cheese curd booth with line
You need a project, you are looking for a summer plan that will fill the void left from canceled beer fests and car shows. You need to prove that summer isn't over before it's begun. Oh, we got you.
Because the Minnesota State Fair had to nix 2020, it obviously left a lot of small food vendors in a lurch. They have to figure out how to make up for those 12 lucrative days of summer. And since county fairs and festivals of all sorts have taken a 2020 hiatus due to the pandemic, lots of these booths have the summer open.
This is where the fun part starts.
Many local concessionaires and food booths have started setting up around the metro, right now. From brewery parking lots to Menard's, VFW's, Harley Davidson, and rest stops off the highway, the smell of fried food and on-a-stick cuisine is wafting across our state. There are corn dogs in Lakeville, mini-donuts in Eden Prairie, and cheese curd tacos in Oakdale. From the looks of it, they'll be floating around all summer.
The newly launched public Facebook group, Fair Food Finder is here to help you find them. Not only is it a place where vendors can post their hours and locations, and eaters can post photos of their finds, but: they have a map.
These genius Minnesota humans have given you a summer purpose, a road map to good times. I used it to locate Cheese Curd Tacos in Oakdale and the kid and I took a spin out there on Friday.
We just walked up and ordered the original, a kielbasa topped with white cheddar curds in a deep fried taco shell, and the Hot Chick with buffalo cheddar curds and chicken. The kid, who has for many years been our sherpa for the MNSF Day One Get It /Skip It trek, took one bite and said: I think Drew would have loved this, he'd say Get It.
cheese curd tacos
And so now I'm hooked. And so are many of you. I stopped by the cheese curd booth parked outside of Under Pressure Brewing in Golden Valley, and wow, the line (with good spacing). People were happily eating their fried foods from paper boats while sitting in the grass or taking it to the brewery, or sitting in their car. There was palpable joy.
Of course it's not the same as the Fair, and places like The Mouth Trap don't have trailers to be able to hit the road, so we'll be missing a lot of our favorites. But there's a clutch of booths up I-35 near Hwy 70 around Rock Creek, and if that doesn't sound like a beauty of a summer road trip, I don't know what does.
Get it.
