Frenchies In The Winter Time

Jeff Green | Nov 15, 2023

There are quite a few chip huts across the region in the summertime. But when the weather turns and the tourists, and the cottagers and their visitors all leave, one by one the owners shut them down for the season. Some hang on until after Thanksgiving, but that is about it.

Except, that is, for Chris Charlebois (AKA Frenchie).

But Frenchie likes a challenge. He has had to.

He purchased Jossy's Chip Hut from Rachel Scott in the fall of 2020, during the height of the COVID epidemic.

His family owns property on Crow Lake, and Chris spent his summers on Crow Lake as a kid, and liked the idea of being able to live and work where he had been coming all his life for vacations and recreation time.

He soon found out that the prime location where Jossy's was located, in between the liquor and beer stores by the junction of Hwy. 7 and Road 38, would no longer be available.

“The Beer Store regional supervisor contacted me to say they were concerned about liability and the Chip Hut could no longer be located on their property. There was nothing I could do but move it,” he said.

Rachel Scott connected Chris with John Wemp, who owns the building on Hwy. 7 and made arrangements to move the chip hut there.

But that involved some new permitting from the township and a host of other details. Chris kept his job in Kingston during the fall of 2020 and winter of 2021, which was in the maintenance department of KGH, where he worked mostly in and around the Intensive Care Unit, and in May of 2021 he opened Frenchies.

“What I wanted to do was make sure I was doing the best I could to buy the best local produce I could find and prepare it well. And that's what I've been working at all along, for two and a half years now,” Chris said.

The sausages he sells are from Seed to Sausage, his beef comes from The Pig and Olive in Kingston, and he spends a fair bit of time picking up whatever he can from local producers, to fill out the menu.

Business was good during the first summer. While the current location is not as advantageous as the previous one for highway traffic, word got out quickly that a new chip truck was open, and the local clientele, fed by word of mouth and some social media, found Frenchie’s pretty quickly in the summer of 2021.

The first winter was a bit of a different story.

“I wanted to stay open all winter since I don't really mind the cold and I liked the idea that I could offer something that people can rely on year round. But that first winter was pretty slow at times, and I did wonder why I was doing it on some of those days when only a few people showed up, and I would have been better off financially if I had stayed at home,” he said.

But the summer of 2022 was really busy, as COVID restrictions lifted and Highway 7 got busier and busier, and the second winter was better than the first.

“This year I think it will be better yet,” he said, “and I'm also going to keep a full time and part time employee on all year, for the first time. It is good for them to have year round work and I will not have to do everything this year.”

Frenchie’s brings on new menu items from time to time, and started serving Chili a few weeks ago, which will carry on during the winter months. In general the menu changes gradually.

“I will try something new and tell you about it, and if it becomes really popular it goes on the menu. Of course we sell a lot of fries, fish and chips, burgers and sausages, but we add new sauces all the time.”

He said that one of the things he likes about his customers is that they let him know what they think.

“It is better for me if someone tells me if they don’t like something, or if the food is not as good one time as it had been before. They pull me over and say, hey Chris, the fries did not taste the same this time, and I get a chance to figure out what we did wrong and fix it. They could say nothing and then go post it somewhere and I would be in big trouble, so it is better to have the kind of relationship where they can tell me what is going on.”

You can visit Frenchie’s any day of the week, from 11am to 6pm, all fall and winter, for fresh cut fries, and a whole lot more.

To order over the phone for pick up, call 613-484-2255