It hasn’t been an easy ride for Miss Maple herself, but it’s been a delightful one.
Rachelle Cote and her husband, Eric Blais, a backhoe operator by trade, started the Miss Maple’s Big Nickel Pickle chipstand in 2017.
Just after opening, Rachelle learned she had breast cancer. Shortly after that, Rachelle’s father-in-law opened a chipstand and then landed in the intensive care unit after a motorcycle accident and suddenly they were running more than one chipstand. Rachelle then got pregnant and sadly lost the baby.
To say it has been a whirlwind puts it quite plainly.
But the chipstand gave her a sense of purpose and routine and there is nothing plain about its menu.
There are so many options. In fact, not all of it is listed on the exterior menu boards, so many returning customers order their favourites from the secret menu.
One of those secret items is the candied onion rings, which Cote believes is a first of its kind anywhere. The rings are candied with maple syrup taffy.
“As a breast cancer survivor and a diabetic, I knew sugar contributed to so many of my problems,” Cote said. “We started an all natural maple syrup business in the Valley and even make homemade sauces with the syrup that we sell on site.
“We try to blend maple syrup in everything we do, rather than use granulated sugar,” Cote adds.
The Bullseye Poutine is another secret menu item with bacon, barbeque sauce and homemade ranch sauce.
The poutines come in so many varieties and all are layered with mozzarella and cheese curds unless otherwise requested.
Cote says other poutine favourites are the Miss Maple’s Candied Maple Bacon Poutine and the WTF Poutine. That one is flavoured with their homemade maple teriyaki sauce with beef and fried and caramelised onions.
She says the Knuckle Sandwich is also a hit with customers. It features a boneless rib covered in maple syrup barbeque sauce with handfuls of cheese and bacon.
“We don’t believe in shrinkflation here” she joked.
With seven fryers and an elite fryer that polishes oil, Miss Maple’s can feed an army.
“We pride ourselves on the oil never being darker than our maple syrup,” Cote said.
But they have also diversified to cater to many of the different cultural people now calling Sudbury home. Miss Maple’s now serves saucy halal chicken, vegetable spring rolls, rice fusions with vegetables and jerk chicken poutine along with a number of other options.
Miss Maple’s also serves an abundance of flavours of soft-serve ice cream.
The foodstand is already open for business given the low snow season. It’s open seven days per week and is located in the West End at 302 Douglas Street.
Anastasia Rioux is a writer in Greater Sudbury. Let’s Eat! is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.
