Molly Abraham, former Free Press restaurant critic, dies at 92

Molly Abraham, a multi-decade metro Detroit restaurant critic well-known in the newspaper and restaurant industries for her weekly reviews, died Thursday morning.

She was 92 and died of natural causes in hospice care at Ascension Hospital in Warren, her son, Jimmy Doom, said.

"She loved wine, loved jazz and loved the Detroit Tigers," Doom said. "She was also very pro-union ... die-hard pro-union."

Of Abraham's career as a restaurant critic, Doom said she felt she had a sense of responsibility not only just for the "dining public but the people who owned the restaurant."

"If an immigrant couple opened a restaurant and she felt it wasn't quite ready, she thought it was a better use of her time to find another restaurant to review rather than ruin (the couple's) hopes and dreams."

During her reign as a restaurant critic, Abraham was beloved and respected by many colleagues, chefs and restaurant owners.

"Being a restaurant critic in Detroit was a huge part of her DNA," her son, Robert Graham, said. "She never wanted to say anything bad about a restaurant or person's business. She was cognizant of the whole restaurant, including the back and front of the house."

So well regarded in the restaurant community, Graham recalled after writing a favorable review of the Hungarian Rhapsody Restaurant in Southgate, the owners sent Abraham roses for many years on her birthday.

She was described as quick-witted, passionate, a knowledgeable food writer, friend and mentor. She followed and wrote about metro Detroit chefs, writing about their cookbooks, special events and other news.

It was in the early '80s and during the newspaper (circulation) wars that Abraham was one of the first people lured to the Free Press by then-executive editor David Lawrence Jr. from the Detroit News, recalled former Free Press entertainment editor, John Smyntek.

"She was considered well-known and was one of the first critics that also addressed the restaurant's decor,” Smyntek said. "Most of her reviews set the ambience and always included significant writing about the decor of the place.”

Smyntek also edited the first of several of Molly Abraham's “Restaurants of Detroit” guide that include hundreds of her reviews.

“It was a bestseller and she received a bonus and bought a mink coat with the money,” he said.

In 1986, then publisher Lawrence Jr. included Abraham in a column titled, "The Job is not always appetizing,” writing about newsroom staff who covered certain beats.

Abraham’s weekly reviews spotlighted restaurants all around metro Detroit, outstate and upstate. From the swankiest, fine dining to the mom-and-pop spots.

"I want people to be able to tell, from what I've written, if the spot is a place they might want to go themselves," Abraham told Lawrence, "or whether it's one they are pretty sure they want to skip. I run interference for them. I open the doors some people are afraid to open."

Her weekly reviews appeared in the Free Press and The Detroit News. She also wrote a monthly column called “Molly’s Picks,” as well as a recipe column for Hour Detroit magazine. While at the Free Press, Abraham dined anonymously and her newspaper byline featured her face partially covered by a menu.

In 2018, Abraham retired from The Detroit News.

Keith Famie, film director and producer and former chef, said Abraham was often “feared by chefs and restaurateurs, but always respected.”

Being featured in a Molly column, Famie wrote in an email to the Free Press, “meant  you made it and in some cases wished you could crawl underneath a rock.”

“It’s heartbreaking to have to say goodbye to one of the country's great gastronomic food critics whose pen shaped the course of so many young chefs, me included,” Famie said.

Famie was part of a group of young chefs in metro Detroit who, he said, worked with well-known European chefs like Milos Cihelka, Yvonne Gill, Sture Andersson, Heinz Mengunseur, Douglas Grech and Leopold Schaeli.

“Molly's writing, along with Sandra Silfven's weekly take on who's hot and who's not, was anticipated reading from a paper you would go buy at the corner store,” Famie said in an email to the Free Press.

In Famie’s home, he said, three drawings from his former Les Auteurs restaurant now sit. “If you look at the bottom right corner you will see Molly hiding behind a menu. Sitting next to her is Sandra.”

Patty LaNoue Stearns, former Detroit Free Press restaurant critic and staff writer, called Abraham “an icon in Detroit’s restaurant journalism industry. ”

“She was a wonderful mentor and friend with a quick wit and sophisticated palate and at many meals we shared, she taught me to embrace her adventuresome ways,” LaNoue Stearns said. “Above all else, she cherished her sons and grandchildren.

While Abraham spent more of her meals in restaurants, LaNoue Stearns said she was a great cook. LaNoue Stearns also said Abraham had a soft spot for restaurant workers.

“She always had a very soft heart for the restaurant workers themselves, in the kitchen, for anyone in the back of the house,” LaNoue Stearns said.

Abraham was blessed by Capuchin friar Father Solanus Casey, co-founder of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen. “She always told me about how moving and important that was to her,” LaNoue Stearns said.

Abraham’s legacy is felt among metro Detroit’s dining scene. Her no-nonsense disposition came through in her work with honest reviews of local restaurants and candid conversations with restaurateurs.

“Molly pulls no punches and curries no favor,” said Rick Halberg, while Abraham was in hospice care last week. Halberg is a retired restaurateur who once owned R.I.K.’s in West Bloomfield, Emily’s in Northville and Tutto Bene in Farmington Hills. “She’s a real toughie, but I always have gotten along really well with her. I respected her tremendously.”

Halberg, who developed a rapport with Abraham as far back as the ’80s during his earliest days in the local restaurant sphere, recalled comical exchanges with the critic, who was a voracious reporter with unwavering convictions

“If she didn't like you, you knew it. And if she did, you knew it. And if she didn't like a dish or thought something was wrong with it, she would talk to you about it. She'd want to know what you were trying to say with the food,” Halberg said. “When she wrote something, I paid attention to it.”

Abraham's skill and work ethic left a lasting impression on former colleagues as long as five decades since their time sharing a newsroom with her. Former Free Press theater critic and arts writer Larry DeVine said he admired Abraham's authority in her her writing and how much she knew about food, among other impressive qualities.

"The thing I always knew about Molly, and I say this about the best reporters, is that she was just honest as the day is long and never played favorites," DeVine said. "She told the truth, she was fair, and she was a good writer."

DeVine also recalled Abraham's wit.

"Back in the office post-dining-out, Molly had a couple of lyrics from a 1938 Cole Porter song that she threatened to use in reviews," he wrote in an email to the Free Press. "One was, 'Is it the good turtle soup or merely the mock?'  And for one highly hyped, swanky café, 'Should I say ‘thumbs down’ and give it a shove, or is it at long last love?'  Somehow, the 'good turtle soup' line annually ended up in her Christmas cards. I’ll miss that."

In addition to her two sons, Abraham is survived by four grandchildren, two brothers and a sister.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Molly Abraham, former Detroit Free Press restaurant critic, dies at 92