Each fall, vendors at Fair Park have 24 days, or 300 hours, to make their money for the year, millions of dollars in some cases. Sounds pretty lush, right? Twenty-four days of dipped and fried foods to spend the rest of the year with your toes in the sand.
Not so much. Slow your roll before quitting you day job to make an easy million on the next big fried food sensation. (Fried meta with a Nashville hot chicken jam.)
This show has us stress-eating Oreos by the pound. Each episode goes through a day at the fair and ends with a money weigh-in that is like the opposite of The Biggest Loser.
What the show really illustrates are the problems that roll in about as fast as the 2.5 million people roll through the gates each year. Synchronizing the personnel, product and equipment each day is a herculean effort for these vendors. Expecting it to work smoothly is like putting all the Real Housewives of New Jersey season 1 in a room and expecting them to play nice together.
Every problem costs money in a business where literally every hour counts.
"The show is absolutely a good depiction of what happens at the State Fair of Texas," vendor Abel Gonzales says when asked about the show so far. "I cannot think of one moment that was filmed that was 'not real.' All of this happens to everyone and more. The fair is a thrill, a grind, a love affair and a heartache all in 24 days. Exhausting and energizing all at the same time."
The food court in the Tower Building at the State Fair of Texas is refuge on rainy days. Booths that are outside are left to cry in their cooking oil.
Kathy Tran
Longtime vendor Smokey John’s had four booths at the fair last year. Sons of Smokey John, Brent and Juan Reaves, are featured on the show where they sell thousands of pounds of turkey legs dipped in a homemade barbecue sauce.
Their sales goal is $750,000 in total, meaning they need to average $30,000 a day. A day! Can’t do that when an oven is broken or when you don’t have enough employees.
Gonzales, aka Fried Jesus, also has a long history at the fair, which we learn from the show is attributed to the patriarch of Smokey John’s, John Reaves, who got Gonzales his start at the fair.
Gonzales’ goal is to make $12,000 a day. That’s a lot of fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. But, to demonstrate the costs associated with being a vendor at the fair, on the 10th day of business, it downpours and Gonzales says, his eyes wide with stress, "If it rained from here on out, I’m in the hole $75,000. By end of the fair, I’m in the hole maybe $100K."
This highlights the stress of being a vendor: You can make a lot of money at the fair, but you can also lose a lot.
Fernie's Funnel Cakes has been a staple at the fair since 1969, and they’re also on the show. Fernie’s had 10 stands at the fair this past year. Sisters Christi Erpillo and Johnna McKee run the business now. They say they “have" to make $2 million at the fair with a daily target of about $83,000.
On the first day of the fair, their funnel cakes weren’t cooking properly. The outside was too brown and the consistency was off — too chewy. They eventually figured out that the premade mix they'd bought had too much egg yolk and not enough egg white. That was $48,000 worth of over-yolked product down the drain. Fortunately, they were able to track down another brand that day and it worked perfectly. They were back in business."If it rained from here on out, I’m in the hole $75,000. By end of the fair, I’m in the hole maybe $100K." - Abel Gonzales
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Another interesting fact is that money is calculated by weight. At the end of each day, vendors carry a large metal box full of food coupons to a scale that tells them exactly how much money they made.
Staffing at the fair last year was a nightmare, especially for vendors with multiple booths. There was a constant problem of finding enough workers. Then it's difficult to train new workers on how to make each item, causing delays and losing sales.
Dallas chef Cassy Jones sold fried collard greens at the fair. Her total goal is $200,000, or about $8,000 a day. She deals with a major shipping delay for a game-changing piece of equipment that she really needs because of consistency issues. Her experience illustrates the good, bad and the ugly of being at the fair. But for her being on the show was worth it.
"I am getting so much positive reaction from people through my social media accounts. It's been a lot of fun to see that. I cater events year-round outside of the Fair, and I'm getting so many requests to cater events big and small, which is fantastic," Jones says.
Notably, Fletcher’s Corny Dogs is not on the show. They were approached but declined. In a statement they said it takes a lot of energy and focus to successfully sell over 500,000 corny dogs a year, adding, “The Fletcher family will be watching and rooting for our State Fair friends!" After seeing the first few episodes this year, if there's another, they may be game. I'm dying to know how they make 1,000 corny dogs an hour for 24 days straight.
If you're still bound by the cord, A&E releases two new episodes of Deep Fried Dynasty a week and has been showing reruns on Saturdays. Or you can download A&E on Hulu and watch any of the released shows anytime.
