Photo by Milton Morris
CLIFF DALEY
CLAIM TO FAME: Owner and head chef at Daley’s Concessions, the family corn dog business that’s been feeding festival crowds for nearly 60 years.
HOMETOWN: Columbia.
JUST FOR KICKS: Daley earned an athletic scholarship to play soccer for the University of Alabama–Huntsville and tried out for the 1976 U.S. Olympic team. “If it hadn’t been for that scholarship, I’d have probably joined the service and gone into Vietnam.”
FAVORITE FESTIVAL: The S.C. State Fair. Daley’s Concessions has been a part of the event for 50 years. “It’s like a big family reunion.”
HIS GO-TO MEAL? “It’s hard to beat a good hot dog, especially with homemade chili and onions and a little slaw.”
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It was the winter of 1975 and Cliff Daley faced a life-changing decision.
He and his wife, Kim, had just married. She was a geologist, he an executive at a multinational corporation. But in January, his father, Zanelle, died of a heart attack. His mother, Dorothy, was caught in Alzheimer’s, in need of constant care.
The couple considered the bright yellow concession trailer Cliff had helped his father build in 1962 and one where he still worked weekends, serving hand-dipped corn dogs. “We said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to commit to it or go on and get out,’” Daley recalls. “We committed.”
The Daleys left their jobs, landed new fair contracts and invested in equipment. Today, three generations of Daleys operate the Daley’s Dogs trailers that are beloved fixtures at festivals throughout the Southeast.
“This concession has held my family together. We’ve been able to grow as a family and work together,” Daley says. His children “grew up in these wagons. They learned people skills. They learned how to serve a good product and take care of customers.”
Cliff is the “Betty Crocker” of the business, safeguarding the family recipe for the traditional batter while also experimenting with alternative flavors like the now-popular jalapeno corn dog. “We’ve done it all,” he says, citing the Elvis corn dog—banana-flavored batter and slathered in peanut butter—that won the Most Creative award at the North Georgia State Fair.
The pandemic hit the business hard as fairs and festivals were canceled or postponed. “We were very fortunate to stay afloat,” Daley says, crediting the family’s religious faith, as well as a small business loan and generous friends, for seeing them through. Today, they’re stocking up for the 2021 S.C. State Fair, scheduled for Oct. 13–24.
“One thing about COVID, we tried to find something good in it, and that was people helping people and our faith in the Lord,” Daley says. “Every time we prayed at night, there was hope.”
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