Cinnamon Saloon has served up warm and delicious cinnamon buns for more than two decades

Since 1999, Amy Brick and her husband Joseph from East Grandy, Conn. have been serving up warm and delicious cinnamon buns, freshly made coffee drinks and smoothies from the Cinnamon Saloon, located in front of the Graham Building.

The N.C. State Fair is one of the handful of fairs this duo attends each year, to the delight of thousands of fairgoers who stop by for the homemade treats.

“Joseph starts around 6 a.m. preparing the dough and hand rolling the buns,” said Amy. “Everything is made fresh daily, nothing is leftover.” The cinnamon bun recipe is Joseph’s and he first sold them in Middletown, NY in 1998. That same year he built the Cinnamon Saloon trailer by hand and they have been traveling ever since to a few large events including the Big E, Strawberry Festival in Plant City, Florida State Fair and the N.C. State Fair. While the stars of the Cinnamon Saloon are their freshly made buns, the coffee and smoothies are just as fresh.

“We grind the beans and brew fresh for every coffee and espresso order,” said Amy. Several of our customers enjoy coming to see us for just our coffee and lattes.”

This year, the Cinnamon Saloon will offer two new varieties of cinnamon buns, strawberry and Oreo. The strawberry cinnamon bun is topped with warm strawberries cooked in a saucepan and the Oreo is made with cocoa and chocolate Oreo frosting. “These have been big hits at the other fairs we have visited this year and we can’t wait to bring them to Raleigh,” said Amy.

Amy began selling smoothies in 1998 at the Lebanon Fair in Connecticut. She grew up on a fruit farm founded in 1924 in Somers, Connecticut where Amy’s grandfather owned the largest peach orchard in the state. The farm sold apples, peaches, nectarines, pears and plums. At the fair, all of the smoothies at the Cinnamon Saloon are made with fresh strawberries, bananas, pineapples, coconuts and mangos.

Amy thinks the best part of the N.C. State Fair is the people. “Since I grew up on the farm I love that our concession stand is so close to the agriculture and livestock at the fair,” she said. “I really enjoy getting to know the families that are showing animals. We have a lot of repeat customers, including one lady that comes and buys enough cinnamon rolls to freeze so she can have one each Sunday until we return the next year.”

The Brick Family has an almost eight decade long history with the N.C. State Fair, Joseph’s grandparents and parents were also vendors at the Fair. His brother, Jeffrey, took over operations of The Veggie Patch, a N.C. State Fair food vendor serving a variety of fried vegetables, from his parents when they retired.

“The N.C. State Fair is a great mix of young and old,” said Amy. “We really do enjoy coming back each year. – it’s a great staff, great vendors and fairgoers. It is a family event for us, we have our family close by and even our daughter Allison and her boyfriend, Bart, helps us at our stand.”

The Cinnamon Saloon opens early each day. Coffee is served before 8 a.m. and the cinnamon buns are ready by 8 a.m. and are available all day long through the run of the N.C. State Fair, Oct. 17-27.