Montreal restaurant manager shocked when retail space suddenly listed as available for lease

Nilufar Al-Shourbaji woke up to perplexing text messages Tuesday as friends demanded to know why her family's restaurant, a mainstay on Montreal's Ste-Catherine Street, was closing its doors.

"You could have let us know," Al-Shourbaji said, recounting the texts.

"I wish you would have, you know, talked to us before selling the place and I'm like, 'what the hell are you talking about?'"

Her friends were asking her why Restaurant Nilufar, named after her, was listed as available for rent online. 

Advertised at $3,170 per month for 950 square feet of commercial space, the restaurant is located just west of St-Marc Street downtown. 

It is known for serving exceptionally low-priced, flavourful food even now when the cost of living is skyrocketing.

The restaurant first opened in 1994, selling falafel pitas for 99 cents. Today, it's possible to get a full meal there for about $6 as the family believes in making food accessible to everybody —  feeding the most people possible.

Despite the COVID-19 restrictions that led to restaurant closures throughout downtown and the ongoing labour shortage, Al-Shourbaji said her business is doing just fine.

So it was a surprise to see the listing online, with an asking price notably higher than what her family pays each month, she said.

And while the landlord may be looking for a tenant with deeper pockets, she said he never spoke to her or her family about the potential rent hike before posting the ads online. 

"Just imagine that you're sitting in your childhood home and you're looking at a listing and your childhood home is up for sale or for rent and you had no idea," Al-Shourbaji said.

For the past several years, the restaurant has been on a month-by-month lease.

The landlord, Ziki Zaffir, said his company did offer Al-Shourbaji's father a long-term lease.

"He said clearly he wasn't interested because he'd rather retire and what we want, we want the long-term lease at fair market rent," Zaffir said. "The guy is also paying a very old low rent."