METRO TIMES REVIEW

Sweet Lorraine's Cafe and Bar

Sweet and Downtown
Eats: 4 stars
Experience: 3 stars

It’s about time Lorraine Platman decided to grace downtown. This is her fourth restaurant in the area, so what took her so long? (A fifth restaurant, in Ann Arbor, closed in 2000.) Platman’s new location is in the Courtyard by Marriott in the Millender Center, her second collaboration with the hotel chain. Sweet Lorraine’s is an area mainstay that deserves its longtime popularity. Although the newest location experienced some opening-month glitches and the food is not quite as fabulous as I remember in the burbs, the new place should be well on its way to improving the quality of lunchtime life for the thousands of GM employees across the street, as for the rest of us. The new spot’s decor combines some of the whimsy of the Southfield location — cool tiled columns at the entrance and a giant mural of orange and yellow fruit — with what must be leftover decoration from Marriott’s former restaurant there.

“It’s very airport,” said my companion, though I would call the booths’ upholstery more like airplane. (Platman: “It’s a challenge mixing two cultures.”) Of the music, let’s just say it’s mixed in genre and quality. As to service: It doesn’t upset me when the server can’t remember who ordered what — there are worse sins — but be forewarned, this could happen to you at Sweet Lorraine’s downtown. As I queued at the rest room, two other parties discussed the cluelessness of their server, and I hoped they were talking about mine, since two would be too many. As for fare, Platman has brought her customers’ veteran favorites downtown, such as maple-cured salmon, pecan chicken and “Lorraine’s special salad” with Gorgonzola, pears, hazelnuts and cranberries. She continues to offer a generous array of specials. What’s more, she’s susceptible to pressure. Platman told me, “I get e-mails that say, ‘I saw you on TV and you said you put something back on the menu because customers wanted it, and I want this dish with lemon and peppercorn sauce and Havarti cheese, and could you PLEASE do it?’ And I’m reading this and thinking, ‘Sure!’” I mention this in order to orchestrate a groundswell for champagne shrimp bisque, which I ordered right before New Year’s. Definitely one of the best soups I’ve ever tasted: somehow the delicate champagne taste is not smothered; it’s rich without being heavy, and the alcohol kick with seafood is out of the ordinary. So call before you go, and if it’s not being offered, offer to wash Platman’s car if she’ll put it on the menu.
A tomato cognac soup, on the other hand, is creamy and fine, but the cognac is not evident, and a turkey-rice soup is just spicy.
I know a former Sweet Lorraine’s busboy, Lee, who is now a Sweet Lorraine’s regular diner (he’s come up in the world). Lee says that Platman’s hallmark is to “pay just the right amount of attention to the food.” She calls her food “World Beat,” with appropriations from a multitude of cuisines: Jamaican, Japanese, Creole, Mexican, Italian, Chinese and American. The American is found in the sandwiches, steaks and mashed potatoes. Cranberries and cherries are prominent in many dishes, so if you don’t like fruit with your entrée, choose carefully. “We’re not subtle. We like to knock people’s socks off,” Platman says, and that is evident in dishes like the very sharp Caesar salad and the Traverse City smoked chicken and cherry pasta, where the sweet dried cherries compete with Gorgonzola and spiced walnuts. It’s a bit much.

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