Famous bacon on a bun returns at the Renfrew Fair

With the 168th Renfrew Fair underway this weekend, the Ottawa Valley's most famous sandwich has returned.

Renfrew's Rotary Club serves bacon on a bun every year when the fair comes back into town.

"It's an extremely big hit around the valley," Jennifer McGrath, a director with Renfrew Rotary, says.

"Bacon on a bun is very simple. It's just a bun with three pieces of peameal bacon and if you want cheese, we offer cheese on it."

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It is a Renfrew staple that the Rotary Club has been serving for the better part of the 21st century. It isn't served by any other Rotary Club in the Ottawa Valley, and its members claim there's nothing fancy about the sandwich.

"There's no secret to our recipe," McGrath says. "Maybe just a little bit of love put into it."

"I don't know, I can't really describe it," Renfrew resident John Leclaire said after taking his first bite of bacon on a bun for the year.

"There's just something about getting just that nice grilled back bacon on a nice bun. And it's just something salty and satisfying about it."

Bacon on a bun ready to be served at the Renfrew Fair. The Renfrew Rotary Club expected to sell 5,000 sandwiches this weekend. (Dylan Dyson/CTV News Ottawa)

Fellow club director Doug Ryan says what makes bacon on a bun so special is what the sandwich stands for and the fact that it is made for the community, by the community.

"It is three slabs of bacon on a bun, but also we pride ourselves in the fact that it's only $6.50 with cheese," explains Ryan.

Ryan says Renfrew Rotary will sell as many as 5,000 bacon on a bun in a fair weekend, which requires roughly 1,750 lbs. of bacon.

Ryan says sales from events like bacon on a bun contribute to making community projects come to life, like new playgrounds and splash pads.

"On a good year, we would probably turn $15,000 over into the community. So whatever we make here, within two, three months it would be back into the community."

And despite the simple ingredients, fans of the sandwich say it's one they cannot replicate.

"I don't know if I'm cooking it too much or not enough," said fair attendee Jim Robinson.

"I don't know what it is. Getting the wrong bacon, I don't know. I just can't do it to taste the same."

Bryan Bennett came from Pembroke Saturday to visit the Renfrew Fair. Having grown up in the town, he says bacon on a bun is the taste of Renfrew.

"I would say the fair is something that I always talk about every time I come here, I always make sure I snag [a bacon on a bun]."

"It's the perfect combination of the bread, the back bacon, the cheese, just everything goes down smooth. There's probably a nostalgic factor as well."

The Renfrew Fair is on until Sunday evening.