Schwartz’s begins their smoked meat by marinating raw brisket with a secret blend of spices for 10 to 12 days. They smoke the brisket for eight to nine hours and steam them for another three before slicing them by hand and serving them on rye bread with mustard. As Silva put it, “by being cheap, [Schwartz] created something that we still do the same way!” Today, Schwartz’s is synonymous with smoked meat, and is a Montreal institution, beloved by Anglophones and Francophones alike.
“The Montreal product, while terrific, is different than ours,” explains Zane Caplansky, owner of Caplansky’s, which since 2009 has led a resurgence of Toronto’s once dying deli culture. “I guess I made a slightly odd choice when I decided to call what I was doing ‘smoked meat’ instead of the more common Toronto term, ‘pastrami,’ and that, I think from a marketing perspective, I was looking to attract those people that David Sax refers to: the expatriate Montrealers.”
