"...And everywhere the leaders of the Jewish Community and their families went,
they talked about this marvelous smoked meat in the “Social Media” of the time:
the Synagogue, the Hadassah, the Men’s Club, the Card Parties,
the son’s Bar Mitzvah, the daughter’s Wedding… Aa-Zoi-Veh!"
The Snowdon Deli's Star was born! “Tanks Gott” for yesteryear’s ‘Social Media!’
_______________
It started with a bomb.
World War ll. Belgium. 1943
Abe (second from the right), the father-to-be of Snowdon Deli partner, Ian Morantz,
woke up in an army hospital. At first his mind drew a blank. And then he remembered.
“I can’t believe it. I’m alive. All my buddies have been killed.
The letter I was writing to my bride-to-be, Anne, saved me.
I now remember it clear as day.
The noise in the mess tent with everyone horsing around was driving me nuts.
I couldn’t concentrate on the letter.
So I got out of the tent and went to sit down in the army jeep to finish it.
Before I had a chance to get settled there was an enormous explosion.
A bomb hit the tent.
My body was filled with shrapnel…..but I was alive…the only one.”
His body was shaking with sobs.
Discharged from the army, the $1000 the GI Bill had put in Abe's hand
made him go wild with the possibilities.
“I can start a business!
I could never have even have thought of starting a business during Depression years!”
Imagine how much a $1000 was worth back in 1946.
A car was only $1000 -
But then again, who had $1000!
A house in Hampstead was $9,000!
But then again, who had $9,000!
As soon as Abe arrived in Montreal, he got in touch with his brothers, Joe and Phil .
“Let’s go into partnership. Let’s start a business!”
But what?
The first thought was manufacturing pants in the garment industry.
They had all worked in a factory before the war.
They had some experience.
But after the war no dice.
“Abe, there’s no sewing machine available for love or money.
EVERYONE wants to go into manufacturing. EVERYONE wants to buy pants!”
The only other choice?
“Let’s start a deli.
We’ve both worked for our brother-in-law, Ben Ash, who runs a successful deli business in Outremont.”
So Abe and Joe opened a deli on Decarie “Blvd.”
In 1946, Decarie Blvd. was not the greatest location for a deli.
.
Today, smoked meat is part of the main stream Montreal diet. But back in 1946. smoked meat was an ethnic dish, a traditional dish in Poland and Romania from where so many of the Jewish immigrants came at the time. (Smoking meat for preservation took the place of refrigeration which didn’t exist at the time)
In Montreal, however, the greater part of the Jewish immigrant population lived on the other side of the mountain. There was no community in walking distance to the Snowdon Deli who had ever tasted a smoked meat sandwich.
BUT!!!
God didn’t forget the brothers.
Decarie Blvd. had another identity. The street was the old 17 Highway. The only highway to go out of town to the Laurentians. And many leaders of the Jewish community took this highway with their families every week to go to their cottages in the country. The only place to buy food before they left Montreal was… the SNOWDON DELI!
So every week each family loaded up a box of smoked meat and all the trimmings
for their trip to the ‘kontry’....the country!
And everywhere the leaders and their families went, they talked about this marvelous smoked meat in the “social media” of the time: the Synagogue, the Hadassah, the Men’s Club, the Card Parties,
the son’s Bar Mitzvah, the daughter’s Wedding… Aa-zoi-veh!
The Snowdon Deli's Star was born. “Tanks Gott” for yesteryear’s ‘Social Media’!
But success was not overnight. Ian Morantz recalls what it was like when he was growing up.
“There was no way anybody then could have foreseen that the Snowdon Deli
would become a Montreal “landmark.”
It got so busy.
But at $0.25 cents a sandwich, no one could afford to be an absentee owner.
The brothers and their wives all had to work such crazy hours - 18 hours a day 6 days a week.“
It was a Ma and Pa operation .
And like all the other Ma and Pa operations at the time , the owners worked alongside their employees.
That part of the old Snowdon Deli has never changed.
The owners are still working behind the deli counter!
Along with a great number of young people.
Smoked meat is no longer an ethnic dish. It’s now a “Montreal” specialty!!!!!!!!!
Go into the Snowdon Deli today on a Sunday, and you will feel …Tradition! A 70-year old tradition!!
See you Sunday! Snowdon Deli, 5265 Boulevard Décarie, Montréal.
Next: "My Son, the Avalanche Bomber!" Nicholas Morantz, Ian Morantz' son.
https://www.tolifewithlove.com/single-post/2018/10/13/My-son-the-Avalanche-Bomber-A-millennial-living-a-life-driven-by-passion%E2%80%A6-right-into-the-Rockies
