It was just past 1PM when our guide met us at a busy street corner in Montreal’s Jewish neighborhood. An area I already knew quite well, having roamed its streets and dined in its restaurants several times over the past couple of years. After all, I live a mere 10 minutes away. But this familiarity was, as I found out, superficial, for I knew nothing about the history of this area, how the Jews moved from Old-Montreal to the Mile End, and how they helped shape what Montreal is today.

An educational staycation what was I needed, hence why I picked the Beyond The Bagel: Montreal Jewish Food tour. Renowned worldwide for its unique take on Jewish cuisine, Montreal is the birthplace of countless Jewish foods, both iconic and overlooked.

Cheskie

Cheese crowns from Cheskie

Kokosh from Cheskie

Our small group started the tour at Cheskie, a teeny-tiny kosher bakery on Bernard Avenue – one of the world’s few bakeries where Hassidic Jews mingle with Venezuelans, Moroccans, Canadians, and tourists. It’s a bakery for everyone, we were told.

We were served two classic Jewish pastries, the kokosh – otherwise known as a Russian babka – and cheese crowns. The former is a deliciously fluffy roll with a chocolate and cinnamon filling while the latter is a puff pastry filled with sweet cheese. The name comes from the way the corners of the pastry stand up, like the pointy bits of a crown.

Saint-Viateur and Fairmount Bagels

Fairmount Bagels

Saint-Viateur Bagels

Montreal bagels

The second and third stops on our tour took us to the legendary bagel factories in the Mile End, Saint-Viateur and Fairmount. As a Montrealer I was well aware of the rivalry between the two; but what I didn’t know, however, was that it all started out as a big family affair back in the early 1900s when both owners worked together at the aptly named Montreal Bagel Bakery – until friction drove them to open their own bakeries in the 1960s, both of which are still open today.

Unlike their New York counterparts, Montreal bagels are smaller, sweeter (because they are boiled in water that contains honey), have larger holes, and are topped with either sesame or poppy seeds. What’s really special about these two factories is that despite their small size, it’s possible to see the bakers at work, sliding the fresh dough into the large wood-fired ovens in the back.

Wilensky’s Light Lunch

Wilensky’s

The tour’s fourth stop was at local legend Wilensky’s. Virtually unchanged since its opening in 1932, this restaurant used to house a barber shop founded by Russian-born immigrant Harry Wilensky – to this day, the counter is still staffed by his grandchildren. Wilensky’s is famous for its “Wilensky’s Special”, a fried salami and bologna sandwich served with a touch of mustard on a pressed roll.

The neighborhood institution is one of the last bastions of Eastern European Jewish culture in the Mile End, and was featured on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” TV show. It was also immortalized by famed Montreal Mordecai Richler, a regular at the diner when he was young, in his novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz”.

Hof Kelsten

Although the trendy decor and the hipster clientele are a far cry from the almost centennial establishments we’d been seeing so far on the tour, Hof Kelsten is no less Jewish than the others. What started out as an almost clandestine bakery out of Jeffrey Finkelstein’s mother’s kitchen, Hof Kelsten now stocks Montreal’s top restaurants. The chef doesn’t shy off his Jewish heritage, using his mother’s brisket recipe and serving the city’s only bialys, the underrated Jewish delicacy that very few non-Jews are familiar with. Bialys are medium-sized rolls filled with onions, either caramelized or raw, originating from Białystok in Poland. And they did not disappoint!

Schwartz’s

What better way to end the 3+ hours tour than at Montreal’s ultimate Hebrew delicatessen, Schwartz’s? Supposedly the oldest deli in Canada, Schwartz’s has been serving top quality smoked meat (not pastrami!) for the past 80 years. Our guide Kat skipped the queues and snagged us a half sandwich, which included generous pieces of of hand-cut medium smoked meat, a touch of mustard and sourdough bread, as well as a cherry cola, “the Schwartz’s way”, according to her. A wise choice, as everything was delicious… as expected from this legendary eatery.

***

Although our clothes were a little tighter and our pace remarkably slower by the end of this Montreal Jewish Food tour, the guests and I were all pleased with our culinary discoveries. I was very happy to have learned a great deal of trivia about my hometown, and I felt like I had a better understanding of the Jewish community, which I hadn’t been familiar with until then. Definitely an enlightening staycation.

-Contributed by Marie-Eve Vallieres

Beyond the Bagel: Montreal Jewish Food Walking Tour from Montreal Things to Do