Nicky's Pizza offers a taste of the Big E in the year without a fair

Sept. 8, 2020 | Danielle Eaton
daniellee@thereminder.com


Nicky’s Pizza is offering an array of fried food, typically found at the Big E.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo

AGAWAM – Each year, hundreds of thousands of people arrive in West Springfield ready to eat their way through the Big E. While there are new offerings each year, there are also iconic Big E foods that people spend counting down the days until they’re able to eat them again.

However, this year, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Big E has been canceled, meaning people would have to wait an additional year to enjoy cream puffs, corn dogs, street corn, eclairs and other fair foods with friends and family.

Anthony Liquori, who owns Nicky’s Pizza in Agawam, was determined to continue helping people enjoy the tastes of the Big E, despite the closure. Liquori said while he’s never had the opportunity to be a vendor, he and his family countdown the days until the fair each year. “Me and my family love the Big E, we look forward to it every year. We just like to go and enjoy it,” he said.

He said there’s no formal process to decide which fair foods to add to the menu, they’re slowly introducing foods they themselves have enjoyed. “It’s kind of what we like. We do the gyro, that’s another big one that we like, [and] we were like ‘let’s do that,’” he said.

Liquori said they are “adding a few [new] things every week” to the menu throughout the month of September. Some items that have been added to the menu so far have been poutine fries with cheese curds, fried pickles, fried Oreos, corn dogs, fried dough, cheese curds, whoopie pies, loaded tater tots and gyros.

He said that while they had tried to do deep fried Twinkies, “it was just making too big of a mess” to continue making. Additionally, he said they were exploring offering corn on the cob. “We were going to do corn on the cob, we might do it. We’ve been getting it from a local farm, it’s just a pain to cook,” he joked.

Liquori said, “We’re trying to do quick things, in and out.”

He added that the food has brought in a lot of new people to the restaurant, who have asked them to consider keeping the fair foods on the menu. “We’re seeing a lot of new faces from everywhere, and people are like ‘Oh my god, you should keep some of the items for all year,’” he told Reminder Publishing.

While he said he was unsure if that would happen, Liquori said they were considering keeping some of the more popular items. “Maybe some of the hot ones, like the corn dog, the cheese curds and the pickles have been really doing good,” he said.

However, he said while the loaded tater tots seemed to be the least popular, all the fair foods seemed to go over well with guests. Liquori said the two most popular items, in his opinion, were the fried Oreos and cheese curds. He said it varied day to day though, “Some days nobody gets cheese curds, but everybody wants fried Oreos, it’s tough.”

Customers can visit the restaurant’s Facebook page to see the most recent fair food offering. Liquori said they plan to offer the fair foods through the end of September. People can visit Nicky’s Pizza at 1000 Main St. in Agawam, and people can reach the restaurant by calling 786-9977.

Share this: