No Money, Moe Problems

Beloved Montreal Snack Bar Closes Its Doors After 57 Years

NewsSavannah Scott — Published December 1, 2015 | Updated December 1, 2015 at 5:06am

Moe’s Corner Snack Bar, a Montreal institution that has been serving hamburgers, westerns on toast and Grand Slam breakfasts since 1958, is closing. Locals are rushing to the diner to grab their last Big Ed burger before the official closing date of Dec. 7.

The Thomas family purchased the location 37 years ago from Moe Sweigman, the legendary cigar-smoking charac- ter that owned the place back when the Habs still used to eat there after practice. They have run the Casse-Croute Du Coin ever since, and the staff spans across generations; Big Ed, who took over from his parents Bessie and Peter, has run the diner since 1997, and his children have worked there for their whole lives too.

In the announcement—which was made on Instagram—Big Ed’s daughter Katelyn noted the city’s tough business climate as one of the main reasons for the closing.

She also wanted to bring attention to the fact that her grandparents immigrated from Greece “with nothing to their names” and had still managed to build “an outstanding life for themselves and their children.” She noted that her father had been working in the family business since the age of 16, and that it was his tireless efforts and her grandmother’s refusal to give up that had kept the family business afloat for so long.

Thomas continued, writing that although the family was “planning to sell and hoping that someone would be able to keep it going,” owning a 24-hour diner is “undoubtedly a lifetime of work” that nobody is interested in undertaking. Family-owned 24-hour diners are a dying breed, perhaps due to the constant work it requires to maintain and the increasing prevalence of fast food chains.

Thomas also blamed the closure on the area’s constant construction, the removal of valuable parking space due to the creation of the de Maisonneuve Blvd. bike path and the Canadien’s move from the Forum to the Bell Centre.

Thomas finished the statement by thanking all the customers and regulars that had “become a part of the family over the years,” and apologized for what it had come to.

“I’m going to miss being able to get $5 pancakes at 2 p.m.,” said Chris Addis, who discovered Moe’s a few years ago when he moved to the area, and has been going “religiously” since.

“I’ve been coming here since I was in Cegep and my parents used to come when they were first married and still lived in Montreal,” said another customer Nathalie Des Rosiers. “I’m sad to see it go but I’m glad I got to enjoy it while it was still around.”

As I write this I’m waiting on my mom so we can go to Moe’s for the last time. She used to hit the Corner Snack Bar in her twenties and took me for my first Moe’s milkshake and fries when I was 18.

Saying goodbye will be hard, but I’m going out with a bang; my last meal will be a strawberry banana milkshake, a breakfast club and a warmed-up cinnamon bun with extra butter on the side.