Convenience stores aren’t just places to go when you run out of milk, need to get your lottery fix, or find yourself short on diapers or baby formula and everywhere else is closed. Convenience stores have become part of the global fabric, sometimes worthy of a visit on their own merits. Kids who did terrible kickflips in front of them on skateboards become adults who visit them them for pop-up restaurants, hidden boutiques, and secret bars and lounges. Yes, the microwavable burritos, candy and chip aisles, and walls of beverage coolers are still there, but there are many with hidden gems and sweet deals.
Free Slurpee
7-Eleven, multiple locations There are few culinary secrets or surprises at 7-Elevens, but the chain knows what customers want and gives it to them. On one day a year, July 11 (7/11, get it?), the giant convenience store chain usually gives away its Slurpee slushies for free. Loyalty club members get freebies such as free drinks and snacks with purchases for days afterward.
Sneakers
Bodega, Boston The first clue that this is no ordinary grocery or convenience store is that there’s no way that a stacked-window bodega could ever afford the rent right off of Massachusetts Avenue in Boston’s Back Bay. If you’re looking for Jordans, Vans, or Y-3s, just walk into this stylized bodega and take the secret entrance into the showroom. Because all Bostonians eventually go to Los Angeles, there’s a shop there as well.
Full-Service Bakery
P&H Truck Stop, Wells River, Vermont Nothing about the P&H Truck Stop website would lead you to believe there’s anything special about this gas station and mini mart. And its menu doesn’t make any especially fervent claims about its fresh-baked breads (including maple walnut and cinnamon raisin) or fresh pies. But this little diner bakery is a destination all its own.
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Local Merchandise and Produce
Saxapahaw General Store, North Carolina Calling itself a “five-star gas station,” Saxapahaw General Store outside of Raleigh prides itself on selling the work of local artisans as well as on locally grown produce and locally sourced meals. It’s rustic yet refined for a convenience store, but still has functional gas pumps.
Related: Unique Farmers Markets That Offer Way More Than Just Food
Butcher Shop With Meat and Two
Dave’s Grill & Grocery, Aiken, South Carolina The gas pumps outside and even the small grocery store under the Dave’s sign give no indication of what’s waiting at the cafe counter. With Dave’s doubling as a butcher’s shop, the meat-and-two on the menu often includes pork chop, leg quarters, or ribs straight from the house. The butcher shop makes the cafe’s sausage as well.
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Biodiesel and Veggie Tacos
Green Spot Market, Dallas It’s an unconventional convenience store for an unconventional gas station. While the pumps still pump unleaded and diesel, they also pump biodiesel recovered from waste cooking oil. The Green Spot convenience store reflects that commitment to organic and local goods by showcasing local artists, brewing fair trade coffee, locally sourcing its meats, using cage-free eggs, pouring soda with real cane sugar, making its sauces from scratch, and pouring kombucha on tap.
Arepas
Pepito’s Plaza, Doral, Florida The late Anthony Bourdain not only ate at this Venezuelan food stand tucked away in an Exxon station, he relished it. Pepito’s Plaza draws crowds for arepas and pepito sandwiches, but you’re here for the doralzuela, a pile of hamburger, chicken, pork chop, ham, fried egg, american cheese, potatoes, lettuce, tomato, avocado, and six sauces.
Wine Shop and Tapas
El Carajo, MiamiWe could go on all day about secret Miami convenience store stops such as Biscayne Gas (best Turkish food in town), Mendez Fuel (almond butter smoothies), Kwik Stop (Thai curry), or the West Avenue Texaco (Milk Gone Nuts and almond milkshakes). But there are few better hidden gems than El Carajo, once well-hidden in a BP station convenience store, now poorly hidden in a Mobil shop (in fairness, there’s been a sign outside for some time). There’s still a minimal convenience store up front alongside a bakery and cafe, but the large wine shop in back, restaurant seating, and extensive online menu kind of give it away.
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Peppered Ham and Provolone
The Market Deli, multiple locations in Virginia With about 10 locations around Charlottesville, Virginia, The Market Deli is known more for its artisanal sandwiches than its unleaded or energy drinks. The sandwich you should be getting, the Belmont, features peppered ham, salami, bologna, provolone cheese, and hot pepper relish on French bread.
Kansas City Barbecue and Sauce
Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que , Kansas City, Kansas Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que is some of the best in the world, yet its original location is still part of a Shamrock gas station where you can fuel up and a sixer of Miller Lite. People in the know swear by the Z-Man Sandwich (smoked brisket topped with smoked provolone and onion rings on a kaiser roll), but we advise coming hungry and getting the three-rib and one meat platter. Inspired customers can shop among the store’s sauces — and buy it in sizes up to a gallon.
All the Jerky
Tillamook Country Smoker, Bay City, Oregon Ever wish a gas-station convenience store had more jerky and less of everything else? Tillamook Country Smoker heard you and transformed a gas station convenience store into its factory outlet. You can still get gas, newspapers, and beverages here, but most of the aisles and coolers at the Tillamook Country Smoker outlet are filled with jerky. That includes 2-foot sticks for the road.
Chorizo and Egg Tacos
Fuel City, Dallas The Dallas Observer had itself a good cry over the fact that people discovered Fuel City’s tacos and liked them, but the customers are right. The barbacoa, al pastor, and picadillo tacos may not compare with the newsroom’s favorite hole in the wall, but they make for amazing gas-station convenience store fare (which is kind of the point). Breakfast tacos, like the chorizo-and-egg version, are now served all day.
Related: Tasty Taco Places Across the Country
Smokehouse
Gustafson’s, Brevort, Michigan Gustafson’s is just one reason Michigan’s upper peninsula is an incredibly special place. Tucked behind a Sunoco station just off Lake Michigan, this convenience/party store sells booze, soda, jerky, and candy like every other convenience store out there, but is also a full smokehouse that makes its own jerky and smokes lake fish including whitefish, menominee, chubs, and trout.
Growler Fills
The Growler Guys, Bend, Oregon The Growler Guys used the beer-friendly Pacific Northwest to their advantage by filling 64-ounce growlers and 32-ounce growlettes with local beers and sending customers on their way. Now, with 11 locations in five states, it’s still a fairly humble chain that has to share space with a mini mart on the westside of Bend.
Crab Imperial
Sting-Ray’s, Cape Charles, Virginia Located in the market of an Exxon station, Sting-Ray’s took on its “Chez Exxon” nickname for serving up some ridiculously good Chesapeake Bay seafood and sweet potato ham biscuits. You could dip a toe in and get the crab cake sandwich, but we recommend going all out and getting the crab imperial: crab meat mixed with mayonnaise and seasoning, topped with breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese and baked into a crab shell.
Hot Chubbies With Cheese
Czech Stop, West, Texas Located in a Shell gas station just off of Interstate 35, with working pumps and public bathrooms, Czech Stop is just a reminder that West is basically Texas’ mini-Czechia. Heavily flavored by Czech immigrants, West is replete with spots selling Czech pastries. We recommend this very Americanized — and very Czech-Texan — plate of spicy sausage chunks coated in cheese.
Baked Opakapaka
Uptown Chevron, Maui, HawaiiLots of convenience stores and groceries on the islands will scoop you some rice and mac potato salad with your meat of choice. But the Uptown Chevron will not only fix you a plate to go with your Icee and pack of jerky, it will bake you fresh-caught snapper every Friday.
Burritos
Cilantro Mexican Grill, North Hollywood, California Chevron Stations are doing wonders for L.A. restaurateurs. Under the same roof as a Chevron Food Mart, Cilantro Mexican and Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef Adolfo Perez took over the Food Mart’s snack station seven years ago and began sending out plates of carne asada, chicken al pastor, barbacoa, and carnitas. While Cilantro offers tostadas and tortas, any of the above burritos would fare well out of a food truck and are well beyond the microwaveable nightmares that put customers off convenience store burritos in the first place.
Related: Where to Find Good Cheap Burritos in Every State
Shrimp Po’ Boy
Singleton’s Mini Mart, New Orleans Some of New Orleans’ best po’ boys are found in convenience or grocery stores. Verti Marte is a full-on grocery store with a 24-hour sandwich counter. Singleton’s, meanwhile, pulls from a variety of New Orleans’ cultural influences by offering traditional lowcountry po’ boys, Korean barbecue, banh mi (called “Vietnamese po’ boys” here), and traditional Vietnamese fare such as pho.
Kolaches
Weikel’s Bakery, La Grange, Texas This Shell station on Highway 71 has served the food of Czech pipeline workers since 1929, but since Weikel’s opened as a bakery and convenience store in 1985 it has ballooned into three locations. With the original location now a deli, grill, and, gift shop as well as a bakery, people still flock to it for traditional Czech Kolaches, its Danish-like pastries.
Related: 18 Places to “Travel Abroad” Without Leaving the Country
Shawarma
Mr. Kabob, Berkley, MichiganThe original Detroit-area location of this Mediterranean chain remains inside a Sunoco, though it has an open kitchen and a variety of family-style plates to choose from. That said, it’s hard to go wrong with a $7.50 beef shawarma pita.
Hookah Bar With Baba Gannouj
Fusion Restaurant and Bar, McDonough, Georgia You might want to consider cleaning yourself up before hitting this spot, even though it shares a roof with a Sunoco convenience store in suburban Atlanta. It’s a hookah bar, sure, but it’s also a place where you can eat a baba gannouj mezza plate beneath some lounge lighting before getting right back on the road.
Ahi Sashimi
Whoa Nellie Deli, Lee Vining, California In the Tioga Gas Mart, a Mobil station right outside Yosemite National Park, sits the humble Whoa Nellie Deli and its not-so-humble menu. Sure, it serves as a dump station and water stop for people heading to the park, but it also hosts live music and serves a breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu blending Mexican, Polynesian, and Asian fare. The sashimi isn’t to be missed.
Hooshburger
Pig Trail Bypass Country Cafe, Elkins, Arkansas Still very much a gas station, grocery store, and ice shop, the Pig Trail built its name on founder Hooshang Nazarali’s namesake Hooshburger. Using a secret blend of Persian spices, the Hooshburger is flavored like kebab (think onions and turmeric), but given a healthy coating of American cheese.
Related: Amazing Global Cuisines in U.S. Cities You Wouldn’t Expect
Boudin
Billeaud’s Grocery, Broussard, Louisiana It’s a simple grocery on its face, but it’s long made its own Boudin sausage, pork belly cracklin’, and seasonings. You can get standard convenience store items here, but you’re wasting time if you go home without crawfish boudin, hog head cheese, or pork tasso.
Cryptozoology Books
Monster Mart, Fouke, Arkansas This family-run convenience mart bears the likeness of a local legend, the Boggy Creek Monster, which is said to have terrorized the surrounding woods since the ’40s and even inspired a schlocky horror franchise in the ’70s. Monster Mart visitors can take pictures with the monster in plaster sculpture or mural form and buy souvenirs ranging from T-shirts to cryptozoology books.
Chicken Livers and Gizzards
Parker’s Urban Gourmet, Savannah, Georgia This Georgia and South Carolina gas-and-go chain looks like any other at most locations, but its Drayton Street location in Savannah is something special. Its menu includes fried catfish, chicken livers, gizzards, and fried whiting, but its location is a gorgeous bit of historic architecture that hides a selection of imported cheese, organic foods, sustainably sourced coffee, and gourmet dessert.
Craft Beer
Super Deli Mart, West Seattle It’s been a while since Super Deli Mart was strictly a convenience store; owner Brian Park is a huge supporter of Pacific Northwest craft beer and turned a simple hoagie shop into a Northwest beer library. You can still get bags of chips and hoagies here, but fans are more likely to drop in for Skookum Brewing IPA, Boneyard Beer’s Hop Venom, or Seattle’s own Georgetown Brewing’s Manny’s Pale Ale.
Related: 15 Beer Subscription Clubs to Enjoy Craft Brews at Home
