The Monarch: stay or go?
I opened in the Monarch because I was broke and it was cheap. Yes, I love the room but given my education and experience I believed it was an awful place to open. You know the saying: “what are the three most important things in the restaurant business? Location, location, location”. So what do I do? I open a Jewish Deli on the second floor of a side street dive bar – in an Italian neighborhood. No walk by. No parking. No signage (at first). Crazy? Many would say so. But I was hungry for smoked meat and unable to afford a typical storefront resto. What’s a Jew to do? You know what I did and in doing what I did I proved that playing by the rules isn’t always a recipe for success. ”Sometimes you just have to say: what the fuck” (Risky Business – 1983).
Now, almost exactly one year later, we’re moving into exactly the kind of space I would have moved into if I could have afforded it. The question is: what’s to do with the Monarch. The owners think I’d be crazy to leave (although they also said I was crazy to open there). Customers? You are a fickle lot. In the first six months I caught tonnes of flack over the “dingy, dank, disgusting” – ness of the Monarch. I took it in stride. After all, what could I do? I owed my livelihood to this place and while I tried not to let on, working there has pushed me to my limits and beyond.
I fixed every piece of equipment – twice. I carried thousands of pounds of meat (and soup and sacks of potatoes) up and down those long staircases from the basement to the smoker and down again on a knee that barely functions and shoulders that ache nightly. I put up with (but didn’t necessarily accede to) the outrageous and unreasonable demands of multiple landlords. I endured anti-Semitic venom from a neighbor who seems to hate almost everyone in the area (including my afore-mentioned landlords). And I collected a stack of parking tickets that could wallpaper the entire basement beer cooler.
Eternal romantic that I am, my love for the place endures: the dark wood, the blue leather, the Leafs memorabilia on the walls and the smell of stag parties long forgotten. I even love the characters at the bar. But I think what I love most is that the Monarch is a Toronto landmark and being there makes me feel a part of something bigger than myself. For generations the place has been somewhere you had to seek out, had to know about. You’d walk by that door your entire life if someone didn’t tell you that there’s a nice place upstairs to sit and hide from your troubles for a few hours.
And while I was once certain I’d move everything and everyone with me to 356 College (locks, stock and bagels) I have heard your pleas to maintain a presence in the Monarch. My (zen) dilemma surrounds the issue of quality. The toughest thing in my business is finding great people to help me serve my customers the best food possible. I’ve been blessed to have found exceptional people willing to work long, hard hours and I’ll need every one of them to open and operate the new place. In fact, the staff will likely triple. So who will operate the Monarch? And what happens if there’s a problem because there WILL be problems. Compressors will blow, people will be sick, pipes will burst, deliveries will be wrong and I will be called upon to fix this stuff.
So, dear readers, as Mick Jones of The Clash used to say: should I stay or should I go? And try to look at this from my perspective: if it were an easy thing to operate a successful restaurant at the Monarch someone would have done it before me. In fact, someone did do it before me: a little old Italian lady whose customers still rave about her tomato sauce and pasta 20 years later. We may make it look easy (awwww, shucks) but what we do is far from easy. My belief is that opening and operating 356 College will take everything I’ve got. Don’t get me wrong: I’m ready. Like John Irving’s Owen Meany character, the events of my life have prepared me for this challenge.
Too many pop references for you? I must be channelling Dennis Miller. Ohhh, thats another one. Well, excuuuuuse me! The kid’s on fire. Shwing. I’ll stop now.
June 6th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
I’ve never been to the Monarch before Caplansky’s existed there and once 356 College is running I’ll never go back to the Monarch (unless I happen to be in the area for something else and am hungry for some Toronto Smoked Meat.) I didn’t hate the Monarch like some people but it is more out of the way, has no patio and I hate the beer selection at the Monarch. (My hope is to have beer quality that rivals the handful of better beer places in Toronto. I’d be willing to help you with that any way I can.)
So if you can maintain the quality at both places then by all means do two locations but if you’re worried about spreading yourself too thin and quality goes down, that means a probable loss of business which is not good for you or your fans. If you do close the original location, who’s to say you couldn’t return to the Monarch at a later date when you’re fully prepared for the challenges of two locations. It’s not like there is a lineup of restauranteurs wanting to set up shop there.
June 7th, 2009 at 8:40 am
I love the Monarch man, but you gotta do what’s right for you. I never understood those that had had bile to speak of the Monarch. Personally I think it has tons of character and warmth and a real friendly staff. I’d never been there before Caplanksy’s (I always took my veal to a park bench!) but since your opening I’ve been happy to discover it and happy to find out it’s actually a real fun place to hang out, even on a Friday night surprisingly.
I love the Monarch, but you really should do what’s best for your health, your sanity, and your business.
I can’t say stay or leave, I can just say that you should do what feels right, do what you feel you can reasonably deal with. Judging from your post, your limits are being stretched. Do what feels right. As long as the food is still made and served with love and respect as it always has been, you’ll do great no matter where you are – one location or two.
All my very best, I’ll see you no matter where you are located!
June 7th, 2009 at 8:46 am
One more thing – if you do keep the Monarch would having two locations that are relatively close to each other be an issue?
June 7th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I’d never been to the Monarch before, and I’m glad to have been there, and that place has a lot of character. But it doesn’t seem very practical to be there unless you really want to be there.
I think the new location will be great, as long as you design and decorate it in an inviting way that has charm and character; right now, that location is a personality-free zone (unlike the Monarch, which oozes personality). (Even Schwartz’s deli in Montreal, which I’ve only been to once, has its own quirky personality).
Maybe being in a bar in a neighborhood where people comes to eat helps… as long as you’re in a place where people are drinking and smoking, what’s a big pile of red meat?
June 7th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Hey Zane,
I’d go eat your food in a dingy basement if I had to.
While the Monarch is nice, I’m personally in no way attached to the place. I’m there for your food, not the Monarch. Sure, it’s quaint (dont really care for sports however) it’s a historical location, but that’s about it.
As mentioned, you might have your hands full with just one location, why chance it? Give yourself all the chances at the new place, if that all works out you could always do something with the Monarch.
June 7th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
WHOA! DUDE! Stop the presses! What morons gave you flack about the Monarch? It has such charm! Sigh. The place has a personality. How many people can say that about a room? A living, sighing, breathing, obnoxiously lovable personality.
June 7th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
I love the Monarch but put me in the the you gotta do what’s best for you column.
June 7th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
always put sensibility and lifestyle before sentiment, i say. i am more rational and pragmatic than sentimental.
thinking of the expense – emotional, mental, financial – to keep both places open at the same time.
the restaurant is called Caplansky’s. its your name – you reap the glory when it succeeds, you beat back the flames when things go wrong.
most businesses fail because they expand or spread themselves too thinly. and you want to enjoy life. the Monarch was a cute, first step and had its charm. but everyone grows and moves on at some point. just make sure its a clean transition and you hopefully won’t have any regret a year form now.
June 7th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
I’ve already said it to you, so why not the world?
Deli is a very intensely personal business. I’ve never known a great deli that chained or franchised without losing its soul. Even the Pickle Barrel was once a decent deli. I shouldn’t even mention Shopsowitz.
Simply stated, Caplansky’s isn’t Caplansky’s without Caplansky. When you aren’t there, it isn’t the same. That’s why you need to be there 24/7
Life? What life? Deli men don’t have a life – except for making other people happy…
(Not that you’d ever listen to me anyway.)
June 8th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I guess I never actually “voted” so to speak. I got too distracted by the fact that people had hated on the Monarch. I agree that you can’t spread yourself too thin, and that “franchising” would probably be a mistake. To quote Capt. Hammer, “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”
June 9th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Don’t spread yourself too thin. Focus on one location with the highest possible quality! Please!
June 9th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
First, let me congratulate you on your first year. I’m out of town tomorrow, so I cannot drop by to join the celebration.
The biggest issue you face at this juncture is span of control. Can you expand to multiple locations and maintain the quality and customer service you’ve been able to so far. I doubt it at this point. You’ve read the stuff on Chowhound: People do complain about the cutting & trimming when you’re not there. embee (I think it was) said something to the effect of “Toronto’s not exactly overrun with meatcutters.” Now I don’t want to chain you to either place, you need to have a life. I really believe that running one excellent location that you can monitor is in your best interests.
On top of this, there was some stuff on CH about the conversation of the Monarch staff that suggests you’re better off not being there.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Just make your new location look like the monarch and everyone is happy!
June 12th, 2009 at 3:13 am
Seems to me that the College location will be more convenient for you AND your devoted customers, and will likely bring you new customers as well.
Do your knees a favour and just stay with the one location. If the Monarch customers miss your food that much it won’t be difficult for them to pick it up on College and take it to the bar, like they do with the Italian sandwiches!
BTW I heart you for the Owen Meany reference!
June 12th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Dude. Go.
As much as a love your sammich, you’re way too popular for the Monarch now, and its killin’ me.
As much as I’m sure they love the business, I’ve been there a few times recently for a pint, and I can’t get a bloody seat. I liked it better when there was enough room to invite 10 of my closest friends over for sunday dinner there, with a home made pot roast
June 16th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Can you handle the quality control of two locations without losing your mind?
Love the Monarch for the funkiness, but it will still be a funky local after you leave.