Perogy punk

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/04/2016 (3661 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just a hunch, but we’re guessing Get Off My Lawn, a Winnipeg bar band that covers tunes first recorded by Bad Brains, NOFX and Bad Religion is the only punk-influenced outfit on the face of the Earth that lists its interests on Facebook as “rockin’ your socks off and eating perogies.”

Rob Naleway is Get Off My Lawn’s lead guitarist. He is also the owner of Perogy Planet, a seven-month-old operation at 1411 Main St., that has been raising eyebrows with its newfangled take on an old-world favourite.

Next month, Perogy Planet will open a satellite location in St. Vital, where it will continue to offer 20-plus varieties of fresh-made varenyky, including double cheeseburger, buffalo chicken and — we’re not too sure about this one, either — brownie caramel.

Late one evening in 2011, GOML was rehearsing in the back half of Naleway Catering, a Main Street business Naleway took over from his father, Robert Naleway Sr., 18 years ago.

After running through a few songs, Naleway’s band mates announced they were famished. Instead of ordering in, Naleway headed into his commercial kitchen, which was closed for the night, to see if there was anything he could throw together in a hurry.

The first foodstuffs he spotted were some leftover pulled pork and a vat of dough, intended for the next day’s perogy orders.

“I stuffed some pulled pork into the dough, fried ‘em up and it turned into one of those aha moments,” says Naleway, 38, who, in time, began experimenting with other fillings. (Blueberry was a challenge, he admits, but to date it’s been more hits than misses.)

For the next several years, Naleway peddled his Franken-perogies out of a refrigerated cooler parked in his reception area. Customers who popped by to pick up catering orders could snag a dozen on their way out but that was pretty much it as far as publicizing his product went, he says.

At a certain point, though, Naleway began to notice more and more people making their way down solely for perogies. Figuring he might be onto something, he sat down with his marketing director.

In October 2015, the pair agreed it was time to rebrand the business and see if the world was indeed ready for Philly cheese steak and Reuben perogies.

(If you have ever wondered whether an exterior sign featuring a three-metre-tall perogy masquerading as a celestial body would pull customers in, wonder no more. “Boom,” Naleway says, “we were instantly eight times busier.”)

Before we continue, let’s give credit where credit’s due. Yes, the unique flavours are Naleway’s and his kitchen staff’s brainchild. But the dough recipe they use? That’s been in the family for over 70 years.

Anne Naleway opened Anne’s Grill inside the Sutherland Hotel in 1942. Winnipeggers enjoyed her perogies, cabbage rolls and meatballs so much, Naleway’s been told, she started fielding requests to cater weddings and other special events around town.

“Eventually she and my grandfather moved to a house on Selkirk (Avenue), next door to a banquet hall and that was where she started Naleway’s Catering,” her grandson says. “There were no standardized pans or anything back then; she would literally take the pots off her stove, load them into her car and drive to wherever it was she was headed.”

By the 1970s, Naleway’s father had grown his mom’s home-based biz into Naleway Foods, an international conglomerate that, by the time he sold it, was churning out 2 million frozen perogies a day at its factory on Hutchings Street. Naleway Catering wasn’t included in the sale. In 1998, Naleway assumed control of that company.

Perogy Planet’s grand opening took place in January. The guest of honour was none other than Bill Konyk, Canada’s undisputed perogy king, thanks to Hunky Bill’s Perogie Maker, a contraption Winnipeg-born Konyk invented, according to his website, 6,864,000 perogies ago.

“Hunky Bill liked our bacon/mushroom/onion ones,” Naleway says when he is asked whether Konyk endorsed any flavour in particular.

“And yes, people brought perogy makers still in the packaging from 20 years ago for Bill to sign.” (As for other famous faces that have dropped by recently, Naleway says he received a text from one of his employees last week that read, “Greg Selinger in da house.”)

Once the St. Vital store is up and running, Naleway will have a better idea where Perogy Planet is headed, further down the road. A few grocery chains have offered to carry his brand on their shelves, he says, but for the time being, that type of big move isn’t on the radar.

“As soon as you’re in a store setting you’re giving up margin and dealing with things that are out of your control,” he explains. “Plus we feel by having our own little place, it helps keep us unique and more of a destination-point.”

When it comes to detractors — people who’ve posted online comments along the lines of, “That’s going too far with an iconic food item,” “This Ukrainian is not impressed,” and “What’s next? Stuffing a hamster instead of a turkey for Thanksgiving?” — Naleway has a ready response.

“Growing up in a Ukrainian household, I’ve definitely eaten more than my share of perogies,” he says, noting his paternal grandfather dropped “a Z or two” from his surname when he arrived in North America from Ukraine in the 1920s. “So when people say what we’re doing is blasphemous I laugh and say you’d be sick of potato and cheddar (perogies), too, if you were me.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca