Beloved Montreal restaurant listed for rent without notice

“My jaw dropped, I was totally white,” said Nilufar restaurant owner Nilufar Al-Shourbaji.

Nilufar has been at 1923 Saint-Catherine Street W. for nearly three decades serving what many argue to be the best falafels in the city. The cult favourite found out they were being evicted through a rental ad last week. Many loyal customers are heartbroken by the news.

“I woke up in the morning and I had a text message from a friend of mine do we need to talk with a picture of my restaurant for rent I didn’t know what it was I was just shocked and I found out that my landlord put my restaurant up for rent without notifying me,” said Al-Shourbaji.

“Frustration. You hear all these toxic landlord situations happening with tenants and it’s rarely that you hear about it happening with businesses and its especially frustrating with a place like Nilufar that’s really trying to serve the community by keeping things cheap and using their ‘falafel forward’ program,” said Simon Petley, a regular customer since 2013.

Nilufar has been giving free food to those who need it for many years. The ‘falafel it forward’ program also allows customers to pay for a meal for someone who needs it. During the pandemic, Nilufar says it gave away well over 200 falafel sandwiches.

“It’s a little upsetting cause I guess it’s not illegal… I’m not a lawyer, but it’s just weird that he can just kick a business out like that [with little notice], and they didn’t really get directly notified until very late. It’s just a shame because it’s just one of the last places where you can get good food and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg,” said customer Marc-Antoine Poulin.

CityNews reached out to Amcor Holdings, the real estate company that owns the building, which responded on Thursday morning saying, “We the landlord offered to continue to subsidize the tenant at well below market rent in exchange for a proper lease, they declined. They also declined to discuss the matter by phone and in person. At this time we have no further comment.”

Nilufar said the damage is done regardless and the restaurant’s future is still uncertain.

“The ambiance and the owner itself they’ve been part of your daily life like part of your family,” said Rafael Ong, a regular customer since 2009. Ong has been going to Nilufar once to twice a week, every week since he immigrated to Montreal from the Philippines.

“Food that’s made with love its homemade its made by my family its made by me it just means a lot to the community,” said Al-Shourbaji.

“It’s a place that you come to because of the people who work here and just the community institution that it is and supporting businesses like this its super important,” said Petley.

“This isn’t the end of Nilufar, I’m Nilufar. You can’t take away Nilufar from me, so that’s not going to happen. I’m still going to do falafel it forward stuff and drop off falafels every once in a while. I’m still going to continue as much as I can continue just not from this location,” said Al-Shourbaji.

“It doesn’t matter where they are I think that me and a lot of Nilufar’s customers will come through wherever they are,” said Petley.