The Story Behind Gregory's

Gregory's Deli is more than a name on a package. For me, it's personal.

Gregory was my father, Gregory Analytis. He was my best friend, my mentor, my rock, and the person who had more influence on the man and businessman I became than anyone else in my life.

His story in the restaurant business began when he was just 13 years old.

He immigrated to Canada as a young boy and was sent to Montreal to live with his uncle, who owned a deli and diner. At an age when most kids were still figuring out what they wanted to be, my father went straight to work.

And he never really stopped.

What began at 13 years old became a lifelong career in the restaurant business. Over the decades, he worked in and owned several successful restaurants throughout the Montreal area. But a large part of his life was spent in the world he loved most: Montreal smoked meat.

He spent years at two of Montreal's best-known institutions, Dunn's Famous and Lester's Deli.

And when it came to smoked meat, Gregory Analytis was the king.

That isn't something I say simply because he was my father. It was how he was regarded by the people who worked alongside him.

Back in the day, Montreal's deli community was a world of its own. The people behind the counters at Dunn's, Lester's, Ben's, Schwartz's, Reuben's and the other great delis knew each other. And they knew Gregory.

His reputation as a smoked meat cutter was undeniable. Competing delis regularly tried to lure him behind their counters because there simply weren't many people who could do what he did at his level.

He understood smoked meat inside and out. He knew every part of a brisket, where to cut it, how to cut it, how the grain and fat changed from one section to another, and exactly what belonged between two slices of rye.

It was a craft he had spent a lifetime mastering.

I Grew Up Watching Him

Some of my strongest childhood memories are tied to my father, Montreal restaurants and smoked meat.

My first job was actually alongside him at Dunn's when I was only 13 or 14 years old. I worked as a busboy, on the overnight shift because those were the hours my father worked.

I can still picture him behind that counter, knife in hand, slicing smoked meat while I watched.

And, of course, there were the sandwiches.

Growing up, my father would bring home smoked meat from places like Dunn's and Lester's. It was simply part of our lives.

At that age, I probably didn't fully understand how special it was to be surrounded by that history or to be learning simply by watching someone who had mastered his craft.

Today, I do.

As a kid, I idolized my father. I wanted to be just like him.

I wanted to cook. I wanted to own restaurants. I wanted to become an entrepreneur and build businesses of my own.

As I got older, he became much more than the father I looked up to. He became the person I turned to for advice, especially when it came to business.

He was incredibly smart, experienced and generous with everything he had learned. No matter what I was trying to accomplish, I had his complete support.

His guidance helped shape the decisions I've made, the businesses I've built and the person I've become.

I owe him more than I could ever put into words.

We lost my father four years ago at the age of 78.

Gregory's is one of the ways I want his name, his story and his legacy to continue.

Carrying His Name Forward

Years later, when I decided to make Montreal-style smoked meat of my own, I knew exactly whose standard I would be measuring it against.

My father's.

That's a pretty intimidating standard.

I wasn't interested in buying commercially produced smoked meat, slicing it and putting our name on the package.

That would miss the entire point.

If I was going to do this, I wanted to do it properly.

Our smoked meat is made from scratch. It is carefully seasoned and cured, slowly smoked, steamed until tender, cooled and sliced thin.

It takes time.

It takes patience.

And it takes an enormous amount of care to get it right.

There are faster ways to make smoked meat. There are cheaper ways. There are certainly easier ways.

I wasn't interested in any of them.

Because if I was going to put my father's name on this, it had to be worthy of it.

This Is Gregory's

Gregory's isn't about trying to recreate something that already exists.

It's about carrying forward the tradition I grew up around and introducing Ottawa to the kind of authentic Montreal-style smoked meat that shaped so many of my memories.

It's about craftsmanship.

It's about doing things properly, even when properly takes longer.

And most importantly, it's about Gregory Analitis.

A career restaurateur.

A mentor.

A father.

And the King of Montreal Smoked Meat.

This is my tribute to him and to everything he taught me about food, business, hard work and taking pride in what you put your name on.

His name is on this one.

So it has to be good.

Denis Analitis
Founder, Gregory's Deli

Order Gregory's Montreal Smoked Meat