They are a family owned business based out of Rochester, New York.
With their mobile food concessionary stand they travel select seasonal events.
They brought the original Pennsylvania Dutch recipe for Funnel Cakes to the Central New York area over 30 years ago.
With their motto “You haven’t had fried dough until you try Nancy’s!” You just know they’re serving something special.
Chris Bagnato spoke to us about his business.
Q – Chris, I guess the obvious question is, who is Nancy? Why is the business called Nancy’s fried dough?
A – So Nancy is our mother. The way the business started was my father was sick. He had kidney disease. So, he had no kidneys. He was part of the Kidney Foundation. And being of Italian descent he had a fried dough recipe for Pizze Fritte as it was called back in the day. He met somebody in the Kidney Foundation who was in the Carnival business. He had rides and games and they started talking. He said, “Hey, you should sell your fried dough at carnivals.” The rest is history. That was 48 years ago (1974). So, Nancy is my mother. My dad passed at 39. She took it over and expanded it. She went crazy with it.
Q – Now, did she come to New York State Fair this year (2022)?
A – She always goes. Every festival, every fair, she goes there, sits in her chair. She’s in her late 70s now. But, she can’t stay away. That’s all she knows. I’m sure it reminds her of her late husband. She can’t stay away from it.
Q – You and your mother and brothers must have a Winnebago and camp out at the fairgrounds do you?
A – Yeah. We bring seven campers with us to house all of our employees. So, she has her own. Then we have ours and the employees have theirs.
Q – Were you the first business to introduce Funnel Cakes to the Fair crowds?
A – I’m pretty sure we were. We were the first one in our area. This is back in the early 80s because it was a Pennsylvania treat, Pennsylvania Dutch in we’re one of the first ones to bring it into our area and then we added it to the Fair. Again, I was quite young at that time. So, I don’t know if we were the original, original, but, I’m pretty sure we were the original one in this area. So, I’m assuming the fair was the same thing, one of the original Funnel Cakes there.
Q – How much competition do you have at the New York State fair?
A – The state fair with our fried dough – very high competition. There is always been 20 or 30 locations that sell Funnel Cakes, basic treats. About five years ago we added another stand where we sell our Gyros, Philly Steaks, and Quesadillas. And that one has taken off quite a bit. So, our name has helped us and our product has helped us.
Q – Are you in competition with the Villa Pizze Fritte stand at New York State fair?
A – Yes. I’ve got a funny story about that. So, back in the late 70s, early 80s we came into the State Fair and we had the name Pizze Fritte which is what they call Pizza Fritte there as well, not realizing they trademarked the name even though it’s an Italian word for fried dough basically. So, Grazi ended up suing us for that name. We ended up becoming friends with him. We ended up dropping the name to drop the lawsuit. Yes, we are in competition with Grazi . He’s the big power there. He’s got many fans there. A local Syracuse guy. But, we have no problems with him whatsoever.
Q – Do you travel around New York State during the Fair season?
A – We normally stay pretty much in Rochester where we’re based out of. We don’t do too much traveling. We do a couple away events, but, mostly in New York. We do Oswego Harbor Fest. There’s a Fair in Dunkirk we did. Marathon, New York, a little Maple Festival. For the most part we have plenty around Rochester to keep us busy.
Q – Do you set up at that fair in Hamburg, New York?
A – We did a couple of years. We had a very, very tough location. The competition was not conducive to our business. So, we ended up pulling out of their and we do not do Hamburg currently.
Q – Is this product of yours a product that could be sold to a supermarket or do you pretty much have to make it on the spot?
A – You have to make it on the spot. You can definitely sell the ingredients to make it at home, but, it’s never the same at home. You need the commercial equipment to really get the flavor properly. We do have other products that we are thinking about selling online. Again, we’ve expanded our business, expanded our menu. We are over 60 menu items now just to be able to do other events. We added like cinnamon roasted nuts, caramel corn, things like that we could sell that, that have a longer shelf life that we could package at home and sell online or sell in stores so to speak. But, we’re just starting that end of the business.
Q – Do you have a store in Rochester?
A – No. We basically do Festivals and Fairs. We’ve always been April, May to September, but now we’re like March. Pretty much the whole year we’re working. Just indoor events. Not as big of a scale as the summer. In the summer at the peak we would have 100 employees working for us. Part-time employees. It was quite large. Ever since Covid hit we scaled back quite a bit. We started slowing down and only doing a select few of them, only doing three or four festivals instead of doing 10 festivals a weekend.
Q – If you did have a store you could probably do pretty well. People must come up to you and say “I don’t want to find your fried dough once a year at the fair. I’d like to have it more often.”
A – People beg us all the time but again with the main person being my mother in charge, she’s still kind of nervous. She likes it her way. I like doing the festivals. We’re trying to push her in a different direction. “Hey, let’s open a store. People are begging for it. It’s not one person. It’s 1000 people. Hey, where’s your store? Will come eat.” So, we keep talking about it. It’s a matter of taking that next step to make it happen.
Q – How far can you take Nancy’s fried dough? Is there room for more expansion and growth?
A – Absolutely. We could travel across state lines, different areas. We could sell online. Some of our products have a good shelf life. Become an e-commerce type of deal. There’s many ways we can scale it up. We just have to get the right dynamic working so to speak.
Q – I hope you get that dynamic!
A – Me too. We added our grill stand and we have some really top-notch steak. I make sure I get my steak out of Philly. I get my lamb out of Chicago my dad always taught us get the best ingredients, make the best product and people will come back. That’s proven at the fair with the stake stand that I have. Best steak sandwich at the fair. Best quesadillas. We people from Syracuse come to the fair every night during the fair for dinner that I meet. I had someone drive from Albania. His pregnant wife wanted to have my steak sandwich. He drove up from Albania (New York), drove back home and brought it to his wife. So, we have our full wing for sure. The last five years have proven that stand, Nancy’s has a product besides fried dough.
Q – Who taught you how to make all this food? Your father? Your mother? Did you go to any type of cooking school?
A – So, my father had the recipe for fried dough. That’s were that started from. As far as the steak and everything else it was basically trial and error. Try different products. Try different seasonings. Just all trial and error literally six months of the year. Trying to get the right bread, the quesadillas, the right meat, the right seasonings, the right sauces. It turned out to be positive because it worked out. People love it. People love it. Same thing with my cinnamon nuts. It took me a year to get that recipe just right. I tried many different recipes. I tried many different procedures, many different operations and now I got one of the best nuts in this area as far as roasted nuts. So, I’ll be bringing them to Syracuse in February (2023). I’m doing a winter fair at the fairgrounds at the Expo building. Steve Becker promotions is doing a winter fair inside. So, I’m bringing our nuts there. So, were going to be able to expose that more often now. I can’t bring the fried dough, because Grazi is there. With his Pizze Fritte. Being a small area you don’t want to duplicate too much. I’ll bring my nuts. You never know where that might lead you.
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