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| - I was raised as a devout Christian until the age of about 13 when I decided I would rather not spend two minutes before every meal appealing to a deity who I didn't believe in or spend Sundays uncomfortably sitting next to strangers who seemed to like to give away money to tax-free organizations whose pockets seemed to continue swelling while the "missions" they supported seemed to keep suffering in comparison.
My gripes with organized religion aside, until I went to college, my impression of Jewish food consisted only of things that were somewhat hinted in the bible about the Israelites' travails in the desert -- I think up until about 18 I believed that the story of the Jews were that of an overzealous nation led by a capricious voice in the sky who pretty much gave and took away land from his/her own people, while at the same time depriving them culinarily by forcing them to eat unleavened bread and order well-done steaks all the time.
I was pleasantly surprised, when I was first introduced to a proper reuben at Schilo's Deli in San Antonio, and my perception and admiration of Jewish cuisine had been on the rise ever since then; from that point I made it a point to pilgrimage all the holy sites of all that is bagel and/or smoked meat -- I never even once would have imagined that one of those holy sites would have been in the beautiful city of Montréal.
If you've read this far in my review, you'll notice that I have yet to make a single constructive comment that would be construed as being part of a review. That's because I haven't. I can't quite put into words what I think about Schwartz's, because it's so very much like every landmark Jewish deli I've been to, but at the same time so different as well.
The atmosphere at Schwartz's is one you'd expect from any popular establishment in a bustling city. I've walked and passed by Schwartz's at least four times and each time there was a huge line in front of both the restaurant and the take out area. Whereas the take out area is indeed miles faster than waiting in line to be seated at the restaurant, you still have to wait about 30-35 minutes to get your hands on any sort of tangible food while having to suffer through the alluring aroma of freshly-drained, smoked-for-many-hours meat invading ever orifice of your body as you stand (yes, your dog will love the way you smell after you leave this place)
The food here is mindblowing if you've never tried a brisket/smoked meat sandwich before. If you have, it's just like anything you'd get at Katzs'/Second Ave/Herschel's, except Schwartz's sandwich packs in around the same amount of meat as the aforementioned places (except for Second Ave's. Nothing beats a whole pound of brisket sloshed in between two pieces of rye bread) into three tiny pieces of white, almost wonderbread-esque bread (think Texas BBQ.) It's almost like a poorly constructed Pyramid that was built to preserve a cow that met a horrifying death, and if that wasn't enough, incinerated extremely slowly so to keep all its juices locked into the flesh. Disturbing mental images aside, it's pretty amazing.
The price point is probably what sets Schwartz's apart from most of the Jewish delis I've been to. Whereas you'll come out of places like Katzs' and Second Ave about 20-25 dollars poorer after a meal, Schwartz's only charges 7.75 CAD per sandwich. One can maybe make the argument that Katzs' and Second Ave makes up the difference in the amount of time you don't spend waiting for your food(nothing beats being able to walk up to the Sandwich line at Katzs', sampling the specimen from whence your sandwich meat came, and watching it being constructed right before your eyes within 2 minutes of entering the establishment.) My friend and I saw the pictures online and made the mistake of thinking that one sandwich would not be filling enough and that we'd each need to order two or three. That was also a huge mistake.
All in all a great establishment in a great part of town. I'd definitely recommend Schwartz's as a part of the Montréal experience to anyone visiting the city. I don't know if their online catering/order service delivers to the US as well, but I'm really kicking myself for not grabbing one of their ready-to-heat brisket vacuum paks for my drive home.
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