This was THE place that we just had to go. Even C and her husband FJ (seen here carrying LO on his back) agreed. We could not miss going to Schwartz's...
We had our first smoked meat sandwich a few days earlier at Canadian chain La Belle Province, but Schwartz's is considered the most famous purveyor of Montreal style smoked meat...
It was a miracle that there wasn't a longa$$ line of people out the door (we saw that on our way OUT, ha ha). We were able to get seated almost immediately.
But not before we stared longingly at their window proudly displaying their smoked briskets...
We already knew what we wanted.
It was pretty crowded in here. We were lucky that we were even seated!
It's also pretty tightly packed in here. They want you to get in, eat your meat (ha ha) and get out. This is not the place to have a leisurely lunch and taking up prime space,
The walls have Schwartz's related artwork, advertisements, reviews, testimonials, and uh, scantily clad chicks form Maxim(?).
I think I saved one of these placements.
Looks like FJ and TC knew to order the pickle. They serve it whole here and you must slice it yourself. I read and heard AFTER our visit that you MUST eat a smoked meat sandwich with fries (check), a pickle (check), and drink it with Black Cherry soda (Fail. Wut?)! If I had known about the black cherry soda, we would have ordered it. Boo.
Our server recommended that we try a medium AND a medium-Fat. There's even a version with mostly fat. As tempting as that sounded, we passed on the mostly fatty sandwich for the sake of our arteries and ordered one medium and medium-fat. We heard what the man said!
The smoked meat sandwiches are served on seedless rye bread slathered with mustard and piled high with the handsliced cuts of meat...
This was the medium. You can see it's much leaner..
And THIS is the medium-fat. This. Was. So. Damn. Good.
The meat was so soft and tender and delicious with the brining spices. We used a fork and knife to eat this instead of attempting to stuff our face with it and risk spilling the precious meat. Bert and I liked this fattier version much better than the medium which TC enjoyed. She ended up eating the meat separately (well at least half of the sandwich).
I normally don't like mustard on anything, but when in Montreal....
Hellz yeah dude!
A close up of the "medium"...
One last look at Schwartz's before heading out into the heat and humidity once more...
We were so happy that we were able to visit and taste these awesome sandwiches!
Who else went to Schwartz's?
Darlene from My Burning Kitchen went last year!
"Montreal's Culinary Delights, Chilly Temperatures and Warm People" - January 2013 (this is a great post as it hits up many quintessential Montreal foods and places)
Other reviews:
Adventures with Ben (in his video, he orders a plate of the meat so he could assemble his own sandwiches himself)
Roadtips
Montreal.about.com
OffbeatEats
Schwartz's Deli - Charcuterie Hebraique de Montreal Inc.
3895 St-Laurent Boulevard
Montreal, QC HCW 1X9
Canada
(514) 842-4813
schwartzsdeli.com (if you click "enter" instead of "entre", the website will be in English for us non French speaking 'mericans)
Prior to our summer visit in 2012, this made the news:
Seriously...Celine Dion. At least we didn't have to listen to her music while we were eating!
We still have fond memories of those smoked meat sandwiches and dream of the day when we will return to Montreal to savor them once more!
2 comments:
Looks and sounds wonderful(smoked meat plus rye plus pickle is the perfect food combination to me)! I like that it isn't all over itself-has not expanded into a larger space. If we ever go back to Montreal, will definitely stop here.
hi cathy - it was the best sandwich we've ever had!!!!!! hope you guys get to go back one day!
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