Moishes Steakhouse sold to Sportscene Group

Montreal institution Moishes Steakhouse has been sold to the Sportscene Group, the company that owns La Cage (formerly La Cage aux Sports). The sale, announced on Friday, sees Sportscene acquire the iconic restaurant on St-Laurent Blvd. as well as all Moishes trademarks, branding and the line of products sold at grocery stores. But the new owners say little will change at the restaurant. “There’s nothing to change there,” said Jean Bédard, the president of the Sportscene Group. Owner and operator Lenny Lighter, the son of founder Moishe Lighter, will continue to be involved in the business for a least five more years. “Our staff is in place, I’m here, still here, intend to stay and I’m very visible here,” Lighter said. “The idea is really to maintain status quo and to deliver the same experience.” For Lighter, the sale was an opportunity to do new things with the business as well as to ensure the Moishes name lives on. “It is bittersweet, but at the end of the day, I’m the last Lighter here, I have no succession plan, my children are all grown up and have found their own successful paths in life and, ultimately, what it really offers me too is to see that the name and the brand will survive me as well. It’s about not the next generation, in terms of my family, but in terms of the brand,” he said. “To me it’s not just a brand, it’s a brand and a legacy, and the legacy is something my dad built that will continue even after I’m gone.” For Sportscene, the line of Moishes-branded products sold in grocery stores was particularly attractive. “The restaurant and the operation will stay the same, it’s successful right now, I don’t see any changes in the near future. But the part which is interesting is to develop the retail side more and that may be, for our company, a good way to go outside Quebec,” Bédard said. Sportscene has been expanding into retail products, Bédard said, and there are opportunities to combine the resources and contacts of the two companies in that area. There may be additional expansions of the Moishes brand, Bédard said. “We don’t have a detailed plan right now, but I think there will be a lot of opportunities on the table and we will take the time to choose the best one,” he said. While Bédard said he’s confident in the acquisition, he knows people will be watching. “It’s a lot of pressure, because it’s a great brand, it’s an old brand from Montreal, 80 years of history,” he said. Founded in 1938 by Moishe Lighter, the restaurant was originally named The Romanian Paradise. It changed its name to Moishe’s in the early 1940s and dropped the apostrophe in the 1970s. It has been selling branded products in grocery stores since the late 1990s. For Lighter, part of what attracted him to the Sportscene deal — beyond a shared vision for the brand — was the fact that the company is based in Montreal. “I think of our story and my dad coming to Montreal as a 13-yearold kid on his own from war-torn Europe and building his life here, having family here, building his business,” he said. The details of the transaction were not disclosed.