The paddlewheel is turning again at Fair Park.
If you grew up going to the State Fair, you know the Old Mill Inn by sight. It’s the timber-and-stone building on Grand Avenue with the big water wheel out front. After the pandemic it went dark and stayed that way for years. This fair season it’s open again as a full-service restaurant and bar, and when the gates open on Friday, September 25, it will be feeding anyone who needs a break from the Midway.
The man behind it is Isaac Rousso. If you’ve eaten your way across the fairgrounds, you’ve probably eaten his food. He’s a Dallas native, the son of Cuban immigrants who arrived here in 1962, and he’s been a State Fair concessionaire since 2005. His company runs 13 stands on the grounds, including Magnolia Beer Gardens, Shiner Beer Garden, Cajun Cowboy, Rousso’s Fat Bacon, Holy Biscuit and Who Dat Daiquiris. He has four Big Tex Choice Awards, the most recent in 2024 for Cotton Candy Bacon on a Stick.
The building’s story starts with the Texas Centennial Exposition. It went up in 1936, modeled on the Burrus Flour Mill in McKinney and built with timbers from that mill, some of them old enough to date to the Republic of Texas. Generations of Texas kids met Elsie the Cow and her calf Beauregard there when it housed the Borden Dairy exhibit. Later it became Youngblood’s Fried Chicken, and after that an El Chico. The Rousso team bills it as the second-oldest restaurant in Dallas, behind only El Fenix.
Rousso has said the building just needed some love and attention, and that one look at those old ceilings sent him to the city to ask about taking it over. He soft-opened in June as a daytime stop during the FIFA Fan Festival, then got it ready for the fair. His son, Joey Rousso, works alongside him.
Inside, the dining room seats about 120, with a bar-lounge and a big wood-burning fireplace. The look is whiskey barrels, warm wood and Mexican tile floors. Spend a minute on the walls. The State Fair opened its archives to Rousso, and the room is hung with old posters, programs and photographs, plus pieces of Big Tex history, including belt buckles the big guy once wore.
Outside, Rousso’s Wine Garden at the Old Mill adds a 300-seat patio with shade umbrellas, a full bar and a big screen for games. New this year is the ZiegenBock Stage near Big Tex Circle, which gives local performers a place to play.
The menu covers fair food and a real lunch. There’s Rousso’s Cuban pulled-pork sandwich and a few of his award-winning fair creations, plus burgers, wraps, salads, flatbreads and charcuterie and cheese boards. The bar pours more than 20 wines and has a tequila and bourbon bar on the side.
Anyone who has done the fair with small kids or older parents will see the appeal right away. By mid-afternoon, everybody wants a chair, a cold drink and some shade. Rousso has said he wanted to give people the option of a slower meal or a bottle of wine with friends, with the fried food still close at hand.
He also hopes the Old Mill can do more than fill a few weeks in the fall. Rousso wants it to help keep people coming to Fair Park all year, and he has said he would like to stay open after the fair if customers show up.
During the fair, the Old Mill is inside the gates, so you’ll need fair admission. It’s at 3611 Grand Ave., across from Big Tex Circle, and Gate 5 is the closest entrance. The fair runs through Sunday, October 18. Check Rousso’s Concessions on Instagram for hours and for word on what happens once the fair closes.
Next time you’re at the fair, go past the corny dog line, look for the water wheel and grab a table by the fireplace. That building has been waiting a long time for people to come back.
