Page 28 - Forest Hill Lifestyle Magazine March 2022

MICHAEL LUBLIN : Businessman & Global Humanitarian
MICHAEL LUBLIN is a Jewish- Canadian businessman and global humanitarian. Having spent most of his career in hospitality (starting at the bottom washing dishes at the Embassy Kosher Steakhouse in Miami Beach) Lublin worked his way to the top, becoming a senior executive of two of Canada’s multi-billion dollar publicly traded food service and hospitality companies. Today, Lublin manages and plots strategy for Canada’s fastest growing interior design and branding firm, David Visual, a company that bears the name of its creative partner, Christopher Paul David. When speaking with Lublin about both work and philanthropy, it’s easy to detect the social responsibility of this one-man dynamo who is the embodiment of success built upon compassion.
Since founding David Visual you’ve added interior design to your vast repertoire of expertise. How does interior design impact the restaurant experience?
Interior design becomes the “environment strategy” which is one of the most important components of branding a new restaurant. The guest has never heard of you before and proprietors require the all-important eye-catching “mouse-trap” to attract him or her to the threshold of the store, to glance inside and then, given the excitement and energy employed in the interior design, cross that threshold.
The Chainsmoker, which you started in 2018, is a particularly interesting new restaurant concept in Toronto. Can you tell us a bit more about it?
The Chainsmoker is a slow and low cooked brisket and hand carved smoked-meat joint.
The concept was branded by my partner Chris as a chain of smokehouses, and as such the name was the fastest and easiest brand name and logo we ever came up with. Because of my unique bridge-building between the Jewish and Muslim community, I wanted to become the only Jewish owner of a Halal barbecue joint in all of Canada and hopefully one day, the “Jewish” owner of the
Michael with a menu item from TOSTO Quickfire, a former brand of his and the MTY Group.
28 FOREST HILL Lifestyle MARCH 2022 (Cont’d. on Page 29)