Their smoked meat sandwiches are said to be memorable. Just like their hot sausages. After 50 years of offering Montrealers a panoply of products from Eastern Europe, the Slovenia butcher and delicatessen, located on Saint-Laurent Boulevard in Montreal, will close its doors on January 29.
“It’s because of the pandemic. Everything is going badly ”, blows the owner Jean Teixeira, crossed on the spot Thursday afternoon.
“There is less traffic, people are eating less meat and the price of meat is going up,” lists the man while carrying a large pot filled with water. In addition to serving its customers on the Hand, the butcher shop supplies several restaurants, he explains. A sector that the pandemic has hit hard.
In his butcher’s coat, Jean Teixeira says he took over the business originally founded by two Slovenian brothers about 16 years ago. Products with European accents are always proudly represented on the shelves: alongside jars of sauerkraut and roasted peppers are enthroned packages of gingerbread and speculoos.
Behind the counter, a calculator lies next to handwritten bills. On the wall, a page from a 1933 calendar of the Montreal Butchers Association is framed.
An institution
“It’s an institution that’s closing its doors,” drops Gary Decoste, leaving the store with a hot sausage sandwich and a cherry soda in his hand.
The man, who lives and works in the Plateau Mont-Royal, has been going to the butcher’s shop since his childhood. “When I was young, I saw the sausages hanging in the window, I found that well special! »
After learning of the upcoming closure of the business, Gary Decoste wanted to come and have a last look. “The service is very good and the meat delicious. It is a unique place in Montreal. »
“I will miss this place, slips in turn Ryan Glive. It’s really a shame that it’s closing, it’s very sad. “Especially since the family history of the young man of 21 years is intertwined with that of the butchery. “I’m Slovenian,” he says. When my mother was my age, she worked here. And my aunt worked here for 35 years. “.
Ryan Glive promises to be back by the time the butcher shop closes with his mother and aunt. “For our last time, I think we’re going to take a bit of everything: smoked meat, sausages, sandwiches. »
A neighborhood business
“What do you want us to do, a demonstration?” laughs Raoul Martinez, leaving the Slovenia butcher with two portions of the “special mix” under his arm: salami, spicy sausages and sauerkraut. ” It’s sad. I’ve been coming here every week for years. I am a man of habit…”
Carl Gagné, who also lives in the neighborhood, takes the news with philosophy. “I find it terrible to lose a beautiful neighborhood business like this, but I understand the owners who are tired. »
The man left in the January cold with a triptych under his arm: a spicy salami, smoked meat and ham sandwich. “It’s a part of Montreal that is leaving. »
On Facebook, customers from as far away as Gaspésie or Abitibi-Témiscamingue deplored the closure of the butchery. “You were a must when we went to Montreal. A cooler filled with your products was returned to Gaspé, ”wrote a user.
Several have left a personal anecdote on the butcher’s page. A lady said that she met her husband there. Another mentioned that her husband, in his last days of life in the hospital, had asked her for a sandwich from Slovenia.
For another surfer, Slovenia was, through his eyes as a young boy, “the very incarnation of Montreal”. “My dad used to take us there a few times in the summer,” he recalled. the smoked meat, sausages and a can of soft drink that we ate standing up. Happiness. »