Which Is “The Original”?
Technically, Fairmount is the original. It opened in 1919, but on St-Viateur Street (this is where it gets all tricky) by a Russian immigrant named Isadore Shlafman. He later moved his bagely to a bigger cottage space on Fairmount Avenue. All of the signage inside Fairmount alludes to this 1919 birth year, even if it was under a different roof, which gives them more of the first-kid-on-the-block street cred.
St-Viateur opened on St-Viateur Street, where it has stayed, in 1957 by an Eastern European immigrant named Myer Lewkowicz who partnered with Jack Shlafman, the son of the Fairmount owner at the time. (Drama!)
Montreal vs. NYC Bagel
What makes our bagels different from everybody else is that they’re hand-made. New York, I think 90% of the bagels are machine-made. Toronto, they try to copy off us but still haven’t perfected. —Marco Sblano, St-Viateur
Good luck trying to find an everything bagel in Montreal. Instead, the most popular flavor is sesame, and they pour on the seeds real good. While both bagelries sell about 20 flavors total (like poppy seed and cinnamon-raisin) the sesames make up 70 percent of sales.
