Burgers and Fudge Together Fair-Ever

Before cheesecake on a stick, before smoothies and even iced coffees, the refreshments at the Orange County Fair were simpler fare: hamburgers from Blue and White Concessions and fudge from Jeanne’s Candy Kitchen.

Those were also simpler times, say Robert Hutchins and Robert Holman, longtime owners of these snack stands, which have been fair features for 40-plus years. They’re the oldest booths at the fair, lasting even through the invasion of the popular Bloomin’ Onion. The men behind them have watched the fair, and the county, grow up.

In a business that has to reinvent and relocate week after week through fair season, Hutchins and Holman are constants.

“If you spend one year doing this, and you make it all the way through, then it’s in your blood,” Hutchins says. “Come springtime, you’ll start thinking of the Ferris wheel . . . and working those 10-hour days, dog-tired.”

It’s a simple love of the business that keeps them going, they say. That, and an American truth: Fads will come and go, from fried artichoke hearts to fusion cuisine, but there will always be hamburgers and chocolate.

Holman’s first year at the fair was 1959. He and his mother, Jeanne, came to sell fudge. It was popular at 95 cents to $1 per pound, and still is today at $10.70 a pound, especially the chocolate nut flavor. His business is mostly the same today, though he admits modern health consciousness has demanded the addition of sugar-free fudge ($17.00 per pound).

The landscape, however, is very much changed.

“When I first came, Brookhurst [Street] was just two lanes, one each way, and the Santa Ana Freeway just came down to Harbor [Boulevard],” said Holman, 75.

Though the fair is now a countywide attraction, it wasn’t then.

“Folks who lived on the coast wouldn’t come here, just the locals,” he said. The fair and carnival were considered dirty by some, Holman said, but it’s a “cleaner, neater” place today.

Holman and Hutchins have also witnessed the American convenience food revolution.

There are more easy-to-eat foods on sticks now, from egg rolls and teriyaki chicken to cheesecake. And although fair vendors used to transport their supplies using handcarts, Hutchins and Holman say that today, it’s all about the golf cart.

It’s also a more competitive business, with new, popular snacks every year, like the giant, French-fried Bloomin’ Onion and fruit smoothies. Hutchins’ hamburgers face off with veggie burgers, and everyone knows that Holman’s fudge isn’t fat-free.

But fat content notwithstanding, being a classic counts, Hutchins says.

“The fair is the one time of year when people let their hair down,” he says. “You hear them walking by, talking about where their favorite fried zucchini stand is, about that gyro they have to have.”

The variety of concessions can also be a good thing, says Hutchins, who eats his own food until he gets sick of it. That’s when he goes over to the Mexican snack stand and tries to trade a burger for a burrito.

He’s seen other cultural shifts, too. Blue and White Concessions has a sexual harassment policy now, and employees have to sign a waiver saying they won’t take illegal drugs.

Hutchins, 55, is a 25-year fair veteran who inherited Blue and White about 10 years ago. The original owner, Beverly Selway, first came to the Orange County fair in 1960. They worked together before she died in 1994 and he took over. In 1980, it was he who had to explain to her that in order to sell more hamburgers, they had to offer French fries too.

But a few things have stayed the same. Hutchins still warms his hamburger and hot dog buns on the original grill Selway used in 1960.

“That’s Beverly Selway’s secret sauce in there,” Hutchins says, gesturing grandly to his painted steel trailer.

Holman, too, has kept the same recipes during his 41 years of making fudge.

And of course, there will always be Hutchins and Holman, who both say they’ll never retire.

“I just don’t know what I’d do,” says Holman, who lives in Newport Beach. Around fair time, “I get itchy feet.”

Adds Hutchins, who literally lives on the road year-round with his wife, Kapua, in a fifth-wheel camper, but always returns to the Orange County Fair: “I don’t trade my loyalties. This isn’t a job, it’s a life.”

The fair runs through Sunday at the fairgrounds, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. Hours are noon to midnight Monday through Wednesday and 10 a.m. to midnight Thursday through Sunday. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and $2 for children. Children under 5 are free.