Dunn's

Dunn's
Restaurant franchise
Industry Food service
Founded 1927 on Avenue Papineau near Avenue du Mont-Royal
Founder Myer Dunn
Headquarters Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Products Food and drink (Montreal-style smoked meat, Pastrami and Cheesecake)

Dunn's Famous Deli and Steakhouse is a Montreal-style smoked meat, Pastrami and Cheesecake restaurant chain founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada by Myer Dunn.[1]

History

Dunn, who immigrated to Canada in 1911, opened his first restaurant in 1927 on Avenue Papineau near Avenue du Mont-Royal.[2] In 1948 he opened his first restaurant to be called "Dunn's Famous Delicatessen" at the corner of Avenue du Parc and Avenue du Mont-Royal.[3]

In 1955 he opened his flagship restaurant at 892 Saint Catherine Street West.[4] The storefront windows were famous for the top to bottom stacks of large jars full of hot banana peppers.[5] The deli was open 24 hours a day, unusual for restaurant in the downtown core. Beginning in the 1970s Dunn's Famous began to focus more on Montreal-style smoked meat, eventually stopping its promotion of Pastrami.[6][7]

The iconic Saint Catherine Street deli closed in 1998 and is now a Bell Telus store, but a new restaurant was opened in 2000 by Dunn's grandson close to the old location.[8]

Elliot Kligman has also franchised the restaurant, now with multiple locations across Canada, and also offers Dunn's brand products to retail sellers.[9]

Bill 101

The Parti Québécois provincial government amended Bill 101 in the 1980s, making French the only language in Quebec. In the mid 1980s, several Jewish delicatessens ran afoul of the law, including Dunn's and Schwartz's, the latter whose owner of which was subjected to failed legal action by the OQLF due to the apostrophe in his sign, which remains.[10]

In the mid 1980s, Dunn's got in trouble with Bill 101 for having the English word, "Smoked Meat" on the sign out front. Dunn's manager at the time stated in defense of the sign that Parti Québécois MNA Gérald Godin himself ordered the sandwich by its name.[11] Dunn's also fought a ruling to change the name of "Smoked Meat" to "Boeuf Mariné" in order to conform to Quebec Language Law.[12] They won the ruling by appeal by proving that if they didn't advertise "Smoked Meat" they would confuse and anger customers.[13] Due to the work of Myer Dunn, under the new ruling, enacted in 1987, Smoked meat became a word in both Official languages of Canada.[14]

Locations

There are currently ten locations,[15][16] which are:

Quebec

British Columbia

Ontario

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.