In Memoriam

Original Corn Fritters & Fried Green Tomatoes

1993 — 2026

Minnesota State Fair · Falcon Heights, Minn.

The Original Corn Fritters & Fried Green Tomatoes stand opened at the Minnesota State Fair in 1993 and served fairgoers for more than thirty summers. It will not return in 2026: it appears on this year’s list of vendors not coming back.

The stand sold a paper boat of corn fritters, fried deep amber and topped with honey butter, and thick slices of green tomato in a crunchy seasoned coating. They came out so hot you had to wait to eat them, and most of us never waited long enough. There was ranch for dipping, with hot sauce if you wanted it. The stand never chased trends; it made the same two things well, every year, for three decades.

In the early years there was a third item on the menu: the Smoky Fritter, a corn fritter with a little smoky, a miniature smoked sausage, in the middle. The stand stopped selling them after its first few years, and they were missed.

For our family, a stop at the stand was part of every trip to the fair. The fair will go on without it, but for those of us who planned our route around that yellow banner, it won’t be the same.

The Fritters

sweet corn, fried, with honey butter

The Tomatoes

crunchy coating, served very, very hot

The first year

The original Corn Fritters and Fried Green Tomatoes booth in 1993: a white stand with a green striped awning, rooftop signs, and yellow and green pennant flags
The booth in 1993, its first year, from WCCO News footage of that year’s fair.

One family’s photographic record, 2006–2025. Click any plate for the full-size photo.

A boy posing proudly beside the stand's yellow Fried Green Tomatoes banner with its three-tomato logo
2006The stand’s banner.
A paper tray of fried green tomatoes as a child's hand reaches in to grab a piece
2008Sharing a tray.
White paper tray of corn fritters, butter, and fried green tomatoes held in one hand
2010Fritters, tomatoes, and honey butter.
Tray of fried green tomatoes and corn fritters held beside a red toy wagon
2012Beside the wagon.
Red plaid paper boat of corn fritters topped with honey butter, fried green tomatoes behind
2013Honey butter, already melting.
Golden-hour tray of darkly seasoned fried green tomatoes and fritters with butter
2014Late afternoon.
Tray of fritters and fried green tomatoes in front of a yellow lemonade banner with a green tomato painted on it
2016The stand sold lemonade, too.
Tray of fritters and fried green tomatoes with a cup of ranch striped with hot sauce
2017With ranch and hot sauce.
Overhead view of a tray of corn fritters with butter and fried green tomato slices
2018From above.
Corn fritters arranged around a scoop of butter with a large fried green tomato, small hands reaching in
2019A shared basket.
A fresh tray held in front of the stand itself, its red and green tomato logo visible
2024In front of the stand.
Close-up of a tray of corn fritters with a large scoop of honey butter and fried green tomatoes
2024A generous scoop of honey butter.
A tray of fried green tomatoes and corn fritters held over cracked asphalt in morning light
2025 · The Last BasketAugust 28, 2025. Our last order, though we didn’t know it at the time.

A previous loss

A bacon-wrapped turkey tenderloin on a wooden skewer in a white paper tray
The bacon-wrapped turkey tenderloin on a stick, 2012.

The fair has taken things from us before. When the bacon-wrapped turkey tenderloin on a stick disappeared years ago, it stood as the greatest loss in fair food, and nothing since had come close. Losing the fritters and the green tomatoes is a greater loss still.