Montrealers are reeling from reports that a big-name consortium wants a bite at the city's most famous sandwich shop.
Schwartz's Deli, celebrated for their savoury smoked meat on rye, is said to be in the final stages of being sold to an investor group which includes Celine Dion's husband Rene Angelil.
Sources told the Montreal Gazette that a $10-million sale is imminent but thus far many of the rumoured investors have refused to confirm or deny the reports.
The architect of the deal is said to be restaurateur Paul Nakis, who is involved in the Baton Rouge steakhouse chain and Montreal's Sir Winston Churchill Pub.
News that Schwartz's could be changing hands has rattled locals and tourists who line up outside the 84-year-old deli for a chance to sit at its inconspicuous wooden counter.
For decades, a long lineage of owners have kept Schwartz's alive as a small local deli, the kind of place where newspaper clippings line the walls and squeeze-bottles of ketchup and mustard sit on tabletops.
That's how manager Frank Silva envisions Schwartz's Deli as long as it's in business. He told CTV Montreal that idea of a new owner doesn't faze him.
"If it happens it won't be the first time, nothing changes at Schwartz's," he said.
But lately, rumours have been abounding about Hy Diamond, the shop's owner since 1999 who is reported to be in ill health and hoping to pass on the torch.
"One of his fondest wishes is that it be in one location and not get franchised and not move to other places," said Montreal Gazette columnist Bill Brownstein, who also wrote a book about the famous delicatessen.
Unnamed sources confirmed the sale to Brownstein, who said the story has many concerned that the quaint deli on St. Laurent Boulevard could balloon into a franchise.
"They're in the business of restaurants which are already franchises," he said of the potential investor group. "There is a fear that it may or may not mushroom into Schwartz's across the country."
Marketing expert Harold Simpkins said franchising could be a tempting opportunity for any future deli owners.
"It could be a way for the company to generate a lot of income really quickly," said the professor at Concordia University's John Molson School of Business.
Brownstein, however, is skeptical that a Schwartz clone could draw the same amount of interest as the original delicatessen. Part of the appeal, he notes, is that customers can smell more than 80 years of spices and fats when they enter -- a little whiff of history.
The deli was founded in 1928 by Reuben Schwartz, a Jewish immigrant from Romania. It's gained international recognition, largely for the fact that it doesn't use preservatives and instead preserves meat with an original blend of herbs and spices.
That's why Garry Beitel isn't convinced that Schwartz's would survive as a franchise. The documentary filmmaker, who produced a movie about the deli, points out that international guidebooks single it out as a must-see Montreal landmark.
"It's more of a museum than a restaurant for a lot of people," he said. "Can you franchise that feeling, the aura of the place? I don't think so."
With reports from CTV Montreal's Rob Lurie and Camille Ross
