Chalet BBQ resists the temptation of expansion
Chalet Bar-B-Q Rôtisserie
(www.chaletbbq.com) is one of those restaurants that I can recall my parents
taking me to from the time I was very young. There were also the late night
snacks with my friends after an evening downtown.
At that time there were
locations on Decarie (corner of Vezina) and the original on Sherbrooke Street
West in NDG. The Decarie locale closed more than a decade ago, but Sherbooke
Street West is still going strong. I
still go there often for lunch and for takeout
orders. Last week I went where very few customers have had the opportunity to
experience: deep into the busy kitchen. Since the selection is fairly
standard--- chicken, French fries, cole slaw, sauce and a bun – the chefs are
in repetitive motions all day long.
Service is lightning fast.
In two years Chalet will celebrate its 70th
anniversary. Marcel Mauron was the original owner and today his daughter Louise
McConnell oversees the spacious venue, which opened its doors in August 1944
and continues to serve some of the best charcoal barbequed chicken in the
world.
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| Chickens on the rottiserie. |
David T. (like Mr. T.) has
managed the locale for the past decade, working under GM Danny Colantonio (a 24
year veteran of the place). David told me that meetings have already taken
place to determine how best to celebrate birthday number 70. However, it will
not include expansion. “We always have people coming in asking to get a
franchise, from here in Montreal and places as far away as Toronto,Vancouver
and Florida. Our answer will never change. We will maintain one single
location.”
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| Veteran server Diane. |
When I sat down for my quarter
chicken, fries, sauce, coleslaw and a cola with David, waitresses passed by and
shares their extraordinary years of service. Lucia recently retired after 56
years on the job. Mariette is still there, with 54 years under her belt. One
server told me how she vacated her post 25 years ago, recently returned and
found most of the same staff still there. This place is always packed, has an
extremely busy takeout counter and as many as eight delivery cars out on the
road at a time. “We order close to 3,000 chickens a week,” David said, showing
me the vintage custom built brick ovens ovens working full speed ahead while
chef Kaji peeled fresh red Manitoba potatoes for the fries.
Pizza U offers original
concept
I recently came upon a most original pizza restaurant
concept right here in downtown Montreal. Pizza U is located at 2150 Mackay,
just below Sherbrooke and a few doors down from Concordia University. Owner Sherif
Tadros only opened the spot in May and he is already talking about expanding to
other locales in this city and
franchising globally.
The format is similar to Subways, except with main course and dessert pizzas substituted for
sandwiches. Here you choose your dough from among three flavors (Italian, whole
wheat or multi-grain), pick one of five sauces and select from a wide array of
40 meat and/or vegetable toppings. Finish things off by looking at the five cheese types and then
watch it be prepared in a state of the art machine in a mere two minutes. Each “Imagination” and
“Specialty” pizza is only $9, regardless
of the number of toppings. The one I tasted was sensational and save room for
dessert, made on the same choices of dough and in the oven. Imagine nutella chocolate
sauce covered with baked marshmallows and small slices of bananas! This one is
called the Camp Fire.
Tadros is a former director of operations in Quebec for
Pizza Hut, so he knows the business well. He recently returned to Quebec after
working overseas for several years. He had seen a similar pizza concept in the
United States and upon checking confirmed that nothing remotely close existed
in Canada. Several months were devoted to branding and creation. Launching next
to a busy university was a strategic choice. The venue itself has about 18
seats, a large flat screen TV and a young hip staff. CEGEP student Riva Bruck
was so sold on the concept she gave up another summer job to work here.
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| Sherif Tadros |
“I can see already that customers like the option of
building their own pizza,” said Tadros, noting that he is currently working on
a gluten free crust.
Tadros could have found work easily in the local restaurant
industry, but he says this dream of his was too much to pass up. He even has
his two young children providing advice. “My daughter came up with the idea for
the marshmallows on the Camp Fire dessert pizza,” he said. “This was a chance
for me to go out and do something on my own so, I jumped at it.”
I tried the meat market pizza on Italian dough, containing
tomato sauce, bacon, ham, Italian sausage and
cheddar and mozzarella cheese (I skipped the pepperoni). The server
wears plastic gloves, garnishes the dough with sauce, mixes the chosen ingredients in a bowl and
then neatly spreads them out. The pizza pie goes into the oven, comes out
piping hot, is cut into four pieces and placed in a pizza box whether you eat
there or take it home.
“The customers get to see us prepare their pizza fresh,”
Tadros says. “It is not a frozen product. And they get to pick whatever they
want. That is a lot different than selecting from a menu and waiting for the
waiter to return or having a pre-made slice heated up at a food court.”
Tadros says he is using Subways
as an example for how far he can grow one day. “We will do it step by
step,” he says.
“Today, pizza continues
to be the second most popular food item nationally, next to burgers, creating
demand for a gourmet, individualized and fast-serve pizza restaurant chain that
provides a new level of healthy choices, value and convenience for lunch and
dinner consumers,” says Tadros,
emphasizing that in 2009 Canadian pizza sales topped $4 million. “Our target market includes individuals and
families of all ages. Pizza is a universally familiar and widely accepted
product that appeals to a worldwide audience. Our demographic profile are males
and females aged four to 90, boomers, health-conscious individuals, vegetarians, families with small children
and office catering managers or
administrators.”
A website at www.pizza-u.ca
is still in development. They are on Facebook and Twitter.
Here is my interview with Sherif Tadros as he demonstrates the preparation of a pizza from start to finish.
Resto
Capucine
East End restaurant
to add downtown location
Following
two years of operation on the campus of CEGEP Marie-Victorin, on the border of
Montreal North and Rivieres des Prairies (7000 boul. Maurice Duplessis), Resto Capucine (www.restocapucine) is about to move into
expansion mode.
Chef-owner
Mario Di Molfetta, who also has a
catering division, says that a late
October opening is set for a countertop operation on downtown Bleury Street
near de la Gauchetiere. “There will be about 25 tables and chairs, but no
servers,” he noted, in contrast to the 85-seat East End locale.
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| Mario Di Molfetta |
Di
Molfetta, a resident of Anjou, is a busy man. He also runs his own construction company called Le Groupe
Exclusif. Marjorie- R Jodoin runs the restaurant, which is opened seven days a
week from 7 a.m. often until past
midnight.
I met
Mario a few months ago at the Montreal launch for Citytv. He was catering the
event. It was the very unique lamb kebob skewers which caught my attention.. My
friend Nick and I stopped by the CEGEP last week. The restaurant was a beehive
of activity, with students, staff, those using the sports facilities and
locals, enjoying the fine cuisine.
Everything
is homemade at Resto Capucine. There are four new special dishes every week –
pasta, meat, fish and vegetarian. “We
have had over 200 different selections since we opened,” explained Jodoin.
The
regular menu contains other items of these kinds, as well as sandwiches,
salads, juices and extraordinary cakes, danish and breads.
Why did
Di Molfetta decide to open inside the confines of a CEGEP? “I always wanted to
get into the restaurant business,” he said, “but I was a little scared with
nine out of 10 going broke. I thought this was a safe place to start and I was
right. Now we are expanding.”
Jodoin
laments that the student strike hit business hard last spring. “We are looking
forward to having them back,” she said.
I had the
zucchini flower appetizer, crunchy on the outside with melted cheese inside.
Nick started with a salad. For my main course, the fettucini was superb while
Nick gave a thumbs up to his chicken sandwich. We both dove into the chocolate
mousse cake for dessert.
In
between some major construction jobs, Di Molfetta confessed that he is living a
dream. “From the age of 10 I have been interested in the food business,” said the father of three. “I owned my own
bakery and then went to Lasalle College and earned my DEC in restaurant
management.”
Here Di Molfetta, a 1986 graduate of Laurier Macdonald High School in St. Leonard, tells me how it all began.
