Bacon-on-a-Stick Vendor at Fair Shops Local, Buys Champion Reserve Pig

Some say the second Friday of the State Fair of Texas is when the real fun starts. Actually, vendor Tami Jo Nevins-Mayes is the one who says that. The first week is "fresh attitudes and fresh grease." The second week is when all the kinks are worked out, and things are churning and running.

The second week is also marked by the Big Tex Youth Livestock Auction, which provides scholarships to students across Texas. More than 3,000 students compete for the 604 spots at the livestock show. When it comes to the auction bids, students receive a predetermined amount for the animals and the rest goes to the scholarship fund. The State Fair of Texas has provided more than $33 million in auction awards and scholarships in its 76-year history.

This year's grand champion steer sold for $180,000, besting last year's record-breaking sum of $160,000. The buyer was Frank Deel of Kaufman (who was also the highest bidder last year).

Since the '50s concessionaires and ride operators at the fair have collaborated to buy an animal in the livestock auction — usually the reserve champion steer — as a way to give back to the fair. This year's bidding for that steer was almost closed at $51,000, but opened back up after a missed signal. The ensuing bidding war pushed the final price to $81,000, in favor of team concessionaires/operators.

"That was a surprise," Tami Nevins-Mayes of Nevins Concessions said, who was doing the bidding for the group as the steer was paraded in front of the audience. "We've never gone that high. But you just stick to it. You know your limit and when it got up to 80, I'm looking at the paddle. We could only go to 85, so when it stopped at 81 [$81,000], we were excited."

Just after the light grey grand champion reserve steer was walked off the stage, the reserve champion barrow, a male swine, waddled on. Watching closely was Isaac Rousso, who won this year's Big Tex Choice Award — Best Sweet with his Cotton Candy Bacon on a Stick. Here a thicker-than-thick slice of bacon is swirled through a cotton candy machine, then kissed with a blow torch, creating a sweet candy coating on the salty slab of meat. There's even a beer pairing to go with it.

Outside of corn dogs, the cotton candy bacon on a stick is the fair's most Instagrammable shot this year.

Rousso has been a fair concessionaire since 2005 and has had nine Big Tex Choice Awards finalists and four winners.

After the bidding was over on Friday, we asked him (again) the source of his bacon. Rousso is mum.

"It's the talk of the town, right?" he says with a laugh. "But you know what: I can't tell you."

With his bacon dealer on lockdown, Rousso says that he knew the grand champion barrow would be out of reach (it went for $32,000), and when bidding climbed to around $20,000 for the second-place pig, he was getting nervous. "A friend of mine told me, 'You give until it hurts.' I felt this one, but it was a great cause to give to. And our family benefits so much from the State Fair of Texas. Giving back means a lot," he says.

And for Rousso and his family, that benefit is big as of late.

He says winning a Big Tex Choice Award changes the trajectory of your business. "It changes your opportunities, we get so much exposure," he says. "And it financially changes your business. I've got 25,000 pounds of bacon on the ground here at the State Fair of Texas ready to serve and it's crazy."

The fair runs through Oct. 20. Until then Rousso and his teams will be spinning that 25,000 pounds of bacon into a cotton candy machine — and into money, to be frank.

When asked about his plans after the very busy fair season, Rousso didn't hesitate: "I know I'm not going to be eating bacon."

For the record, Rousso's reserve champion pig will not be slaughtered and put through the cotton candy machine. He donated it back to the fair, just as the concessionaires do with their reserve champion steer.