Danny Raskin: "I want to write about that guy." (Screen:shot: Detroit News video)
Danny Raskin, a Jewish News columnist seemingly forever, wrote his first piece for the paper on March 27, 1942. He turned 100 in January and is still delivering his weekly shtick.
Anyone whose read the Jewish News over the years, knows his columns are a throwback to the old days when columnist wrote only nice things and got a little shmaltzy (overly sweet and sentimental).
Raskin's column, "Best of Everything," often compliments a restaurant on its brisket or its generous portions or the great service.
In his latest column, for example, he writes about Uptown Parthenon on Orchard Lake in West Bloomfield:
"Uptown Parthenon, highly noted for its marvelous double-boned lamb chops among a bevy of authentic house-made and prepared Greek dishes, makes its own rice pudding, baklava, Parthenon cake, custard, etc. … is also widely acclaimed for its own baked lamb … among other items, some of which cannot be gotten elsewhere."
"I always will write about a restaurant that's been in business," Raskin tells Neal Rubin of The Detroit News. "The one who's made it three or five years, I want to write about that guy."
Arthur Horwitz, who bought the paper in 1986, tells Rubin:
"Danny and his work transcend the generations. He's consistently one of the best-read parts of the paper."
