SCHWARTZ’S SEARCH PARTY
Landmark celebrates 90 years
No, your eyes won’t be deceiving you. That will be a giant pickle, as well as an oversized mustard container and spice jar, ambling through city streets on Saturday.
These life-size condiments, with humans inside, will serve both as mascots and adjudicators for what I’m calling the Great Deli Race, a scavenger hunt that will take 25 teams of four around town. This race celebrates the 90th anniversary of the Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen — much better known as Schwartz’s — on the Main.
The winning team receives four first-class airplane tickets to Las Vegas as well as five-star hotel accommodations and tickets to Céline Dion’s show at Caesars Palace.
The Céline connection is no coincidence. The diva is a co-owner of Schwartz’s, along with the city’s Nakis and Sara families. (The latter are relatives of Dion’s late husband, René Angélil.)
Schwartz’s is one of the granddaddies of Montreal restaurants. The only eateries older are the Montreal Pool Room, founded in 1912, and Old Montreal’s L’Auberge St- Gabriel, started in — yes — 1754. Not to detract from the fine fare at the latter restos, but neither can boast aroundthe-block lineups to match those of Schwartz’s.
They’re jumping the gun a little for the Schwartz’s anniversary, though. The deli actually opened Dec. 31, 1928.
Original owner Reuben Schwartz, a Romanian immigrant, must have been born under a lucky star. Who in their right faculties would launch a restaurant in the dead of winter, and during the holiday season to boot? And, oh yeah, economics buffs will note that the day after the opening was the year of the Great Depression.
Nonetheless, Schwartz’s became a city landmark in the ensuing years, up there with the cross atop Mount Royal.
There is no shortage of dynamite delis in town — Snowdon Deli, Lester’s, the Main, Smoke Meat Pete, to name a few others on this artery-clogging front — but Schwartz’s has a cachet all its own. Purists attribute this definitely not to its ramshackle decor, where ferns would die instantly, but to the quality of its smoked meat, which is considered almost organic, because of its lack of preservatives and abundance of time spent in barrels and in the deli’s smoke house.
Service has also changed over the years. Gone are the days when surly waiters would chase clients down the Main if they felt improperly tipped. Under the aegis of affable manager Frank Silva, warm smiles in lieu of cold, blank stares now greet patrons.
Tourists come from far and wide to sample its smokedmeat sandwiches. Politicians and celebs drop by to nosh and be seen. Critics rave: “The best place in the Milky Way to sample smoked-meat sandwiches!” Time magazine marvelled. Even the National Geographic chimed in: “So what’s the big deal? It’s the viande fumée that overwhelms two slices of rye!”
Anastasia Nakis, the brainchild behind this scavenger hunt, has heard all the praise and was thus motivated to come up with something original to mark the anniversary. And also not to hold this deli race at the end of December on Schwartz’s real birthday.
“I was looking for something really unique to do for our 90th, not only to celebrate Schwartz’s but also to pay tribute to other city landmarks,” Nakis says. “Without giving away the names of our seven hunt destinations, they include a handful of places that are must-visit for tourists as well as Montrealers. So what better way to have a good time with this hunt than to send everyone to these hot spots?
“We also decided it would be much more fun for all to do something in the summer, when it wasn’t freezing and contestants wouldn’t be all bundled up.”
The race begins Saturday at 10 a.m. at Schwartz’s and should wind down seven hours later. Spectators can follow the action as the teams (already chosen via an earlier call-out on the resto’s website) wend their way through the Plateau, Mile End, downtown and Old Montreal.
The condiment mascots will be posted at the destinations and dole out riddles, which, once solved, will allow the contestants to move on to their next stop. The first team to make it through all the locations and answer the riddles will win.
The birthday event that Montrealers and tourists alike will really cotton to is the day that Schwartz’s will be offering a smoked-meat sandwich, french fries and a cola — at 1928 prices. That works out to $1.09.
Nakis pledges that day will come before Oct. 31, but even if it does take place in December, lineups would likely stretch around much of the Main for what London’s Financial Times trumpeted: “A beef on rye to freeze to death for!”
Who in their right faculties would launch a restaurant in the dead of winter, and during the holiday season to boot?