Main Deli Steak House's Peter Varvaro Passes Away

The Main Deli Steak House has lost longtime original owner Peter Varvaro. Varvaro passed away peacefully at the Royal Victoria Hospital in his eighty first year last week. Funeral services will be held today. The self-taught smoked meat pusher had been at the helm of the boulevard Saint-Laurent restaurant for four decades. He leaves behind a wife, daughter, four sons—including Smoke Meat Pete's Peter Varvaro, Jr., and Delibee's Philip Varvaro—a brigade of employees past and present, and a corps of loyal customers. Varvaro's death is especially poignant as it comes on the heels of Tony Koulakis's fatal stabbing in June. The iconic face of Cosmo's Snack Bar shared Varvaro's love of unfussy fare, and was also working well into his eighties. Varvaro had a memorable turn in the recent short doc Birth of the Smoked Meat. Have a look below.