It has been tough enough for Maestro SVP founder-owner Ilene Polansky over the last few weeks after announcing her seafood restaurant on St-Laurent Blvd. will be closing in March because of, among other reasons, failing business on the Main. But matters got even worse and personal last week when someone scrawled a virulent antisemitic slur on the Maestro SVP window.
This odious sketch and message was scribbled on top of her sign saying that a sale of the restaurant’s equipment would take place after its closure in the third week of March.
Polansky filed a report with the SPVM’s hate-crimes division last week, but she remains pessimistic that the culprit will be apprehended.
“The file has been sent to the right person, but the cop said it has only been five days and there are other files to deal with before,” Polansky said Monday. “But then I was told that the outdoor cameras in the area haven’t been working. The officer who responded was very nice, but I’m still not thinking there will be any results.”
SPVM media relations officer Manuel Couture acknowledged in a phone call that a complaint was filed last week and that an investigation is underway, but there was nothing yet to report.
The painful reality is that this is hardly an isolated incident here or across the country. According to a Statistics Canada report, Jews are now 25 times more likely than any other minority to be victims of a hate crime, often fuelled by events in the Middle East. There has been a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes and incidents in Montreal in the last few years, with schools, synagogues and community centres being shot at and firebombed. In the two-year period from October 2023 to October 2025, Montreal police reported 212 hate crimes and incidents targeting Jews.
“It’s just so sad,” Polansky said. “Nothing like this has ever happened before over the three decades that Maestro SVP has been on the Main. This boulevard has been the place for so many Jewish and immigrant businesses over the years. It’s where the dreams had started for so many. It’s just heartbreaking to see that there is just so much hate out there.”
Ever the character, Polansky is considering scribbling the word “Fantastic” over the “F—in Jew” slur.
“I won’t be intimidated by hate. Never have, never will. But the sad reality is I’ve become kind of numb to the hate going on everywhere.”
Maestro SVP became the city’s first all-purpose oyster bar 35 years ago, and has spent the last 32 on the Main. Polansky will shuck her last oyster there on March 22.
When Polansky first informed me
, she attributed it to several reasons, not the least of which was that the Main, particularly between Sherbrooke St. and des Pins Ave., where she is located, had lost a lot of its lustre — and business. The street was the epicentre of this city’s resto/club scene in the 1990s, but that scene has dramatically shifted over the last decade to other parts of the city.
Long gone are the days when celebs like Jean Reno, Seth Rogen, Bo Derek, Macaulay Culkin, Jean Paul Gaultier, Guy Lafleur and Mitsou graced Polansky’s place, and when Leonard Cohen was a regular.
“My feet hurt and my hands are arthritic after decades of shucking,” Polansky said in our first interview. “It’s time. My lease is over. Business is just not the same. I’m 64 years old. I just can’t see myself doing this for another 10 years.”
She was also quick to point out that the street had become “dangerous at times, with fights breaking out frequently at night.”
Polansky reports that in the past few months she has been scammed at Maestro, with groups of four walking in, ordering, eating, drinking and then dashing out without paying.
“The last time, three of the guys walked out and the fourth was ready to bolt, but I was prepared. I took off, running down the street as he was jumping into a car with the others. It was a $400 bill. I stood in front of their car as they were yelling at me to move out of the way.
“I got their licence plate number and called the cops. But nothing got done,” she muttered, before mentioning how another group came in with counterfeit cash to pay their bill.
“Nothing happened then. So am I really expecting something to happen now?”
Maestro SVP, located at 3615 St-Laurent Blvd., closes March 22.