DES MOINES — Food vendors supply staples to thousands of Iowa State Fair attendees, but growing attendance means more tastes and diets to accommodate. Many vendors are trying new recipes and recreating fair classics to satisfy the growing crowds.
When the fair’s attendance record was broken on August 10, food vendors served over 120,000 visitors – all looking for food to suit their tastes.
Annie Cook, concessions and exhibit manager for the Iowa State Fair, said the fair makes improvements to the food scene every year. Cook said the fair’s staples will always be heavily featured, but this year, new foods and new vendors are elevating the fair’s food culture.
“Food culture is constantly changing and I hope that our offering will become more diverse over time,” says Cook.
Food entertainment, drink mixology and “fair to flare” techniques add nuance to trade show food and drinks, Cook said.
The three finalists of the New Food Competition were lined up on the lawn of the Richard O. Jacobson Exhibition Center, bustling with activity, with long lines of eager fairgoers waiting to sample their new creations.
First-time vendors Winn & Sara’s Kitchen served a bacon cheeseburger spring roll that made it to the finals of the competition. The dish is a combination of the restaurant’s two best-sellers and highlights local ingredients – pork, dairy and beef.
Andrew Sayasane, the owner’s son, said it has always been a dream for him and his three brothers to serve food at the Iowa State Fair.
“I’ve never been to all the fairs in the world, but I believe our food culture is one of the best in the world,” he said. “We have the best fair in the world, hands down. It’s great to be here with all these traders and everyone here is doing the same thing as us, providing fun and entertainment for everyone here. It’s incredible, it feels really good to be part of this family.”
Grocery retailer Whatcha Smokin’ is in the top 3 new foods for the second time this year. This year, their Smoke Roll was an instant hit.
Pitmaster Paul Babberl has been attending the Iowa State Fair his entire life and enjoys experiencing the event as a food vendor. Babberl encourages his crew to walk around and try the different foods.
Also in the top three is Destination Grille’s Lobster Corn Dog, which had people lining the street. The Lobster Corn Dog consists of breaded and lightly fried North Atlantic lobster tail, garnished with lemon aioli, bell pepper, chives and aged Parmesan cheese.
Nate Adams, a fairgoer from Waukee, Iowa, wasted no time standing near the line while taking a bite of his lobster corn dog.
Adams said he recommended the article and would vote for it in the contest.
“Corn dogs are very popular with fans, but to me they seem kind of outdated, we have changed so much in terms of nutrition,” he said. “As we are one of the fairest countries in the world, we should change our nutritional balance to more modern foods.”
Jonnann Benedict, managing partner of Destination Grille, said the lobster corn dog is the result of research into fair food products and highlights the restaurant’s lobster specialties.
“Our restaurant is a little more upscale, so we wanted to make sure we stayed true to ourselves,” Benedict said. “You get a lot of fried food there, but we still wanted it to be different and upscale and stand out from the crowd.”
Strict diet? No problem.
Trade show food is part of the experience, but finding accessible foods can be frustrating and stressful for people with dietary restrictions.
Destination Grille’s trailer is completely gluten-free and the crew is looking to create dairy-free menu items for next year.
The Grimes, IA, restaurant won the Des Moines Metro’s Best Gluten-Free Menu award last year and features an 85 percent gluten-free menu.
Benedict said the restaurant takes its gluten-free diet seriously and avoids cross-contamination.
“Our guests feel comfortable when they come and dine with us, so we wanted to offer them the same comfort at the trade show,” said Benedict.
In a food scene dominated by meat, the Veggie Table offers meatless versions of a trade fair classic, the corn dog. Founded in 1982, the Veggie Table has been offering a vegan and vegetarian menu for generations.
“It’s not easy being environmentally conscious, but we are here for all vegetarians, vegans or people who are not vegetarians and just want to try something different,” said owner Bryan McCoy.
McCoy’s grandparents founded Veggie-Table because their daughter was a vegetarian and they wanted to offer an alternative to trade fair visitors who follow a meat-free diet.
Fried cucumbers, vegetarian and vegan corn on the cob and golden brown fried vegetable samosas are crowd favorites.
“I think the Iowa State Fair is for everyone, so you want everyone to have something here to enjoy,” McCoy said. “The other day, a woman came up to us, close to tears, and said, ‘I’ve been to so many other state fairs, and this is the first time I’ve felt included and seen.’ And that gave me goosebumps, I felt so great because it was her first time eating a corn dog at a state fair, and just because we had the vegetarian corn dog, she was able to enjoy it and feel like it was part of her experience. And that’s what we’re here for.”
Although Veggie-Table’s corn dogs are not made with Iowa pork, McCoy says they still fit Iowa because they are made with soy. According to the Iowa Soybean Association.
Mixology is changing the drinks world
Fairgoers brave the heat with plastic cups full of freshly squeezed lemonade, cold beer, slushies and other fairground drinks. Drink mixology offers thirsty fairgoers even more drink options.
For those 21 and older, The Depot has partnered with Des Moines-based Barn Town Brewery to add new alcoholic beverages to the menu, including Pineapple Whip, Spike Lemonade, Caramel Apple Sour, Margaritas and Pickle Beer.
Depot bartender Jon Muller said the new drinks provide a better experience for trade show attendees and also increase sales.
Muller said the new drinks have been well received by many guests and the Caramel Apple Sour is his best-seller, followed by the Pineapple Whip and the Spiked Lemonade.
Sara Bierbaum has worked for The Depot at the State Fair for seven years. She said the new drinks appeal to the crowd with their variety and draw customers to Barn Town Brewery.
Trade fair visitors looking for non-alcoholic refreshments can find mocktails at Destination Grille or Bubbly or stick with the trade fair classic: lemonade.
Judy Hutchens, manager of a Lemonade Shake Ups stand, estimates that 200 lemonade cups are sold there every day as souvenirs.
On Saturday, a record number of visitors, Hutchens said the line at her stand was the longest ever and she sold about 2,000 cups of lemonade.
Trade fair classics remain favorites
While some trade fair visitors try new dishes, others remain true to the classics.
Bruce Visser of Atkins, IA, and his wife make an annual trip to the Iowa State Fair and always buy Barksdale’s State Fair Cookies. Visser stood in the shade under the Barksdale’s building and ate his cup of cookies before the chocolate chips melted in the heat.
“We always look forward to the fair food, the staples. We don’t like the crazy stuff, but we always eat the turkey legs, the pork chop on a stick, cookies and the milkshakes at the Dairy Barn,” Visser said.
For 15-year-old Rome Brayton, working at Barksdale’s is his first job. Brayton said the experience has been positive and he has had several repeat customers.
“I know that many customers come in first thing in the morning, get a cup of cookies, and then take a bucket of cookies home with them on the way out.”
With a production schedule of 21.5 hours per day, Barksdale’s produces nearly 35,000 cookies per hour. Annie Cook, concessions and exhibits manager for the State Fair, said they sold more cups and buckets of cookies on that record Saturday than ever before.
The Corn Stand uses locally grown Iowa corn and butter to represent Iowa farmers, said volunteer Deanna Nair. The stand serves about 4,000 ears of corn daily.
Corn dogs remain a staple at the Iowa State Fair, and Campbell’s hand-dipped Double Bacon Corn Dogs are a favorite with visitors.
The corn dog stand sells several thousand hot dogs a day, and on Saturday the stand was busy for seven hours, with a line of 50 people nearby, Gage Campbell said.
Campbell’s family has perfected the corn dog over generations.
“When people think of the fair, they think of corn dogs because that’s what my dad and grandparents made them for,” Campbell said. “It’s a homegrown Iowa company that brings Iowa here to the Iowa State Fair. A corn dog is what the Iowa State Fair is all about.”
