For many at the State Fair, food is the main event

Greenbrier County, WV (WOAY) – The State Fair of West Virginia is known for a lot of things, but for many fairgoers, the food is the main event.

It’s a once-a-year spread, with no shortage of ways to fill a plate: funnel cakes, deep-fried Oreos, corn dogs, elephant ears, and just about anything else that can go on a stick or in a fryer. Behind every stand is a business and the people running it.

Brian Gillette runs Gillette’s Pizza with his wife and daughter, and says more than three decades at the fair have made the stand a fixture.

“Our pizza’s special because we’ve been coming here for 34 years now. We make all our dough from scratch. It’s a family run operation. We use only the best Italian cheese you can get. And we’re famous for our pickle pizza and big pepperoni,” Gillette said.

For Gillette, part of the appeal is that fair food doesn’t stick around.

“It’s something you can’t get every day. It’s something unique. You see a lot of fried stuff, a lot of weird stuff, a lot of unique things. Who would think you put pickles on pizza?” he said.

A short walk from that longtime stand is one of the fair’s newer vendors. Brayden and Julie Turner are in their second year with Gus Bus Burgers, where the focus is fresh ingredients.

“All of our ingredients are fresh. We don’t use frozen patties or anything. We have people up in the kitchen smashing patties all day long from fresh, fresh beef,” Brayden Turner said.

The stand is built around a prison theme, carried through its menu.

“When you come, you got to order a slammer, a repeat offender, a yard deal, something. We even have special parolees opportunities as well,” Julie Turner said.

For all the variety across the grounds, Brayden Turner says fair food keeps people coming back because they can count on it.

“A lot of it, I feel like, is tradition. People come and they’ve got their favorite place and they come here and get it every year. And hopefully we become a good place for some people too,” he said.