Save the Curds!

Long live the deep fried cheese curd.

We have had the wonderful opportunity to travel around the world for clients. It is hard to miss the volume of history many countries have compared to the United States. So, the history we have, we need to respect and preserve.

You might think my emphasis here is preserving an old historic site, building or art form under attack from modernization. Or a rant against modernizing in general from a north loop resident looking around at all the modern buildings. This is not my focus. My focus is the almighty deep fried cheese curd.

Yes, the deep fried cheese curd. The food Wikipedia refers to as “a Minnesota and Wisconsin delicacy" (thank you whomever updates the cheese curd wikipedia page). Unless you’re lactose intolerant, you may have caught yourself whispering “oh, I love you little fried curdies” to your plate of deep-fried goodness (or perhaps that was just me). Whatever your relationship with curds, you have to respect 40 years of history serving these golden gems to the Minnesota State Fair crowd.

But, in our modern economy and perhaps more health-focused culture, the original Deep Fried Cheese Curds brand is being pushed out. Yes, the family responsible for the neon-orange delicacy got a letter, forcibly evicting them from their historic site. But not because they don’t sell - they sell a lot of curds to a happy fair crowd and they’ve been historically in the top ten selling food booths. Is this the end of an era? Are we being forced into believing someone else knows what’s better for us? Sure the five trays I bought last year probably didn’t help my heart, but that’s my heart.

Only kidding, my motto at the fair is “everything in moderation, even moderation.”

So, what’s going to happen? Well, we can sit back as citizens of this state and cry a salty tear into whatever replaces the Original Deep Fried Cheese Curd booth. Or, we can stand up and write a pointed tweet directed at the Minnesota State Fair. We can sign the petition and use the hashtag (#savethecurds) a few times, threatening to never attend the fair until we get our deep fried cheese curds back. Andrew Zimmern is on board.

Done.

We speculate the “fair” people are being “unfair” because this particular brand of Original Deep Fried Cheese Curds hasn't modernized their brand or design since 1975. We will remove that as an issue: Capsule will help modernize the brand and experience while keeping the heritage elements intact. We’ve done it with Red Wing Shoes, Byerly’s and Craftsman. We’ll even extend the offer to the Minnesota State Fair, because obviously they’ve lost touch with their guests if they’re willing to push out their Original Deep Fried Cheese Curd family. How Minnesota nice is that?

We call on you to take up arms, in the form of @ symbols and #hashtags to make your voice heard. “The pen is mightier than the sword” and in today’s modern economy, let’s show the State Fair that @ symbol is mightier than the sword.

And, if this isn’t enough, let’s start talking to the state of Minnesota and ask, “is this representative of the state of Minnesota?” Can we allow the private corporation of the Minnesota State Fair to use our brand name to be unfair to entrepreneurs? We are Minnesota nice and proud to say we’re from the North, and if the Minnesota State Fair can’t represent us properly, let’s take back our brand name.

Let’s get out the @ symbol, bring the noise and bring back the amazing, original deep fried cheese curd.

Who is with us? We’ll design the protest signs.