Arlington businessman’s legacy lives on through family’s State Fair of Texas concessions
For many concessionaires, it's just another year of selling deep-fried foods, competing for a Big Tex Choice Award, enduring intense Texas weather and interacting with thousands of customers daily.
For businessman Justin Martinez, 44, this State Fair of Texas season was tinged with grief. It's his first without his father, Rudy Martinez, who died in February 2024 at the age of 74.
Justin, who lives in Arlington, worked alongside his father vending at various concessions on the fairgrounds for decades. Their family business, Fiesta Enterprises, ran four concession booths this season, which wraps up Oct. 20.
The family business of vending at the fair began in 1977, when Rudy and a friend applied to be a vendor at the State Fair of Texas after hearing about an open position. The pair had no prior cooking or vending experience but wanted a fun way to make extra money.
From then on, the concessionaire legacy grew and became a family business of various concessions under Fiesta Enterprises. Justin grew up attending the fair every year, watching his father create new dishes and manage the concession stands.
"On the weekends, after I got done with my soccer games or whatever sports I was playing, I'd always go up there and really enjoy hanging out with the staff, having all the food and, of course, the Midway, and really enjoying that," Justin said. "It's in my blood."
Rudy sold food at the fair as a hobby and worked at AT&T full time outside of the fair season. However, when Justin graduated college, he knew he wanted to make fair concessions his full-time job.
Though Rudy always pushed for his son to have a "normal" career, his son read Robert Kiyosaki's personal finance book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and was persuaded to be an entrepreneur and build a business.
"Of course I was thinking about businesses I could own, and I thought, 'Well my dad has one of those with the State Fair doing that and I love it,'" Justin said.
After graduating college in summer 2003 with a bachelor of business administration in finance, Justin was amped for his first fair outside of college and to begin advancing toward his goal of running the family business. That season, his dad stuck him in a concession stand.
"It's not like he just brought me in, and I'm sitting by him and now I'm an owner," Justin said. "No, he had me basically work from the ground up."
After a few years of managing one concession stand and evaluating the business, Justin became a partner with his father, running the business 50/50. As his father's health began to fail in recent years, Justin took on more responsibilities running the business, while his father simply enjoyed the fair atmosphere.
"It's been, quite frankly, really strange this year not having him there by my side. That's all I know, right? My whole life, I have known the State Fair with my dad, so that's something that is definitely missed," Justin said.
Those outside of the Martinez family saw Rudy as family. Lily Amador, Fiesta Enterprises manager, worked with Rudy when Justin was still a child. After 30 years of working with Rudy, his passing was difficult for Amador. However, she praised Justin for continuing the work his father did with the same passion and respect for employees.
"It's been good to stay with him, too, because he's got the same mentality that his daddy did," Amador said.
Working Fiesta Enterprises concessions has become a family affair even outside the Martinez name.
David Barrientos, Fiesta Enterprises inventory manager, has worked full time with Justin for three years, but he's been around the concession atmosphere practically since birth. Barrientos' mother worked Fiesta concession stands while pregnant with him, and he recalls visiting nearly every day after school when he was young.
"This is something that's big in my life. I could do this every day," Barrientos said. "If the fair was 365 days, I'd come here 365 days."
Though enthralled in the concessions world during fair season, Rudy spent his time after retiring from AT&T volunteering on various boards in the Arlington community, such as the Arlington Police Foundation and Levitt Pavilion Arlington. His dedication to the Arlington Police Foundation led his family to ask for donations to the foundation rather than flowers at his funeral.
"My dad was entrenched in Arlington. I mean, you talk to a lot of people there in the community, the leaders and business owners and people around in the chamber (of commerce), they knew him, and he basically lived his whole life in Arlington," Justin said.
The family previously vended at a few local Arlington events, but their "bread and butter" is the State Fair of Texas. Justin currently owns and operates three concession stands and an outdoor pavilion called Trio on the Green, which opened in 2015, at the fair.
For 2024, Justin created unique dishes to enter into the Big Tex Choice Awards, a competition between vendors to see who has the best-tasting and most creative new food. The Dominican Fritura Dog won "Best Taste – Savory," and the Strawberry Pop-Tarts Beignetffle was a finalist in the sweet category.
About the foods:
The Dominican Fritura Dog was a collaborative creation by Justin and Dominican chef Michael Tavarez. The unique combination of familiar and exotic ingredients provides a twist on the fair's classic corn dog.
"It's a very new thing here in Texas, not a lot of Dominican food out here," Barrientos said. "So it's kind of cool to just see like that being out here, being represented."
The Big Tex Choice Awards have been around since 2005, and Justin has participated since 2008. Food inventions take some time to execute and perfect. Justin begins developing new foods for the next fair season during and immediately after the current season ends.
"My father was always there next to me, especially when we won the Big Tex Choice Awards and (that was) something that he took very seriously," Justin said. "With him, growing up and coaching me in sports, it's all about winning."
The first quarter of each year is spent perfecting the dish he wants to enter into the contest. However, spending time with his wife, Megan, and their 9-year-old daughter, Lyla, is important to Justin, so their summers are usually spent traveling. The family recently hit the milestone of visiting all 50 states, with Alaska as the last during their most recent summer trip.
After some time off, Justin and his team hit the ground running in August.
The State Fair of Texas begins at the end of September and runs for 24 days. So, in August, Fiesta Enterprises begins constructing and setting up each concession stand and Trio on the Green.
"I have a really good team that's been with me and my family and my dad for a long time. They pretty much know what needs to happen and what needs to be done," Justin said.
On especially busy days, namely the Red River Rivalry game between the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl each year, the team has to work together swiftly and efficiently.
"It's amazing. It's like little ants working all together," Amador said. "We have a team. I love it. We know what we need to do and we come with that mentality for that day."
Justin and his team have worked diligently this fair season to make Rudy proud and continue his legacy. Amador and Barrientos are eager to return in 2025 — and Justin says he will work the State Fair until he physically can't anymore.
"There's something magical in the air when it comes to the State Fair of Texas compared to other events," Justin said.
Ella Scott-Dean is an audience engagement fellow at the Fort Worth Report. at . At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here .
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