Death Of A Legend

Schwartz's is an internationally known deli based in Montréal, so good and so fucking awesome that in the near-century it's been operating, countless profiteers tried to convince the owners to franchise the brand. Madonna and a slew of other celebs have their products delivered to them.

The secret to their success is their unique 10-day curing, and their mix of (now-cliché) ''Montréal-style'' spices, all within an area that gives it its flavour for having been in use for over 80 years. Its founder was named Ruben Schwartz, and is the one after whom the sandwiches are named.

It was purchased by a consortium of businesspeople in 2012, including the owner of Bâton Rouge chains, and former owners of the Nickels chains Céline Dion and René Angélil; (Nickels was sold to Bâton Rouge in 1997).

When the sale took place, I had one major fear: that they would force Schwartz's to supply Nickels (who also serve smoked meat reubens), a rather large chain, and that by doing so, they would over-use their smokers and cure the meats for less time, giving it less flavour, and eventually kill off the one restaurant that was king to enable the larger chain to thrive by selling better-than-what-they-serve/sub-par products.

I was wrong.

The result is much worse:

Fuck the 10-day curing period, here is microwavable smoked meat that you can find in every supermarket chain in the country.

The times, they are a-changing.