Literature Review: St-Viateur Street as a Montreal Landmark

This literature review examines St-Viateur Street, a prominent landmark in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, renowned for its iconic bagel shops and cultural significance. The assignment begins with an introduction that defines landmarks and highlights the relevance of St-Viateur Street, particularly its association with Jewish culture and the impact of migration post-World War II. The review explores the street's history, tracing its origins to Myer Lewkowicz, a Holocaust survivor who established the first bagel shop in 1957. It delves into the city's historical background, the influence of French colonization, and the impact of immigration on the city's cosmopolitan nature, particularly the Jewish community's culinary contributions. The review also discusses the economic factors that supported the growth of the city and the evolution of the bagel shop, including its expansion to multiple locations and its adoption of online business strategies. The review utilizes both primary and secondary data to understand the relevance of the St-Viateur Street within Montreal, and concludes by acknowledging its status as a landmark in the city.

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St-Viateur Street in Montreal, Quebec
Introduction
Landmarks refers to an object or landmark which is associated with a place.
Landmarks are used to guide people as they navigate their ways in day to day life. These can
include a unique landscape, a building with unique architecture, a certain monument or even
natural resources such as river and forests. Landmarks can also be used to refer to a certain
point in time which as a significant effect or which steers a certain change (Bao et al. 67).
This may include times which influenced industrialization, signing of certain treaties by
nations and even certain natural or man-made calamities which engineered a significant
change in the world’s dynamics.
St. Viateur Street is located in Montreal city, Quebec province in Canada (Radice
140). The street is well known for St-Viateur Street is the major seller and supplier unique,
tasty and well packaged bagels which are inspired by the Jewish culture. Every city in the
world is well known for a certain specific type of food which it majors or commonly found
within its streets. Montreal is not an exception when it comes to common and unique delicacy
(Junker 60). Montreal is known for bagel which majorly found in almost all eateries within
St. Viateur Street are ring shaped rolls with thick, tough texture. They were introduced to
Viateur Street by Myer Lewkowicz who moved to Canada in 1953 and established St.
Viateur Street in 1957.

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Traditional bagels are handmade hence lack definite shape in which the natives pride
themselves in. Industrial bagel on the other hand are made commonly by use of ovens and
other cooking machines and this makes them look similar in shape. St. Viateur Street is a
well-known landmark in Montreal (Radice 140). The idea of cultural inspired skills and food
due to certain human made calamity in the world (World War II) and its aftermaths
(migration) makes inspires the topic of study. In addition, the researcher is of the view that
certain factors have influenced the growth and relevance of St _Viateur Bagel street shop in
competitive economy as the landmark for St-Viateur Street (Zsizsmann 7). The study seeks to
find out the relevance of St-Viateur Street within Montreal. The study seeks to utilize both
primary and secondary data. In this case the residents of the area and the management of the
shop will be interviewed to obtain primary data.
Literature review
Montreal is a city located in the province of Quebec in Canada. It is the second largest
city in Canada in terms of population and the largest city in Quebec province. It occupies the
largest part of land in Montreal Island (Désilets 13). The history of Montreal traces back to
eight hundred years back. It is believed that before French missionaries arrived, the natives
were practicing farming. When the French missionaries arrived in sixteenth (16th) century, at
first it became a settlement center (Burchardt 375). Later on, it transformed to be a trading
hub. The change was majorly enhanced by colonization by French. Its central location played
a very major advantage in relationship to development of transportation, manufacturing and
banking sector. This has greatly influenced its rapid growth of economy, high population
hence been able to sustain businesses.
The city is destination for many migrants in Montreal hence referred to as one of the
biggest cosmopolitan cities in the world. Migrants can be traced back to the world war (s)
where majority found homage in the city (Burchardt 375). These migrants came with many

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different cultures. Some became dominant while others vanished with time. Notably are the
Jewish cutlery skills in bagel commonly found at St-Viateur Street (Paszkiet 2).
Notably, Economy appreciated very first after the Second World War. This was a
factor attributed by high population due to influx caused by the immigrants, robust transport
systems and adequate financial facilities (Zsizsmann 9). The city has relatively a standard
architecture which spreads throughout all streets. Neighborhoods are commonly made up of
between town houses (mainly three) which include three (3) to five (5) apartments which can
be accessed by exterior staircase (Burchardt 375). Residents of Montreal benefit farmers
markets, which bring hundreds of vendors hence offering restaurants, art gallery market
particularly, Jean-Talon market. Tourism. Old Montreal likewise attracts tourists.
It is believed that St. Viateur Street grew famous due to its special prepared bagel.
This was after World War II when Myer Lewkowicz founded a shop within the area in 1957.
He was a Jewish by ethnicity and he migrated from Poland to Canada in 1953 (Radice 146).
When, he settled in Canada he spoke of experience during the holocaust and then said that all
he dreamed and wanted of bread (loosely translated to Jewish as “Buchenwald”). This word
inspired him to open the business. To date, this has St. Viateur Street has become a landmark
in the street (Désilets 9).
Mayer Lewkowicz grew up in a large, poor family in a Jewish “shtetl” or village near
Krakow, Poland. In 1942 (during World War 2) he was arrested by the secret police of Nazi
which was commonly referred to as “Gestapo” (which by then controlled the Germany
occupied Europe). He was later sent to Nazi established and controlled concentration camp
established in 1933 which was located in Atterberg hill near wiener, Germany known as
“Buchenwald concentration camp” (Burchardt 379). He lived in the camp until the war was
over. After the war, he lived and worked in Germany until he was discovered by a Jewish
Immigration humanitarian aid of Canada in 1952 in Germany. Thereafter he moved to

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Canada where he settled at Montreal. His first job was at a café which was located in the area
known as Hyman Seligman’s Montréal Bagel Bakery on St-Laurent.
At Hyman Seligman’s Montreal Bagel Bakery, he earned how to make bagel and the
business surrounding its trade. Five years later, he and his wife Emma set up their own shop
at St-Viateur Street with Seligman and named it St. St-Viateur bagel shop (Désilets 7). He
later hired Joe Morena who worked with him as employee until 1974. After 1974, they
become co-owners and worked with synergy driven by passion as partners until in the year
1994 when Mayer met death (Junker 60). This shop has developed to become a land mark
within the area. The shop has the best reputation for bagel within the area. With years, the
shop has grown to include two bakeries, a food truck, five bagel eateries and the original shop
(Burchardt 377). In addition to this, the shop is also utilizing online means of conducting
businesses such as placing orders, payment of orders and also delivery to maximize it sells
within the region (Humphrey 28). Some of remarkable moments was when Mayer was
speaking to a high class about his experience in detention camp, he told them that all he
dreamt of was just a piece of bread. He noted that this experience influenced his decision to
open a bagel shop.

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Works cited
Bao, Siya, Masao Yanagisawa, and Nozomu Togawa. "Personalized one-day travel with
multi-nearby-landmark recommendation." 2017 IEEE 7th International Conference
on Consumer Electronics-Berlin (ICCE-Berlin). IEEE, 2017.
Burchardt, Marian. "Religion in urban assemblages: space, law, and power." Religion, State
& Society 47.4-5 (2019): 374-389.
Désilets, Gabrielle. "Consuming the neighbourhood? Temporary highly skilled migrants in
Montreal’s Mile End." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2020): 1-18.
Humphrey, Abigail. Word-cards in Action: A Classroom-based Study. Diss. Concordia
University, 2016.
Junker, Ute. "Travel: City guides: Montreal." LSJ: Law Society of NSW Journal 13 (2015):
60.
Paszkiet, Rick G. "Montréal Meeting Showcases Member Expertise, Experience." Business
Law Today (2016): 1-3.
Radice, Martha. "Street-level cosmopolitanism: neighbourhood shopping streets in multi-
ethnic montréal." Everyday multiculturalism. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009.
140-157.
Van Praagh, Shauna. "Welcome to the Neighbourhood: Religion, Law and Living
Together." Religious Freedom and Communities (Markham: Lexis Nexis,
2016) (2016).
Zsizsmann, Éva. "The choreography of words: an interview with Montreal poet Endre
Farkas." (2018): 5-21.

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