Eric on The Road

Journeys into the offbeat, off the beaten path, overlooked and forgotten - by Eric Model

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Passing: Montreal landmark Ben’s Delicatessen closes for good (Montreal Gazette)

by Alan Hustak and Mike King, Montreal Gazette
Published: Friday, December 15, 2006

Ben’s hasn’t been Ben’s for a while, but it’s still hard to get used to the idea that the downtown delicatessen is gone for good.

Jean Kravitz, the restaurant’s 83-year old owner announced Friday she was closing the deli, a Montreal institution for 98 years, because, “we have come to the conclusion a single outlet deli can not thrive in the economic environment of a unionized payroll.”

Customers will, however, still be able to order Ben’s smoked meat.

“The sit-down restaurant is closing, not the Ben’s name,” said Bernard Voyer, one of the founder’s grandsons who said Ben’s products, produced under license off site, will still be available through retail outlets.


The restaurant’s 22 unionized employees – including waiters, bus boys and short-order cooks – went on strike July 20 to back demands for improved working conditions say the announcement doesn’t make any sense.

Charles Mendoza, the union local president, said the announced closing is nothing more than a ploy to break the union.

“We work for the minimum wage before there was a union, and after,” said Mendoza. “This isn’t about wages. All we are asking for was a 40-cent an-hour increase.

Ben’s has been a Montreal landmark since Ben Kravitz opened his first delicatessen on St. Lawrence Blvd. in 1908. It has been at its current location, at the corner of Metcalfe St. and de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., since 1950.


After Jean’s husband, Irving Kravitz died in 1992, the staff steadily declined from 75 to 25, and although the restaurant remained a popular tourist attraction, and many former customers say it was coasting on its reputation.


In its hey day it was part of Montreal’s theatre district, an after hours nightspot behind the Mount Royal Hotel that attracted actors, sports celebrities, movie stars, politicians, and weirdos. Its walls were plastered with photographs of legitimate film stars, like Richard Chamberlin, and others, who had their 15-minutes of fame and were then forgotten, like Wayland Flowers.

For more in the complete article, see: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=bd18ea97-ccce-4aaa-9ec2-b3aa7ffd4ce8&k=71627

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