If you love the food and experience of the Fair but the crowds aren't for you, that's okay. Besides the several Southwest restaurants that have booths at the State Fair, there are Fair-themed foods and experiences in our own community.

• Eat Street Crossing has a limited-time Fair-themed menu with hits like the mini-donut cocktail, dill pickle pizza, and a cheese curd burger. I tried the mini-donut cocktail and loved it. The cinnamony drink has a mini donut-shaped shaved ice cube in the middle that melts into the drink, adding cinnamon-sugar flavor and sweet cream
• Good Times Pizza had a dill pickle pizza all-year round. As does Slice Pizza, located in the Midtown Global Market
• Utepils Brewing has an habanero, dill-infused Kolsch called Kind of a Big Dill‍
• Everett & Charlie by Lake Harriet has Adam Turman State Fair prints, because nothing says Minnesota or the Fair like Adam Turman
• Though it's not branded as State Fair-themed, Daisy's Uptown just added a Fair staple to their menu: fried gator bites