Meet the man that made his delicatessen a city staple.

R aise your hand if this is a familiar scenario : you walk into your local grocery store, head over to the deli counter and ask for some smoked meat. On your way out you grab a loaf of bread and a jar of mustard. You get home, you finally put the sandwich together, sit down and take a bite and the realization hits, it tastes good but not like it would from a good ol’ deli.

If there is one food concept that has stood the test of time, it’s the delicatessen. For decades, delis have been a neighborhood staple for many families, serving up cured meats, cheeses, sausages, ham, liverwurst, salami, you name it. Each and every major city in North America it seems has its tried and true, go-to deli. New Yorkers go to Katz Deli, Montrealers go to Schwartz. For Torontonians, the smoked meat sanctuary is Caplansky’s.

Caplansky’s has come a long way, from the days at the Monarch Tavern to their new digs on College Street. We had a conversation with founder Zane Caplansky about his journey on the visionary winding road which culminated in this distinct and delicious food reality.

What’s in a name?

Well, one of the names I was originally going to call it was Caplan’s. Then I thought Caplan’s kind of sounds like an appliance store or a furniture store, and also my mother and brother are politicians so in a lot of ways I didn’t want to play on the family name. And then I thought to myself “Caplansky” that just sounds like such a good name and also it gave me an opportunity to rebrand myself, not just the restaurant.

Once a dot com millionaire.

I’ve done so many things, I was a dotcom millionaire back in the ‘90s, I was a consultant for Hewlett Packard and Compaq, I used to work on election campaigns for a living, I was a ski bum, I spent five years backpacking around the world, after working as a waiter, I went to George Brown College for culinary after working as a chef’s apprentice at a restaurant in B.C and I’ve worked in every capacity in the restaurant business.

When I got back to Toronto, the dotcom era went bust and at the time I was married to my business partner so when the bubble burst on the business, the marriage also ended. I had to figure out what I wanted to do with myself and I really did a lot of pretty intense soul searching to decide who I was essentially. There was a book called What Colour is Your Parachute that I had read and did the exercises in. Everything pointed back to food and hospitality. I had worked jobs earning a quarter of a million dollars a year, glamourous and high profile things and I decided I was gonna go take an $11/$12 an hour job as a bench cook. So I started working at restaurants and I really enjoyed it and sort of spent a few years doing that until the idea of doing a deli came to me.

The Schwartz Connection.

Some friends of mine were going to Montreal so I asked them to pick me up a sandwich from Schwartz. They didn’t end up getting it, and I just sat there at midnight waiting for a guy who worked for me, who was supposed to bring me back the sandwich. He never delivered and I thought, why can’t you get smoked meat in Toronto? Why can’t you find this here?

And so I went on eBay and bought a smoker online. I bought a brisket and I googled the process behind smoked meat. Essentially with smoked meat there’s four parts, there’s curing, spicing, smoking and slicing. Curing is scientific, there’s a few ways of doing it but there’s essentially a recipe. The spice flavour was something that I sort of tweaked as I went, smoking as well – like how much smoke do you give it, what kind of smoke do you give it – and slicing was a skill I had to learn.

The Art of Deli.

Somebody earlier today said to me, Who was your guru? Where did you school in the art of deli? and I said you know what, the truth is, I’m pretty much self taught. I knew the flavour I was going for and when I made my first briskets, they were way smokier than anything I ever had before. The spicing was different and at first the texture was amazing but the taste was strong. Everybody else that I gave my meat to try loved it, because they didn’t know what I was trying to get it to taste like. It became clear that my taste was different, it’s my signature flavour and I kinda had to dial back the smokiness a little bit. I tweaked the spicing a bit and the equipment that I’ve used has changed over time as well, but for the most part we got ourselves into a pretty good zone. That’s essentially how it happened. It happened in a pretty organic, holistic way.

Growing Pains.

I brought my new found flavours to the restaurant and gave everyone a taste and they went crazy for it. Then I thought okay well, how should I do this? And I was broke so I thought about a hotdog cart because it’s already cooked, you’re just steaming it, so I could do it on a hotdog cart… but unfortunately the city had a moratorium on hotdog carts because of the a la carte program, which by the way was a total failure, so I thought about maybe doing it like the San Francesco guys, like just a little take out window. And just going “how many sandwiches?” “here you go” “fries? “how many?” “thank you very much”

Even if I would’ve done it that way, I didn’t have enough money for it. Starting out at the Monarch we did it from a totally blank slate. I paid everybody cash, there was no reporting of any kind for the first few months. I had no idea what was gonna happen. Until David Sax wrote the Globe and Mail article before I opened. I opened on Tuesday it came out on Saturday. The article read “Jewish Tradition comes downtown!”. They have me standing there holding my sandwich, all posed ‘cause I wasn’t opened yet. We made up this shot. It was supposed to be buried in the paper; the photographer said to me that the editor intended to put it as just a little article inside. He liked the picture so much that they put it on the front page, full colour, with another picture inside. And it was the very first time that they had used my name as “Caplansky”. It was weird, for 40 years I had said “Caplan”, you know “Hi, I’m Zane Caplan” now It’s Zane Caplansky. It took me a while to get used to it.

Starting out, I had a business plan – 2 to 3 sandwiches a day is what my business plan projected I would sell. Who’s gonna know where I am, there’s no sign, I mean, I told a bunch of people so I figured the first day I might have 20 people show up. You know, friends and relatives. 140 people showed up, cleaned us out of the whole first week’s supply. We had to close for a week. This lead to another article, “Caplansky’s opens and closes on the same day!” And I actually called David Sax. I was despondent that I had ran out of meat and I thought I failed. And he was like no, spin it, spin it. He told me, call all the food writers you can think of and apologize for running out of meat and disappointing customers and be there to mark everyday when people show up. And so I started giving out two for one sandwich coupons … and I would say “come back and try it again”.

And when we re-opened, the Globe actually printed the next weekend  “Caplansky’s ran out of meat”. We re-opened the following week and it was twice as bad. I knew by that point what to do. I could see it wasn’t going to be one or two sandwiches a day so I bought a lot of meat, sold a lot of meat and started hiring people too because at first it was just me. I figured on day one I might need a hand, so I got somebody from the Magic Oven from where I was the manager, to come and be my waitress.

When we opened this place (Caplansky’s on College), we hired 60 people. Between 2 shifts, 7 days a week, it takes almost 10 people when the patio’s open. You have 4 servers, a bartender, a host, a cashier, that’s 7 people at a minimum and then 2 shifts – So 14 people and then the kitchen you’ve got at least as many. It’s a very different undertaking and it’s been a very challenging start but like I said,  after the re- opening, we’ve been able to be a little more strategic about how we’ve done things.

Daily Dose of Chaos.

The chaos that you walked into here, that moment, in the first half hour it’s just like that the entire day…Especially on the weekends around here, some days it’s just like 1:30, 2:30 ,3:30, okay its 4:30 and we still have a line-up at the door. When the patio’s going and we’re turning over tables like that it can be a very busy place. We actually did a wedding the second day we were open.

It was on Ward Island. The customer said, go down to the ferry terminal, go across and this is where you walk towards, no problem at all. I thought I knew the whole set-up. There was also a festival that same day on the island, so there’s 1000 people waiting to get on the ferries, the line up was hours long! But the event went well and the couple was very cool. This is what I love about what I do…Everyday is different, everyday has its own challenges, and I really am trying to focus on enjoying it all.

Gourmet.

I’d have to say that the Gourmet Magazine article on us was great. There was Maxim as well; Maxim did the ten best delis in North America and we got a great reference there. I used to be a subscriber to Gourmet Magazine and when the issue was about to come out the author called me and said he had just found out that Gourmet is only gonna publish it online. And I was like, don’t worry I’m still gonna be in Gourmet Magazine. And he was like well, there’s gonna be a little blurb in the print edition, but the whole thing is gonna be online.

So I was driving past a Shopper’s Drug-mart, it was late at night and I wondered if that Gourmet issue was out. So I went inside and I actually went to the back of the magazine, the online blurb is usually on the last two pages and I started flipping through the back … and I’m like no, no ,no and I was almost at the front of the magazine. I was like, well that’s alright, It’s still cool, I’ll still be able to say I was on Gourmet online…
but on page 18 there was a picture of me and the first two words were “Zane Caplansky” with a big ‘Z’ and I think I stopped breathing… To see myself in Gourmet was great. This is the oldest food magazine in the world.

I could imagine what the real chefs in the city say, I mean, I’m a deli guy, I’m not a chef. When the real chef guys in the city saw that article they were probably like.. “Uggggh! Caplansky”. I keep getting all these fantastic opportunities. These are the kinds of articles that when people visit the city they’ll make a point of coming here because they read about it. For the rest of my life I’ll always have that and whether the business succeeds or fails – I mean I’ll do my best to see that it succeeds, but I really feel a proud sense of authenticity and it’s because of all of this press and all of this publicity.

Reflection.

It’s been an amazing journey…
When I came up with the idea of why doesn’t Toronto have smoked meat at the same time I thought I’ve been working in restaurants for all these years, I never knew exactly what my thing was gonna be. Actually when I was at George Brown College I developed the idea of a tea house, a modern tea house but it just never clicked.

What I proved was that if you have the passion and the will to do something – it’s very cliche where there’s a will there’s a way – If I wanted people to learn one thing from my own experience it would be just that, even at 40 years old, even with all these things I’ve done with my life, It’s never too late to re-invent yourself and if you’re true to yourself.

For more info on Caplansky’s, check out their website.

Interview & Photography by Chuck Ortiz.
Assisted by Antonio Fernandez.
Transcribed & Edited by Arianne Persaud.

We take you to a little shop on St. Laurent where it all started.

People have a tendency to remember the particular places they visit through specific memories and encounters. Montreal, Canada for example always reminds me of three specific things, late-night poutine, the Jazz Festival and of course Schwartz. Schwartz is one of those unforgettable food memories you always long to relive, over and over again.  For 80+ years Schwartz has been feeding hordes of Montreal’s food faithful with non other than their traditional smoked-meat sandwiches. It’s amazing to see an establishment so successful and so well known, stay the same. With the exception of their newly opened retail space, they have never renovated, redecorated or changed the way they do business. To this day, you still have to wait outside in a lineup for at least 30 minutes (if you’re lucky 15 minutes), only to be accommodated at a communal table depending on how many people you are with. But don’t get me wrong, it’s all worth it.

We had a chance to sit down with Frank Silva who has worked at Schwartz for 28 years, 11 of which he was the General Manager. It was interesting to meet the man that has been running one of Montreal’s landmarks for the past decade. Frank had quite the glow about him, almost as if he had no care in the world. This hard working man of Portuguese decent has earned his right to smile as the restaurant has been featured on Gourmet Magazine and on numerous Food TV shows.

In our interview with Frank, he tells us why people still line up to eat there, experiences he’s had as a result of the restaurant’s notoriety and why he won’t eat out at New York Delis.

We know that Schwartz has been open since the early 20’s, but how long have you been running Schwartz for?
Frank: I’ve been here for 28 years but for 17 years I worked as a counterman and a waiter, so basically for the last 11 years I’ve been the general manager.

So you moved up the ranks?
Frank: That’s right. I started out as a busboy in 1982.

How did you initially get into this business?
Frank: Well mainly because of my family…  my dad actually used to work here, I had an uncle who worked here. By chance, I came in and just filled in on the weekend for somebody

And you fell in love with it?…
Frank: Well, its a great place to work at… It’s interesting the people you get from all around the world, Kerry Price was here yesterday, Trudeau used to be a regular, Chretien, you know, you name it, Halle Berry, Angelina Jolie, everybody comes to Schwartz’s

So tell me where does the name Schwartz come from, it’s such a household name here in Montreal but what or who is Schwartz?
Frank: Well it was the name of the founder, in 1928 Ruben Schwartz, a Romanian immigrant who started Schwartz’s. Schwartz himself was a single man who died in 1971 and he had no children so it’s always been basically the staff that runs the place, I mean we have an owner he’s a Jewish man also but he runs the place… the staff, they do everything and we keep the exact same recipe as Ruben Schwartz did, we have no freezers, we have no microwaves nothing. Just the old school way.

Throughout the years has there been competition popping up, trying to take you guys down?
Frank: Well we don’t have competition we have people who try to imitate what we do, and that’s exactly what it is, an imitation it’s nothing like ours. I mean, people try all over, there’s enough business for everybody as long as you put out a decent product, but if you want the best you can come to Schwartz’s.

Schwartz has been a successful restaurant since the 80’s yet nothing has changed since then. You keep the same recipes, the same methods, the same ways of doing business?
Frank: Exactly, it’s because we’re cooking on a large scale, home cooking on a large scale. We peel our own potatoes here, it’s not frozen potatoes, we peel our own potatoes in house. Bread’s fresh every morning, any left over bread goes back to the bakery and we get french bread. We’re so busy everything’s fresh. If you’re not busy, then you get left overs you freeze stuff.You see the line up outside? the line up is always there. It’s a high turnover, freshness and prices are fabulous because we do a lot of turnover right, so it’s hand in hand.

You have a lot of people coming from all over North America, in fact I just bumped into some people from Toronto that are outside waiting to get in. Why do you think it’s become such a household name not only for Montreal but for people around Canada?
Frank: First of all, we’ve been on all kinds of programs, Food Network in particular, so the name is out there and when people try it for the first time they don’t even know what it is and it just melts in your mouth. It’s great, it’s plain yet great food. I mean, it’s not for the atmosphere or the ambience, it’s very noisy, very crowded. It’s just for the great food.

When it comes down to it, it’s just smoked meat. Just really good wholesome food.
Frank: Exactly, Meat and potatoes. We keep it simple. That’s what people want, they don’t want the fancy stuff, they want the good food. We don’t have dessert, we don’t have booze, just one thing, smoked meat.

Tell me a little bit about the new retail expansion to the restaurant.
Frank: It’s a year old, a little bit over a year old. We actually expanded because it’s our building and we needed more room for refrigeration for production. Obviously we’re getting busier and busier and a lot of times we have to turn away people. We do a lot of catering and we sometimes have to turn down catering jobs because we can’t produce. The Jazz Festival for example wanted us o setup kiosks. We couldn’t produce, we said no, too many. Because everything is home-made. We produce a product in house.

We’ll from the looks of the lineups you have outside, it looks like you can afford to turn down some business here and there. Is business going great otherwise?
Frank: Oh Very good. Very good.The summer is fantastic and weekends also.  Now with this new retail space open people don’t have to wait for an hour and a half outside, maybe half an hour

But I guess the waiting adds to the whole mystique of what Schwartz is about, people don’t mind waiting.
Frank: That’s true, but when it’s 35 below out there it’s tough

Now, with your career, did you know that you would have an interest in running this type of business?
Frank: Well after about maybe 10 years of working here as waiter, I saw that I had a few ideas that hadn’t been developed in here and I knew I could make it better.  Our spices, we used to sell them in little plastic bags and now we have them in Schwartz branded jars. We also have 3 different spices now as well.  Aside from making the place more marketable, I really enjoy the people I work with. It’s a great place.

One thing I notice about Schwartz is that all of the staff look like hard working blue collar  people, but not necessarily people with tremendous restaurant experience.

Frank: Well we hire people with no experience, that’s the people I hire, I don’t want anybody with experience. Because the experience they learn is from me, they learn our way. If you wanna teach them, it’s a lot easier when they have nothing there. My best employees were trained in the house, and the people I have to let go are the ones who came with other experience in here and they had a few problems. but it’s part of the business. All our cutters are trained here

By you?
Frank: Not by me, usually other cutters… I can cut, but I have great employees who can teach. We have over 40 employees in here. I’ve been here 28 years but I have employees that have been here 40 years here

You’ve been featured on Food TV a few times now. Which experiences standout the most?
Frank: We’ll first off theres Christine Cushing, she’s wonderful… then, Rachel Ray. Actually she interviewed me here once and then she did another show where she vacations in Montreal and she did only one interview of all the best places – Schwartz’s

That brings me to another question. Montreal, is quite a different city from all other Canadian cities in that it has a European feel to it. It’s totally different from Toronto, totally different from Vancouver, & other cities in Canada. How would you describe the Montreal food scene in terms of what it has to offer and why is it so different?
Frank: Well, we were in Gourmet Magazine a few years back and they considered us one of the top cities in North America. New York, L.A and Montreal became another one and that’s in Gourmet Magazine right and they did a big spread on us. But I think it’s because of the different people that live in Montreal and of course Toronto has the same thing but we’re simpler in background, and we have a lot of European flavours and they’ve been instilled for a long long time. So.. I don’t know, I mean every city’s got great restaurants but I’ve been in a lot of cities and especially in the states and when it comes to good restaurants and food man, it’s very hard to beat Montreal and I’ve been all over the place man.

So looking abroad where would you say has comparable meat, I’m sure there’s nothing as good as Schwartz’s but comparable to Schwartz’s. New York City for example, they’re known for their cured meat are they not?
Frank: We’ll not really, it’s actually Pastrami. We went up against them and we won, but I think it’s not fair to compare because that’s Pastrami it’s not smoked meat, and in Toronto it’s not smoked meat it’s corned beef. So you’ve gotta compare apples with apples and I think that’s unfair. Our flavour is special, either you like it or you don’t. There might be people who prefer something else, but that’s our taste and I still believe our product is superior because it’s never been frozen, it’s fresh, it doesn’t have preservatives it’s not injected, naturally aged and everything, so it’s better for you. But some people prefer hotdogs over sausages so it’s a question of taste. I think nothing comes close to our products. Their products are good don’t get me wrong… but they’re different

Have you ever been to New York recently?
Frank: Maybe two years ago… I’ve gone four or five times

Where do you like to go to grab a bite to eat there?
Frank: I won’t go to the Delis. I don’t because they will disappoint me, they will disappoint me. I’ve tried them of course, you know you try it out of curiosity but then you won’t go to a Deli because its a little bit of a let down I guess…I think the Italian restaurants are very good and their steak’s are excellent as well… I go to Soho or Little Italy sometimes with a nice bottle of wine…great food, great shopping. Deli’s are for me…. like most customers, once you’ve eaten here it’s hard to try other stuff. People say, they’ve tried all the other smoked meats, and say “oh it’s very good.” Yea, but have you tried Schwartz’s? Try it, then tell me about it.

So what’s the five year outlook for Schwartz’s and for Frank Silva?
Frank: Well we’re always looking for possibilities to try and make it better for Schwartz’s but we get offers all the time for franchises, even Dubai and Brazil, you name it… We want to keep it here keep it local. Sometimes we think of opening up just a little spot to help with the line ups, probably for take out. Just a little take out counter where we still produce the product here. Those are some things might we might do in the future… eat and go, eat and run that’s what people want nowadays, everybody’s in a rush, take out is a very big business so we might get into that.

Interview & Photography by Chuck Ortiz.
Assisted by Antonio Fernandez.
Transcribed & Edited by Arianne Persaud.