La Belle Province (restaurant)
La Belle Province (English: The Beautiful Province) is a well-known fast-food eatery in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is known as La Belle Pro, Belle Pro, or La Belle for short nicknames. Each location is independently franchised; some are open 24 hours a day.
History
Founder Peter Kivitos, a native of Greece, opened the first La Belle Province on Sherbrooke Street East in 1970. He took the name with permission from a restaurant on Saint Catherine Street where he had worked, which had burned down in the 1960s. It became a franchise when the second location was opened in Saint-Hubert in 1976.[1]
Kivitos' ownership group had 45 locations in 1997. By 1999 there were 125 locations under the name La Belle Province. It is not strictly a franchise operation, in 1999 there were six different ownership groups, mostly relatives of Kivetos.[2]
In 2010, two restuarant owners were fined $22 000 for failure to pay the Goods and Services Tax and were charged an additional $45 000 for the amount that they owed.[3]
Menu
La Belle Province serves breakfast and lunch, including items such as poutine, club sandwiches, hamburgers, Montreal hot dogs[4], smoked meat sandwiches, and souvlaki.
Reason for the various names
A Quebec judge ruled that the La Belle Province franchise owners could not prevent others from giving a similar name to their restaurants, because "la belle province" is an official nickname for the province of Quebec. This resulted in several knock-off franchises that had menus and prices similar to the original franchise in order to capitalize on its existing image and marketing. Notable knock-offs include Belle Province II, La Plus Belle Province, La Belle Québécoise and La Très Belle Province.
References
- ^ Delean, Mark (1997-03-24). "Fries, two dogs and a Coke: By keeping their business simple, Lafleur's and La Belle Province continue to expand while some of their fast-food rivals are in retreat". The Gazette. pp. C8.
- ^ MACDONELL, ROD and CLARK, CAMPBELL (1993-03-01). "$3 million worth of hot dogs: String of bankruptcies an all-dressed fiasco for taxpayers". The Gazette. pp. A1.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Deux restaurants La Belle Province de Montréal condamnés pour fraude fiscale" (in French). Québec: La Presse Canadienne. 15 April 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
- ^ Block, Sheri. Ben Mulroney's Food Tour of Montreal, CTV.ca, April 1, 2008. Accessed August 18, 2008.