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Chucky D's takeout closes doors

Charles and Dawn Laderoute are synonymous with tasty food, but they weren’t necessarily born gourmets.
Dawn and Charles Laderoute at Chucky D’s on Monday, Jan. 30.
Dawn and Charles Laderoute at Chucky D’s on Monday, Jan. 30. The takeout place was set to close last week.

Charles and Dawn Laderoute are synonymous with tasty food, but they weren’t necessarily born gourmets.

“Truth be told, we never made a pizza in our lives before we got this place,” says Charles, standing behind the counter of Chucky D’s, the couple’s takeout place.

Now after four and a half years in business – 12 years if you include a bus from which they once sold fast food – the Laderoutes are hanging up their aprons.

Chucky D’s, the beloved takeout spot in the lower level of the former Verona’s Pizza and Specialty House, was set to close its doors early last week.

The Laderoutes cite increased competition as the reason for the closure, with sales falling in recent years.

“I’m going to miss the people,” says Charles. “That’s what I feel so bad about is, we have a lot of customers and I feel that I let them down, my regular customers. That’s what’s bugging me.”

The couple got their start in the fast-food industry by selling burgers, hot dogs and fries out of a secondhand bus in 2005.

Charles had been working as a diamond driller’s helper, but he felt let down by the worker’s compensation system after being injured on the job.

“I said I wasn’t going to go work for anybody anymore if that’s how you get treated,” he recalls. “So one night for our [recreational] baseball team, I [was] selling hamburgers to raise money so we could buy jerseys. And I thought, ‘Wow, I could make a living doing this.’ And we did.”

The couple’s bus, known as Chucky D’s Meal Mobile, garnered a loyal following with homemade food and friendly service. The green and yellow bus spent time parked at different area locations, and was a fixture at community gatherings such as the Trout Festival.

After years of building up a customer base, the Laderoutes opened Chucky D’s in the lower level of the former Verona’s on
Aug. 1, 2012.

By then the Laderoutes were experienced in preparing burgers, hot dogs and fries, but the pizza they hoped to add to their menu? Not so much.

Fortunately, the former owner of Verona’s gave the couple a primer on how that restaurant made its pizza.

“We tweaked the recipe a little bit, and I did some things wrong right at the beginning,” recalls Charles. “I was supposed to use a soup can of oil, but I misinterpreted and I used like the giant ketchup cans full of oil, so the pizzas were good, just they were very oily.”

The non-mobile Chucky D’s location offered delivery and takeout service. Incoming customers would often gaze at the shelf above the counter, the one extensively stocked with Saskatchewan Roughriders merchandise.

So in this border town, did the display ever get land them in hot water with fans of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers?

“Oh yeah,” Dawn says in jest. “My dad being one of them.”

As their business grew, the Laderoutes began upgrading the upper level of their building, hoping to eventually reopen what had been the sit-in restaurant portion of Verona’s.

But as competition increased, sales decreased. Whereas Chucky D’s employed eight people at its peak, it was down to three workers, including Charles and Dawn, in its final days.

With word out that the takeout place was closing, Chucky D’s enjoyed a busy final weekend, with many customers expressing their regret.

“They’re sad just because we both live here and chose to live here, and took the risk,” says Charles.

Cliff Melnick is among the disappointed customers.

“I will miss their food quite a bit,” he says, singling out their homemade sandwiches, “awesome” smoked-meat sausages and quality staff.

Melnick was a customer before Chucky D’s opened in a permanent location, often visiting the Laderoutes’ bus when it was seasonally parked in Creighton.

“During the summer, you like your burgers, and they’ve always been homemade,” he says.

At least one CFL legend may also miss Chucky D’s. Charles, a football fan, remembers seeing a familiar-looking customer one busy Friday.

Only later did Charles learn the customer was retired Blue Bomber Troy Westwood. A friend told Charles that Westwood had been in town on business and absolutely loved his Chucky D’s pizza.

Just as Westwood was renowned for his dedication on the field, so too were the Laderoutes known for putting their hearts and souls into their business. When Charles suffered a serious heart attack a few years ago, for instance, he returned to Chucky D’s the same day the hospital released him.

The Laderoutes had a good rapport with their workers. Charles says one reason he agreed to talk to The Reminder about the closure is so he could publicly commend employee Ben Rachuk, who started at Chucky D’s a month after it opened.

“If anybody [hired] that kid, they’d be lucky,” he says.

Looking ahead, the Laderoutes are unsure of their long-term plans. They have sold their famil-iar bus, and in the near term look forward to some
R and R after years in a
hectic business.

“We just need to take a break and take care of each other for a little while,” Charles says.

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