By Sandi Masori
Carmel Dyer of Australian Battered Potatoes holds up this reporter’s favorite of the evening, Australian battered potato with sweet chili and cream (hold the bacon). Downright addictive if you ask me 😉
SAN DIEGO — While the official theme of this year’s June 8-July 4 San Diego County Fair is “Game On”, the unofficial theme is bacon. So, with much of the fair’s culinary offerings involving bacon of one form or another, what’s a Jewish girl to do? Don’t worry though, this food reviewer found plenty to taste. As I was sampling the treats laid out for us at the media preview party, I found that besides the food, there was another story.
I started talking to the concessionaires and asking them about how long they had been coming to the fair. Many of them have been coming for over 20 years! In fact, many of them have been selling their creations for even longer than that. We all know that buying food at the fair can cost a pretty penny, but did you know that most of those stands are family owned and operated? Not only that, but the businesses are passed down from one generation to the next. Janis Dale, of the Country Fair Cinnamon Rolls told me that they have been part of the San Diego County Fair (and all of its previous names) for over 35 years. They do over 50 fairs a year, all over California. They’ve raised their children and grandchildren in the cinnamon roll stand, starting them out at the counter and then moving them into the kitchen and management. Dale proudly reports that such early entrepreneurial training taught her kids a great work ethic. All the children and grandchildren went on to college and solid careers. They now have three stands that they send out to different fairs — each under the management of a different child or relative
At every stand I visited I found this theme of it being a family business repeated. In fact, in some ways, it’s a bit like an old Shtetl. Carmel Dyer from Autralian Battered Potatoes has been serving up her delicious treats at the fair for 26 years. She was telling me how all of the vendors are really like a family and help each other out. She said that if she runs out of potatoes or oil or some other supply she’ll send a worker over to Lori at Tasti Chips or to one of the other vendors who will happily lend her the proverbial cup of sugar, as does she for the others.
I was really intrigued by this theme of camaraderie among what one would think would be fierce competitors, so I asked some of the other vendors about it as well. Since Carmel mentioned Lori, I thought I’d talk to her next (also those two concessions were the favorite of my guest Estelle Workman).
Lori Sutherland of Lori’s Concessions (Tasti Chips and Grantburger) has been selling her delicacies at the fair for 40 years! They started in 1972 (as did the life of this reporter), but count their anniversary from 1974 when they brought Grantburgers on board. That was started by her brother-in-law and she joined him early on and is now training her son to take over. Said Southerland about the way the vendors take care of each other “We’re all in competition for the same dollar, but we realize that because we’re such a specialized industry that we need to take care of each other.” She added, “If it’s not you (in need) that day, it could be you later, so it’s kind of a special brotherhood.”
Lorrie Sutton from the funnel cake stand has been coming to the San Diego fair for 20 years. She says that the San Diego County Fair is the biggest and best fair that they do. She agreed that the concessionaires are one big giant family who take care of each other. They received the business from her in-laws, and now two of their children are working with them.
As an entrepreneur myself (when I’m not reporting for my father’s newspaper, that is) I really connected with the spirit of friendly competition and family business. Somehow, seeing the high prices of the various fair treats made me think mistakenly the booths probably were owned by some big foreign giant company who hire local talent for cheap wages and laugh their way to the bank. Meeting many vendors and hearing their stories of brotherhood, and family entrepreneurism made me feel a lot better about the price tag of some of those culinary delights. I don’t mind paying a bit more knowing that I’m getting a fresh quality product and putting some American families through school and life.
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Masori writes about food and entertainment for San Diego Jewish World. She may be contacted at sandi.masori@sdjewishworld.com