Change comes to Wilensky's

[jesseps]

Not much changes at Wilensky's Light Lunch, the venerable Fairmount Ave. lunch counter and soda fountain founded by Moe Wilensky in 1932 - not the legendary Special that Moe invented, a double-grilled salami and bologna with mustard on a kaiser, pressed flat on a grill and served whole, and certainly not the decor or the ambience: green walls, nine stools, ancient arborite counter, no tables. No plates, no flatware.

 

But now something is changing.

 

Starting Saturday, April 2, Wilensky's will be open on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The weekday operating hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. remain unchanged.

 

It's a response to customer demand, said Sharon Wilensky, a daughter of the founder. "I kept hearing people say, 'I came today because it's my day off; normally I can't make it,' " she said.

 

It's also, she believes, a good business decision. "We are banking on having a lot of people come in who can't make it during the week - and that would make it a busy day," she said.

 

Families will have the opportunity to come in on Saturdays. "Until now, people could come with their kids only on pedagogical days," she said.

 

People of a certain age will remember a time when Wilensky's was open on Saturdays: Sharon, 52, recalls how, as an adolescent, she used to help out on Saturdays, serving sandwiches and making change when people paid their bills. Just as she did all those years ago, her 17-yearold son, Mitchell Wilensky-Bothwell, will be helping out on Saturdays.

 

As Moe Wilensky aged and it became more difficult to find staff to work weekends, Wilensky's moved to a weekday-only operation in the early 1980s, she recalled.

 

Moe is gone now, but at 91 his wife, Ruth, is still a fixture at Wilensky's, working most days alongside her son Asher and Sharon, who traded teaching English as a second language for the lunch counter full-time eight years ago. "I love this place," she said. "It's like a home for me."

 

Although most customers order the Special, not infrequently in multiples, it's not the only thing on the menu. There are also chopped-egg sandwiches and cheese sandwiches, served on plain rolls or onion rolls, and hotdogs.

 

And now that the schedule is changing, will the menu be expanded?

 

"Right now, we'll open and see how it goes," Sharon said. "It is possible that we'll try new things, but that is really very sketchy speculation at this point."

 

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Brace+yourself+Change+comes+Wilensky/4525382/story.html#ixzz1I7i2MRCH

 

This is one place I have yet to try

[Dsa]

Ça doit faire au moins ~25 ans que je lui demandais d'ouvrir le samedi. Enfin!!

[ProposMontréal]

YES!!!!!!

J'Habite le centre-ville mais je travail en banlieue. C'est assez rare que je suis au centre-ville à mon heure de diner, je vais pouvoir aller chez Wilensky plus souvent. Wilensky's Special, here I come!

[cprail]

J'habites à deux pas de là et pourtant je n'y suis jamais allé... je crois que je vais aller faire un tour bientôt!

[Fortier]

OH yeah! @cprail. C'est un must sérieux. Va la bas, assis toi au comptoir, prends-toi un spécial (ou 2) avec un coke au cerise. Sérieusement, c'est malade. Comme transporter dans le temps.