Eater’s Dining on a Dime has checked off poutine and bagels on its tour of Montreal’s classic foods — now it’s time for one more, in the form of smoked meat.
Host Lucas Peterson visits Snowdon Deli in Côte-des-Neiges, where he chows down on karnatzel, a cigar-shaped garlicky beef sausage, potato knishes with sour cream, and blintzes. but the pièce de résistance is the smoked meat — marbled, fatty, and juicy, served on rye with mustard.
Peterson makes a bold claim: that while he appreciates the more-famous Schwartz sandwich, Snowdon offers the best smoked meat in town.
“It tastes of peppercorn, it tastes of garlic, and it tastes of smoky, fatty beef.”
But it’s not just the meat that’s a draw: established just after World War II, the deli is a historic icon. At the time, it joined a large cohort of kosher delis that had set up shop in Montreal in the early 1900s. Owner Hart Fishman says that while Snowdon opened in a part of the city that didn’t have a major Jewish population at the time, it quickly became a hub.
“Once we came here, then the community came here.”
And to this day, Peterson observes that while it might not be a tourist destination, it’s still eminently popular with locals.
Dining on a Dime will release Montreal episodes weekly until late September — click here to watch all previous episodes.