For about the last 17 years, 61 year old local bar mogul Peter Sergakis has been almost ubiquitious. He has led tax revolts, supported VLTs and smoking in bars, has owned dozens of bars ranging from strip clubs to a massive gay club called Sky. Everybody has an opinion on the guy and mine is more or less favourable, but here's some info to allow you to judge.
Some good:
1-He has been known to get right in there and actually washes dishes and other menial tasks at his establishments when required, he's no snob. (Not being above doing the dirty work is classified as one of the 13 virtues of a protagonist in Anglo Saxon literature as taught by Mr. Guinty at Westmount High School).
2-He really cared about the Notre Dame strip, would go and attend meetings and so forth, one p perennially cranky neighbourhood activist used to rave to me about him.
3-He hosted a big meeting about the rash of fires down in St. Henry about 10 years ago during the biker war. It wasn't too well attended possibly because police didn't want to endorse a guy who owns two strip clubs. He showed up with a woman - I guess his girlfriend - who looked like a veteran stripper.
4-His strip clubs are strictly run, the dancers will get kicked out for being too liberal in their dances.
5-He's pretty easy to get on the phone, perhaps not the rosiest guy in the world but he's coherent nonetheless.
6-He won a court battle against a St. Catherine street tenant who tried to screw him over in a sleazy way. People in the local commercial real estate community was glad that he went to bat on that issue.
7-He's a rags-to-riches character, started as a dishwasher and went on to own something like 40 clubs or restaurants. I can't remember how many but he told me once. (As Gladwell's Outliers explains however, there's no such thing as rags-to-riches because there are always people who help along the way.)
On ze other hand:
He gained initial public notoriety by leading a revolt against municipal hikes that saw some bills double under the Dore administration. He said that his own bills had risen by $800,000. So he knocked down the doors of city hall April 5, 1993. He didn't get much punishment for that, in fact when a blue collar union gang tried the same thing they were given much harsher sentences.
He's also in favour of smoking inside and VLTs, perhaps some might disagree with his views on that stuff. I've heard the rumour that he got his start from importing drugs but you hear that about a lot of entrepreneurs, I lay no store in that.
He pushed the Cock'n'Bull out of their longtime location, taking it over for himself. If you listen to the accounts of those who were running it for the longest time, they found him petty and spiteful.
Some good:
1-He has been known to get right in there and actually washes dishes and other menial tasks at his establishments when required, he's no snob. (Not being above doing the dirty work is classified as one of the 13 virtues of a protagonist in Anglo Saxon literature as taught by Mr. Guinty at Westmount High School).
2-He really cared about the Notre Dame strip, would go and attend meetings and so forth, one p perennially cranky neighbourhood activist used to rave to me about him.
3-He hosted a big meeting about the rash of fires down in St. Henry about 10 years ago during the biker war. It wasn't too well attended possibly because police didn't want to endorse a guy who owns two strip clubs. He showed up with a woman - I guess his girlfriend - who looked like a veteran stripper.
4-His strip clubs are strictly run, the dancers will get kicked out for being too liberal in their dances.
5-He's pretty easy to get on the phone, perhaps not the rosiest guy in the world but he's coherent nonetheless.
6-He won a court battle against a St. Catherine street tenant who tried to screw him over in a sleazy way. People in the local commercial real estate community was glad that he went to bat on that issue.
7-He's a rags-to-riches character, started as a dishwasher and went on to own something like 40 clubs or restaurants. I can't remember how many but he told me once. (As Gladwell's Outliers explains however, there's no such thing as rags-to-riches because there are always people who help along the way.)
On ze other hand:
He gained initial public notoriety by leading a revolt against municipal hikes that saw some bills double under the Dore administration. He said that his own bills had risen by $800,000. So he knocked down the doors of city hall April 5, 1993. He didn't get much punishment for that, in fact when a blue collar union gang tried the same thing they were given much harsher sentences.
He's also in favour of smoking inside and VLTs, perhaps some might disagree with his views on that stuff. I've heard the rumour that he got his start from importing drugs but you hear that about a lot of entrepreneurs, I lay no store in that.
He pushed the Cock'n'Bull out of their longtime location, taking it over for himself. If you listen to the accounts of those who were running it for the longest time, they found him petty and spiteful.
Damn, didn't know he was the reason that Cock 'n' Bull shut down. I knew it was some lease thingy, but nothing more.
ReplyDeleteI miss that old piss hole. (Cock 'n' Bull, not Sergakis.)
Mr Guinty, a gem of a man. Taught English until recently at FACE school, I believe. Clearly well-loved by many generations: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2411188584
ReplyDeleteSay what you might, but this guy came to help me 3 AM in the morning when my appt. was flooding due to an idiot tenant above me [I lived in a sergakis-owned appt. and also once rented an office in a sergakis-owned building].
ReplyDeleteI hope he convinces pointe-claire to let him expand his manoir kitchen. I think pointe-claire played him dirty. GO PETER GO!
Some positive, some negative. Here is some free advice to anyone who wants to rent space from sergakis:
ReplyDeleteHire a lawyer, have s/he read through the lease for you, and highlight everything you'll be on the hook for.
Then, leave you lawyer with a retainer, you'll need to use it before too long.
The problem is he's just too widespread/successful and is basically creating a monopoly on downtown bars and restaurants...By having less competition, the quality will inevitably go down, and the pricing will go up...Example, just look at the scandal when his menus were falsely claiming to have a larger volume of beer in pitchers at Sports Station...There is no incentive to innovate or offer better service if you own all the options and you're the only game in town.
ReplyDeleteHe has been way too ready to use violence in the political arena. The events in 1994 were quite scary, and he continued to use his mob to scare people way from nomination meetings of the Montreal Citizens Movement (Mayor Jean Doré's party) that year. However, in the face of events in Washington last week with Trump's mob, it's worth saying that I think he's probably smarter and a little more mature than the Donald. Probably a better landlord and businessman, but that is really faint praise.
ReplyDelete