7 Ohio County Fair Foods Locals Chase Down After the Fair Packs Up

The Canfield Fair pulled down its midway in Mahoning County on Labor Day, September 7, closing out its 180th year as Ohio’s largest county fair.

By the next morning, some of its best-known food trailers were already hitched up for a different county’s fairgrounds.

These are the Ohio county fair foods locals track down long after the fair closes its gates.

1. DiRusso’s Italian Sausage Sandwich

DiRusso’s Italian sausage sandwich has anchored the food court at the Canfield Fair, Ohio’s largest county fair, since the company started setting up stands there back in the 1960s.

Peppers, onions, and a snap-skin link go on a fresh roll, and the line for it rarely thins during the fair’s Labor Day run.

The fair packed up its 180th year and won’t be back for another twelve months.

DiRusso’s stayed put.

The company runs a factory drive-thru on West Rayen Avenue in Youngstown, open weekday mornings only, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed weekends.

DiRusso’s also stocks the same sausage in more than 300 stores and delis across Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and West Virginia.

The same sandwich also turns up every August at the Portage County Randolph Fair, so a fan doesn’t have to wait a full year to find it again.

2. Rutana’s Apple Dumpling

Rutana Concessions has served its Original Hot Apple Dumpling With Ice Cream at the Cuyahoga County Fair since 1976.

A buttery crust wraps a whole apple, and the family tops it hot out of the oven with two scoops of vanilla ice cream and a brown-sugar cinnamon sauce.

Michael and Karen Rutana don’t make fairgoers wait a full year for another bite.

Spring works too.

The same dumpling comes back every spring at the fair’s own Food Walk-Thru preview, months before the summer fair even opens its gates.

That’s a shorter wait than many fairgoers expect.

3. C and M's Fair Gyros

C and M's beef, lamb, and chicken gyros have fed Cuyahoga County Fair crowds for nearly 50 years, run by Valley City sisters Peggy Greene and Suzanne Jelinek.

Their family is four generations deep in the fair business now, and the gyro's seasoning hasn't changed since day one.

One fair isn't enough.

The family works six different Northeast Ohio county fairs and festivals across a single summer, so a fan who misses the gyro line at one stop can usually find it at the next.

4. Buckeye Concessions' Kettle Corn

Buckeye Concessions has worked the Cuyahoga County Fair for more than 20 years, run by the Hart family out of Geauga County.

Cinnamon-roasted almonds, cashews, and pecans come out of the same trailer as fresh-baked strudel and kettle corn, and fairgoers follow the smell off the midway to find it.

The kettle corn doesn't wait.

The Hart family also runs two year-round Buckeye Chocolate Cafe storefronts, in Chardon and Bainbridge, both a short drive from the Geauga County Fairgrounds.

A fan can walk in for the same roasted nuts on a random Tuesday in November.

5. Pierogi Palace's Pierogies and Kielbasa

Pierogi Palace has worked Ohio's fair circuit for more than 60 years, a fourth-generation business out of Doylestown, Ohio.

Potato pancakes, cabbage and noodles, and kielbasa round out a menu built around the pierogi itself, boiled and pan-fried the same way it has been since the 1970s.

Regulars don't guess.

Bush Fairway Concessions has held the exact same spot at the Cuyahoga County Fair for more than 11 years running.

Pierogi Palace also keeps a permanent stand at Cleveland's historic West Side Market, so the same pierogies are findable long after any county fair has closed for the season.

6. Wood County Pork Producers' Pork-A-Lean Sandwich

Wood County Pork Producers has sold its Pork-A-Lean sandwich at the Wood County Fair in Bowling Green since the 1970s.

The group created it as a promotional push to get fairgoers eating more pork.

It stuck.

Belleville Brothers Market has supplied the sandwich's secret-recipe pork ever since, a family meat market that has worked the fair for four generations, going back to the 1950s.

The Wood County Fair packed up its 2026 run on August 9.

Belleville Brothers Market doesn't close with it.

The same seasoned pork sells retail at the family's meat market on Main Street in downtown Bowling Green, six days a week, with no need to wait for next August's fair.

7. Glo Concessions' Elephant Ears

Glo Concessions fries its funnel cakes and elephant ears at the Franklin County Fair in Hilliard every July, one of several Ohio fairs the Otterbacher family works each summer.

Hilliard doesn't keep it long.

The Franklin County Fair wraps up in late July.

By August, the same elephant ears turn up two hours north at the Cuyahoga County Fair.

Jasmine Otterbacher runs funnel cakes, elephant ears, fried buckeyes, and churros out of the trailer there, while her sister Penny handles fried cheese-on-a-stick and lemonade at a second window.

The Otterbacher family has worked Ohio's fair circuit for almost 100 years, from Franklin County's fairgrounds to Cuyahoga's.