The Bacon is Back

After a year off from the fair, The Bacon Box was back in its prime spot on the grand concourse for 2021. While COVID may have put a halt to events in 2020, with a new bacon ball flavor in hand, Brad Magg and Dominic Iannerelli are ready to go at the Iowa State Fair.

“The reception of the chicken bacon ranch ball has been great today,” Iannerelli said.

Magg added he thinks the homemade ranch helps. The dipping side is a favorite at Magg’s Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe in Prairie City and is the perfect topping to the new selection at the stand. Made from white breast meat and seasoned with ranch, the ball includes the guys’ original cheese stuffed in the middle and is, of course, wrapped in bacon.

“Dom wasn’t happy with the ground chicken you can buy commercially so he ground his own chicken,” Magg said. “Dom is meticulous and the balls are his babies.”

After a crazy first year at the fair in 2019, the duo came prepared for their second go. With the assistance of many special helpers throughout the summer to prepare not only the new chicken bacon ranch balls but also the original bacon balls, the stand is ready to feed the masses visiting the fair.

“We’ve got 60,000 made. 30,000 chicken bacon ranch, 30,000 original pork,” Magg said. “All of them, the wonderful ladies of Jasper County worked on them all summer. It was a very elite group and actually it was to the point where we had to turn people away. The last day of making them people started crying because it was like a quilting circle except for balls.”

The Bacon Box also continues to feature Walt’s Lemonade Creamsicle, a throwback to Magg’s time working at Walt’s Lemonade Stand at the fair as a teenager. It was there that he first set his sites on having his own food stand at the end of summer event. Magg got the chance to live out his dream when Gary and Sue Kirke, owners of Jalapeño Pete’s and the stand, approached him and Iannerelli to reimagine the former funnel cake stand into something new and The Bacon Box was born.

From the opening day of the fair until the last Bacon Ball was sold, it was a crazy, fun and sometimes stressful first year for the guys. They learned a lot during their first go and used that knowledge for their second fair experience.

“Two years ago it was a time when I was still panicking and now we have our supplies in hand,” Magg said. “We’re excited, we’re really lucky we have a great crew of people, 90 percent friends, family, Colfax and Prairie City people. It is going smooth.”

Even with the weather putting a bit of a damper on the first day due to high temperatures and unrelenting humidity, day two was already seeing larger crowds.

“We’re ready to roll,” Magg said. “We’re waiting for the crowds to come but smooth sailing so far.”

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com