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<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Roma Caf\u00e9 is the oldest restaurant in Detroit. Having served as a boarding house in 1888 for workers from nearby Eastern Market, the building retains its well-worn, old shoe, creaky floorboard comfort while bustling with the excitement of a destination, special-event restaurant. Tuxedoed waiters, occasionally swigging from their own glasses of wine, shrug off formality by remembering the names and tastes of regular customers \u2013 who make up 80-percent of Roma\u2019s business, according to Janet Sossi-Belcoure, the second-generation descendent of the Fiat Motors executive who emigrated to Detroit, drawn by the auto industry, but bearing classic Italian recipes (he was a friend of Hector Boyardee). Now, Sossi-Belcoure returns to Italy each year to visit vintners (eight Chiantis and a Barolo, Marchesi di Barolo from the Piedmonte Region have emerged as Roma\u2019s house favorites) and take cooking classes in Tuscany in order to return with her own culinary creations.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cOur customers don\u2019t want the menu changed, so I offer the new dishes as specials,\u201d explains Sossi-Belcoure. \u201cAt the same time, we\u2019re seeing young, urban professionals with modern tastes discovering Roma Caf\u00e9 and they want their own new traditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Johnny Georgas has been tending to diners on red table cloths at Roma Caf\u00e9 for 33 years. \u201cThe diners have become more casual, but the food has not changed one bit. We\u2019ve served the same sauce recipe for 80 years, and the Veal Parmigiana has always been our most popular dish, accompanied, of course, with a side dish of Casa Linga, our homemade \u201cPasta of the House,\u201d says Georgas, who has served the likes of Bob Segar and the Detroit Red Wing hockey players who carbo-load at Roma. The marinara, meat and cream sauces swirl through the heaping, fresh dishes with as much richness as the atmosphere through the upper and lower dining rooms.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
And one magical night, Rat Pack members Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Liza Minnelli dropped into Roma for a couple of hours after a Fox Theatre show. \u201cSammy went into the kitchen and thanked everyone for staying late, and the next night they sent their limousine drive over to pick up pasta and meatballs to enjoy backstage,\u201d Sossi-Belcoure recalls.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paglia and Fieno (\u201cstraw and hay\u201d), a dish of green and white shoe string noodles with prosciutto and peas, is a house favorite as are the homemade Canolli.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Roma Caf\u00e9, 3401 Via Roma (Riopelle), Detroit (313) 831-5940. www.romacafe.com<\/a> Closed Sundays.<\/p>\nMichael Patrick Shiels, a Michigan native and author, has visited more that 34 counties to write travel articles. MShiels@aol.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Detroit is a crossroads of cultural experiences. Hamtramck, near Midtown, for instance, is a Detroit community dominated first by Polish… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2010\/10\/johnny_automatic_chef_says_okay.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions\/416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Detroit is a crossroads of cultural experiences. Hamtramck, near Midtown, for instance, is a Detroit community dominated first by Polish immigrants \u2013 who now hear the Muslim \u201cCall to Prayer\u201d wafting through their town five times each day. Detroit\u2019s Greektown area is well known by tourists and borders Corktown, and area settled more than 150 years ago by Irish immigrants, adjacent to Mexicantown. \u201cEastside Italians\u201d have long been a staple of the multinational makeup of Motown, which shares in international border with Canada.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n