MN State Fair 2018 - Visit #4

Katie and I headed to the Fair after work on Thursday for a quick date night visit. With Katie Richards Fabrizio

Traffic was bad getting over to the Fair, so while I was waiting for Katie to get there (I went straight from work), I passed the time with Tiny Tim. Tiny Tim’s mini donuts, that is. One thing I’ve not done yet at the Fair is a mini-donut comparison - maybe next year!

I also grabbed an It Takes 3 to Mango beer from Lulu’s (at the secret bar hidden under the stairs to the patio). Very good. Very sour. Very expensive ($9 / 12 oz).

I grabbed Katie a Strawberry Mint Fro’Le from Blue Barn. Frozen strawberry lemonade with a healthy dose of mint and an unknown alcohol that makes it 5.0% ABV. I knew she was going to need a drink after dealing with the traffic - handed this to her as she walked through the gate. :-) It was very good, but if you don’t like mint, skip this because it’s not subtle.

Crowds were pretty thick for a Thursday night (for good reason - it turned out to break the record for Day 8 of the Fair).

I stopped by the roasted corn to see if it was as amazing as the one I had earlier in the Fair. This one was very, very good, but just a notch below that other one I had. It was probably unrealistic for me to expect to repeat that experience, which was definitely the best corn I’ve ever eaten. Still, this was another great ear of corn!

The main food item we came for - the Heirloom Tomato BLT from Farmers Union. The Birchwood Cafe / Farmers Union partnership has been pumping out some amazing stuff the last few years, so I had been wanting this the entire Fair. Finally made it over there to get it. Worth the wait! This is excellent! I hope they make it a regular item. This what a State Fair food experience should be - a local heirloom tomato in peak season, local bacon, local whole grain foccacia… super yum. I may be back for more on Monday!

Speaking of Minnesota farmers and agriculture, here are some facts for you! Most surprising to me is #4 in overall corn production in the US.

We had room for classics too - Katie went for a Pancho Dog, having converted from Pronto Pups in recent years.

Next it was to the Creative Activities Bldg to see the K-12 kids’ art. Every year it amazes me. A 7th grader won for this photo.

This was done by a 3rd grader!

Kindergarten!

We also went through the Fine Arts building, where you can vote on the People’s Choice award. Of the 300 or so works of art, I chose this charcoal drawing.

We walked all the way to the north end to check out the new food and beer destination, The Hangar. The north end desperately needed something like this - I forgot to take a picture of it but it’s what it sounds like, a large open shed-like space where the pet pavillion used to be. They had live music going which was nice, but the ambiance was a bit lacking due to approx. 1,000 flourescent lights. Their slider flights had been getting a lot of buzz so we tried those. When we ordered, they asked “which meat?” We were like, “it’s a flight, isn’t it one of each?” “No, you pick one meat, and all three have that meat, just different toppings.” So The Hangar failed Flight School 101 (see what I did there?) We chose pulled pork (vs. cheeseburger or brisket. Burger is boring and brisket is hard to do right.) Well… they killed the pork. And then cooked it another hour just to make sure. Dry tending towards leathery. The toppings were: BBQ sauce, cloe slaw, and pickles. This was a dud. Skip. Can probably skip The Hangar entirely unless you have another reason to be up there, except for the next nearest watering hole is Giggle’s, and that has its own problems. The north end continues to lag the rest of the Fair for food and drink.

The Great Big Wheel is back for a second year. Still haven’t ridden it, but it sure looks pretty at night!

Just a shot of some colorful vendors near the Kidway.

We stopped at the Leinie Lodge stage to see who was playing. It was Clay Walker (country). Had never heard of him but apparently he’s been a thing in country music for like decades. He was entertaining enough for a few songs, though he lost us when he sang a song that worked a rhyme out of his mama smoking marijuana in Tiajuana. Looking at the Leinie Lodge lineup, we probably caught an off night - they’re also featuring the BoDeans (high school, anyone?), En Vogue (which got rave reviews) and Har Mar Superstar this year.

I made my way over to Sara’s Tipsy Pies for my annual visit. We tried the new CranOrange 5 (vodka is the alcohol of choice for this one). Very good!

Here’s a Minnesota Nice story. This is how the Produce Exchange closed up their booth for the night. Peaches (which they sell for $3 a pop) just there for the taking, but not a soul was bothering them despite the tens of thousands of fairgoers. (They look amazing, too!)

We caught the fireworks show before we left. We could have used a little warning! The first several fireworks went off all at once so it kinda sounded like a series of explosions, and it scared the bejeezus out of us. There were quite a few screams in the crowd! Once we all figured out what it was, we enjoyed the show.

I grabbed a Pretzel Haus pretzel on the way out to the car. This time I opted for the garlic butter flavor. Pretzel itself was as good as ever and the garlic butter was good but I think I’d get it on a plain one next time, it clashed with the salt a lot.

That’s a wrap for visit #4. We’re getting close to the end here folks. The final visit, #5, is coming up on Labor Day, with Henry, Sally, and maybe others? We have our eye on a couple of final items to try. Stay tuned for that summary and then soon afterwards my annual Fair wrap-up post!