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December 18, 2006
Not so bad
Ben's the institution; Ben's the Canadian International Museum of Chrome and Formica; Ben's the place to eat greasy food of questionable pedigree during the wee, drunken hours, perhaps after a night at the late, great Madhatter? No issue here. Good times.
Ben's the place to get good smoked meat? Pshaw, I say. Double pshaw, even. The texture wasn't nearly enough like meat for my taste, quite frankly. It was almost like a thick, hot, slimy, mustard-covered coldcut. Still on the right side of gross, but certainly not in the same league as Schwartz's or The Main, where the product speaks much better of the cow whence it came.
That said, it's always sad to see somewhere like Ben's shut down. But so far, at least, it seems to me that the attrition among Montreal's venerable institutions has been roughly merit-based. The much-lamented Warshaw, for instance, was a truly baffling combination of a bad grocery store with an okay place to buy rattan furnishings and throw rugs. It was good for a few laughs, mind you. If I ever see a big stack of Spalding bacon again -- the funniest bacon I've ever seen, and probably the cheapest -- I'll think of that weird, skanky supermarket. And next time I have a greasy, mustardy, only somewhat pleasant taste in my mouth, I might think of Ben's.
I'll miss Fattouch more.
Posted by Chris Selley at December 18, 2006 09:00 PM
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