13 September 26 - OctOber 2, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Whirling at Full Tilt Fueled by Cheetos and Coke: Long-time State Fair of Texas vendors share their daily hustle. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS N evins Concessions has been at the State Fair of Texas since before Tupperware parties were cool (and Tupperware went bankrupt). It has served burgers longer than McDonald’s and is older than Barbie. The Nevins family opened a stand selling burgers at the State Fair of Texas in 1949, making 2024 their 75th anniver- sary. Tami Jo Nevins-Mayes, 59, is the third generation of her family to run the business. She grew up at the fair, long before child labor laws. “My daddy would put me on a tall box,” she says. “And I’d slap hamburger patties on the rotisserie as long as my atten- tion span would hold. I’d also clean tables and stuff that a 5-year-old could do.” Working at the fair — or rather the arduous and compli- cated business as a vendor with nine stands — is all she knows. She once worked at a vet clinic briefly and had a few other odd jobs, but she thrives at the fair. The family busi- ness continues with her two daughters, who also work at the fair, one as a partner with Nevins and the other with her own stand. Josey Nevins Mayes (25), is her youngest and was born (or had the audacity to arrive) during the fair. “I’m pretty sure she came out here the morning I was born,” Josey says, sitting next to her mom on a hot day, tak- ing a break from building a stand a couple of weeks before the start of the fair. “I did, on the way to the hospital,” Tami admits matter- of-factly. It’s just business, nothing personal. Josey always wanted to work at the fair like her mom. Tami told her after college she’d make her partner. Repre- senting the fourth generation, Josey now helps with day-to- day tasks, handles media and comes up with the Big Tex Choice Award items, like this year’s Nevins’ Nutty Bar-laska, an Oreo-topped chocolate ice cream bar with toasted marshmallow fluff and dried strawberries. That concoction was a finalist in the lauded awards but didn’t win. But in 2022 their fried charcuterie board did win: three triangle dumplings plump full of cheese and meat served with a bit of honey and olives. We caught up with Josey, Tami and her older daughter, Cheyne Mayes Hickey, who peddles gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches at her stand Stay Cheesey in the Tower Building. We wanted to know the physical toll of setting up for the fair, the 24 consecutive 12-hour days of keeping a stand stocked with enough food for a voracious crowd that tops out over 2 million. Also, how do they not gain weight surrounded by fried food all day? (Turns out, the fair is a weight loss miracle for vendors.) A Year-Round Affair T he fair, despite being open for 24 days in the late sum- mer and fall, is a year-long commitment. “We start full-time on the first of August,” Tami says, which is when they start building their stands. “But year-round, we’re doing stuff. We generally take December off and don’t even think about it. And then, in January we’ll start seeing what we need to repair and see if we need to buy new equipment. “And then we really start ramping up in the summertime,” she says. “We’ll start getting some dry stock, nonperishables and all the paper products and start going and getting trailer loads of that and putting it up just to get ready.” A nine-to-five job after that? Hardly. “I wish it was nine-to-five. Actually, it’s probably about the same amount of hours,” Tami says of the preseason. “We started about 6:30 in the morning — as soon as we can see something — and then we’ll stop around three or four, de- pending on how hot it is and if we can touch our tools.” All of the stands along Nimitz Drive, a long strip of con- cessions that includes their main stand, are new this year, creating new challenges in setting up. “When you have a lot of new, you have to deal with a lot of problems,” Tami says. “But normally setup is my favorite time because it is a giant puzzle with layers, and I love seeing it come together.” Tami loves the first week of the fair. “Like I say, the first day is fresh grease and fresh attitudes.” By then there’s no time to pay attention to anything but feeding lines of customers. Rest is fleeting, as is actual sleep. Daily steps rank in the tens of thousands. “I try to get out of bed about 10 till 6 and leave my house about 6:05 and get here about 6:30,” Tami says. She starts in the office, going over the previous night’s notes and in- ventory. “It’s very informal,” Tami says, “I write everything on a napkin. That’s just my system. And I put it on the desk and then the next morning I decipher it and then I’ll transfer it to a big piece of paper for my stock man to do.” In the meantime, all of the stands are waking up. Once or- ganized for the day, she’ll make a round, checking on each stand. Josey is also making rounds, setting out radios. The rest of the day, they continue to move about, taking care of inventory, employee issues and equipment, and interacting with customers. “Sometimes I’ll stand outside the stand to see what cus- tomers are saying about the food after they get it, just be- cause I’m curious that way,” Tami says. Every stand is stocked in the morning, but because of lim- ited space, each has to be restocked throughout the day, which in itself is a full-time job. Complications arise with things like ice cream, since there’s only so much freezer space. This year their Nutty Bar-laska — guaranteed to be popular as a Big Tex finalist — is made with an ice cream bar, requiring even more hustle. “It’s the number one thing I think of when I’m coming up with an item,” says Josey. “How hard is it going to be to stock? How hard is it going to be to make in a concession stand and how long will it take?” She adds that’s a common misconception about the Big Tex Choice Awards: People think it’s a gourmet food contest when actually food is limited to the capacity of a stand. Cheyne’s Stay Cheesey stand is in the Tower Building. Last year, her rookie season, she learned the hard way about ordering inventory for the next day, which needs to be done around 5 p.m. to be delivered the next morning. “A lot of time, I would forget to just stop and take inventory because we were in the groove and I forgot to step away,” she says. “So there was a couple days where we kind of just had to hope some- one could hotshot us some food or I’d borrow it from other people if they had something similar.” Around 6 they start their nighttime routine, including taking inventory (again), which for Tami and Josey means nine stands, for a Ben E. Keith order, and then a separate inventory for the stock truck. Tami has a scooter making it eas- ier to crisscross the fairgrounds but she still clocks around 15,000 steps a t Dish Christopher Durbin The Nevins family has been in the fair concession business since 1949. From left to right: Josey Nevins Mayes, Tami Jo Nevins-Mayes, and Cheyne Mayes Hickey Christopher Durbin Tami and Josey Nevins-Mayes set up one of the family’s concession stands. >> p14 All is Fair
