Mexican curly fries? Fried Oreos? New Bradenton restaurant offers fair food all the time

Brett Enright, CEO and founder of Juicys Food, a concession business that started in California and serves “Texas-sized” turkey legs, deep-fried Oreos, corn dogs, funnel cakes and other county fair staples, is opening his first brick-and-mortar store in Bradenton.

The new store is going into a former Burger King at 2319 Cortez Road W., and will offer a drive-thru as well as inside dining.

An AutoZone store is next door and a Home Depot is directly across the street.

“Starting as a one-person corn dog stand in 1984, Juicys has grown to be the leader in outdoor dining and special event food concessions, not only in the industry but also in Southern California. Today, Juicys food and beverage annually serves over one million customers in just Southern California,” the Juicys website says.

Enright was once featured on A&E Network’s Deep Fried Dynasty.

“These grease-soaked geniuses have just 24 demanding days to turn deep-fried delicacies into major profits,” the A&E website says of the Deep Fried Dynasty series.

Juicys restaurant brings fair food to Bradenton

“It’s the American Dream, deep-fried, chocolate covered, and wrapped in bacon,” the A&E website said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mobile food concessions, such as Juicys, took a hit when fairs across the country shut down.

“Since the inception of the drive-thru in the 1960s, it has been a growing channel of fast food industry sales. But in 2020 as the global pandemic has hit, the drive-thru became a mission critical sales channel for preserving store revenue,” Juicys says on its website.

“Now that to-go orders are in higher demand than ever before, this is the perfect opportunity for Juicys to expand its footprint to the drive-thru only restaurant,” the Juicys website says.

During the pandemic, the Manatee County Fair hosted “The Flavors of Our Fair” on back-to-back weekends in October 2020, which gave food vendors a chance to make a little money.

Residents and visitors were invited to the fairgrounds to buy their favorite fair food.

In addition, there have been several “Taste of the Fair to Go” pop-ups at several spots along Cortez Road in Bradenton in recent years. Those were not affiliated with the Manatee County Fair.

Tuesday, workers were busy with store renovations. Although an opening date has not been announced, the Juicys website says the Bradenton store will be open 10:30 a.m. – 2 a.m. Monday through Sunday.