ESCANABA — The midway at the U.P. State Fair bustles in the afternoon and evening. Well into night, food vendors experience queues of fairgoers, many of whom visit purely for the food.

Some of the trucks — like Wildman’s and Grateful Cheese — have been participating in other events throughout the summer. Certain providers are known for their reputations associated with fair food specifically; corn dogs, cotton candy, and elephant ears aren’t common at weekly music nights in the park. Yet others, like D&M Subs, DeBacker Family Dairy and Sayklly’s, have brick-and-mortar locations elsewhere in town as well.

There are no shortage of locations selling the usual suspects, but some returning fairgoers are discerning and have favorites.

“My sister is very particular about where she buys elephant ears, and I don’t know which one she likes,” said one young man in passing on the midway Thursday night. Another truck has made a joke about the popularity of its fair-food relative: Next to the menu for The Donut Diner, laminated window signage reads: “SAVE AN ELEPHANT / EAT MINI DONUTS.”

A few places sell ice cream, but one stands out partially because of its unusual setup. Between the dairy barn and goat barn stands Jilbert’s Milk House. A solid pavilion extends from its window toward the path outside the beef and swine barns. The sign out front designates this structure “Rapid River Dairy Flo Pavilion.”

Even off the midway, the flow of foot traffic coming and going for cups, cones and floats makes it hard to strike up conversation. But on Friday morning, Rapid River Dairy Flo owners Dave and Jennifer King made time to speak with the Daily Press after enough staff was on hand to mind the customers at the fair. The workers are, in addition to regular employees, friends and family who help fill the roughly 70 shifts during fair week between the fair location and the Dairy Flo in Rapid, said the couple.

“They just step up, and I’m very lucky,” said Jennifer.

She and Dave explained that Jilbert’s sponsors the Milk House building, and Dairy Flo comes in as a vendor.

“Because of our affiliation with Jilbert’s, they ask us to run it for them,” said Dave.

The north side of the Milk House, equipped with the machinery that gives the building its name, is beyond an internal wall and run by another party associated with the dairy barn.

“They used to pump milk, and then Jilbert’s would pick the milk up and then run it and process it up there,” said Jennifer.

Laws surrounding the industry have since changed.

Even farther from the heart of the fair is a food truck whose owners are more than happy to be tucked away in their “oasis of calm.” Cynthia Ivy explained that when the Brisket Barn first started coming to the fair about ten years ago, there wasn’t room for them on the midway and the truck was stuck where it now sits. They have since been offered midway space and turned it down. They like the quiet environment, said Bobbi Ryan, who co-owns the Brisket Barn with Ivy, and people make a point to visit them.

Another worker at the Brisket Barn, Cheryl, said that a first-time customer who had been travelling the country had come back to the window Thursday to tell her that the brisket from this truck was “by far the best.”

While it stands to reason that options like Brisket Barn’s breakfast burrito sell during a particular time of day, other vendors report patterns they can’t pin down.

At Everything Concessions, which sells lots of deep-fried foods, worker Leasha said, “Everything has its moment.” She said that waves of customers will be getting deep-fried Oreos at one point, and then a little while later the truck will sell a wave of corn dogs or deep-fried candy bars.

At Manny Mag’s, which sells tacos, Sherri said that some days are big for chicken while other days sell a lot of beef.

“But for some reason, pork always does well in the evening. And nachos at night,” she added.

Nachos, garbage fries, and bloomin’ onions are popular late at night.

“We ate ’til we were sick,” said one couple outside the swine barn after dark. The young woman cited the brick of french fries covered in cheese as being one of the things they had eaten. At 10 p.m., they were each digging into cups of Peanut Butter Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream.

Not everything is overindulgent. At Norm’s French Fries — a business that has been going strong for a period of what the current owner estimates to be about 60 years — servings come in delicate paper cones.

Pam Marenger said that when she and Eugene bought the business, they were also handed the secret recipe — although the key is really in the process. She says that the type of potato used changes depending on what’s available. At the moment, the fries are made with white potatoes, and it works.

“I can see why these are [my friend]’s favorite,” said Katy, a first-time customer at Norm’s.

Not far away is parked a truck with a food not typically seen in this area. At The Goodie Guy, “Delta Style” isn’t referring to the county the fair is in. Thomas sells catfish from Mississippi and Louisiana. Though he himself is a Wisconsinite, he got hooked on catfish when he tried some in the south. Thomas said he shopped around and tried numerous suppliers before settling on the perfect one.

“It’s the breading,” he said, that tipped the scales towards his selection. He reckons people up here are reluctant to try catfish, instead opting for things they’re familiar with. The gyros and philly sandwiches he also sells are more popular at the U.P. State Fair, but Thomas stands by the catfish.

The Best Midway Food Concession 2022 plaque adorns a sign outside the tent serving steak tip dinners from House of Flavour, and Austin said they’re aiming for two years in a row. On Friday morning, he estimated that about 1,000 pounds of steak have moved so far, and that his goal is a possibility.

One man eyeing the tent from several feet away said he was tempted by the smell. Robert Dean of Cadillac, Mich., said that he was at the fair specifically for the food, but was trying to talk his daughter and grandchild, who live in Escanaba, into going on some rides. It was not yet noon, and Dean didn’t seem to be quite ready for the undertaking that was a two-pound plate of steak, potatoes, and mushrooms.