Joebar and Frame Whip Up Kevell-Worthy Noshes for Hanukkah

The Hazel Park restaurants are hosting a holiday soiree for all
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Potato Latkes and Gelt
Potato latkes and gelt at Joebar // Photograph Courtesy of Joebar and Frame

With Hanukkah commencing this past Sunday, an agenda packed with local festivities is set to ring in the holiday. Co-owners and spouses Cari and Joe Vaughn of Hazel Park’s Frame, the experimental restaurant hidden inside of their pub-like Joebar, are hosting their second annual Hanukkah party on December 8th with Detroit chef Moses Fishman. The Vaughns, married for 12 years, have always enjoyed celebrating their respective Jewish and Christian faiths, and decided to bring their party-hosting skills to Hazel Park. The duo enlisted Fishman, who has previously served as sous chef at Detroit’s La Dulce and the Bird and the Bread (now Vinotecca), to take over the restaurant-bar for a night.

Fishman’s menu — a contemporary take on traditional Jewish plates — is suited well for the crowd that haunts the “chef incubators.” His sabich sliders, rather than sandwiches, mix hummus, eggplant, eggs and Israeli salad, which features finely diced tomato, onion, cucumber, and bell or chili peppers. Also on the bill of fare is pastrami sandwich egg rolls stuffed with sauerkraut, swiss cheese and mustard, and whitefish tea sandwiches that layer pickled onion, cream cheese, cucumber, and chive; all à la carte. Classic dishes like latkes, crispy fried potato pancakes topped with applesauce or sour cream, and sufganiyot, jelly filled donuts, will also be available. “We love Hanukkah because it’s a delicious holiday that you get a taste of once a year,” Cari says.

Joebar’s beverage team has also crafted libations for the occasion: Hanukkah vodka cocktails, Manischewitz kosher sangria, Jewish bourbon old fashioneds, pickle martinis, and their liquid gelt, which Cari says is “a play on a Jewish cultural phrase, ‘give gelt, not guilt.”  Activities for the night include sing-along sessions to Adam Sandler Hanukkah songs played on repeat, lighting the menorah, and dreidel drinking games, open to all. “This is not your Bubbie’s Hanukkah party. It’s an occasion where everyone is welcome — Jewish or not!” Cari says. Optional tickets start at $25 and guarantee guests a full dinner. The a-la-carte menu will be available to non-ticket-holders on a first-come, first-serve basis.

How will you be celebrating Hanukkah? Let us know in the comments below!


Related: It’s a #WonderfulLife