A $10 bet to see if he could get a vendor booth at the PNE has turned into 50 years of memories - and thousands of servings of perogies - for Hunky Bill's and Bill Konyk.
The iconic Hunky Bill's Ukrainian Food stand will open tomorrow at The Fair at the PNE (Aug. 20 to Sept. 5) as Konyk marks half a century at the Vancouver institution.
"It's been an amazing experience, that's for sure," said Konyk. "So many memories. It's the people - the people that I have met that support me and we support them."
Konyk was born and raised in Winnipeg. He moved to Vancouver with his wife and children in 1966 to join CJOR radio station.
He recalls barbecuing in his backyard in Vancouver in 1967 when he got the idea to introduce his family's famous Winnipeg garlic sausage and perogies to his friends and business associates.
"So here I am barbecuing hot dogs and one of my boys bites into the wiener and then spits it out and yells out how terrible it tasted. I gave him a little whack on the head and he tells me to give it a try. Well, he wasn't wrong - it was awful ," Konyk said. "I called up my brother and told him to send me out some wieners, sausage and some perogies too. In a space of a few months, I was making some serious money in the food business."
A few months later, while having drinks at the old Ritz Hotel in Vancouver, a friend made him a $10 bet that he couldn't get a booth at the PNE.
"I had no clue what the PNE was, but he told me and I said what did I have to lose. I went down to the PNE and was in there for two hours and they kept saying no. Finally I said listen, I'm here from Winnipeg introducing something new and that this would be a real novelty. Finally I got a booth.
"The first year we did $5,400 in 14 days. We didn't know what we were doing, but we survived, made a few dollars and the rest is history."
Over the years he has become a staple at the summer fair, owned a successful restaurant and catering business, and launched his worldwide success story - Hunky Bill's Perogie Maker.
Konyk and his wife moved from Richmond to Ladner a little over three years ago. They immediately fell in love with the community and its people.
He had a bit of a health scare the first month they were in Ladner and received such good care at Delta Hospital he went into the administration to thank them, offered a donation and has been helping out the hospital ever since.
"It's a great hospital - great bunch of people, so I'm happy to help out wherever I can," he said. "I haven't done it yet, but I want to get in on the Ladner Village Market. My idea is to sell bags of perogies and such with a big chunk of the proceeds going to support the hospital. We like it. It's a real nice community."
To mark his 50th anniversary, he plans to give out 50 prizes a day at the PNE. Prizes will include commemorative T-shirts and pens, free meals and bags of perogies that fairgoers can take home to enjoy.
"We're not going to have any ballots, it's just going to be at random. We're going to have some fun," he said.
"The PNE has been great. I want to thank them for letting me in for all these years. I would hate to see anything happen to it. For what it is, it will stand on its own for any event in Canada."
