If you’re looking for travel deals, try a state fair. If any state fair is like Ohio’s, it’s looking for ways to entice people to come by offering discounts and deals, particularly on food.
According to this Toledo Blade article, the “staycation” folks are the ones the Ohio State Fair is courting. As a result, this particular fair is a coupon clipper’s dream. Many coupons found on the fair’s Website offer free drinks with some sort of sandwich purchase; some are money-off deals.
At first glance, the best deal is at the Donahey Agriculture and Hort Building. The coupon touts that kids under 12 get a free Bob Evans kid’s meal for climbing the Corn Wall.
There’s a catch, though: after calling the state fair to verify what I suspected, I found out that you have to go to a Bob Evans restaurant to get your child that meal. Regardless, climbing the Corn Wall would be fun even without the extra reward.
Don’t miss out on the coupons for the Taste of Ohio Café. I can personally vouch for the food. That’s where we ate last year. The point of this building is to highlight Ohio’s food abundance. Each stand is run by a different Ohio food producing association. The Ohio Poultry Association, for example, sells the Thanksgiving dinner that has a has a coupon for $1 off. There’s no catch here.
The coupon sheet serves another purpose, as well: Use it as a fair guide. As you eat and drink your way through the day, you’ll learn a bit more about Ohio. As a note, some coupons are for food items you can eat later. Jose Madrid salsa is one such item. This salsa brand is made in Ohio, and it’s terrific. I’m partial to the hotter versions.
For the coupon sheet, click here.
Deep fried pickles, unfortunately, aren’t included. I love deep fried dill pickles, a food I never heard of or ate before moving to Ohio. I don’t know about the deep friend pickles at the fair, but the ones at Old Bag of Nails Pub in Worthington are yummy.
The fair started in Columbus on Wednesday and will go through Tuesday, August 9.
