This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
Some would say that they are less swag than a third wave café or a trendy new restaurant. However, they are an integral part of the urban landscape, sometimes for a very long time, and offer their visitors much more than goods. In the age of Amazon, virtual meal ordering and self-service checkouts, delicatessens constitute both the gourmet landmark and the human bulwark against the dehumanization of our food services. Meeting of two of these Quebec gems.
Since 1959, La Vieille Europe has been located on Saint-Laurent Boulevard in Montreal. Recognizable by its large traditional red storefront, this institution has accompanied the history of its neighborhood and the residents who live there. In its beginnings, what we then loved under the name Old Europe Meat Market was a butcher’s shop, before embracing the vocation that we still know today in the 1970s. Then, in the 1980s, it also acquired a family character through the Da Silvas and the Santos, who bought it together.
“It was really the house of our two fathers, who spent more time there than at our home. And we literally grew up here,” says Steve Da Silva, who took over the reins of the business 25 years ago with Nelson Santos and a third native of the neighborhood of Portuguese origin, Paulo Raimundo. “We came to help on the weekends and in the evenings after school, and, yes, we did all the departments,” adds Mr. Santos. Clean the shelves, take out the trash, place the products. We also did a lot of mopping! »
65 years of neighborhood commerce
La Vieille Europe has over time become a destination for consumers outside of Montreal, but it has especially become a landmark on the Plateau. When Steve Da Silva and Nelson Santos were young, the grocery store’s customer base was mostly made up of people from Eastern Europe, who came to buy cold cuts and sausages from their home countries.
It is still possible to obtain around a hundred of these flagship products in the store. But over the years, the business has expanded greatly to meet the desires of an increasingly mixed clientele, including many students and academics. It was one of the first establishments in the area to offer coffee roasted on site, a range of 250 cheeses… and many other things.
“Today we have more than 5,000 products on the shelves, ranging from olive oils to kombuchas, including hot sauces and special cosmetics, such as Marseille soap and Marvis tooth paste,” says M. .Da Silva. We have no doubt about it, looking at the merchandise carefully lined up from floor to ceiling! We also learn at the same time that La Vieille Europe is, for example, very popular for its European sweets – it is the largest seller of Haribo and Carambar candies in Canada – and its gift boxes, which you can fill freely of products throughout the year.
However, how can such a business survive when competition is so strong, both physically and online? “I would say that people know that here they will have the variety, the quality and the advice that they do not have elsewhere,” replies Mr. Santos. We specialize and believe enormously in the value of personalized customer service. This is what sets us apart. »
A contagious passion
In a large city where millions of people gravitate, we can understand that delicatessens can do well. But businesses like the Jardin du bedeau, in Kamouraska, the Magasin Général Ste-Élizabeth, in Sainte-Élizabeth-de -Warwick, or even Les passions de Manon, in Saint-Hyacinthe, are more surprising. At least, until we learn what really motivates their owners.
When Manon Robert founded her boutique in 1999, the product lover that she was had no idea if her enthusiasm was going to be infectious. “At the time, new products were discovered mainly through chefs, but little attention was paid to the producers, their history, their creativity,” she says. So, I tested the market a bit by bringing a few unknown products into my store. »
Mme Robert was right. The new products quickly found buyers, and his store was so successful that in 2007 it ran out of space. The following year, the entrepreneur therefore made the decision to move to larger premises located in the same small town. “It was a bit of a crazy bet, but I felt that this niche had a future,” says the woman who, with her team (including her son), welcomes a diverse clientele to her pretty boutique. “My clients come from all over the place,” she says. They are of all ages and have different habits from each other. They buy micro-roasted coffee every week, fill their basket with products every six months, or come in just to chat and browse the shelves on Sunday afternoon. They are happy to find each other and find themselves here. »
Warmth, generosity, simplicity, knowledge. Listening to Manon Robert talk about her olive oils, her varietal vinegars, her Dammann teas or her range of pastes “which takes up an entire wall, because each person has their preferences for flours, rolling and techniques” , we quickly understand what makes the magic of this delicatessen. The establishment also won the Epicures prize for Best International Grocery Store in 2020: a devouring passion for fine products, of course, but also a sincere interest in people. And that can’t be bought online.
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.