There aren’t too many Haligonians who haven’t walked into Tony’s Donair and Pizza at some point in the last 40 years. Whether it was to grab a quick bite for lunch or looking for something hot and filling while heading home after a night downtown, Tony’s has become something of a cultural touchstone in this city.
There also aren’t too many visitors to the shop who don’t wonder at some point, “Who is Tony?”
Meet Abe Salloum, the man behind Tony’s Donair and Pizza. As his signature location prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary, Salloum remembers a time when running a restaurant was the furthest thing from his mind.
As a young man growing up in Lebanon, Salloum says the situation was much more stable than the region is now. Job prospects weren’t the greatest, but at least there was peace.
He was in community college and studying to be a mechanic. He could have stayed, but his dad, Salim, took a look at the state of the world and realized there were better opportunities if his eldest son moved.
“My dad sort of coached me,” Salloum says. “He told me: ‘It’s not that there’s no future here, but if you are to pursue higher things in life, you should consider going to the Western world.’”
Salloum could just as easily ended up in Australia, as he applied to the embassies of the two countries. Canada answered first, though, so in 1969 the 21-year-old arrived in Halifax and, with a working knowledge of English, was able to land a job right away.
“When I came here, I had no relatives or nothing, but I was lucky enough that I had some friends of my dad and I was able to lean on them for something.”
John and Carl Jebailey, who owned a chain of supermarkets, gave him a job as a meat-cutter and helped him adjust to his new community.
“They really lent a good hand to me,” Salloum says.
Soon he was able to put his mechanics training to use when he landed a job at the Moirs Limited chocolate factory in downtown Halifax. He worked there for five years on the plant floor. At the same time he took correspondence courses to upgrade his skills.
“I wanted to get my engineering degree and pursue that,” Salloum says.
That dream got put on hold in February 1972, just three years into his new life in Canada, when he got some bad news from home: his father had passed away.
“I could not continue,” he says of his studies. By October that year, all his siblings (a brother and four sisters) had moved to Canada. “None of them were able to be on their own.”
The youngest was just into her teens and they all needed someone to support the family. His father’s death was a life-changing event for Salloum; at the age of 24, he was the provider for his family.
“I bought a house and had enough bedrooms that we all lived comfortably in it,” he says.
After five years at Moirs, he moved to the waterfront where he worked as a mechanic on the straddle carriers that move the containers. By then, he had already opened a grocery store and his sisters were helping him run that. He also opened a bakery business with his brother-in-law and the mini-empire was thriving. Salloum was working 18 hours a day at times, but he had plenty of help.
“We were able to support the family and make sure everybody is OK,” Salloum says.
In 1976, he bought a donair shop on the corner of Cunard and Robie that used to be called Mr. Donair.
“They were in business three or four years, then I picked it up and hired my brother-in-law to run it,” Salloum says. “Soon, the whole family got involved and that’s how we really built up the business. We introduced the pizza and the subs and business went well.”
It’s that business, now called Tony’s Donair & Pizza, for which he has become so well-known in the community. That first shop has become a landmark and a popular late-night oasis for revellers heading home across the Common to the city’s West End.
Although business was going well, in the early going Salloum wasn’t sure if he would be able to stay in that location, so he bought the property across the street.
“That corner was so vital and important to me,” he says. “We used to have a lot of crowds coming in.”
Eventually, he was able to buy the property he initially rented and the property across the street became Tony’s Variety, which is still open today.
Being in business for himself, Salloum needed to keep costs down and used his mechanical training to learn how to do his own carpentry, electrical work and plumbing.
“You learn it as you go. It’s part of survival and that’s the bottom line,” the 67-year-old Salloum says. “I still do my own repairs.”
There is another Tony’s on Grafton Street, which opened about a year ago, and Salloum also operates Golden Pita Bakery in Bedford.
“That’s a project I started nine years ago,” he says. “I like that kind of work. We do retail as well as wholesale and offer a lot of specialty items.”
When Salloum first arrived in Canada, the Jebaileys introduced him to people in the Lebanese community, but he says everybody was welcoming.
“If it wasn’t for the good nature of the community, I could not have made it. They were helping and encouraging.”
Over the years, Tony’s and Golden Pita Bakery have become pillars of the community by sponsoring sports teams or providing help to organizations such as the Halifax Junior Women’s League or The Empathy Factory.
Tracy Chesnutt, who volunteers with both organizations, says Salloum and his son, Tony, are reliable supporters.
“Having been involved in numerous charities and not-for-profits in Halifax the last five-plus years, I’ve been a part of organizing raffles and events many times over,” she says. “Any time I’ve reached out to Tony’s for support, I’ve received it from both Tony’s and the Golden Bakery.”
In the last six months, there has been in influx of refugees to Canada fleeing war-torn Syria, a country that neighbours Salloum’s homeland.
He encourages people to welcome them as he was welcomed.
“We all know about Canadians. We have open arms in days of strife,” he says.
He knows that it will still be difficult for many of them to adjust. It won’t be easy, which is why it’s important for Canadians to help them overcome barriers.
“No doubt, it’s going to be a little tough for them, but I’m sure they’ll find their way,” he says.
While Salloum was able to get work when he arrived, he was willing to branch out and learn new skills and try new things. He was pragmatic about his career and business decisions.
“You have to go after where you think you’re going to get your success,” he says. “The biggest turnaround point for me was when I lost my dad. I had a big responsibility on my hands. I had to look after my family and they are more important than anything else.”
Although he made a sacrifice and had to give up his dream to be an engineer, Salloum has no regrets about his choice. What’s more, he says it made him the person he is today.
“It gave me a sense of pride and it made me a better person,” he says. “It gave me more confidence in myself.”
