Halifax is a city of stories. There are the stories of history, the stories from our writers, our musicians. But most important are our collective stories, the stories we tell to explain what this city is about, who we are. Here’s one such story: A young immigrant from Lebanon shows up in town with nothing much except pluck, a work ethic and a damn good falafel recipe. He scrapes together enough coin to rent a lunch stall at Scotia Square, and he puts his nose to the grindstone, working day after day, for 31 years. An affable man, he’s well-liked. He raises a family. He’s one of us.
It’s a good story, and even better because it’s true. The story of Ray Khattar, owner of Ray’s Lebanese Cuisine in Scotia Square Mall, speaks to the best of Halifax. We can be a welcoming place, a place where anyone from anywhere on earth can make it.
Sure, we’re a small city, and our conservative tastes don’t leave a lot of room for international food, especially if the purveyors have to pay the high rents of a stand-alone restaurant. But the food court serves as a mediator, a place where non-adventurous diners can step outside their comfort zone and discover the wonders of Ray’s Lebanese, Taste of India, Korea Garden. So on the food front, Halifax will never be a New York or a Toronto, but on a little half-acre downtown, our best social side, that welcoming side of the city, comes together with international flair, and hot damn that’s good food.
But no more. Last week, Crombie REIT, which manages the mall, gave Ray’s Lebanese Cuisine and Taste of India until March 31 to vacate the premises. “I’ve been here 31 years, and I have never missed a rent payment, not one month,” Khattar says.
Khattar says he was told Crombie is focusing on getting more franchised operations into the food court. That seems to be consistent with recent events: In 2011, PG’s was evicted in order to reconfigure the food court to accommodate a Tim Hortons. Last month, a McDonald’s opened. The unconfirmed rumour is a Subway will replace Ray’s and Taste of India.
Crombie did not return a call for comment.
Ray’s and Taste are falling victim to a second story we’ve been telling about ourselves lately. It goes like this: Halifax can be a player on the world stage, and if we dump enough money into enticing companies to set up offices here—off-shore firms that bundle and sell fictitious financial instruments—then we’ll become an “international financial centre,” the “next Singapore.”
This second story is a delusion, but it fits perfectly into the financialization of everything over the past 20 years. The real economy sucks, so we prop it up with various financial bubbles. Right now, every Canadian city has a building boom, with dozens of construction cranes over every downtown, even though there’s no increased demand for commercial space and incomes aren’t rising to match rents or condo prices.
Inevitably, the real estate bubble will pop, but for the moment there’s a lot of dough dumped into “real estate investment trusts,” one of which is Crombie REIT. And what matters to REITs is maximum quarterly return to investors, period.
We’ll never know exactly what’s behind the decision to evict Ray’s and Taste of India from the food court and bring in big chain franchisees. A deal with the chains to get space in Crombie properties nationwide? Do the Sobeys own the franchises? Whatever the reason, it correlates with that second story we tell about ourselves, that we need to commodify our city, sell our collective soul, in order to “put Halifax on the map.”
The stories we tell about ourselves matter. Me, I like the story about the plucky immigrant and the good lunch.
Related Stories
Ray’s Lebanese Food and A Taste of India are being evicted from Scotia Square
Ray’s Lebanese is back
The original Ray’s Lebanese restaurant is closing after 42 years
This article appears in Feb 6-12, 2014.
A note to append to this story: Mezza, another local purveyor of Lebanese cuisine, has confirmed it was approached by Crombie to explore the possibility of opening a space in the food court. The Subway rumour remains a rumour.
Couldn’t help notice the reference to Singapore. Singapore developed a network of “hawker centres,” basically food courts, to accommodate local food vendors, mostly Mom and Pop operations. They’ve become a model for other cities and a tourist draw in their own right; Anthony Bourdain is leading the creation of a Singapore-style hawker centre in New York.
If Halifax is trying to be the next Singapore, then the eviction of local food options from a food court is a step in the wrong direction.
There’s a lot not to like about Singapore’s authoritarian government, but they certainly know how to build a “world-class” [sic] food culture.
Ray’s and Taste of India are the only reason I go to Scotia Square so by default, I’ll be boycotting the whole mall if the petition (link below) is blown off. I suppose one could also boycott Sobeys, Crombie REIT’s parent company, if one wanted to. One might.
bitly.com/1dmkvtS
This is pathetic. While I can’t admit to being a fan of Taste of India, I have been a Ray’s customer since ~ 1995. It’s a shame to see local merchants squeezed out. I had a feeling that was going to happen when I saw McDonald’s moving in.
I can’t help but wonder if this bad move will ultimately fail them. Myself I go to the Scotia Square food court on an almost daily basis ONLY because of local businesses like Ray’s and the turkish food place. Without them it’s likely I may never/seldom go back. I have a feeling that’s true of a lot of their customers.
More evidence of Halifax not being able to come to terms with trends in food revolutionizing other cities. As expected, though. The place is a vision and leadership vacuum.
Oh look it’s @MaritimeBlackHole again, alleging on this story that Halifax can’t hack it food-wise. I guess he missed the spate of new food trucks and restos and bars opening in the past couple of years, many of which rival offerings found in much bigger cities.
Dude, if your entire purpose on this site is to troll and antagonize and dump on people, just get lost, okay?
Another point after some thought on this: where are the options for super-fresh and potentially even organic salads in Scotia Square and in downtown generally? I’m surprised a chopped-salad joint (local or otherwise) hasn’t made inroads in a place like Scotia Square. The downtown is mostly a dead zone for anyone looking for a big take-away salad that isn’t past expiration or drowned in a cream dressing. Pete’s is the obvious exception, but they’re so choked at peak hours that it must be viable for a new contender to establish near professional hubs.
a note you mentioned being the next singapore in the article. what makes singapore unique in the food world is diversity and being a melting pot of chinese indian and Melanesian food those all come together in what are called hocker stands, one owner doing two or three dishes really well for cheep halifax has the culture for that and could support it its doesn’t need more Mcdonalds or Tim Hortons
it needs more places like these and local businesses don’t move away from what makes you special as a city
This is happening way to much , out here in the sticks the exit 8 shopping center has kicked out a laundry a book store & local run restaurant. I know 2 of the owners & they were told their businesses didn’t fit in with their plan to brand name their facility. So now These business have closed. The spaces are empty 1 for over a year.
Some of us are fighting back the only way we can. By no longer supporting any of the businesses there. By no longer supporting that NS family owned grocery store, its drug store or convenience stores ,its not much…. in fact its very little but the movement to support local & not these corporate entities is growing and its you & I and our families who can make a difference. in closing as you enjoy your fast food from those chains, you might want to check out their favorite filler cellulose aka sawdust , enjoy.
I’ve been a regular at Ray’s for many years and having spoken to him recently I can tell you that he’s heartbroken. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days and he admitted to me that he hasn’t. Happily he says he will reopen when he can find the right place, but that may take some time and I can tell that this experience has taken a lot out of him. I hope he can come back from this. I’ll sure miss him if he can’t. Does money always have to win?
I heard about this last week and am still shocked. As a daily consumer of the Scotia Square food court since 1999, I will end that long streak very quickly without Rays, Taste of India and best of all, Korea Gardens. The patrons have already felt the pain when the other businesses were forced to leave to make room for larger corporations. These unique people are what drives the success of the food court. On a personal note, the days I can not eat there, I have often driven 30 minutes in to the city, pay for the bridge and parking on my days off, just to eat the high quality food that is there. It is a damn shame to see these businesses, their owners, and their reliable customers being forced to eat garbage, like McDonalds, or in my case, to go outside of Scotia Square to find my daily lunch.
For contrast, here’s a recent food court refresh in Hell’s Kitchen (itself taking inspiration from Singapore): http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/dining/r…
Ramen in a local food court, please.
Is this still a thing? Anyway, I read somewhere, maybe in an infotorial in The Coast that SS is the ‘best food court in North America’, or something. You want to see a food court? Take the train to the Montreal train station. Now THAT is a food court worth making a trip to.
Thanks for sharing this! All the best!