DELAWARE — Deep-fried Oreos, funnel cakes and lemonade are staples of just about any county fair.
They’re classics sure to satisfy a fair-food craving.
But tucked among the familiar food stands at the Delaware County Fair are vendors serving dishes with traditions all their own.
Kensler’s Pepperoni Stick
The Kensler’s Pepperoni Stick stand has been a Delaware County Fair staple since 1972. It can be found past the Merchant’s Building in a blue and red trailer.
To fair attendees who have been coming for years or even decades, the booth looks the same as it has since the beginning. That’s because it’s been in the same trailer since 1981.
The booth sells one thing, and one thing only: pepperoni sticks.
Inside the deep-fried, handmade dough is a long and skinny piece of pepperoni covered in marinara sauce.
Bill Kensler, a Hilliard native, initially sold T-shirts at the fair, but decided he wanted to get into the fair food business.
“He just wanted to get into food, and he was just looking for something different, unique to come up with,” Bill’s daughter-in-law Michelle Kensler said.
So, he came up with the pepperoni stick, and started selling them at the Delaware fair.
“People come up and what they say is, ‘This is the only reason I come to the fair. I have been coming here ever since I was a kid, and I always get a pepperoni stick,’” Michelle said. “I think it’s just nostalgia.”
Michelle joined the Pepperoni Stick family when she started working the booth in 1992. Then she married Todd, the owner’s son.
When Bill died in 2003, it was up to Michelle and Todd to keep the Pepperoni Stick booth in business.
“Honestly, the pepperoni stick is down to a few of its hardcore locations. So, we come here, we go to the Hartford Fair, we do Lancaster, Fairfield and Coshocton,” Michelle said.
But at the locations where they are still available, pepperoni sticks remain a big seller, particularly among returning customers.
A pepperoni stick goes for $8.
Elephant toes
Because the Kenslers had so much success with the pepperoni sticks, they decided to branch out into sweets.
They started the Elephant Toes booth in 1995, which can be found almost directly across from the Pepperoni Stick booth.
Similar to elephant ears, the Kenslers’ signature elephant toes are bite-sized pieces of deep-fried dough coated in cinnamon sugar.
“We started by doing elephant ears, but nobody wanted to eat a whole ear because they’re big,” Michelle said. “So we cut them up, fry them, and we realized they cooked different, they look different and they taste better.”
The finishing touch is homemade frosting served on the side for dipping.
Elephant toes also sell for $8.
Buckeye Valley chili, burgers and breakfast sandwiches
Last, but certainly not least, is the Buckeye Valley Fair Booth, the only one of these vendors with a permanent building on the fairgrounds.
The booth is managed entirely by Buckeye Valley students and parents, who serve up a wide array of options including breakfast sandwiches, burgers, pie, chicken noodle soup, chili and more.
This year marks the booth’s 49th year at the fair.
“There’s a lot of 4-H families who came here, and were here for the whole week, and they wanted home-cooked food, and that’s what we were designed to do,” student manager Heather Ulrey said.
Ulrey runs the booth alongside Jessica Cashman, overseeing the students who volunteer to help operate it.
“It’s great for the kids because they take all the orders, they serve the food and a lot of them never get a chance to do that. And I think it’s just a neat way to see them in a different light,” Cashman said.
Proceeds from the food sales go back to the joint athletic and music boosters, which help fund operations for sports teams, show choir, band and more.
“Every team has a shift and they are required to work that shift,” Cashman said. “For a lot of these kids, they might be a track athlete, soccer player and they do the musical in the spring, so they are working three shifts out of the course of the week.”
The menu is largely unchanged each year, and some of the most popular menu items include the burgers, breakfast sandwiches and the pulled pork.
Some of the menu items are nearly as much a tradition as the booth itself.
“We have no idea where the recipes came from,” Cashman said. “I went to Buckeye Valley and my parents ran the booth for 10 years. So I’ve been around forever and I think the chili recipe is exactly the same as from back then.”
Menu items range anywhere from $1-8.
