A large crowd of kosher shoppers in this Canadian city were in an unprecedented celebratory mood on Sunday September 15th.
It’s been two years since skeptical Montrealers woke up to a new reality they never believed would see the light of day. “The Fooderie,” a kosher shopping experience they could only dream of opened its doors.
It was a concept for which they would have to travel across the border to experience, or receive pictures on their phone from relatives in Brooklyn, Monsey, Cedarhurst or Lakewood.
It took a visionary in the likes of R’ Simcha Wenger to believe in a Jewish community which had become accustomed to small stores scattered across town, shopping at multiple stops just to enjoy a Shabbos and even that with slim pickings. He gathered a group of successful businessmen, leaders in the Tri State kosher food revolution, who jointly helped bring the US kosher food shopping experience to Montreal.
The Fooderie made believers of those who simply accepted the “not here” attitude. They were aghast at a full-blown shopping experience, all under one roof. Instead of wasting precious time looking for parking, here was a parking lot with accommodation for over 100 cars. They were treated to a selection of products they could only dream of at prices unfathomable in Canada.
The celebration saw hundreds of families gather to appreciate “a dream come true.” To them, the two-year milestone was enough to convince them that this new treasure was here to stay. With them and for them.
They were laudatory about the team that had been assembled and that the primary focus was the customer. All this while the children enjoyed the air bounce, balloon sculpting, live pony rides, prizes, cotton candy, free nosh, chocolate, ices and ice cream. The families enjoyed a complimentary dinner at the Deli365 outdoor BBQ. To remind them of the coming new year, there was even a demonstration of live bees making fresh and pure honey.
The Montreal kosher consumer relished their new “store of dreams” with its unprecedented super savings, the sight and the taste of so many new products that are displayed as soon as they are released. Most importantly there was the reassurance that the new shopping experience was here to stay and that Montreal had finally arrived as a major kosher destination.
The Montreal Kosher food map has been rewritten. And the community is in love with it.
Apparently some have forgotten Kosherworld, a fully Kosher full service supermarket that existed in Montreal’s Decarie Square for 3 years in the early 2000s. I hope the Fooderie exists longer than them and wish them the best of luck!