A new food hall in the middle of the state fairgrounds will offer visitors a taste of six Columbus-area restaurants, a lesson about Ohio’s history – and air conditioning.
The Ohio Showcase Building will debut at the 2026 Ohio State Fair, July 29 to Aug. 9 at the Ohio Expo Center and State Fairgrounds. Fair and fairgrounds officials call it “a new place to gather, enjoy local flavors and discover what makes Ohio unique.”
Schmidt’s Sausage Haus, which has had a presence at the state fair since 1912 and already operates year-round in five other buildings on the expo center grounds, will be in the new food hall as well. Schmidt’s will debut its own line of canned root beer at this year’s fair, as well as a style of its signature cream puff that’s filled with root beer-flavored cream.
The Cheesecake Girl, who sells mini and full-sized cheesecakes in 99 different flavors from traditional to piña colada, will open her fourth location in the food hall. Owner Samantha Strange currently sells her desserts at Budd Dairy Food Hall in Italian Village, Hilliard’s Center Street Market and the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
Marlow’s Cheesesteaks, another food-hall favorite with stands in Budd Dairy and North Market Downtown, will join the new fairgrounds destination and introduce a Caribbean jerk cheesesteak at the fair. Jomar and Shanika Sheppard, both originally from Philadelphia, also own a standalone location of their restaurant in Gahanna.
A third Budd Dairy restaurateur is joining the Ohio Showcase Building lineup with a new concept. Modern Southern Table owner Sadaya “Daisy” Lewis sells fried chicken, catfish and other soul-food favorites at Budd Dairy and her standalone restaurant in Clintonville. She’s opening Daisy’s Fish Shack, which she said will be modeled on Southern seafood shacks that serve fish baskets and shrimp baskets.
Glass City Pizzeria formerly operated at Lancaster’s River Valley Mall, selling pizza slices and pies, as well as flavored popcorn.
Sweet Carrot Catering operated a restaurant from 2015 to 2021 in the Fifth by Northwest area of Columbus. Its specialties include barbecue and other comfort foods.
After the Ohio State Fair, the Ohio Showcase Building food hall will be open during events that use the entire fairgrounds or the building in particular, fairgrounds spokeswoman Kennedy Porter said.
In addition to the food hall, the building includes an interactive exhibit on Ohio history that includes a replica of the Wright Brothers’ 1905 Wright Flyer III and touchscreen displays of Ohio inventions and inventors.
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: New food hall brings local eats to Ohio State Fair
Reporting by Bob Vitale, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Bob Vitale, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
