Peter Morentzos – Restaurant Master of Montreal

From his humble beginnings in Montreal to his global restaurant empire, Peter Morentzos proves that a little determination can go a long way.

Walking into the Montreal Bread Company (MBCo) in the hip Toronto neighbourhood of Yorkville, you could swear you’d just walked into a New York City café. The place is filled with wonderful smells, upbeat music and the hustle and bustle of trendy people eagerly sipping a latte or indulging in a pizza spanakopita – a delightful concoction of sautéed spinach, feta cheese, freshly cut dill and kalamata olives on thinly cut focaccia. To the far right stands Peter Morentzos, the man behind MBCo and a host of other restaurants in the Morentzos Restaurant Group. He’s dressed casually in jeans and a black sweater. Once he’s seated us comfortably on white leather high stools around a table, he offers us cappuccino. We soon learn that the friendly and almost shy smile with which he greeted us was somewhat deceptive. Friendly, he is. But shy? Not this man, who talks candidly about his family while maintaining a commanding presence in his restaurant. We settle on our stools and focus on the conversation, because when Peter Morentzos talks, we can’t help but listen.

Morentzos was drawn to the restaurant business when he was a young man working as a waiter, but his mother had him destined for something else. She was inspired by a cigarette commercial that featured a man jumping into a taxi holding architecture plans. “My mother’s whole view of life for me was based on that commercial,” Morentzos recalls. “She would say, ‘There’s my son! Right there! Peter, that’s you!’” Aiming to make his mother proud, Morentzos studied architecture and design, but he couldn’t shake his love for the restaurant industry. “I broke my mother’s heart when I told her I was going into the business,” he says. After founding Moe’s Deli and Bar in St. Sauveur in 1989, he opened a variety of restaurants, many of which he later sold, including Eggspectations, Wienstein & Gavinos and Bentley’s Bar and Grill, to name a few. Right now, he is concentrating on MBCo, Trinity, a new Greek restaurant scheduled to open this year, and his high-end steak house, Queue de Cheval.

Morentzos is famous for his creative promotional ideas. To plunge Trinity into the limelight, he had a “pre-construction party” and invited almost 2,000 people to eat outside without utensils, using only wax paper and their hands. For Queue de Cheval’s fifth anniversary, he flew 75 of his best clients to Las Vegas for a three-day fantasy trip. For its 10th, he’s planning a trip to Spain. Morentzos knows how to spend money on lavish trips and parties. “I’m a little eccentric when it comes to that,” he says, “but when you don’t come from [money] and you get it, believe me, you do it!” Though he has accumulated millions, money has never been his motivation. “My number one rule is to do this for the love of the art and the love of the work,” he says. “Money is not an impetus. It wasn’t the thing that drove me.”

Morentzos never forgets that he came from humble beginnings; now, he gives back to the community that has been good to him. He contributes to countless charitable causes, ranging from women’s shelters to leukemia. Every Christmas, he opens his restaurants to the homeless, who are treated as if they were elite clientele. Morentzos recalls one year when a family of four arrived, speaking little English. They had come to Canada for a better life but hadn’t had any luck. “At the end of the meal, they tried to tip the waiter with quarters and dimes,” Morentzos says. “I saw it, and that was the end. I went to the bathroom for at least 15 minutes by myself.”

Morentzos is an unusual combination of bold attitude and kindhearted sensitivity. He admits that he is strict with his employees. “I’ve always wanted to be a dictator of a small country,” he jokes. He likes to be in control and discloses that he doesn’t trust many people. Perhaps that is why he prefers to hire sous-chefs whom he can train instead of seasoned veterans. He has no patience for prima donnas. “I don’t put mirrors in my restaurants,” says. “I say, ‘I don’t want you guys wasting your time looking to see how beautiful you are. In my eyes, you’re all beautiful.’” Morentzos knows that life is too short to take anything too seriously. He has the kind of self-deprecating sense of humour that invites people to laugh with him, not at him. Explaining why he drives a Hummer, he says, “I’d love a Ferrari, but I don’t even fit into a Ferrari.” When asked how long he’s been in the business, he says, “Let’s see. I’m
123… so I started about 24 years ago.”

At age 45, Morentzos shows no signs of slowing down. MBCo has already expanded to Toronto. Now he wants to expand Queue de Cheval by opening locations in the GTA. He would like Trinity to follow in Queue de Cheval’s footsteps. “Wherever there’s a Queue de Cheval, there’s going to be a Trinity,” he says.

Morentzos has become a fan of Toronto, but keenly aware of the rivalry between Toronto and Montreal, he isn’t outspoken about it. When we ask if Toronto is his favourite city, he says, “If you write that Toronto is my favourite city, anybody who reads this magazine is going to lose it!” He continues, “My favourite city – honest to God, and I’ve travelled the world  – is Montreal.” Morentzos, certainly a world traveller, has spent much of his time overseas. His ventures have taken him to Europe and as far away as the United Arab Emirates, Dubai and Bangkok. When he is not travelling and opening restaurants, he spends time with his fiancée and his two teenage sons. But work is always in the back of his mind, even when he is taking time off. “I find my own way of relaxing and taking time for myself through what I do,” he says. “I love cookbooks. I have an extensive library, so while I’m working, I can read.”

We chat about personal style. “A person’s watch can tell many things,” he says. “A man’s tie can say it all.” In his life, Morentzos has seen numerous people come and go and can spot a phony from a mile away. “When you enter a restaurant, you ooze something that you want people to see,” he says. “I see people trying so hard to be something they’re not. It works for some people, but it doesn’t work for most.” For Morentzos, being a person of class and style doesn’t require having money. From the wealthiest clientele to the homeless, Morentzos has seen them all. He defines his own character by his leadership, his passion and, most of all, his individuality.

Since he said a watch reveals so much, we can’t help but notice that he wears his on his right wrist. We ask why he doesn’t wear it on the left. His answer is simple: “Because everybody else does.”