Jill Schramm/MDN Candice Thibodeaux holds bacon-wrapped chicken on the stick, one of the most popular items at the Wrapped Up in Bacon food booth at the North Dakota State Fair.

A concessions company from Louisiana impressed the judges with its bacon-wrapped chicken on a stick, claiming a couple of top prizes in the food vendor competition at the North Dakota State Fair this year.

This is the first time at the State Fair for Sue Sue’s Concessions, which operates All Wrapped Up in Bacon from its mobile unit located behind the grandstand. Now in its fourth generation, the family-run company makes the festival circuit from February to November.

Candice Thibodeaux, who was working the booth Monday, said the business made its first-ever stop in North Dakota when it set up at the Red River Valley Fair in West Fargo the week before coming to Minot.

Sue Sue’s Concessions operates a variety of food stands in its nine-state circuit. All Wrapped Up in Bacon has been among its offerings for six years, Thibodeaux said. In adding North Dakota to its circuit, the company decided the bacon trailer would go over well here.

“Everybody loves bacon,” Thibodeaux said.

All Wrapped Up in Bacon won first place in Savory and Best All Around categories of the State Fair’s Food Frenzy for its bacon-wrapped chicken.

The food trailer also serves bacon-wrapped hotdogs, bacon-wrapped jalapeno peppers with cream cheese, bacon cheese fries, bacon nachos and, of course, bacon on a stick. The chicken and the jalapenos wraps are fair favorites, but Thibodeaux said you can’t go wrong with the bucket of freshly cut fries, either.

“We make everything fresh. No frozen,” she said. “Hopefully, everybody likes it. We try to put out a really good product.”

Because the ingredients are fresh, they don’t carry large inventories but will shop local as needed.

“We will find a local produce place. It helps out the community, too,” Thibodeaux said. “Our bacon on a stick we do get from a specialty supplier because you can’t find it in stores. It’s a half-inch piece of bacon. It’s really thick.”

The food trailer is open from 11 a.m. to midnight during the fair. Thibodeaux, one of three people operating the unit, said they come in about 9:30 or 10 a.m. to prepare for the day and finish cleaning up about 1:30 a.m. Between different fairs, there might be a couple of days to regroup but not much down time, she said.

She said they enjoy sampling food from other fair vendors or just getting out to try someone else’s cooking, as long as it’s not bacon. Long days spent serving up bacon specialties 10 months of the year puts a damper on the appetite for the cured pork.

“They got old, two years in,” Thibodeaux said. “No more bacon for me.”