Fran 2020 State Fair Food Parade Wrap-Up
Yesterday we visited the MN State Fair Food Parade! Here’s my wrap-up album with all the highs and lows.
Yesterday we headed to the State Fairgrounds to check out the first ever State Fair Food Parade! With no State Fair this year, the Fair Foundation developed the Food Parade as a way for Fair lovers to experience a small slice of the Fair in a safe, socially distanced way. Sixteen vendors were spread out on a closed 1.5 mile driving course through the Fairgrounds, serving some Fair food classics and not-so-classics right through the convenience of your very own car window. It definitely wasn’t the typical Fair experience, but it’s the best we’ve got this year!
We were lucky enough to score tickets (sold out 19,000 in two hours) so we headed down for our 11am entry, grandma Sally along for the ride. It immediately felt weird and dystopian - no miles-long traffic jam, no fleet of busses on all the highways with State Fair on their signs, completely deserted parking lots… but the check-in process was efficient (as you’d expect from an organization used to getting 2 million people through here every year), and everyone was super friendly and excited to be there. After the initial check-in, we queued up waiting for our entry time in what is normally the middle of the Midway, and even got a drive-by appearance from Fairborne and Fairchild!
When our time came around, off we went. You’re guided into one of two lanes that will basically be your home for the next 90 minutes or so as you crawl along with traffic through the Fairgrounds. The route covers the entire Fairgrounds, and as you go, every so often you’ll come across some tents and some helpful order takers working the car lines with handheld credit card scanners. You place your order and a minute later after pulling up a bit farther, your food shows up carside.
Now let me deviate a bit for some pro tips on the logistics that will make this event more pleasant if you’re going. At a pretty early point, the food starts coming fast and furious, and Katie’s getting quite the pile of food on her lap. It’s now that we realize we’re not fully prepared for this onslaught. Bring something to store food in for later - you can’t eat it as fast as it’s coming at you, and they’re mostly in those flimsy paper trays that are hard to manage or stack. Some tupperware or a cooler or even a roll of foil would be super useful to have along. Eat the stuff that has to be eaten fast while you’re moving, and save the rest for the end (more on that later).
Also, have a designated “food management” adult on board. The driver needs to stay focused, because you’re almost always moving, the course is tight, and there’s people walking right around the cars at the various stops. You don’t really want to be distracted.
Bring water bottles because the only things for sale to drink are soda, and lemonade later in the route. Also, once you’re going, you’re more or less locked in. There’s no deviating or pulling off until the end. While there are porta-potties, it means hopping out of the car, using the bathroom, and then coming out and catching up to your car later on. Works in a pinch, but not ideal. Be prepared.
Finally, if you’re sharing food in the car, we found that sturdy plastic plates, real utensils, and a sharp knife made that whole process a lot easier. A plan for trash management is good to have too - bring a bag for that.
Ok back to the food! The first stop featured Turkey-to-Go, and we got our first glimpse of how the food service was going to work. Most of the vendors were serving out of low key roadside tents. It was a really stark contrast to the usual brightly-lit walls of vendor stalls with long lines of people out front. We ordered a 1/2 lb. sandwich and a turkey leg with sweet glaze.
The turkey sandwich was very solid, just like it usually it as the Fair.
We don’t usually get the turkey leg at the Fair, and I would say this one was a miss. That glaze should have been amazing but it was only so-so, and the leg itself was sort of dry.
Tom Thumb mini donuts were also in the first area and as Sally’s favorite Fair food item, they were a must. The mini donuts were just a “meh” for me - a little small and maybe a little burnt too. I mean, they’re still mini donuts so I ate a bunch, but not the best example!
Next up was a big hit, though - a bucket full of Mouth Trap cheese curds! I dunno if it was the novelty of being served in the car or not, but this may have been the best I’ve had of what already are the best curds at the Fair. Soooo good. And you have to commit to a bucket, that’s the only size available! (We ate them all before we thought to take a photo!)
Next up was Que Viet. We got their egg roll on a stick, and it was surprisingly good. I’ve gotten this before and wasn’t as impressed, but big hit for me this year! Stuffed full of tasty egg roll filling, and comes with not one but two dipping sauces!
Right after Que Viet is the Pronto Pups. I’m very happy to report that Pronto Pups are exactly the same! If you love Pronto Pups, you’ll love these Pronto Pups! Here Henry ponders the Pronto Pup.
The Dairy Bar is up next with their malts (just chocolate, vanilla, and vanilla with caramel). I question the wisdom of having malts so early on the route, but there you have it, gotta get em now if you want em. And we wanted em!
Henry got a chocolate malt all to himself!
Aside from the food, the Fair did try to make the route entertaining and set up things like bingo and trivia to play along the route, but I found that there was too much going on to really be able to do any of that, between the driving and the food management (and the eating!). I did enjoy the brass band, though.
I was also happy to see some giant vegetables!
Hansen’s hot dogs and corn dogs were next on the route, and we got a foot long corn dog. The Fair is a certified feast of tasty corn dogs in a normal year, but this was not one of them. Where’s Pancho Dog when you need them??
Pitchfork Sausage was at the next stop, and we picked up a london broil sandwich, which has always intrigued me but I never got before.
I’d say it was a win! It was packed with yummy, smoky meat, and although it was a super hot mess to eat, especially in the car, the cheese and onions were necessary toppings here.
As we worked our way north, we arrived at Giggle’s. Walleye cakes are what you get at Giggle’s, so we didn’t deviate. We did, however, save them for later (as it turns out, a full day later) because again, the food is a veritable onslaught at this point. We heated them up in the toaster oven today for lunch, and they were a-maz-ing! I’ve been disappointed by literally everything else I’ve ever had at Giggle’s (ok, duck bacon wontons are decent, but the beer disasters, oh, the beer disasters!!) but the walleye cakes are so good, and these were the best version ever.
Our final stop was, of course, Sweet Martha’s cookies. Again, the bucket is the only choice, so a bucket it was.
And they were exactly as they always are - which is to say a somewhat overrated cookie in a disaster of an overflowing pile that you absolutely have to get anyway because Fair nostalgia yada yada.
We skipped a lot of vendors along the route, including the french fries (it was them or the curds), the candy store (eh), West Indies Soul Food (was tempted but we were already so stuffed), El Sol mexican (burritos and tacos seemed plain and we eat Mexican a lot), Cheese on a Stick (they had no chance after Mouth Trap), and The Hangar (it’s never good). There’s only so much food we can pack into a short time!
Now, about all that food you haven’t been able to eat yet? At the end of the route you’ll see a parking lot and a line to buy merch from your car. Lots of people will be in that lot eating their food. Skip that lot, and another turn or two down the exit route, look on your left for a side street lined with trees just before a huge empty parking lot. Turn down there, find some shade in the grass, and enjoy your feast. Bringing a picnic blanket is a good idea.
Henry’s working on a pretty good food coma here…
So, in sum, what did I think of the Food Parade? If you love the Fair, you’ll enjoy the Food Parade for the novelty, nostalgia, the chance to spend some time on the Fairgrounds and see all the fun reminders of happy times, and the feeling of helping out something you love. But you’ll also be sad, at the empty spaces where there are usually your favorite Fair experiences, and the dystopian feel of it all, at the large stretches of nothingness that are usually full of energy. It’s such a small shadow of what the Fair really is, and the food, while fine, is probably not worth crawling through 90 minutes of bumper to bumper traffic for (and trying to eat and manage it by car is definitely not ideal). So many of your favorite foods and vendors won’t be there, and there’s none of the charm of the people watching and taking in the sights and sounds while you enjoy your treats. They did their absolute best to make it as festive an atmosphere as possible given the circumstances, but around every turn is another reminder that this year is anything but normal.
I’m grateful that I got to connect with (and support) the Fair in some small way, and sure an afternoon of novelty and junk food overload is all in good fun, but I miss the Fair now more than ever. We have tickets to go again on Labor Day, but we’re honestly not sure if we’ll go or find a new home for those tickets.
Let’s all just hope that we can have our real Fair back next year.
