Capital Lakefair is a 5-day chance to cheat on your diet

Capitol Lakefair, kicking off its 61st season Wednesday, draws crowds with its rides, games and entertainment — and even bigger crowds with its annual parade and fireworks show.

But there also are those who come to the five-day extravaganza just for the food.

Plenty of people who live, work and shop downtown — including some of the same ones you’ve probably heard complaining about Lakefair traffic — relish the chance to break out of their lunchtime routines and fill up on fair fare. (Olympian reporters know some of these people, even if they don’t want to go on the record. Olympian reporters might also be some of these people.)

“I do eat some things down there that I wouldn’t normally put out an effort to find,” said Joyce Rommel, who organizes the fair’s lineup of food booths, all operated by local nonprofits.

“It’s got to be good for you,” she added, sounding anything but serious. “It’s fair food.”

Besides the Lakefair-specific variations on such everyday items as burgers and fries, there are such rare treats as corn dogs, elephant ears and flash-frozen ice cream balls.

Then there’s that only-at-a-fair food group: stuff on sticks.

“Our theme is ‘on a stick’ — sausage on a stick, pickle on a stick, banana on a stick,” said Shelly Willis, who chairs the Zonta Club of Olympia’s Lakefair committee. (For traditional sausage eaters, buns are available upon request.)

The bananas — frozen and dipped in chocolate — and the option of Grey Poupon mustard for the German sausages are new additions to the menu the club has been serving at Lakefair since 1977.

“Sometimes when it’s warm, people are not interested in eating sausages, but something cool and refreshing like a frozen banana might do the trick,” Willis told The Olympian.

She took over the Zonta booth last year after former organizer Joyce Gillie died in February 2017 at age 92. “She had been doing it for a long time and had a specific way of doing things,” Willis said. “We’re trying to keep her standard going.”

Those looking to cool off aren’t limited to bananas, of course. You can still get mud pies and strawberry shortcake (the kind made with ice cream). Also new this year are Dippin’ Dots flash-frozen ice cream, available at a new booth operated by Joshua 1:Nine Ministries, a Poulsbo nonprofit that works with boys in the Dominican Republic.

The biggest menu news, though, is the loss of the Saint Martin’s Alumni Association booth, beloved by many for its burgers and one-pound servings of curly fries.

Rommel, a longtime volunteer with the association and a devotee of its burgers, is bereft, but those in search of beef patties can get them from the Olympia Host Lions Club, which cooks its burgers over an open flame, and the Thurston County Democrats, whose Demo Burger is a favorite with fans of caramelized onions.

From the other side of the aisle, the Thurston County Republicans are back with a lineup of hot dogs, Polish dogs, corn dogs and garlic fries.

Also on the menus of Lakefair vendors: barbecue, teriyaki and other Hawaiian specialities, Philly cheesesteaks, crepes, and Frito pies, which are a conglomeration of corn chips, chili and cheese.

If that’s not sufficient variety for you, the Transferring Financial Success booth offers a menu that will change throughout the five-day fair.

This ambitious undertaking works out because the nonprofit, which teaches youth about money and gives scholarships, is run by Jeff and Sharon Shaw, who also operate Sensational Cajun at 9323 Martin Way E.

Among the booth’s offerings are such hearty entrees as gumbo, jambalaya and shrimp and grits; po boys, which are a Southern sub stuffed with gator, shrimp or catfish; and beignets, which are fried dough with powdered sugar. New for the 61st Lakefair are muffuletta sandwiches, another sub variation dressed with olive salad.

The gator po boy is a favorite, especially with younger diners, Jeff Shaw said. “The kids love the gator,” he told The Olympian. “I’m shocked when kids come up and they want the gator. Parents are shocked, too.”

And he always sells out of beignets. That makes sense since they’re the Southern cousin to the ever-popular elephant ear — one of the treats Rommel plans to eat in the absence of her now-departed Saint Martin’s burgers.

“It just isn’t Lakefair without an elephant ear,” she said.

This story was originally published July 6, 2018 at 7:06 AM.