Husband and Wife Make Selwyn Its Home For Their BeaverTails Food Trailer
/Canadian pastry and franchise BeaverTails has made its home in Selwyn thanks to wife and husband Michelle and Adam Levesque who opened their food trailer beside Home Hardware located at 1665 Chemong Rd. on Thursday.
Adam (left) and Michelle Levesque (right) showcasing a strawberry cheesecake BeaverTail and strawberry lemonade. Photo by David Tuan Bui.
BeaverTails are deep-fried dough that can be topped with spreads, sauces, chocolate bar bits, fruit/fruit sauces and more. Some places also add ice cream in combination with the aforementioned items.
The Levesque’s trailer has 11 varieties of BeaverTails to choose from, ranging from the classic of cinnamon and sugar, all the way to their Avalanche (Skor cheesecake). They have four flavours of Beaver Bites where the dough is fried into bite-size balls, comparable to Tim Horton’s Timbits. Other products sold include brownie pies, Beaver Bites sundaes, ice cream, poutine, hot dogs, fries and more.
The idea stemmed from Adam working in the Durham region with his other business A & M Tools Inc. and discovered a BeaverTails food truck. That inspired him to open one himself and propose the idea to Michelle despite them having no prior food-handling experience.
“We wanted something more family-oriented,” she explained. “He runs the tools and I do the back end but nothing that my kids can grow up, join in and be staff in our facility. He came home one day and said, ‘Let's do it, let's make a BeaverTails.’”
The couple started their journey in February, learning how to make the product and being a franchisee. Opening the business was not easy for the couple when they started their road to becoming franchisees. The trailer they purchased originally was not up to provincial standards for becoming a food truck and the couple went to great lengths to get it up to code according to Michelle.
“We had to change a couple of things,” she explained. “A couple of fryers, different health codes and stuff like that to make sure that we were in compliance with Ontario standards.”
The trailer had to go through several inspections however due to staffing shortages, they could not be done in a timely manner delayed their opening according to a Facebook post made in July.
The trailer finally opened for business on Thursday and both Adam and Michelle had a hectic, busy but productive first day.
“It kept steady and we appreciate everyone's patience with us having been our first day,” said Michelle.
The couple is planning activities for the winter and summer for customers to be immersed in the community and want to be open all year round.
“We want to build an ice rink so that it's winter-friendly. Everyone can come out, have a skate, get your BeaverTail like a mini Ottawa experience here,” said Michelle. “In the summer, we want to have outdoor games. We just want everyone to be a bit patient because we are still building.”
The following are the trailer’s operating hours:
Thursdays: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Friday/Saturday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sunday: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
