The 5th Annual Fran's Fair Awards for 2019!

And now, without further ado (and because I really need to get to bed and go to work in the morning!), I present the 5th annual Fran’s Fair Awards for 2019!

Food Categories

As is our tradition here at Fran’s Fair Awards, the bad news comes first.

Biggest Disappointment - This was a year of relatively few disappointments. Does that mean it was a good year, or did I play it too safe? In any case, someone’s got to win it. So, here goes: the “winner” of the Biggest Disappointment for 2019 is…. the Shrimp and Grit Fritters from Funky Grits. Now, I have long wondered why vendors keep trying to make shrimp happen at the Fair, but I thought ok, frying it is probably the safest way to go with shrimp at the Fair, and hey, new vendor, let’s throw them some love. The early Fair buzz around these was massive, too. But they were a big letdown. Finding any shrimp in those fritters was a Where’s Waldo? situation. Now, props for the $5 price tag, but even at $5 you can probably afford to put more shrimp in there. Maybe they’ll put in a stronger sophomore effort, but I’m letting someone else find out, cause I’m skipping this one next year.

Dishonorable mentions: The Oven Baked Brownie. We made a special effort this year to seek out classic Fair foods that tend to show up on a lot of “my favorite Fair foods” lists, and the brownie was one of those. I like brownies to have some substance to them (otherwise, you’re just giving me a really flat cake, right?) These were straight-up cake-y. No bueno. And at first I was excited that the version with nuts was the same price as the non-nutted variety, but after seeing the few measly bits of walnut on ours, it was just sad. Nashville Hot Chicken-on-a-Stick. This dishonorable mention is as much about the hype as it is about the reality. I mean, people raved up and down about this one - probably heard more about this than any other item. But a heavy hand on the salt and a light hand on the heat added up to a lackluster item. In fact, this would have won Biggest Disappointment had it not been for that sauce-soaked slice of bread hiding underneath it all that salvaged this dish somewhat. Finally, and I feel a little bad giving this one out (but not so bad that I’m not gonna do it), the Mini Donut Latte. I mean, I KNEW this would in some way disappoint this coffee purist, but even still, I felt a little suckered into the exists-just-for-Instagram purchase that was the mini donut latte. The thing is they’re covering up really good coffee with all that sugary nonsense.

Ok, enough depressing news. Let’s hit the high notes!

Best Main Entree - Red Hot Sausage from Tejas Express. Ladies and Gentlemen, I realize this is controversial but rest assured the auditing firm of PriceWaterhouseCoopers has verified the authenticity of these results! It’s the dish I keep thinking about throughout the Fair. You can tell that Tejas Express is a legit, chef-driven enterprise, because this is a cut above the rest when it comes to flavor composition and quality ingredients. Sure the spiciness might turn some people away, but I appreciate that this wasn’t watered down for the Minnesota palette, and challenged me to embrace a really interesting dish! The sausage is of course the star, and it was lightly charred, snappy, flavorful and juicy along with that spicy kick. But the toppings are what really elevated this - summer succotash of corn, black beans, and peppers, pickled onions, whole grain mustard, greens. I’d be super happy ordering this out at an upscale restaurant, and that says a LOT considering the venue! A worthy winner in my book! Honorable Mention: Jammin’ Brisket Grilled Cheese at RC’s BBQ. Interesting BBQ is hard to find at the Fair (yes, that’s my snobbery from having lived in the South for a decade+ showing). RC’s manages it with a great mix of flavors and textures - sweet, spicy, cheesy, crispy, smoky, rich - in this sandwich.

Best Snack - Brim’s Grilled Sota Sandwich. My definition of snack may differ from yours, but PB&J is squarely in snack territory for me, and this was a PB&J all grown up (and gluten-free, as an added bonus!) Irish soda bread, homemade nut butter ground onsite, and chunky blueberry jam from local farms, all grilled nice and toasty! You just feel good eating it. Plus, Brim is a refreshing burst onto the historically grim North End food scene. Honorable mentions: Kentikka Fried Chicken from Hot Indian Foods. Loved these little chicken tikka sliders with crunchy slaw. Corn Roast. The roasted corn had a strong year. I learned that I don’t like it well-done!

Best Dessert - Snow Cap Mini Waffle Sundae from Hamline Church Dining Hall. Sometimes simpler really is better. Each ingredient brought something essential to this, from the waffle to the real maple syrup to the cream cheese Izzy scoop and cherry on top. The fact that it comes from a church dining hall, one of the foundational bedrocks of the traditional Fair, doesn’t hurt either. It tasted like summer ought to taste, and that’s what the Fair is all about! Honorable Mentions: Strong year (rare) for desserts this year! The Sundae at Custard’s Last Stand took us by surprise. I don’t give the booths under the grandstand ramp much attention, but this proved that there might be treasures to be found under there (I’m lookin’ at you, Juanita’s Fajitas!). Another pleasant surprise was the Warm Cheesecake Tart at LuLu’s Public House. Who wants warm cheesecake at the Fair? Apparently I do!

Best Breakfast - Blue Barn’s French Toast Bites. Back-to-back category winner! The French Toast Bites fend off all the many newcomers to take the prize again. I still don’t understand how they’re turning out perfectly executed, fluffy French toast with the volume they’re doing and those lines they’re trying to serve, but they are! Honorable Mentions: Blue Barn’s Breakfast Potato Skin was yummy - scrambled eggs, beef chislic, and bearnaise sauce on a potato shouldn’t work as well as it did. Blue Barn continues their breakfast dominance. I will look deep for Blue Barn breakfast alternatives next year.

Best Drink - Kirby Pucker #34 Arnie Palmer at Ball Park Cafe. So, Kirby Pucker is a long line of beers from Eastlake Craft Brewery that go through a second fermentation to make an American sour. #34 was their special brew from the 2018 Fair, which is a sour saison brewed with strawberry and rhubarb. This year, they used that as a base, and added tea, lemon zest, and lemon juice to imitate an Arnie Palmer. I don’t know much about the chemistry of beer making, but I’m pretty good at beer tasting and this one was exactly what I wanted alongside a spicy dish at the Fair while waiting out a rain delay.

Best Food Value - All-You-Can-Drink Milk. Even though the price doubled to $2 in recent years, this stand is still a bargain, especially when visiting with Henry! He downed 5 cups of milk on one of our visits. At 40 cents a pop, that’s a hands-down winner. Honorable Mentions: Warm Cheesecake Tart at LuLu’s Public House. I thought $6 for a well-executed, decently-sized cheesecake with a legit crust at the Fair was a very fair (see what I did there?) price. Classic scone at French Meadow. Cinnamon Scone with Cream Cheese Topping at French Meadow. This comes in at $4.50 with the coupon from the book. For next year, I spotted a slice of pizza for $2.50 today, can it possibly be good?

Weirdest Thing I Ate - Hot Indian Food’s Bhel Puri. It’s basically puffed rice and chutney, and that is not a description that makes me drool. I can’t even tell you why I liked this snack, but I kept spooning it up! It had so many flavors, it felt like each bite was something different. Plus, bonus points for bringing something so completely different to the Fair.

Biggest Regret Of Food I Didn’t Get To This Year - I actually did pretty good at getting to most everything I really wanted to get to this year. There were a few new foods I didn’t make it to, most especially the Carnitas Taco Cone at San Felipe Tacos. I passed by twice and both times the line was ridiculous. Anyone get it? How was it? Also, I had a morbid fascination with the Deep-Fried Dilly Dog, because it shouldn’t be allowed to exist, but I probably would have liked it (pickle stuffed with a bratwurst and then deep fried). And one of these years I will try a Nordic Waffle - they also have line issues. Finally, I love to support Sara’s Tipsy Pies because of her Down syndrome connection, and just couldn’t make it there this year.

Comeback Kid (formerly called Best Rediscovered Classic Food) - And the winner is…. Big Fat Bacon! They moved from a cart into a permanent building a couple years back and I kinda forgot about them. I happened to be walking past on opening day with Henry, and thought “Henry loves bacon. I bet he’ll like this!” I was so, so right. I’m actually drooling right now, writing about the caramelized, crispy-yet-fatty-yet-meaty, salty goodness. ITS. SO. GOOD! AND…AND… I just learned today that our friends are friends with the Big Fat Bacon owners! My Kevin Bacon score to Big Fat Bacon is only 2!! I’m hoping for an introduction so I can reduce that to 1. 🙂 I won’t ever forget about you again, BFB.

Best New Food (that didn’t win another category) - Turkish Pizza at Blue Moon Drive-In Theater. Some folks thought this was mediocre but I really enjoyed it. The beef was really nicely seasoned, and there were a lot of fresh veggies and great sauce on it, too. The naan was soft and pillowy, and that’s maybe the one drawback of this… it should be rolled up rather then billed a pizza. At $9, this was a massive amount of food, a full meal with a lot of fresh ingredients. If you’re on a budget this could keep you satisfied for a long time and you could do a lot worse.

Non-Food Categories

Best Music - The 34th Airborne Band doing Led Zeppelin covers in dress uniform at 10am on Military Appreciation Day. As one vet joyfully yelled, “Rock and Roll!” Yes, sir, indeed. Honorable Mention: The Americana Duet competition on the Schell’s Stage in the West End. The perfect mellow backdrop to our date afternoon at the Fair!

Best Non-Musical Entertainment - The Chipper Experience. This magic and comedy show on the Family Stage in Baldwin Park had us all cracking up, kids and adults alike. Honorable Mention: 3rd Lair SkatePark. Some seriously talented kids in that show, and they all seemed to genuinely care for each other, the older kids cheering for and helping the younger kids a lot. Henry spent hours watching!

Best Art or Craft - I’m giving this to the seed art as a whole. It was the best year yet for seed art! If I had to pick just one, it would be the piece that was in protest of the current administration’s immigration policy as expressed through a Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham parody using seeds as a medium. That’s some pretty clever stuff!

Best Educational Exhibit - The National Air Traffic Controllers Association exhibit. I loved all the hands-on activities they had, and I totally geeked out with them. I really liked getting to try the actual air traffic controller training systems! Honorable Mention: The cattle cutting competition, because I learned a lot about how managing cow herds works and how much skill and talent and hard work it takes to train a horse to work that way.

Best Non-Food Value - Home Depot’s Kid’s Craft. Henry enjoyed putting together the wooden sailboat, and I thought a free wooden children’s toy that you build yourself is a step above a lot of the Fair freebies.

Most Minnesotan Experience - I know 4-H is not an exclusive Minnesota thing, but I just really enjoyed seeing the kids from all over the state do their musical performance on the 4-H building stage. They were so eager and earnest and into it… it just felt so midwestern and wholesome!

Biggest Regret of Activity I Didn’t Get to Do (New Category) - I’m always amazed that as much time as I have spent at the Fair, I still have so much more to do! This go-round I spent almost no time in the Agriculture Building. So many things there I missed: the vegetable contests, the beer flights, the educational displays, the honey bees… next year!! Honorable Mentions: Didn’t set foot in Fine Arts or the Dairy Buildings (butter sculptures!) this year, oops. Also, I just noticed for the first time this year that WCCO has some sort of theater with a 15-minute movie in it? Need to check that out! Didn’t go into either U of M pavillion. Still have never seen any of the Minnesota Talent Show performances. The list goes on and on and on…..

Grand Prize - Best Fair Experience! And the Grand Prize for the 2019 Minnesota State Fair goes to… Henry Fabrizio! This is the year where I feel like Henry fully embraced and developed his love for the Fair. From the most visits he’s ever made in one year (3!) to the longest day he’s ever had at the Fair (10 hours!), he really dove into the Fair more than any previous year. His enthusiasm for the things he loves at the Fair is infectious. This was also the first year we did the Fair without using a stroller, and he handled it like a champ. It’s so fun to see the Fair through his eyes (even though he has a strange fascination for animal poop!) and I’m really looking forward to seeing how his interests change as he grows up going to the Fair each year! Enjoy this win, Henry, you earned it!

Well folks, 2019 is in the books. Thanks for following along with me on our Fair adventures. What categories did I miss, suggest them and I will add them next year! Also, I’m already planning for next year and I am also thinking about “theme days” I can do, like only eating a certain kind of food or doing certain activities, so I can really go deep on some categories. Send your ideas my way.

Thanks everyone!