DALLAS — Take it from Nicole Sternes and Chris Easter: Being a State Fair of Texas concessionaire is tough.
“We fought so hard to get into the fair,” Sternes says: They applied three times before they were accepted. “My husband said, ‘If we get in, we’re entering that contest [the Big Tex Choice Awards] and we’re winning.’”
And they did.
Their dessert Peanut Butter Paradise was named “best taste - sweet” in 2022 by a panel of judges. It’s a honey bun injected with caramel and deep fried in funnel cake batter, then slathered with peanut butter and topped with Reese’s Pieces and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. It sounds wildly sweet — too sweet, maybe — but it isn’t. On a Day One taste test at the State Fair, a panel of Dallas Morning News judges picked it as one of the best-tasting new foods of the year.
“I don’t know which made me happier: to win — or to see my mom see us win,” Easter says.
He grew up in Dixon Circle, an area of South Dallas that’s a few miles southeast of Fair Park. Easter didn’t get to go to the State Fair as a kid; it was too expensive.
“I’d be sitting around, eating my honey bun and thinking about a funnel cake,” he says. “I’d sit on the steps near the fair, eat those honey buns, and watch everyone else go in.”
Decades later, Easter and Sternes opened a cheesesteak spot near Fair Park, on Al Limpscomb Way, named SouthSide Steaks & Cakes. Easter loved cheesesteaks and was intent upon serving a “Texas” style cheesesteak like he never got to eat as a kid. Back then, he’d put a chunk of government cheese on top of a honey bun. “I thought that was a cheesesteak,” he says.
Once the State Fair accepted them as concessionaires in 2021, they sold Texas-style cheesesteaks near the steps of the Cotton Bowl. (And they are really, really good.) They dreamed of what they’d enter into the Big Tex Choice Awards contest in 2022, which would be their first year eligible. The fair has a rule that concessionaires have to operate their booth for one year before they dive into the big-deal food contest — which, for winners, means long lines, stressful days and, potentially, big money.
As the husband-wife couple debated what to fry for the Big Tex Choice Awards, they were inspired by a customer who used to come into SouthSide. He was wrongly convicted of murder and spent 35 years in prison. One of the stories he’d tell is that his favorite food while incarcerated was a honey bun slathered in peanut butter.
Easter connected with the idea right away.
In the SouthSide kitchen, he began frying up honey buns and injecting them with different flavors or topping them with different candies. The peanut butter-chocolate-caramel trio was just right — and it came inspired by Easter’s own childhood and a cherished friend.
“I felt it so deep,” Easter says. “That [dessert] was my whole life, rolled up to today.”
The honey bun problem
Winning was great. But as many State Fair concessionaires have found, selling one of the most sought-after foods at the State Fair of Texas comes with a lot of pressure to never run out of food and to serve it consistently each time.
It comes with a price, too: They sell one Peanut Butter Paradise for $20 or two for $35. Easter knows that’s a lot of money.
So Easter and Sternes started buying boxes of Duchess honey buns. Their Fair Park restaurant, closed temporarily during the fair, is stacked high with more than 2,000 boxes. They’ve scoured North Texas gas stations, grocery stores and even reached out to the manufacturer, with no response. Their Facebook messages have become a treasure trove of honey bun spottings around town. Some loyal fans have even purchased them and donated them to the restaurant to help Easter and Sternes stay ahead.
“Last year, the last three days of the fair were really busy for us,” Sternes says. “That’s when people normally run out of food.” So the hunt is not over yet.
They’d rather over-buy. The dessert has become so popular that the couple plans to sell Peanut Butter Paradises year round at SouthSide Steaks & Cakes, once it reopens Nov. 7.
Sternes says the tougher part has been buying up enough Reese’s candies.
“You know what the funny thing is? We were planning for honey buns and forgot about the candy,” she says. “I’m going all the way out to the outskirts.” Halloween hasn’t helped. Whatever extra supply of orange, black and yellow Reese’s Pieces were on shelves seems to have gone quickly.
“I think a lot of people use them as party favors,” she says.
‘Ready for another booth’
The couple has sold 20,000 orders of Peanut Butter Paradise in the first 16 days of the fair, and yet they say this year has been easier than last year.
“We’ve been planning to get things across the counter every minute,” she says. There’s a rhythm to it, and a science: “We’re been watching how Fletcher’s does it; we’ve been watching the turkey legs [sellers]. Their lines are constantly moving.”
Their booth, still at the base of the Cotton Bowl, also sells several options for cheesesteaks, but the menu is smaller this year to leave room for their sweet State Fair star.
Sternes says the crew is tired. But, like last year, they’re already scheming for next year.
“I’m ready for another booth,” she says.
Peanut Butter Paradise is sold at one booth at the State Fair of Texas, near the stairs at the front of the Cotton Bowl. The booth name is Texas Cheesesteaks SouthSide Steaks and Cakes.
The State Fair ends in 2022 on Oct. 23.
Peanut Butter Paradise costs 20 coupons, or $20, for one; $35 for two. Pro tip: Strangers have made friends in line and purchased their PB Paradises together, to get a $5 deal.
