What do you get when you cross caramel corn and an ice cream sundae, dill pickles and roasted cashews, churros and Korean corn dogs, or Blue Heat Takis with French fries?
An urgent need for Tums, perhaps. But you also get a taste of the new concessions making their debut at the 2026 Ohio State Fair.
From the Ohio Gate through Kiddieland, down the Food Highway to the midway, the fair will offer a smorgasbord of new and traditional foods. The Ohio State Fair is scheduled for July 29 to Aug. 9 at the Ohio Expo Center and State Fairgrounds in Columbus.
“Every year, concessionaires challenge themselves to push the boundaries of fair food while honoring the classics people love,” Adam Heffron, executive director of the fairgrounds, said in his agency’s announcement of the 2026 lineup.
He called the 2026 menu a spectacular mix of “decadent, over-the-top sweets with bold global flavors.”
“There is truly something incredible for everyone to discover,” Heffron said.
What’s new and different at the 2026 Ohio State Fair?
Here are some of the offerings that are sure to grab attention.
State fairs are a showcase for edible oddities
From coast to coast, state fair concessions in the age of Instagram have become a competitive field.
At the Iowa State Fair in August, one vendor will serve a bacon-brisket mac and cheese doughnut, glazed with a sweet barbecue sauce, chopped brisket and a slice of fresh jalapeno. Florida is blurring sweet-savory boundaries even further with a Reese’s Pieces Donut Burger. It’s Angus beef, cheese and bacon on a Nutella doughnut bun that’s topped with chocolate, peanut butter and vanilla icing.
Here in Ohio, a menu of doctored-up deviled eggs once again will be the state’s contribution to the world of fair-food oddities. The Ohio Poultry Association is offering an America 250 flight of six flavors this year that includes birthday cake, apple pie, brisket, hot dog, mac and cheese, and ranch.
Columbus restaurants are at the state fair
Well-known vendors will be joining the party, too.
At Maggie’s Concessions, fairgoers can build their own Velvet Ice Cream bars. You get to choose among chocolate, peanut butter, cherry, caramel or white chocolate for the coating. Then you can roll it in crushed candy, cookies or other toppings.
Velvet Ice Cream will have its own stands in the Dairy Building and Taste of Ohio Cafe, and it will be serving up a special state fair flavor. Star Spangled Swirl is a throwback to the classic Bomb Pop, with cherry, lime and blue raspberry swirls.
Schmidt’s Sausage Haus will debut its own line of canned root beer at the new Ohio Showcase Building in the middle of the fairgrounds. CEO Kyle Schmidt said the business founded by his great-great-grandfather served root beer out of barrels during its early years as a state fair concessions vendor in 1912.
Schmidt’s also has a new cream puff flavor, Root Beer Float, for the 2026 fair. It’s filled with root beer-flavored cream.
All six restaurants inside the Ohio Showcase Building have central Ohio roots. The Cheesecake Girl and Sweet Carrot Catering, which operated a restaurant from 2015 to 2021 in the Fifth by Northwest area, are Columbus-based businesses. Glass City Pizzeria formerly did business in Lancaster.
Marlow’s Cheesesteaks, with locations in North Market Downtown, Budd Dairy Food Hall and Gahanna, will join the new fairgrounds spot and introduce a Caribbean jerk cheesesteak at the fair. It’s made with seasoned, chopped chicken breast tossed in jerk sauce and topped with melted cheese, sautéed onions and hot peppers.
Modern Southern Table owner Sadaya “Daisy” Lewis is opening Daisy’s Fish Shack and will offer fried catfish pieces on a stick, along with her classic soul-food sides at the state fair.
Shaking up lemon shake-ups at the Ohio State Fair
Don’t worry. You’ll find old-school lemon shake-ups – freshly squeezed lemon juice, sugar, ice, water and the lemon thrown in for good measure – all over the fairgrounds.
But there’s more.
Lemon shake-up meets dirty soda: Prowant Specialty Co. will mix fresh-squeezed lemonade with vanilla sweet cream, with optional flavor boosts of peach, strawberry or blue raspberry.
Lemon shake-up meets the ice cream shop: Another sweet-tart refreshment, this time from Rutana Concessions,adds a scoop of vanilla ice cream to lemonade.
Lemon shake-up meets matcha latte: Fresh-squeezed lemonade is paired with matcha green tea and topped with sweet cream in the fair’s version of a matcha latte from GH Concessions.
Lemon shake-up meets draft beer (kind of): Nitrogen-infused beverages have a smooth and creamy texture and a foamy head, kind of like a draft beer. Nitro frozen lemonade from Miller & Co. Concessions is nonalcoholic but is described as having a light, velvety mouthfeel with a crisp and bright flavor.
Still hungry? Here are more Ohio State Fair foods
Other Ohio State Fair foods of note include more souped-up versions of traditional American favorites and trendy treats that are making their midway debuts.
Fancy funnel cakes: Forget the powdered sugar. Prowant Specialty will top its Fluffer Nutter Funnel Cakes with marshmallow and peanut-butter sauce. GH Concessions’ Star-Berry Cobbler Funnel Cake is finished off with strawberries, blueberries, cream-cheese icing and honey granola.
Blueberry Pie Bingsu: Bingsu is a Korean dessert made with shaved ice and toppings of fruit, condensed milk and other sweet bits. The version from Backdraft Brews & Bites brings it home to the Midwest with blueberry pie filling, graham cracker crumbs and sweetened condensed coconut milk.
Nutella Pocket: A new take on Uncrustables from Lad’s Management is filled with Nutella, peanut butter and chocolate sauce, then deep-fried.
Tanghulu: Skewers of strawberries, grapes, sliced banana and other fruits are coated in a sugar shell for this Chinese snack that’s crackly and super sweet. It’s offered by Fresh Fruit Candy.
Follow Dispatch dining reporter Bob Vitale on Instagram at @dispatchdining. You can reach him directly at rvitale@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Eat your way around the Ohio State Fair with new food to try
Reporting by Bob Vitale, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Bob Vitale, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
