Forget the food stops from each, how do the public restrooms stack up?
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Personally, I’m kinda jealous we don’t seem to to have the same level of all-inclusive casual-mart out here on the left coast. I mean, sure, there’s Krispy Krunchy chicken at various places, but ‘gas station food’ still carries a much deserved perjorative out here. And at the very least, the devotion folks have to Sheetz/Wawa’s implies that their quality is high enough to be reasonable for the price and consistent.
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I can confirm that the restrooms, at least the women’s, are very clean. I enjoy my visits to Buc-EE’s. The ones along I-95 have a large row of Tesla charging stations with lots of availability last time I checked.
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As natives of the NJ/PA area, Mr. travelmad478 and I are longtime Wawa devotees. I can speed through their touchscreen system in under 25 seconds to order my Shorti Roast Beef with provolone, tomatoes, lettuce, salt/pepper/oregano, little bit of oil and extra vinegar. Add on a soft pretzel and a diet Wawa lemonade and I am set to roll.
That said, we are now residents of the Gulf Coast and frequent road trippers through TX and the Southeast, and as such have become enamored of Buc-ee’s as well. We’re excited that a gigantic Buc-ee’s is going up just outside Lafayette. We haven’t tried a lot of the food there, but we are hypnotized by the huge wall of slushee machines and the seemingly infinite varieties of jerky.
Then again, we live in Louisiana, arguably the best state in the nation for gas station food. Right here in New Orleans we regularly get shawarma, fried chicken, and banh mi, and elsewhere in the state, gas stations offer a veritable cornucopia of deliciousness. Anything can be paired with a drive-through daiquiri, too!
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I was sorta asking tongue 'n cheek because working the road teaches one a great deal about restrooms not just quick food grabs.
Related article (no paywall of any sort):
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Here’s a fun look at the food at Buc-ee’s.
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I’m an international transplant to solid Sheetz country, which is expecting a WaWa to open soon. Opinions are fiercely loyal about both.
As a German who enjoys being able to buy beer & other necessities at our gas stations in the homeland, it’s never occurred to me to eat gas station food, but I know many who love their “MTO whatever.”
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We got nothing really like that in California.
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Years ago (I left CA in 2007 and haven’t been back since) I remember liking AM/PM’s hamburgers…not because they were good (they weren’t), but because they tasted exactly like the hamburgers served at the Glendale High School cafeteria. Ah, nostalgia…
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That’s almost certainly the ‘magic’ of Sysco (or another similar industrial Big Food Company). The same way that Jack In The Box tacos taste exactly like that taco meat that used to feature at the Sizzler salad bar, and exactly like the Park View grade school and Jr. High cafeteria tacos.
If you find the weird industrial section of your town, you can find the big business-supply food warehouses, where you can probably find that weird square “sausage” pizza from the high school cafeteria that nobody actually likes but everyone wants. You can also find the big 10lb cans of crushed tomatoes and huge blocks of Polly-O mozzarella that are the secrets to recreating pizza-shop-identical pizzas at home.
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I can’t remember the store name(*), sadly, but I saw one in New Hampshire (apparently a NE chain) that was fantabulous.
I held the door open for a gent in a cowboy hat and boots and as I stood there in stunned silence looking at all the locally-sourced, organic stuff and smelling some really kick but brisket, he started chatting me up about the place, gave a lot of details etc.
I asked if he was the store manager, but it turned out he was the corporate executive chef, and that he toured the stores incognito from time to time to make sure stuff was up to snuff.
He said his company had just bought 1200 stores in TX and OK so as to be able to start moving in on Buc-ee’s territory.
(*) Mentioned to wife - she says, it was right by MHT, just look on maps. It’s called ALLTOWN FRESH and the sub-headline under the store name is “HANDCRAFTED * MADE TO ORDER * LOCALLY SOURCED * THOUGHTFULLY CURATED”.
Which until I went in seemed awfully damned hoity-toity for a gas station.
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Was it Casey’s General Store or Circle K?
LoL - I haven’t seen a Casey’s in 30 years, since we moved from the MidWest. But with the nearest “real” pizza joint 20 miles away, I’ll admit my wife and I ordered their pizza on occasion.
Has Casey’s gone upscale?
I edited my post above, the stores in the NE states are called Alltown Fresh.
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Just read your repost. Checking them now.
Thxs!
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CT, MA, NH, and upstate NY only, apparently. It will be a while before we get to any of those places again. Wake me up when they expand to a state near me 
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Heading to CT this month and will check while there.
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