{"id":827255,"date":"2026-07-26T13:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T13:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/827255\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T13:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T13:56:16","slug":"romados-takes-on-challenge-of-expanding-a-montreal-institution-to-the-west-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/827255\/","title":{"rendered":"Romados takes on challenge of expanding a Montreal institution to the West Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many Montrealers, a meal at Romados has long been worth the drive.<\/p>\n

Now, the Portuguese chicken institution is hoping that trip will become a little shorter for many of its customers.<\/p>\n

After opening a second location in Laval in March, Romados plans to launch a third restaurant in Pointe-Claire in mid-September, bringing the brand to the West Island for the first time. But for owners and couple Vicki Eliopoulos and George Karaglanis, who took over the restaurant after it reopened under new management in 2021<\/a>, the growth is about more than adding another address. It\u2019s about preserving the reputation that made generations of Montrealers willing to cross the city for charcoal-grilled chicken.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not only about expansion,\u201d Eliopoulos said. \u201cIt\u2019s about bringing the Romados tradition to the communities that are there for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move is also deeply personal. Eliopoulos grew up in the West Island, where her family still lives, and estimates about 30 per cent of customers at the original Rachel St. restaurant already make the trip from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m coming home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"AGeorge Karaglanis, co-owner of Romados, garnishes a plate of chicken poutine at his restaurant. Evan Buhler \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

While opening additional locations is a milestone for any independent restaurant, experts say growth can be one of the biggest tests of a business built on consistency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing would be to understand what makes them successful in the first place,\u201d said Marie-Claire Louillet, an associate professor of management at UQAM\u2019s School of Management. \u201cSome elements are not reproducible. Personality is difficult to duplicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, she said, restaurant owners need to identify the \u201ctwo, three or four non-negotiable core elements\u201d that define their business and ensure they remain consistent as they grow.<\/p>\n

The expansion comes as Quebec\u2019s restaurant industry continues to face financial pressures. According to the Association Restauration Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s 2025 annual report, restaurants operate on average profit margins of about 3.5 per cent. The association also says 244 Quebec restaurants declared bankruptcy in 2024, following 268 insolvencies in 2023, one of the highest totals in recent years.<\/p>\n

Whether those efforts succeed will ultimately be judged by customers, said Lesley Chesterman, a longtime Montreal food writer and former Gazette restaurant critic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem when people expand is that they\u2019re not offering the same level of quality that they were serving in the original restaurant,\u201d she said. \u201cAnything that works is because it\u2019s delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

That expectation is something Eliopoulos said she and Karaglanis think about every day.<\/p>\n

Karaglanis still prepares every sauce and dressing, the restaurant\u2019s longtime pastry chef continues to make every dessert, and the menu has deliberately remained small to help maintain consistency across locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have that many items,\u201d Eliopoulos said. \u201cBut what we do have we do properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her, success will not be measured by how many restaurants carry the Romados name, but by whether customers feel they have walked into the same place each time they visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want customers to walk into a Romados and say it smells and tastes and feels like a Romados.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many Montrealers, a meal at Romados has long been worth the drive. Now, the Portuguese chicken institution…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338,205041],"class_list":["post-827255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}