If you’ve bought a snow cone, a corn dog, or a funnel cake from the tents at Klode Park over the years, you likely got it from Randy or Roberta Ferrell — but you probably didn’t know their story goes back more than two decades, includes one very good friend and one very unlikely engagement.
I sat down with the pair, who run R&D Food Service, at Klode Park to find out how a couple from Conway, Florida (just outside Orlando) ended up as a decades-long fixture of Whitefish Bay’s summer season.
It started with Mike Enoch
Randy spent 15 years as the right-hand man to Mike Enoch, who ran Special Event Foods. Mike and his wife Lisa are the people who first brought their food vending service from Orlando to Whitefish Bay’s Fourth of July celebration, more than 20 years ago.
Enoch sadly passed away in 2014. Randy ran that entire summer’s shows — more than 30 of them — before Lisa agreed to sell him the business. Randy’s first year running the Whitefish Bay show under his and his wife’s name was 2015. It helps that Roberta has also worked as a professional chef for a number of years. The only year they’ve missed since that point is 2020, when COVID shut down the Fourth events.
R&D Food Service — the name comes from Randy and their son Dustin (and now grandchild Diana) — kept the same tents, the same banners and the same crew Enoch had built, “like no change ever happened,” Randy said.
If you take a look at the park bench near the toddler play structure at Klode Park, Randy and Roberta donated it and dedicated it to Mike Enoch when the village put out the call for bench sponsors.
They were saddened that the bench’s shade disappeared this year when the massive basswood tree in the park fell down weeks ago.
A family connection that turned into an engagement
And then there’s a story that has become tent lore. A few years back, on a night the fireworks got rained out and pushed to the next day, a friend brought her adult daughter Tyler up to visit from Chicago for a birthday celebration. Tyler and Dustin struck up a conversation and kept talking on the phone for the next year, until she moved from Chicago to Florida to be with him. They’re engaged now, and their daughter — Randy and Roberta’s granddaughter — has made the trip up to Whitefish Bay with them the last few summers. Who knew our very own Klode Park doubled as a matchmaking service!?
Why they keep coming back
Roberta and Randy split their year around two seasons: lawn care business in Florida during the winter, feeding us Midwestern folks — Whitefish Bay, Ann Arbor, Toledo, Columbus, Chicago — through the summer. But Whitefish Bay is the one they talk about like family. “It’s become a family reunion when we come up,” Roberta said.
Part of that is because they drive up, bringing much of their actual family with them from Florida, they said, but a big part is also the people who they have met and gotten to know year after year in Whitefish Bay. They are grateful (and all Villagers should be too!!) for the hard work of our Public Works employees, Civic Foundation members, public servants and all the volunteers that make the Village’s events happen. They specifically wanted to make sure credit was given to Ryan Sanchez, Pat McCarthy, Matt Collins, Lexi and Dave Deblitz (who built the wooden bar by hand that is used year after year in the beer tent), John, Kevin Buckley and Ray Sipek, to name just a few.
The two also had praise for the recent work at Klode Park itself — new landscaping, native plants replacing overgrowth, and a rebuilt playground. “The new park is just absolutely gorgeous,” Roberta said.
Catch them at Art Fest
Randy and Roberta will be back this weekend for the Whitefish Bay Art Fest on Silver Spring. You’ll have no trouble finding them – just follow the scent of good food in the air! Be sure to say hi and thank them for being an awesome part of this community and feeding the villagers of Whitefish Bay. After that, it’s back on the road toward Chicago for their next stop.
All photos in this post are courtesy of Roberta and Randy Farrell
A tip of the hat to a dedicated Villager who let me know about this story! Thank you! If you know of any other stories that need telling, please don’t hesitate to reach out – wfbwibuzz@gmail.com
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