Boxing Up The Fair
At Fox & Son, Chef Rebecca Foxman has a gluten-free solution for nostalgic cravings.
illustration: Alyssa Nessnar
Nostalgia and food often go hand in hand: your grandmother’s chicken noodle soup; ice cream with your friends on a hot summer day; or the sugar-coated funnel cake at the state fair. But what happens when you’re craving a nostalgic bite and just can’t find it?
Luckily, Chef Rebecca Foxman has you covered. “Seven years ago, you couldn’t get a fresh corn dog unless you were at a fair. People love funnel cake, but you can't get funnel cake anywhere! I saw a need there.” The dearth of these nostalgic bites in Philadelphia was one of the catalysts for Foxman and business partner Kevin Kwan to open Fox & Son Fair Foods. The restaurant showcases American comfort classics and bites you can usually only find at local state fairs, and their line of packaged mixes and baking kits mean that customers can enjoy their favorites at home, too. And to top it all off, it’s all gluten-free.
Prior to opening their concept in Reading Terminal Market in 2017, Foxman worked as a corporate chef at Valley Shepherd Creamery developing the menus for their grilled cheese restaurants, Meltkraft. “I have a really good understanding of nostalgia as an adult. You want that comfort food, but you also want it to be a little amped up.” So, Foxman put blood, sweat, and tears into developing their first menu items, corn dogs and fried cheese curds, going through over 100 variations until they landed on their beloved, gluten-free batter recipes. From there, she built out the brand by developing “sister products,” from the funnel cake, to poutine, to the perfect lemonade to wash it all down.
“We put so much time and work into these mixes, making hundreds of pounds a week by hand. We decided, wouldn't it be great if we get a co-packer to make us thousands of pounds and have it blended consistently?” In 2019, Foxman settled on a co-packer, but with the pandemic hitting shortly after, they had to rethink their strategy. Wanting to distribute their corn dog and funnel cake mixes to local restaurants, Foxman and Kwan originally narrowed in on 25-pound mixes for food service, but with the pandemic, “retail was king,” so they shifted to also producing a one-pound mix, selling them to grocery stores, at Fox & Son, and on their website.
Word of mouth and a loyal customer base were a huge help in getting the Fox & Son products off the ground. “Our mixes are gluten-free. When you're in a niche community where it's hard to find something that's so loved, you want to tell everyone when you find it. Especially if you have kids [who are gluten-free] and want them to experience it, too.” Foxman and Kwan would also post videos and tutorials using their products, in addition to taking out ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Foxman emphasizes that making the right connections can also open doors for a new business. “I’m in a couple of women entrepreneurship groups. It was easy to ask for advice, and through those relationships, I got great referrals. All the stores I’m in, barring a few, are related to personal relationships I made first.” The Fox & Son goods are currently in 12 stores and restaurants across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio.
With the success of their products, Foxman is eager to continue expanding the brand. Fox & Son is in the process of locking down a distributor, and in 2023, they began working with family-owned bakery and co-packer, Little Brown Bird Bakery, to develop frozen products, starting with mini, par-fried versions of their funnel cakes for foodservice and customers at home. “We’ve discovered from our customers that our mixes make great brownies, sugar cookies, and olive oil cakes—things that aren’t the easiest to make gluten-free—so we want to dive into products that use the mix we already have.”
And for businesses looking to expand or create their own packaged goods, Foxman stresses working smarter, not harder, and that the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry is “completely different from the restaurant industry, so you have to be willing to learn from the ground up. The best starting point is having your kitchen certified to produce certain things: baked goods and mixes, for example.”
According to Foxman, the greatest barrier to entry in the CPG game is quantity. “Co-packers have minimums, so you need to prove your concept.” One way to approach this potential obstacle would be “borrowing a space that's certified to test the market with small amounts first before committing to large quantities and investment.” She also suggests getting eyes on your product, whether through farmers markets (also great networking opportunities), social media, or pop-ups. Foxman encourages prospective business owners to get creative; consider what products might accompany or relate to your own and find other brands/chefs/products to collaborate with for more connections and customer eyes. “The fastest line to success is putting yourself forward and taking risks.”
