This is interesting. I didn't know that pickled eggs were a southern thing, the only place I have ever seen them was in Michigan's UP, so I assumed that they were some sort of finnish delicacy
This was so interesting. I haven't spent a lot of time in the south so I had no idea.
I also couldn't help but think how my people (Indian-Americans) are a part of erasing this history through the purchase/ownership of gas stations and convenience stores.*
well thats interesting. I'm now really curious about the original ownership of Royal Farms when it was founded in 1959. Just looked that year up...no info on their website about who founded it.
Also I need some non-midatlantic or southern folks to chime in here....do y'all not buy food at gas stations? like, prepared food. 7-11 has hot dogs everywhere, but do you eat them? if you're on a road trip and you stop for gas, do you get lunch at the gas station too?
I never thought of this as a southern thing because in PA we have Wawa and Sheetz, and now Royal Farms is moving up from Maryland...and PA is not the south. (see also New Jersey and Delaware)
Not that Wawa has fried chicken gizzards or pork chops. They probably do have pickled beet eggs? at least sometimes? Amish country. I grew up eating them, but don't remember if I've ever bought them at Wawa. But it's a different food culture for sure.
wawa when I moved here from Florida I thought it was very, very weird that the gas station had fried chicken. Really glad I tried it though! It's not a thing where I grew up in CT either.
I was also annoyed that gas stations didn't have beer but that's a different topic of conversation.
And because I was curious, this article has a brief snippet about the founding of Royal farms. It is the same family that owns Cloverland Dairy.
Also I need some non-midatlantic or southern folks to chime in here....do y'all not buy food at gas stations?
Not really? Maybe a bottled drink if it's a long trip and we are between stops, but usually if we are stopping we go some where different for food. I rarely go into an actual station - at most I usually pop in to just drop off the $ to prepay if I'm paying in cash.
well thats interesting. I'm now really curious about the original ownership of Royal Farms when it was founded in 1959. Just looked that year up...no info on their website about who founded it.
Also I need some non-midatlantic or southern folks to chime in here....do y'all not buy food at gas stations? like, prepared food. 7-11 has hot dogs everywhere, but do you eat them? if you're on a road trip and you stop for gas, do you get lunch at the gas station too?
I never thought of this as a southern thing because in PA we have Wawa and Sheetz, and now Royal Farms is moving up from Maryland...and PA is not the south. (see also New Jersey and Delaware)
Not that Wawa has fried chicken gizzards or pork chops. They probably do have pickled beet eggs? at least sometimes? Amish country. I grew up eating them, but don't remember if I've ever bought them at Wawa. But it's a different food culture for sure.
You know I’m in MD but we didn’t used to have so many Royal Farms growing up here. I didn’t know anyone who bought food at a gas station locally until I was maybe in college (ETA early 2000s) and they started opening up more locations? We didn’t have Wawa or Sheetz until fairly recently either. I only saw people buying food in gas stations when I left the state.
I know friends from TX talked about gas station food (tacos and BBQ) but I clearly remember going to NC when I was about 22 and being amazed when a friend told me we were picking up dinner and homemade jams/pies at the gas station.
ETA: I guess I thought of it as a really rural thing because when I’d travel, I’d see places that sold real food at the gas station very rarely and mostly in towns where that was the only store for many miles.
well thats interesting. I'm now really curious about the original ownership of Royal Farms when it was founded in 1959. Just looked that year up...no info on their website about who founded it.
Also I need some non-midatlantic or southern folks to chime in here....do y'all not buy food at gas stations? like, prepared food. 7-11 has hot dogs everywhere, but do you eat them? if you're on a road trip and you stop for gas, do you get lunch at the gas station too?
I never thought of this as a southern thing because in PA we have Wawa and Sheetz, and now Royal Farms is moving up from Maryland...and PA is not the south. (see also New Jersey and Delaware)
Not that Wawa has fried chicken gizzards or pork chops. They probably do have pickled beet eggs? at least sometimes? Amish country. I grew up eating them, but don't remember if I've ever bought them at Wawa. But it's a different food culture for sure.
I had the exact same thought about Royal Farms!
Coming from outside of this area, I would say having food at gas stations was not common. There was a gas station chain in Iowa that had pizza (Casey's) that people would actually order from (I never did though) or you might be able to buy a slice of pizza or hot dog from a heated rack, kind of like what 7-11 has, but that was kind of a last resort thing - if you're on the road and don't have other options, you might take a chance on a crusty piece of pizza that may have been sitting there for 4 hours, but you're better off waiting to go through a fast food restaurant drive through.
It wasn't until I moved here that I actually started making a point of buying food from a gas station. And heck, I haven't actually branched outside of Royal Farms. Never had Wawa or anything at Sheetz. Maybe partly because I don't live near one of either? I think there is a Wawa up here in the town I work in.
Post by breezy8407 on Aug 24, 2021 14:14:29 GMT -5
Upper Midwest here, too. Usually only buy snacks and fountain sodas at gas stations. However, there is a new-ish (in the last 10 or so years) chain called Kwik Trip that has things like fried chicken, baked goods, grocery staples, etc. Based in WI I think.
I frequented the local Wawa often when I traveled for work to PA. Maybe it was a novelty, but I liked the sandwiches I had.
Pickled eggs are almost always a staple at local dive bars around here, however. As are pull tabs and meat raffles.
well thats interesting. I'm now really curious about the original ownership of Royal Farms when it was founded in 1959. Just looked that year up...no info on their website about who founded it.
Also I need some non-midatlantic or southern folks to chime in here....do y'all not buy food at gas stations?
On a road trip I would not typically eat a main meal from a gas station. Snacks mostly. Truck stop diner, sure. The dried out ham sandwich at Irving with the Guaranteed Fresh sticker, not if I can help it.
I do eat gas station food locally. Swing in for a breakfast sandwich, get a bowl of chili for lunch, order pizza for dinner.
There aren’t too many delis and pizza places where I live that don’t also sell gas.
well thats interesting. I'm now really curious about the original ownership of Royal Farms when it was founded in 1959. Just looked that year up...no info on their website about who founded it.
Also I need some non-midatlantic or southern folks to chime in here....do y'all not buy food at gas stations? like, prepared food. 7-11 has hot dogs everywhere, but do you eat them? if you're on a road trip and you stop for gas, do you get lunch at the gas station too?
I never thought of this as a southern thing because in PA we have Wawa and Sheetz, and now Royal Farms is moving up from Maryland...and PA is not the south. (see also New Jersey and Delaware)
Not that Wawa has fried chicken gizzards or pork chops. They probably do have pickled beet eggs? at least sometimes? Amish country. I grew up eating them, but don't remember if I've ever bought them at Wawa. But it's a different food culture for sure.
I had the exact same thought about Royal Farms!
Coming from outside of this area, I would say having food at gas stations was not common. There was a gas station chain in Iowa that had pizza (Casey's) that people would actually order from (I never did though) or you might be able to buy a slice of pizza or hot dog from a heated rack, kind of like what 7-11 has, but that was kind of a last resort thing - if you're on the road and don't have other options, you might take a chance on a crusty piece of pizza that may have been sitting there for 4 hours, but you're better off waiting to go through a fast food restaurant drive through.
It wasn't until I moved here that I actually started making a point of buying food from a gas station. And heck, I haven't actually branched outside of Royal Farms. Never had Wawa or anything at Sheetz. Maybe partly because I don't live near one of either? I think there is a Wawa up here in the town I work in.
we just got a wawa to the south too. 198/197 intersection. Wawa makes a very adequate hoagie. In the grand scheme of all hoagies when you're in hoagie homeland it's just ok, but compared to awful not-hoagie long sandwiches like the stuff they serve at Subway or some of the hot dog buns with lunch meat you find around here it's fantastic.
Gas stations around here usually have a rack of candy, a rack of chips and one or two beverage fridges (often less). You can squeeze one to four adults in there during non-Covid times. Some have less room than a phone booth.
We also have gas station tacos around here. Though that was definitely a novelty at least for the white folks when it opened...
I do want to acknowledge that the places we're talking in the posted article are definitely distinct from the MidAtlantic style of gas station food in the sense that they're not a giant chain with entirely too many lights outside. I'm just side tracked by my wawa obsession.
Also my mom rode her bike from Florida to PA this spring/early summer and she LOVED the random little old school gas stations with food to be had on some of the itsy back roads. They were her favorite lunch stops. Apparently the older black guys hanging around outside were always chatty and clearly thought she had lost her mind.
Post by mrsukyankee on Aug 24, 2021 15:17:39 GMT -5
Just joining in to say that pickled eggs are a British thing too. And our gas stops with a shop attached tend to be smaller versions of grocery stores (very, very small unless you are at a highway stop).
Also I need some non-midatlantic or southern folks to chime in here....do y'all not buy food at gas stations? like, prepared food. 7-11 has hot dogs everywhere, but do you eat them? if you're on a road trip and you stop for gas, do you get lunch at the gas station too?
Californian weighing in here—no, getting lunch at the gas station is not normal. Gum, chips, snacks, drinks sure. There is a chain called AM/PM that has hot dogs but I would only eat that if I was desperate. For road trips, people would probably stop at Denny’s or a fast food restaurant.
Upper Midwest here, too. Usually only buy snacks and fountain sodas at gas stations. However, there is a new-ish (in the last 10 or so years) chain called Kwik Trip that has things like fried chicken, baked goods, grocery staples, etc. Based in WI I think.
I frequented the local Wawa often when I traveled for work to PA. Maybe it was a novelty, but I liked the sandwiches I had.
Pickled eggs are almost always a staple at local dive bars around here, however. As are pull tabs and meat raffles.
We have Quick Trip (don't know if it's the same chain or not) and they have, by far, the best bathrooms EVER. Like, fresh flowers in the bathroom nice.
Midwest here. We have the Casey's with pizza that pp mentioned, but most gas stations just have packaged food.
There are some places that will have a fast food restaurant attached to a gas station. Like one half of the building is the gas station but then there's a Burger King just through a connecting door. Most of the ones I've seen are near places with big semi truck stops.
I know there's a gas station/IHOP combo as you go between IL and IN, I think that's the only sit down restaurant combo I've heard of.
well thats interesting. I'm now really curious about the original ownership of Royal Farms when it was founded in 1959. Just looked that year up...no info on their website about who founded it.
Also I need some non-midatlantic or southern folks to chime in here....do y'all not buy food at gas stations? like, prepared food. 7-11 has hot dogs everywhere, but do you eat them? if you're on a road trip and you stop for gas, do you get lunch at the gas station too?
I never thought of this as a southern thing because in PA we have Wawa and Sheetz, and now Royal Farms is moving up from Maryland...and PA is not the south. (see also New Jersey and Delaware)
Not that Wawa has fried chicken gizzards or pork chops. They probably do have pickled beet eggs? at least sometimes? Amish country. I grew up eating them, but don't remember if I've ever bought them at Wawa. But it's a different food culture for sure.
we do grab lunch on road trips but we have Buc-cees so not really the same as gas station hot dogs. That buc-cees has gas is the least important thing about it.
ETA: Obviously Buc-cees is an outlier. But in certain places, we will stop. There are the occasional gas stations with actual small restaurants attached and then others where the gas station has a specialty item like kolaches. It just depends. The gas station I passed on the way to work for years had amazing breakfast tacos, made fresh to order.
I am from the mid-Atlantic but I think food at gas stations is suspect. Wawa has been around for 100 years but only very recently entered into the gas station game. So I would 100% get food from wawa because it’s something I’m used to but prob would hesitate at any other gas station.
Post by amberlyrose on Aug 24, 2021 18:04:59 GMT -5
I'm from New Mexico and I make it a point to visit Allsup's for a chimichanga. I'd put it in my top 10 favorite foods. The station by my parents is another brand but they have a burrito stand inside and that counts as a full meal for us. Outside of NM, I never considered gas station food as meals.
Also I need some non-midatlantic or southern folks to chime in here....do y'all not buy food at gas stations? like, prepared food. 7-11 has hot dogs everywhere, but do you eat them? if you're on a road trip and you stop for gas, do you get lunch at the gas station too?
PNW here (Oregon and Washington), and not really.
We'll buy drinks, chips, candy, and pepperoni sticks, but not the hot dogs or sketchy sandwiches in the cooler. There is a Subway inside of one of the gas stations on the way to my MIL's, and we've gotten sandwiches there. I think they might also have an attached diner, but that's because it's more of a truck stop than just a gas station. I feel like there might have also been a combo gas station/take-out-only pizza place on the Oregon Coast that we'd get pizza from when I was a kid, but my memory there is a little vague.
I have no problem eating at a truck stop diner, but I haven't done that since college. Those are basically just your basic greasy spoons with giant portions and food made on-demand, not sitting for however long on hot rollers.
Wait... I take it back, in college I used to sometimes buy jalapeño poppers from the gas station next to where I worked. But I haven't done that in 20 years.
Upper Midwest here, too. Usually only buy snacks and fountain sodas at gas stations. However, there is a new-ish (in the last 10 or so years) chain called Kwik Trip that has things like fried chicken, baked goods, grocery staples, etc. Based in WI I think.
I frequented the local Wawa often when I traveled for work to PA. Maybe it was a novelty, but I liked the sandwiches I had.
Pickled eggs are almost always a staple at local dive bars around here, however. As are pull tabs and meat raffles.
We have Quick Trip (don't know if it's the same chain or not) and they have, by far, the best bathrooms EVER. Like, fresh flowers in the bathroom nice.
Its different. I know that because there are Quick Trips in Texas where I've traveled for work. But I agree, really nice and they have lots of food options.
Post by aprilsails on Aug 24, 2021 21:38:12 GMT -5
Ontarian chiming in. Gas station eggs were not a thing even during my childhood, although they were very much a fixture at bars and the curling club. I don’t think they are still there. Gas stations usually had chips, chocolate bars, etc, and sometimes hotdogs and ice cream. Nowadays, it seems every third station has a McDonald’s or a Tim Hortons integrated into it. The big local station has a full blown store with lots of premade sandwiches and fruit cups, etc for lunch on the go. They kicked out a pizza parlour next door to expand the space.
Also I need some non-midatlantic or southern folks to chime in here....do y'all not buy food at gas stations? like, prepared food. 7-11 has hot dogs everywhere, but do you eat them? if you're on a road trip and you stop for gas, do you get lunch at the gas station too?
I'm from Texas and parents are from Ohio and Michigan. I don't think I've ever eaten anything but packaged foods from a gas station. On road trips, we always stop for fast food somewhere. Gas and snacks is a separate stop from meals.
I have eaten meat pies from a convenience store in New Zealand though and they were delicious. (It was our second time there and I really wanted a meat pie and the gas station was the quickest/easiest option.)
Post by foundmylazybum on Aug 24, 2021 22:59:16 GMT -5
In the south some of the best fried chicken comes from gas stations. It's a thing. Maybe YOU aren't eating it, but that doesn't mean it's not a thing or that it's not good.
I lived in Tennessee for 3 years as an adult and never heard about this. I actively researched whatever interesting food stuff and experiences I could partake in while I was there. But this was all pre-2010 so the internet just failed me at finding fried chicken at the gas station. I also never thought to look for food at the gas station as I had never purchased anything more than maybe a bottle of water at a gas station in New York.