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In 1993, Bishara Arraf made a bold move, coming to Canada, and opening his first restaurant here, based on the model he had learned in Holland, and rooted in the cuisine he grew up with in the village beside the castle. He chose a familiar name for his restaurant – the Montfort Grill House. That first Montfort was “a very small restaurant in Oakville.”
And Arraf introduced a bold menu – tastes as familiar as home for him, but in 1993, largely unknown to Canadian diners. Hummos, Baba Ganoush, Taboule, Falafels, Chicken Shawarma, Lamb Shasklik, Pork Souvlaki.
The word got out in a hurry, and the 28 seats in his restaurant were constantly full. “After six months, we were busy,” so Arraf launched into what he describes as the first phase of the Montfort Grill House – expansion. He opened nine restaurants between 1993 and 1999, running the chain that stretched from Hamilton to Toronto “by myself.” And, he admits candidly, “it was too much work, too much to manage.”
The model he knew from Holland didn’t adapt well to a multi-city chain in Canada. In the Netherlands, his brother’s chain had included 12 restaurants within one small city – “you could walk it.” Not something one could do from Hamilton to Toronto. “It was too difficult to handle” all of them under a corporate banner. “I changed my strategy,” says Arraf. “I started to franchise.” He sold some of the restaurants in 1999, and with his new philosophy, started again with a new business model. It took a few years to get all of that planning in place, but “in 2002, I started all over again as a franchiser.” Bishara Arraf kept only one restaurant as a corporate entity: the Montfort Grill House at 796 Brant Street in Burlington.
Finding franchisees was not a problem – although finding the right ones is key to the success of a franchise operation. Arraf’s initial success brought a raft of inquires. “We were so busy, I got many offers from people who wanted to open a second business as a partnership.” The second Montfort Grill House was opened in Mississauga, and ”that went very well.”
Today, there are 14 restaurants in the chain, all but one owned by franchisees. Arraf notes that the franchisees are invariably operators who first worked in one of the restaurants. He insists that his colleagues to know the business, back to front. “I’m very selective,” he told Selections. “They worked with me... they know the business inside and out.” |
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Bishara Arraf has built a great formula for success, founded on the lessons he learned from his brother’s operation. He believes there are two vital factors – “price point” and “quality.”
Another reason for the restaurants to thrive in tough times is that the interesting cuisine attracted clients who might previously had gone to higher end establishments.
Arraf is devoted to excellent cuisine, but admits he is not a huge fan of “fine dining”. High-end, expensive restaurants are not part of his strategy, he says.
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