I’m excited to announce that on Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 3pm in a bright corner of my little deli-in-a-dive-bar legendary Klezmer phenom David Buchbinder will lead a trio in two sets of wonderful music. I love live music and we’re lucky to have a player of his caliber.  Fortunately David lives locally, likes my food and forgot his wallet.

A little while back we had Vancouver Klezmer player Geoff Berner and his trio play a really cool acoustic set and ever since I’ve had the idea to bring live music to the Monarch.  Then a few weeks ago, David left his wallet in the dining room and when he called me to ask us to hold it, I pitched the idea.

The first show will be free but in future weeks we may ask patrons to contribute.  I’d like to have them play every Sunday but its up to you, my friends.

I got an email this morning from Frank at BlogTo.com informing me that he’d posted Caplansky’s profile on his site.  Frank had been in for a review and then returned for a second and even sent questions for me to write written responses.  Intense.  So I clicked on the link and started to read the post.  Made me happy and hungry. Then I kept reading the comments… holy shit!  We’ve pissed off (and thrilled) a whole lotta people.  I thought Chowhound was ridiculous (and it is – 7 pages of threads discussing every aspect of what we do) but I don’t remember getting that many sandwiches sent back.

It does happen.  If its not hot enough, not fatty enough or too fatty we will replace any sandwich.  If you hated it and didn’t say anything so you could go home and write that it sucked and people shouldn’t go, what can I do? Now, there was a month where the meat was inconsistent. What happened was we started using a very large brisket and the cure didn’t penetrate the thickest part of the brisket despite the fact that it had pickled for three weeks.  As a consequence the meat was a little discoloured and dry.  Once I figured out what the problem was there were still three weeks worth of meat in process. 

I’m proud to stand behind the food we serve.  I taste everything daily and ask my people to do the same.  If we don’t meet your expectations let us take care of it.  If we can’t meet your expectations, let’s part as friends.  Or as my father once said: don’t go away angry, just go away. I kid.  Seriously, I ate a piece of knish at Andrew Tile’s birthday party on Monday and thought it was the best thing that had happened to my mouth since Rachel moved away.  When my cousins Lawrence and Lola Caplansky visited the other evening and Lola made me eat half of her sandwich, I loved it despite the fact she ordered Lean.  Lawrence is old school and we share a birthday.  Such a character. His father was my Zaidy’s older brother.  

Mark Cutrara and partner Karin Culliton owners of meat palace Cowbell stopped by for lunch on Monday. They came over afterwards to let me know how much they enjoyed it while I was sitting with friend and butcher Nick Gasparro – son of Vince and pillar of Bloor/Ossington.  What a pleasure it is to have a place where people can come and eat with me although I heard I missed Moses Znaimer for the second time last night.  Avie Bennett (McClelland and Stewart) was in for lunch with 3 generations of Coopers yesterday.  These are people who know deli and they’ve been coming almost since Day 1.  If the food wasn’t right, they’d let me know and you should too.

We set a new record today.  It was never too much, just a steady stream from start to finish with a brief lull just long enough to refill mustard jars and make ’slaw.  I’m really proud of my team despite the fact that one of them quit today but there’s no need to get negative.  I know its hard to imagine but I can be difficult to work for and sometimes things don’t work out.  Anyway, we did great.   

One highlight was having Brad May of the Toronto Maple Leaf’s eating with us at lunch.  As you may know, the Monarch is a Leaf’s bar.  In fact, I can think of few rooms in the city as dedicated to my beloved Toronto Maple Leaf’s as the Monarch.  When the team gets going that bar will be pure mayhem.  

The truth is I didn’t even recognise him. Corey at the bar didn’t say anything even though he told me later he spotted him right away.  Corey’s far more discreet than I am.  He’ll talk baseball with Geddy Lee at the bar and be protective of the privacy and space of a guy like that.  Me? I’ll blab about it on here.  Of course, Corey asked May to sign a hat before he left.  It was a pretty big thrill for me anyway just to shake hands.

Tonight the hits just kept on coming.  We had two birthday parties booked but six showed up.  I really love it when people choose to celebrate with us.  My friend Natalie Ruskin was going to do her party at some stuffy gallery and asked me to come and cut up a brisket after closing shop.  Instead, she had the whole thing at our place and it was fantastic.  By 10 pm she pretty much owned the place and her 30 or so friends were rocking to their own tunes.  I left about 1.30 and just had to write before bed.

Hasta manana

Zak Goldman comes into the deli with my cousin Corey Greenspan a few weeks ago. They sit at what was Table no. 1 which is now no. 3 following the arrival of our new POS system (point-of-sale, duh).  Zak loves my cabbage borscht. Sorry, that should be Loves or even LOVES my borscht.  Anyway, after a meal that included a whirlwind performance by Vancouver Klezmer whiz Geoff Berner and my sandwich of course, Mr. Goldman asks if I would be interested in cutting sandwiches in accountant’s and lawyer’s offices.  Am I?  Would you believe the guy booked a whack of these things and we did the first two this week.  

How’d it go? What’d you think?  Imagine life in an office every day, five days a week.  If you’re an accountant, its tax time and you’re probably there late and on weekends too.  I show up with my steaming briskets, fresh rye bread, pickles and mustard.  the whole place suddenly smells of smoked meat.  Life in the office is improving.  I put on my apron, don the deli-man hat and sharpen my knife.  I slice meat, make sandwiches and chat with the fressers.  I love it too because I love slicing meat and connecting with people plus its a nice change from the stress of the dining room.  But don’t ask me.  Ask the beancounters at Sloan Partners or Schwartz, Levitzky and Feldman what they think.  

Anyway, all good thoughts aside, here’s an idea:  You want to do something nice for your people during tax time, you have a poker night (Jamie Bussin), you just closed a deal (Goodmans), kicked some serious debt market ass hardcore (Gurang Sardana and RBC) or you’re working late and need a break (Atom Egoyan).  Call me at 416 500 3852.  You will be a hero to your team.