Anne Naleway likely had no idea she was starting a perogy empire when she opened Anne’s Grill in the Sutherland Hotel in 1942.

However, the tradition of the Naleway family’s food and their bond with Winnipeg’s North End has thrived ever since. A new chapter officially begins on Saturday when Rob Naleway, Anne’s grandson, hosts the grand opening of Perogy Planet at 1141 Main St.

“From that restaurant (Anne’s Grill) people enjoyed her food and wanted her to cater weddings, so that’s where Naleway Catering came about,” Rob Naleway said on Thursday.

Naleway Catering was such a success that Rob’s father, Bob Naleway, expanded the business with Naleway Foods and built a production plant in the Inkster Industrial Park.

Bob Naleway retired in 1996 and sold Naleway Foods, but he kept his mother’s catering company, thinking one of his children would take it over.

“My older sister went on to become an interior designer, so I took it over not long after I was done in high school,” said Naleway, 38, who has been working in the family business since he was a teenager and is owner of Naleway Catering and Perogy Planet.

Naleway Catering has been on Main Street since 2000, but the idea to add Perogy Planet had been in the works for about a year. During that time, Naleway had been adding several new perogy flavours. In October, the new storefront was complete and the Perogy Planet sign was erected.

Naleway is celebrating Saturday’s grand opening by having Winnipeg perogy icon Hunky Bill as a special guest. Bill Conyk, 85, was born on Euclid Avenue and almost 50 years ago launched Hunky Bill’s Perogy Maker, which allows the user to cut, seal and form perogies in a single step.

Much like fellow North End businessman Nick Hill, Hunky Bill became famous in Winnipeg for his colourful TV commercials. You can find one for his Perogy Maker from 1983 on YouTube, which promotes a “live demonstration at Kern Hill Furniture.”

Conyk, who lives in Vancouver, and the Naleway family have a connection that goes back decades to when Conyk would purchase perogies from Naleway Foods, re-brand them as Hunky Bill Perogies, and sell them in Vancouver.

“We make perogies, but not on the scale that (Conyk) did,” Naleway said. “He made them for Superstore, Safeway and Costco.”

The Perogy Planet is no small potatoes, however, averaging about 200 dozen perogies in daily sales. The traditional perogies remain the most popular seller, but pulled pork and sweet potato brie are among the favourites of the many new flavours offered. The demand has resulted in Naleway adding four new employees and he’s expecting to add a second store soon near St. Vital Centre.

Last October, I had a note in my column about the “perogy production line” at Holy Eucharist Ukrainian Catholic Church in East Kildonan. I heard from a few transplanted Winnipeggers who were hoping the church would be able to send them perogies, because they couldn’t find anything nearly as good as what they grew up enjoying.

I mentioned that to Naleway, who’s had similar requests and he’s hoping changes to regulations down the road will allow him to meet the demands of customers from outside the city.

“We do have some fairly big plans, but unfortunately right now because of my building and current regulations for meat products, I can’t ship meat products outside of Winnipeg,” he said. “I can do the vegetarian, which is a large variety of them.”