Seafood Co. in Bloomfield Hills and Oakland Grill in Royal Oak. All have dinner check averages between $30 and $40.

Andiamo Italia West is the fourth upscale Italian's restaurant in Joseph Vicari's Andiamo group. Representing all regions of Italy the newest addition has a more Californian flair than the others, Vicari said.

"We're sold out seven days a week. People book three to four weeks ahead for weekend reservations," said Vicari, who projects first-year sales of more than $5 million. The bright, colorful restaurant seats 200 with banquet space to serve almost 200 more.

Vicari spent about $1.5 million to remodel the former Machus Red Fox, where the late Teamsters' boss Jimmy Hoffa was last seen before his unsolved disappearance.

The restaurant specializes in home-style pasta with slow-simmered sauces, risotto, veal, fresh fish and aged beef, Checks average $40 for dinner and $12 for lunch.

Forte in downtown Birmingham is the third restaurants owned by the Wisne family's Epoch Enterprises. Known for cutting-edge cuisine and eye-catching design. Epoch also owns Tribute and Too Chez.

The Art Nouveau era inspired the theatrical design. One of the area's best-known chefs, Keith Famie, who formerly operated Les Auteurs n Royal Oak and has a televised weekly cooking series, interprets the Miditerranean flavors of the South of France, Italy and Spain, with a bit of Asia and California on the side.

"I'm influenced by available products and a style of cooking that has some basis of health to it," Famie said. I'm real big on the whole Mediterranean diet pyramid."

Examples from the early fall menu are smoked chicken pizza with caramelized red onions, barbecue sauce and asiago cheese from the display brick oven; crispy Moroccan salmon with kalamata olive-mashed potatoes and spicy tomato sauce; paella with chicken, chorizo, clams, halibut and shrimp; and scaloppine of turkey with morel mushrooms.

This fall Famie will add such Asian-inspired dishes as miso soup and green tea ice cream. He will take his interest in Asian cuisine to Shanghai this October, where he and part of his crew will prepare a grand-style buffet dinner to celebrate the opening of the Michigan Trade Office there.

A large variety of fresh fish and seafood keeps Northern Lakes Seafood Co. in the venerable Kingsley Inn busy every night. The contemporary fish house is modeled loosely after the Atlanta Fish Market, said Keith Schofield, senior managing partner of Unique Restaurant Corp., which operates all foodservice n the inn, now owned by John Frasco and officially renamed the "Kingsley Hotel & Suits."

The restaurant is averaging three turns on Friday and Saturday nights and 1.5 turns on weeknights. Schofield anticipates first-year sales of about $4.8 million from the 190-seat restaurant alone.

Fish is delivered six days a week. "We go to see the plants before we buy from anybody," said Jim Barnett, corporate chef. All fish is refrigerated in a separate walkin kept at 32 degrees.

"Freshness and quality are the keys here," Barnett noted. Most of the menu features mainstream varieties and preparations, while about 20 percent of its caters to more adventurous diners.

A recent daily catch included sushi grade ahi tuna, George's Bank scrod, East Coast swordfish. Lake Superior whitefish, Michigan perch and Canadian pickerel. Great Lakes fish are familiar to the clientele and are good sellers.

Recent house specialties were grouper glazed with a cilantro and jalapeno pesto; sesame tempura shrimp stirfry; herb-crusted lemon sole with cherry ginger beurre blanc; and a seafood steamer with Maine lobster tail, jumbo Gulf shrimp, Alaskan king crab legs and Canadian salmon. Dinner checks average $34.

The restaurant has a glassed-in, cigar-friendly lounge that is proving to be popular. "We sold $2,000 worth of cigars in July alone that paid for the investment int eh humidors," Schofield said.

Wines selected by somelier Madeline Triffon and desserts overseen by Robert haliciky, executive pastry chef, contribute to high add-on sales.

A more electic menu is served at Oakland Grill, Unique Restaurants' concept, America, which followed several other short-lived restaurants there. Current chef and co-owner Louai Sharkas and silent partners hope their American bistro with Asian influences will overcome the site's jinxed reputation.

"Our clientele are looking for the best," said Sharkas who formerly worked at several nearby tony establishments, including the Townsend Hotel Rugby Grill, Jacques Seafood and Wabeek Country Club.