Minnesota State Fair food vendors gear up for hungry crowds

The Minnesota State Fairgrounds are buzzing as food vendors prepare for the start of the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

"It's a lot of work, yeah. A lot of cleaning, a lot of prep, a lot of checking things," Andrew Spidahl, who works at About a Footlong Hotdog, said.

The gates don't open until Aug. 27, but for the people who make the state fair what it is, the work is well underway.

Spidahls' family owns About a Footlong Hotdog, a staple at the fair for nearly 80 years.

"I mean, it's a grind, and it's fun. It's good that it's not super long, you know. Twelve days, and plus set up and stuff, you're exhausted by the end. I mean, I'm running 18-hour days sometimes," Spidahl said.

Eddie Porcelli, the owner of Spaghetti Eddie's, says he wants everything to be perfect. The work requires more than knowing your way around a kitchen.

"Right now we are fixing a solenoid problem on our hydraulics. And we develop new foods. Totally opposite ends of the spectrum. You're a mechanic, and now you're a food operator," Porcelli said.

And it's not just a job.

"It's a way of life. You have to develop a mentality for it because you're not going to work at 9 a.m., come home at 5 p.m., right? It's always something," Porcelli said.

The people at Turkey to Go would agree.

"You don't just show up on opening day and say, 'Yay, we got a couple hundred thousand turkey legs to sell ya,' right? We gotta get going early, we gotta prep this stuff, we order product back in January," Blake Vandenburg, operating manager of Turkey to Go, said.

This year the Turkey to Go stand is getting a makeover.

"That opening day, we're ready for that opening day. So that day you walk in here, there's almost a sense of relief," Vandenburg said.

"There's a friendliness to it that I kind of enjoy. I'm mostly an introvert the rest of the year, but at this time, I let it out," Porcelli said.