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SYLVIA RECTOR | WORD OF MOUTH

750 degrees: Brick Oven

August 9, 2007

BY SYLVIA RECTOR

FREE PRESS FOOD WRITER

Pizza lovers and Italian food fans will want to check out Dearborn's new Brick Oven Bistro, a casual dining spot with a handsome, contemporary interior and a long menu of gourmet thin-crust pizzas, salads, panini, pastas and entrees ranging from chicken and fish to steak.

The centerpiece of the restaurant in Village Square is an open kitchen and a 5,000-pound brick oven that bakes at 750 degrees.

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Executive chef Ali Jouni trained at New York's French Culinary Institute and has worked at Crave and Parisian Bistro in Dearborn.

The owners -- real estate developer John Hamood and pizza franchisee Vito Antonazzo -- are Dearborn residents who've been friends since their days at Fordson High School. (4656 Greenfield Road, 313-945-1500 and www.brickovendearborn.com.)

Dream Cruise parties set

The venerable Fox & Hounds in Bloomfield Hills, which recently announced it will close at the end of the month, has announced its annual weeklong lineup of Dream Cruise festivities.

They begin Saturday with a casual dance party and conclude Aug. 19 with a party to celebrate Bloomfield Hills' 75th anniversary. Many are benefits for area charities. See details at www.foxandhoundsonline.com.

The restaurant, founded in 1923, will serve its last lunch Friday, but will remain open for dinner through Aug. 31.

Antonio's in the Park is alive and well

With people at their clubs or Up North, late summer is the slowest time of year for most Grosse Pointes restaurants, says Brian Sammut, chef-owner of Antonio's in the Park in Grosse Pointe Park.

But last week, his phone wouldn't stop ringing. Regulars were calling to express surprise that he was closing.

Sammut was pretty surprised himself because it's the other Antonio's -- the one on Mack in Grosse Pointe Woods -- that's calling it quits at the end of the month.

An item about the closing in this column last week accidentally switched their names.

Antonio's in the Park is staying right where it is, with its white tablecloths, intimate atmosphere and extensive menu of pastas, veal, chicken, fish and grilled items, all made ""simple and fresh,"" as Sammut likes to say.

""It's unbelievable what one little article can do,"" he said last week.

So in the spirit of taking lemons and making lemonade, Sammut saw the mistake as a chance to remind his customers -- as well as those from the other Antonio's -- that Antonio's in the Park is alive and well.

He recommends the clam sauce, ""made with fresh clam meat, white wine, clam juice, garlic and onion, and fresh parsley and basil. ... And any of the veal dishes,"" he adds.

The restaurant at 15117 Kercheval is open 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 5-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 5-8 p.m. Sunday, with extended bar hours. (313-821-2433)

Contact SYLVIA RECTOR at 313-222-5026 or rector@freepress.com.

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