The tempting scent of fried dough and powdered sugar fills the air at the San Juan County Fair, where two families have been serving up midway favorites for decades.
The late Roy and Jessie Simpson started serving up traditional Navajo Frybread in a booth 52 years ago at the fair.
It started out as a side business. The Simpsons where silversmiths and one of their customers asked them to sell frybread at the fair, their daughter Valerie Simpson said.
Every year Roy and Jessie would be at the fair making the traditional fried dough, and when they were ready to retire, their son Darrell Simpson took over the business, Valerie said.
The entire Simpson family comes out and cooks the second week of August, and the next generation is learning the business too.
White Mountain Food has a similar story with three generations cooking up funnel cakes and curly fries.
The family has been participating in the fair for more than 40 years.
“It’s not a mix. It’s an original recipe,” Fair Board vice president Billy Huish said of the funnel cakes.
Gwen and Sid, the original owners, “went back east and talked to the Amish people to get the recipe,” said Andres Sigha, owner of the business. “Before that there were no funnel cakes in the Southwest.”
White Mountain Food also serves up plates with mountains of curly fries, which also is popular, but not like the funnel cakes, Sigha said.
“We’ve had people say these are the best funnel cakes,” Sigha said. “It’s mainly the mix and the oil.”
In the early days, the funnel cakes were served with cinnamon and sugar, but Sigha said he uses unique toppings such as strawberries and cream, smores and cookies.
“They look amazing and taste great,” Sigha said.
Roy’s Lemonade owners Lucinda and Jeff Hutchison said they often work the same events as White Mountain Foods.
“We used to do Riverfest with them,” Lucinda said. “We’ve been out here at the fair for 25 years.”
Lucinda and Jeff purchased the lemonade business from a man named Roy, for which the product is named. She said he started out selling small batches of lemonade in a Walmart parking lot.
“It took him 10 to 15 years to get his powder into a mix for volume,” she said.
Lucinda and Jeff also sell Roy’s Lemonade at the Junior High National Rodeo in Gallup along with other events all year.
“The fair is the biggest event that we do,” she said.
The San Juan County Fair is like coming home for the couple that used to live here, before moving to Flagstaff, Arizona.
“We love seeing all the people,” Lucinda said. “We’ve done it so long, we are seeing people coming with their kids.”
The fair is like a family for the vendors, she said. “We all help each other out.”
Other longtime food vendors include Spare Rib BBQ and the Purple Cow, but there also are new food vendors like Kimi Newland, who just purchased Dinky Donuts and is doing her first fair.
“I’m nervous, but I’m excited,” Newland said.
Newland has been in the restaurant industry for 20 years and decided to branch out with the doughnut food truck.
“I’ve made a whole new menu and drinks,” Newland said, adding she is doing numerous events to build up a clientele.
There’s “lots of new food,” Huish said. “We’ve got fried Spam sandwiches and gourmet hot dogs. All kinds of neat stuff.”
The San Juan County Fair is open 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily through Aug. 15 at McGee Park.