Country Boys Mobile Food Services was started by John Rusin Sr. and his wife, Teresa, in 1983.
It began with a large mobile oven. John and Teresa travelled to events, dinners and auctions — including work for Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers — serving what became our Famous Roast Beef on a Bun.
The following year, John Sr. began dividing up the original oven and developing the equipment that would eventually lead to the Country Boys food trailers. By 1986, he decided to try his hand at selling Fresh-Cut French Fries.
It worked.
The success of those fries helped establish what Country Boys would become. John Sr. continued building trailers, improving equipment and expanding the operation. One trailer became several, and the business gradually grew into the fleet and family operation that followed.
Carrying On
Sadly, John Sr. passed away in 1999.
The business did not stop.
Teresa, her son John Jr. and other members of the Rusin family carried Country Boys forward, continuing the standards and ideas John Sr. had built the company around.
In 2000, Country Boys launched its first website with the help of “Big Uncle Mike.” Mike passed away in 2003 and is still greatly missed by the family.
Over the years, the business changed with the times. Our original red-and-yellow colours eventually became the burgundy and black associated with Country Boys today. The logo evolved, and so did the slogan that has become part of the business:
“Good Fries. Good Meat. Good Gosh, Let’s Eat!”
But through all those changes, the basic idea behind Country Boys has remained remarkably similar to the one John Sr. started with in 1983:
Build it ourselves. Make good food. Serve people well. And take pride in what leaves the window.
Food Made by Us
Country Boys has always been much more than simply buying food, heating it up and selling it.
Whenever practical, we make and prepare our own products ourselves. That gives us
control over the quality of the food we serve and allows us to continue producing the country-style foods our customers have come to know us for.
Fresh-cut Ontario potatoes remain at the heart of Country Boys. Over the years, the menu has grown to include burgers, sausage, poutine, roast beef, smoked meats, Polish favourites and many other Country Boys staples.
Our Polish food also reflects an important part of our family’s heritage, with foods such as perogies, cabbage rolls, kielbasa, soups and other traditional favourites becoming an increasingly important part of what we make and sell.
We have always tried to support businesses close to home. Whenever possible, we purchase our products locally and use Ontario beef, pork, lamb and potatoes.
Built for Big Crowds
Mobile food service has always been one of the foundations of Country Boys.
More than four decades of experience have taught us how to plan, prepare and serve food efficiently for everything from a local event to a crowd numbering in the thousands.
Over the years, Country Boys has served events ranging from approximately 1,000 people to crowds of more than 300,000.
Our trailers have worked at venues and events including:
- Molson Park music concerts
- Burlington Sound of Music
- Canal Days in Port Colborne
- The Canadian National Exhibition
- The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair
- Cayuga Speedway
- fairs, festivals and community events throughout Ontario
Along the way, we have also had the privilege of serving and meeting people including Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Sarah Ferguson, Marty McSorley, David Wilcox, John Schneider and many others.
Country Boys has also provided backstage meals and dinners during concerts and festivals — work that requires an entirely different kind of food service than simply operating a concession window.
More Than a Food Trailer
Over the years, Country Boys expanded into full mobile kitchen service.
Our mobile kitchen can be set up at locations where a permanent commercial kitchen simply isn’t available. We have prepared dinners for groups beginning around 50 people and have handled events numbering well into the thousands.
One of our largest dinners was for approximately 2,500 people at Cayuga Speedway during the Big Rig 150.
We have also prepared benefit dinners, outdoor weddings, backyard events and dinners at locations such as Ball’s Falls and Marshville Heritage Village.
That versatility became one of Country Boys’ strengths: we weren’t limited to one trailer, one menu or one type of event.
From the Road to the Farm
As Country Boys continued to grow, the home base in Fenwick became an increasingly important part of the business.
What had traditionally been the place where trailers were built, repaired, cleaned, stored and prepared for events also developed into a place where customers could come directly to Country Boys.
The farm operation allowed us to bring together several different sides of the business in one place — prepared food, weekly features, frozen foods, meals to take home and the behind-the-scenes work required to keep a mobile food operation running.
Today, customers may know Country Boys for Fish Friday, Sunday breakfast, fresh-cut fries and poutine at the farm, while others know us from festivals and events they have attended for decades.
Others know us because their freezer is full of Country Boys food.
Country Boys at Home
Frozen food has become another important part of the business.
Many of the foods that were originally produced for our own events or family meals are now available for customers to take home.
That includes Polish favourites, soups, meats, prepared meals, smoked products and other Country Boys foods.
Meals to Go have also allowed us to do something Country Boys has always been good at: make honest, substantial food in quantity and get it into people’s hands.
It means Country Boys isn’t only something you find at a fair once a year anymore.
You can bring part of it home.
Built, Fixed and Run by the Family
There is another side of Country Boys that customers don’t always see.
A mobile food operation only works when the equipment works.
From the beginning, fabrication, maintenance and problem-solving have been part of the business. Trailers have been built, modified and repaired by the family. Equipment is maintained in our own shop. When something needs to be redesigned to work better, we have traditionally found a way to build it.
That hands-on approach goes well beyond cooking.
Country Boys has always been a family operation made up of people willing to cook, fabricate, repair, clean, tow, set up, tear down and do whatever else is required to get through an event successfully.
That may not be the glamorous part of the story, but it is probably the most accurate description of how the business has lasted this long.
More Than 40 Years Later
Country Boys looks different today than it did when John and Teresa started with that mobile oven in 1983.
The trailers have changed.
The menus have grown.
The equipment has improved.
Customers can now find us online, order frozen food, visit us at the farm or find one of our trailers working an event.
New generations of the family have become involved, bringing their own ideas while learning the same operation that came before them.
But more than four decades later, much of Country Boys would still be recognizable to John Sr.
It is still a family business.
We still make much of our own food.
We still work out of the same kind of hands-on operation where cooking, building and fixing things are all part of the job.
And we still believe that when people hand over their money at the window, they should get good food and a fair portion from people who actually care about what they are serving.
Some things have changed since 1983. The important stuff hasn’t.
Country Boys
Family Owned & Operated Since 1983
Good Fries. Good Meat. Good Gosh, Let’s Eat!