At the South Carolina State Fair, one can get a variety of different foods like elephant ears, fried Oreos and fried mushrooms. One particular vendor has a history of excellence and a reputation for quality fair food.
Daley’s Dogs, a 50-year-old family-owned business, has multiple stands near the fair’s entrance. The vendor sells corn dogs and funnel cakes at the fair every year. The award-winning vendor is known for their unique approach to the fair classic, such as the funnel cake corn dog.
“We specialize in our corn dogs,” Frances Daley said. “We do a jalapeño corn dog, we’ve done some gourmet specialty corn dogs.”
Daley’s is a locally-owned company and in its third generation of family operation. The Daley family travels four months out of the year going to various fairs in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina. The grandchildren of the stand's founder work at the stand full-time to bring food to guests of fairs across the region.
“My grandfather started it, my dad has grown it and then we will continue on,” Daley said. “It was started in 1962 ... here in Columbia. My grandpa was in the military and he required out and got into the corn dog business.”
Daley’s has been featured by the Cooking Channel’s “Carnival Eats” for its King Dog, a banana breaded corn dog with chocolate chips that guests can dip in peanut butter. The stand also has multiple awards for gourmet fair food, like their jalapeño corn dog.
“When I was about five years old, the state fair did competitions for corn dogs ... we won the blue ribbon I think three years in a row. And then they stopped doing it because it got too political,” Daley said. “In the Marietta North Georgia State Fair, they do a crazy food contest and we won one year for our pickled ranch corn dog.”
Daley’s Dogs is now expanding the business to include funnel cakes while still delivering corn dogs to fairgoers over 50 years after its opening.