The St. Joseph’s Ox Roast Fair is a parish festival with rides, tons of food booths and precious ox meat that is roasted in served as a dinner, a sandwich and a “sundae” over potatoes.
2023 DATE: July 21-23, 2023
Location: St. Joseph Catholic Church
11045 St. Joseph Blvd
Mantua, OH 44255
Website: https://www.stjosephmantua.com/ox-roast-fair
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This post documents my experience on July 21, 2013. Over this weekend, powerful thunderstorms passed through the area and caused problems with many of the festivals that I attended either through delays, destruction or the cancellation of events. Please keep this in mind when reading these reviews, as my experience may not be the most typical.
I had never been to an Ox roast, so you can bet I was excited to try it.
I got there early and, thankfully, was able to park in the concrete lot behind the church. I say “thankfully” because the main lawn parking lot had been saturated from the previous night’s storms and I noticed huge tracks of mud running through it, making it unusable.
Later on, when I left, I would see them reroute visitors to another lot rather than allow them to pull in.
Of course, some of the festival grounds were saturated too…
…but there was plenty of hay.
Kudos to the festival committee for doing the best they could with the weather.
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The St. Joseph Ox Roast Fair was my type of festival…
…because, after the souvenir shirt and cake booth (with tastings for a quarter)…
…and after the gambling booths…
…the Ox Idol tent…
…things for the kids…
…and occasional clothing and Redneck booths…
…the majority of booths sold food!
Walking tacos, fried veggies, kettle corn…
…pizza, Italian sausage, pierogi…
…french fries (served by happy volunteers)…
…ice cream floats and more!
They even had carnival food accompanying the rides…
…a beer booth amidst the muddy hay (great for those who had too many)…
…and a beer garden on higher ground (with guarded entryway).
But fortunately for me, I was focused enough not to go overboard…
…I was here for the ox.
For many, the way to go…
…was in the direction of this sign…
…and into an air-conditioned dining hall…
…where you could give your order to the friendly staff…
…pick up your plate at the window…
…take advantage of the salad bar…
…and maybe get a piece of cake.
I needed to play it a little safer since I had a graduation party later that afternoon (where there would also be cake)…
…so I went to one of the two Ox Sandwich booths…
…and noticed they had Ox Sundaes!
With tender roasted ox meat over mashed potatoes, their special gravy, sour cream and the optional side of horsey sauce…
…I went with this option and didn’t regret it in the least.
It was absolutely delicious!