Montreal’s Suburban Trio: Chenoy’s, Abie’s, Deli St. Laurent
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007Laziness and a sense of artistic creativity have compelled me to compile three delis that I saw in one day into this little video clip. It’s pretty self-explanatory, though I really do reccomend all these places. Each had something to surprise me, like the crisp, airy latkes at Chenoy’s, the succulent smoked meat and Romanian karnatzel (which tastes of spongy garlic infused charcoal kissed beef) from Abie’s, and the club roll at Deli St. Laurent, a new discovery and timeless gem.
Coordinates:
Chenoy’s Delicatessen
3616 ST JEAN BD, DOLLARD-DES-ORMEAUX, QC
(514) 620-2584
Abie’s Smoked Meat
3980, St. Jean Boulevard, Dollard Des Ormeaux, Quebec
(514) 626-ABIE (2243)
www.abiesmokedmeat.com
Restaurant St. Laurent Deli
2073 St. Louis, Ville St. Laurent, Quebec
(514) 744-4113
Bridging the Toronto-Montreal divide: Snowdon Deli and Centre St. Deli
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007Today is my father’s 60th birthday, and last night we feasted on the deli that I brought back from Montreal. Part of the care package included a box of poppy seed mohn cookies from Snowdon Deli (or Deli Snowdon as the language police call it). A year ago I was in Montreal and my father sent me a text message:
“David- pck up mohn cookies from snowdon they are thinner than centre st. xoxo Dad”
Allow me to explain. Montreal’s Snowdon Deli and Toronto’s Centre Street Deli are family. A bit of history:
Snowdon deli began in 1946 by brothers Abe and Joe Morantz, in the middle class Jewish neighborhood of Snowdon in Montreal. Over the years, Snowdon grew into one of the most beloved delis in the city. In a town where most delis offered the choice of either smoked meat or steak, Snowdon featured an expansive menu that ran the gamut from hot and cold deli sandwiches to excellent baked goods to appetizing and party sandwiches. It was blocks away from my grandparent’s apartment, and was a frequent fixture on all my childhood visits to Montreal. Abe’s son Ian Morantz now owns the place along with longtime counterman John Agelopoulos.
Ian Morantz, with brisket, at Snowdon Deli, in Montreal
Centre Street Deli was what happened when Cheryl Morantz, the daughter of Joe, moved to Toronto in the early 1980’s and noticed the need for a great Montreal style deli. Hundreds of thousands of Montrealers had moved to the city since the late 1960’s, fleeing economic uncertainty and political instability. Their craving for a smoked meat sandwich remained strong, and Cheryl saw the chance to do something. Her father sent out his top counterman, Sam Agelopoulos, John’s brother, to run the place with her…putting a Morantz and Agelopoulos at the helm in each city.
Sam and Cheryl at Centre Street Deli, in Toronto
Go into Centre Street deli on a Sunday and see the Montreal diaspora in action, pigging out on their hometown favorites like old fashioned, hand cut smoked meat (the best outside of Montreal), thin karnatzel salamis, mohn cookies (slightly thicker than those in Montreal), and cheese bageleh. The fries are made Montreal style as well, blanched first and then fried again, to achieve a crisp, airy brown texture. Pure heaven. So many places throughout Canada claim to be reputable Montreal style delis, but Centre Street is the only one that does it successfully. Their hand cut smoked meat is as good as the stuff five hours east. Mom never ate smoked meat, even though she grew up blocks away from Snowdon Deli. It was only when I began this blog in February that she took a trip to Centre Street with my brother and caved in. Better late than never.
Here’s a wonderful cup of matzo ball soup, slightly smaller than its Montreal cousin (below), but every bit as rich and soul stirring.
Watch as Dad demonstrates how to properly eat karnatzel, and then dives into his favorite combo: Stuffed Chicken (read about it below) and Smoked Meat (old fashioned-medium fat)
Over the years, Centre Street Deli has expanded and moved locations to accomodate demand. It is big, bright, and evocative of New York style delis, with its bright lights, checkered tiles, and funny murals on the wall.
Snowdon Deli has remained largely unchanged. It rests on the same block, atop a narrow sidewalk, next to a traffic choked road, by a sunken expressway. The Jewish shops along the street have gone, including the bakery, but the place is a temple. It is quiet and dim, the perfect ambiance for slurping back a wonderful bowl of bright matzo ball soup on a cold winter night. The long deli counter is a place to chat and joke with Ian, John and Jimmy, as well as Ian’s daughter Tobi, who has been working there full time.
The food is the draw, and Snowdon excells in every single area. In her book “Tender at the Bone”, former New York Times critic and Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichel recalled her experience at Snowdon Deli, when she was a young girl banished by her parents to a French boarding school blocks away. One day she snuck away from school and found herself at the deli, where she walked up to the counterman and inquired about the glistening pink meat she saw. Here’s her description:
“He set it on a wooden counter and began to carve, letting the rosy slices fall away from his knife in ribbons. he scooped them onto a piece of rye bread, slapped a mustard-slatered slice on top, and handed the sandwich accross the counter. The sweet, salty pile of meat was the best thing I had ever eaten.”
That’s right…the greatest food writer in America today owes it all to a smoked meat sandwich from Snowdon deli. When I interviewed Ruth Reichel in New York last fall, she still remembers it fondly, and went back to Montreal a few years back to revisit the deli.
My favorites at Deli Snowdon are the following…influenced largely by my parents.
Varenikas: think knish without the baking…a soft dough dumpling filled with mashed potato, often fried or just as easily steamed, it should always be served by a minor mountain of fried onions.
Cheese Bageleh: very Montreal and truly Snowdon. Small sweet pastries filled with a firm cheese…like a blintz meets a knish, but small enough to pop in your mouth for a few hot, heavenly bites. Best with sour cream, apple sauce, or cherry sauce.
Matzo Ball Soup: as great a deli town as Montreal is, there is a serious lack of matzo ball soup. When the mercury literally freezes, and you get back from a cold day skiing in Tremblant, it’s nice to know that is is waiting.
Stuffed chicken: I’ve never seen this anywhere but Montreal, except Centre Street. Ian Morantz said it was once minced chicken stuffed into a sewn up chicken skin. Now the casing is collagen, but it is essentially chicken balogna and is a cool, savory alternative to often blander turkey. With a ton of mustard, how can you go wrong?
Danish: need I write anything? truly? I think not.
Mohn Cookies: mohn is yiddish for poppy seeds, and these wafer thin little numbers are best accompanied by a pot of Earl Grey tea, a good friend, and lots of kibbitz. Dunk to your heart’s content, there is no finer, and yes Dad, they are thinner in Montreal.
Two cities, two delis, two families, both filled with love. Visit them both. Often.
Centre Street Deli
1136 Centre St.
Thornhill, Ontario (30 mins north of Toronto)
905-731-8037
www.centrestreetdeli.com
Snowdon Deli (aka Deli Snowdon)
5265 Decarie Blvd
Montreal, Quebec
514-488-9129
www.snowdondeli.ca
Happy 60th Langer’s
Monday, June 11th, 2007
I’m taking a break today from the Montreal writing (more to come), to inform all deli lovers about a blessed affair. On Friday the 15th, Langer’s Delicatessen of Los Angeles California will celebrate its 60th year in business. That is six decades since Mr. Al Langer set up shop accross the street from MacArthur park and began making the finest pastrami sandwich on both coasts. Though the business has expanded, evolved, and moved to the hands of Norm Langer, the quality remains tops in the business. Nowhere else puts together a hand-carved pastrami on double baked rye that can rival Langer’s. This isn’t meant as a slight to anyone, for there are certainly larger and more famous pastrami sandwiches, but the care and skill with which theirs is made must be tasted. There’s a certain pepper kissed sweetness that really comes out there in a way I’ve yet to taste anywhere else. Plus it is hand sliced, which takes the sandwich and turns it into art.
So head to Langer’s this Friday for a street party with a dollop of mustard. Both Norm and Al will receive awards and citations from the LA Lt. Governor, the City Council, The Board of Supervisors, The Mayor and The City Attorney. There will be a tent in the street to dine in the open air, a prize draw second to none, and the company of hundreds (maybe thousands) of pastrami loving Angelenos. Be sure to find Norm and Al and give them a firm shake and a mazel tov, and tell them Save the Deli sent ya’.
Don’t worry about them running out of Pastrami either. Norm assured me that if that happens, he’s coming to live at my house.
(if you don’t live in Los Angeles, click here)
Check out Norm and Al’s appearance on the KTLA Morning show. (Select “Seen on the Morning Show” and scroll down until you see the Langer’s story)
Langer’s Delicatessen
704 South Alvarado, (at 7th…accross from MacArthur Prk)
Los Angeles, California
213-483-8050
www.langersdeli.com
Montreal Jour 3: Smoked Meat Pete
Friday, June 8th, 2007One place in Montreal that I’ve heard much about and yet had never previously visited was Smoked Meat Pete’s. I’d heard the name, I’d heard it was far from the center of Montreal, I’d heard the food was supposedly outstanding. I’d even heard the tasty and tasteless motto: “You can’t beat Pete’s meat”
We’ll leave that up to Pete.
Anyway, yesterday night I tossed my buddy Ben Leszcz in the car and we headed off the western tip of the island of Montreal onto Ile Perrot, some 20 plus kilometers out of town. There, behind a vintage Dairy Queen, sat Smoked Meat Pete, the unlikliest place to encounter great deli.
Inside a blues band was plucking away, singing about heart attacks (from women and chopped liver) and heartbreak. The air hung thick with BBQ smoke, and the wagon wheels and worn wooden benches made it feel like a rib joint, which it partly is. After ordering and paying at the cash, we waited for the meat to come and listened to the tunes.
The place had serious promise, likely because Peter Varvaro Jr. is the son of Peter Varvaro, the owner of the Main Deli, directly accross from Schwartz’s on St. Laurent (aka the Main blvd). With decades in the smoked meat business, the younger Pete decided to set off on his own a decade ago, and the result has been tremendous.
The waitress brought out a trio of treats.
First to dissapear was the ultimate Quebec treat: Smoked Meat Poutine.
For those who don’t know, poutine is the ultimate heart attack food, a French Canadian concoction of golden french fries, cheese curds, and a thick beef gravy. It tastes of heaven and slows the body, but the idea of mixing in chopped smoked meat seemed risky and somewhat goyish. The result however was heaven, shrouded in layer upon layer of decadent sin. Salty, meaty, beefy, cheesy, starchy, and just plain old fat. When I get to death row, that’s what I’ll be eating before I go. Watch Ben go to town:
Next was a nice scoop of beef chopped liver, dark and sweet, pasty and flecked with bits of chopped egg. The kicker, and truly the best part was the little mound of crisp fried onion strips, almost hairlike in size, that were infused with gallons of delicious oil which made the perfect topping for the liver atop rye. Chopped liver without fried onions is like a night without stars.
And finally, the piece de resistance: Le smoked meat. Pete’s is dry cured like many of Montreal’s finest, which means that the briskets are rubbed with spices, left to marinate for a week or more, then smoked (usually baked) and finally steamed. There’s no preservatives, no pumping or injecting, just a natural slow cure, some cooking, and lots o’ love. Pete’s famous meat is rightly so; it crumbled nicely upon biting in, was tender, and extremely moist (to the point of being succulent). It came with a beautiful dark carmel crust, which lent a hint of sweetness to the peppery spice, a lot more pronounced than others in town.
Best of all, Smoked Meat Pete is right on the way into or out of Montreal if you’re coming from (or going to) Toronto. It’s about ten minutes from the airport, so really there’s no excuse not to go.
*also, Peter Sr. is having a bit of maintenance this coming week, so send your wishes and prayers to one of Montreal’s first families of smoked meat
Smoked Meat Pete
283 1 AV
ÎLE-PERROT,QC
(514) 425-6068
Perlow does Katz’s
Thursday, June 7th, 2007Off the Broiler maven and New York deli fanatic Jason Perlow has just visited Katz’s and posted so many beautiful photos and videos and words on his blog. Start your salivating!
CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN TO PERLOW’S DELI HEAVEN.
Montreal Day 2: The wrecking ball waits for Ben’s
Thursday, June 7th, 2007I’m going to let you all know off the bat that I’m going to make you wait for the Schwartz’s post till the very end, but be prepared for some serious smoked meat shots, videos, and a guest appearance by someone flown in just for the occasion. Big time.
I was walking in downtown Montreal yesterday afternoon, passing by some of the once hallowed and now less cherished delis, like Dunn’s Smoked Meat and Reuben’s (whose turkey sandwich was always a favorite of mine back in the day).
I decided to pass by the site of Ben’s Deli and Restaurant, a 100 year institution that closed down last December after a slow and bitter death. At one point Ben’s was the place to go in Montreal for smoked meat, packing in hundreds like Katz’s, and making Schwartz’s, Lester’s, and others play second fiddle. The walls were lined with the photos of stars who passed through town, to the point that both Mel Brooks and Freddie Roman remember it fondly. But time did not play kindly to Ben’s and the owners let it slide well past the point of repair until it was a sad albatross of a deli. It all ended in a labour dispute that had the workers locked out, striking for such arcane things as tomatos and air conditioning. No way to go. There’s a short film coming out soon about the strike at the end. Tim Rideout made it, and you can see the short preview on his website here.
Now the building, which is an art deco classic, is slated for demolition, and the Art Deco Society of Montreal is trying to save it. It’s a worthy cause, and they will be holding a protest on June 14th at 12:00 pm, in front of Ben’s, at the corner of Metcalfe and de Maisonneuve blvd.
Photos like this is why we have to save delis. Soon the images will be all that’s left of one of the world’s most revered delis. Sad
Montreal Day 1
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007“When Dave Sax arrived at my Montreal apartment to research his book, I was pleased for two reasons. First, I knew I would have the opportunity to spend 3 or 4 days with my good friend David — always a delight. Second, I knew that I would be eating some delicious smoked meat. Though I’ve only lived in Montreal for 3 weeks, I feel that my connection to smoked meat is deep, and intense; a cow’s blood running through my veins. And in this twisted, meaty bloodline, Dave Sax is my brother.”
-Benjamin Leszcz
Thank you Ben. If it weren’t for the hospitality and floors of friends like you, this deli odyssey would go no further than my own home. A zei gezunt.
24 hrs in Montreal and already I question why I ever moved away, why my parents moved away, indeed why so many Jewish deli lovers moved away. In my opinion, Montreal is a deli town in a league of its own. It has some of the oldest, smallest, and most distinctive — and delicious — delicatessens in this world, based on its almost-mythological smoked meat. This is a product not unlike pastrami, though different in so many delicious ways. I’m not nearly done investigating, though I will say that the principal difference is that pastrami is most often made with the navel cut (a flatter, often tougher cut), while smoked meat is made with the brisket. Spicing is different, though I’ve yet to fully figure it out. Lord knows, I might never. Then there is the ubiquitous hand cutting, and the black cherry, and of course the jolie twist of la belle langue de les Quebecois.
Montreal’s deli scene is old school in the greatest sense, and I was lucky to have visited two of the great classics today: Lester’s and Wilensky’s.
Lester’s Delicatessen
My father grew up near Lester’s, in the leafy neighborhood of Outremont. He always raved about their smoked turkey, though I’m ashamed to say that I hadn’t eaten there since I was a child. I’ve tragically missed out.
The smoked meat at Lester’s ranks amongst the tops in the city. When hand-sliced by the expert cutter, the paper thin slices peel away from the meat like petals from a rose. Propped atop a small disc of rye (Montreal’s sandwiches tend to be smaller than other cities, but cost far less), slathered with mustard, the sandwich dissapears in several crucial bites.
Lester’s owner Billy Berenholc says that the steam opens the pores of the meat, letting the flavour aerate and intensify. All I knew was that it was beautiful, and my lunch companion — Montreal’s preserver of history — Mr. Eiran Harris.
On a warm summer day, the patio at Lester’s mixes the best of European cafe lifestyle, with the tastiest Eastern European meats. Heaven.
One Montreal food item that falls like heaven upon my tongue is karnatzel, a dried, narrow salami that reeks of garlic and is the perfect entry to a deli meal. The Montreal way to eat it is wrapped in a mustard-painted slice of rye. Others call it a pepperoni stick, but I think karnatzel has more flavor and less of that Slim Jim peppery junk than others. I could eat it in my sleep.
Lester’s also has excellent fries, frosted Muggs of root beer, a sweet coleslaw, and the smoked turkey my dad loves. Best of all, Lester’s delivers pre-cut, ready to eat packages of their smoked meat and stellar brisket all over North America. All you have to do is boil the package, cut it open, place it on the bread et voila! As you read this, whether in Miami or Vancouver, know that you are one click away from a delicious smoked meat sandwich splattering your keyboard with delicious mustard and grease droppings. 
So what are you waiting for?
www.lestersdeli.com
www.montrealsmokedmeat.com
1057 Bernard Ouest, Outremont, QC, H2V 1V1
514-213-1313
Wilensky’s Light Lunch
Purely and simply I love Wilensky’s more than any other deli I’ve ever encountered. Perhaps it is because I was taken there as a young child by my father. Perhaps it is because we returned on every subsequent trip to Montreal, my brother and I planning our schedules so we could fit in a trip to the corner shrine at Fairmount and Clark. Mostly though, it is because of The Wilensky Special, a sandwich of such perfect simplicity, it has become the stand alone reason for Wilensky’s 75 year existence.
Wilensky’s consists of a small wooden counter and nine wooden stools, an antique soda fountain, fading newspaper and magazine clippings, and rows of old paperbacks, selling for half the price of what’s advertised on the cover. My dad used to read dirty novels there until he was booted out by the late owner, Moe Wilensky. Nogoodnick.
Moe Wilensky’s legacy is the Wilensky Special, a grilled sandwich that consists of five slices of three different types of salami, with a slice and a half of bologna on a pletzl roll. Mustard on one side. Simple. Elegant. Perfect. When done right the flat sandwich crunches into several steaming bites of slippery salami, the salty flavor brought alive by the sharp kiss of yellow mustard. I’ve had dozens over my lifetime, and pray to have dozen’s more. Thankfully, Mrs. Ruth Wilensky, and her children Asher and Sharon, as well as the late Bernard, are the most diligent breed of deli purists. Nothing at Wilensky’s has changed in three quarters of a century, and in this case, preservation equals perfection.
Washed down with a hand jerked cherry soda or chocolate egg cream, there is no greater deli snack in my knowledge. It goes down like heaven, and unless you fire down six like my friend Steve Katz did back in 1999, there is no pain in the pursuit of this treat. No deli fan has lived until they’ve eaten at Wilensky’s. Go.
Wilensky’s Light Lunch
34 Fairmount St. West
Montreal,QC
514-271-0247
By the end of the day I had sent more than $100 in Lester’s smoked meat and Wilensky’s specials to my brother in Calgary, who will probably receive his fragrant package by the time he reads this tomorrow.
Montreal, here I come!
Sunday, June 3rd, 2007Of all the deli trips I have taken, and will take, nothing holds a candle to the expectations of the upcoming week. As of Monday morning, I will be heading to Montreal, the city of my family roots, but most importantly, the place where my love for deli was born and where this project began six years ago.
Montreal is where my father and his friend Steven Rothstein took me to Schwartz’s when I was just ten…laying a thin karnatzel on a piece of rye and pouring the mustard on. Mordechai Richler made it legendary, with Duddy Kravitz and Jake Hersh. It is the land of Wilensky’s salami and bologna grilled “special”, possibly my favorite sandwich ever, and of the wafer thin mohn cookies and club rolls of Snowdon Deli, the parent of Centre Street here in Toronto. There will be smoked turkey at Lester’s and stuffed chicken at Abie’s, and more than one rib steak at the Main and Schwartz’s. There will be rivers of Cott’s black cherry cola, and miles of karnatzel, lakes of mustard, and dozens of smoked meat sandwiches…cut by hand…everywhere I go. I’ll also sample the Quebecois favorites, like smoked meat poutine, smoked meat pizza, or the deadly smoked meat steamy hot dog.
Is Montreal the finest deli town on earth?
I think so, and I explained my theory in part to Montreal Gazette journalist Bill Brownstein, who worked it into his column today.
“Why the thriving state of our delis might just explain our aversion to tax cuts”
“….If a resto of the haute-cuisine calibre makes it more than five years in this finicky foodie city, the proprietors might consider throwing a party. Ten years, and it’s a parade. Not to detract from the fine veggie-only eateries in town, but none can or, likely, will ever be able to, boast the longevity of a Wilensky’s where that grilled bologna/salami Special continues to touch the hearts of Montrealers - in more ways than we might care to realize…..”
READ IT HERE. Thanks Bill.
Brownstein is one of Montreal’s foremost personalities and deli experts. I just finished reading his book on the history of Schwartz’s Hebrew Delicatessen. I highly suggest it as reading for true deli fans, or ex-Montrealers who crave nothing more than a medium fat on rye with mustard, pickles, fries, slaw, and a black cherry.
