Our wait is almost over! The Great Minnesota Get Together is almost here.

There are people who hate the Fair, people who go once a year, and people who maybe go twice a year.

We are not those people.

We are avid Fair Goers. We already have tickets to go 8 days this year, but we fully expect to go at least 10 of the 12 days.

Although we averaged 20,000–30,000 steps each day we visited the Fair last year, we did not lose any weight. How can you with so much food around? We have not tried everything at the Fair, but we have tried a lot. Here’s a list of some of our favorite things we ate at the State Fair last year, along with a few sneak peeks of new items coming this year!

In no particular order, here we go:

The Mr. Peg Sandwich

The Peg (Horticulture Building)

Our 2025 Favorite New Food was The Mr. Peg Sandwich from The Peg Restaurant. A staple since 1984, we’ve loved their Peg Breakfast Sandwich for years. Last year, they introduced the Mr. Peg. This sandwich is a delicious atrocity. Weighing in at almost a pound, it is an absolute beast and a terrible mess—and it is phenomenally delicious. With chicken tenders, bacon, fried egg, peppers, onions, gravy, honey, and slaw, this messy sandwich is almost enough to feed your whole family.

Corn Fritters

Original Corn Fritters & Fried Green Tomatoes Stand (Dan Patch Ave)

Corn Fritters. If you’ve walked right by this stand for decades, we are telling you: you need to stop and try the fritters. Many people say the fried green tomatoes are also good. Maybe they are, but we are hooked on these fritters.

They’re delicious fried cakes of batter and real corn, served hot and fresh with a lovely pat of honey butter. They’re not salty, they’re not sweet, they don’t make you feel good about yourself, and they don’t make you feel bad about yourself. They’re just yummy.

L&B Cotton Candy

Three stands (look for the pink booths)

L&B Cotton Candy is your classic cotton candy. They have three locations and have been owned by a local family for 30 years. You won’t find any crazy blue raspberry or strawberry-flavored cotton candy here—just classic sugar flavor made from local sugar.

The craziest thing this stand sells is their Glo-Cone, a fun nighttime cotton candy cone served with a glow stick inside the paper! This is an every year go-to for us!

Mocktails and More!

Summer Lakes at Underwood and Randall

We’ve been fans of Summer Lakes for several years. Owned by a local wife-and-husband duo, these mocktails are a great way to break up all the lemonade and pop you drink when you spend a lot of time at the Fair.

This year, they have a gigantic new building where they will be serving food and offering live music—a major step up from the tent they had last year. We’re excited to check out their new spot.

Learn more about the owners:

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Sneak Peeks!

We’ve been lucky enough to get some sneak peek of three of the new Fair Foods of 2026:

Strawberry and Ube Sundae

Sara’s Tipsy Pies (Food Building)

Sara got her start at the Fair selling Tipsy Pies with the catchphrase “the proof is in the pie.” She no longer only sells items that have alcohol in them, and her 2026 New Fair Food is one of her alcohol-free items.

This item is a winner. It’s got a bunch of texture and flavor, it’s both light and satisfying, and it’s a great food for a hot day or for breaking up the Fried Food Cycle you sometimes find yourself in at the Fair. And it’s Gluten-Friendly! It’s got strawberry and ube fluff (made from marshmallow and chocolate chips) served on a gluten-friendly shortbread-style crust, with some chocolate inside, topped with whipped cream and edible glitter.

Sneak Peek Video #1:

Sweet Peach Lemonade Sparkler

Quench’d (Dan Patch Ave in front of KS95)

Fresh-squeezed lemonade infused with peach syrup, topped with cold foam and popping candy. This is almost like two drinks in one! It is so fun to sip and taste the cold foam and feel the Pop Rocks, but it’s most delicious stirred up and enjoyed through a straw.

Mixed together, it almost tastes like a lemon-peach float. Kids will love this one.

Sneak Peek Video #2:

Sligo Slider Bites

O’Gara’s — right inside the main entrance off Snelling

Susan, one of the You Me Food Review duo writing this article, is from Saint Paul (or should we say, “Saint Small?”). The O’Garas are her cousins.

We ran into cousin Dan O’Gara, got to talking, then got to eating. This food tells the O’Gara family history.

Sligo (pronounced Sly-Go) is the county in Ireland where the O’Gara family comes from. The slider bites mixture is the same recipe Dan’s mom, Anna O’Gara, used to feed the kids, but she called it White Castle Sliders in their home.

Even the Thousand Island dressing that comes with the sliders has history. The dressing is Grandpa Jim O’Gara’s recipe, used back at O’Gara’s old bar.

Sneak Peek Video #3:

The Entire Minnesota State Fair in 90 Seconds

Not quite in the mood yet? See the Minnesota State Fair through our eyes—everything we love so much from the 12 days each year: