My favorite restaurant served gas | Hacker News Reader

My favorite restaurant served gas

bittersoutherner.com

46 pointssamsolomon45 comments

It took me about halfway into the little-too-cleverly titled article to figure out that the author meant simply food joints that are attached to gas stations and not some unique schtik I had never heard of where they fill your tank while you eat. In any event I don’t really think about these places that much, aside to be surprised when really good food comes out of them.

In North Austin there is a Rudy’s + Shell that is more Rudy’s than Shell, to the point where if you are filling up there it even feels a little kitschy. Rudy’s is not the best BBQ in Austin by a long shot but they are at least respectable for the price in Austinites eyes, at least until they sold out a few years ago.

Further down south in Austin there is some place slinging damn good pizzas out of a window in a gas station. I think it’s called Luigi’s. I haven’t tried it but have heard others rave about it.

I never liked rudy's bbq for any meal except breakfast. The bowls and burritos are pretty good, and a good value

lolol. I tell people if they're going to Rudy's for bbq, they're doing it wrong, BUT you can't beat their breakfast tacos in terms of bang for the buck - especially if you just landed on a red eye to IAH.

Thank you for the summary!

> not some unique schtik I had never heard of where they fill your tank while you eat

I was imagining literally serving the people some kind of gas to smell or inhale. I didn't not make the connection of gas = gasoline.

Rudy's is in a few locations in Austin and Houston, at least, and I believe they are all bbq+Shell's.

Me too, it took me forever to figure out what the heck they were talking about.

Some kind of soda carbonation? Laughing gas? People will fart in your face?

Gas stations sell gas. They don't serve gas... Not even if they've got a restaurant attached. Only things that can be eaten/drunk are served in this sense, as both common understanding and a dictionary will tell you.

I get that the author is trying to be poetic... but they tried too hard.

> Gas stations sell gas. They don't serve gas...

Someone's never been to New Jersey...

Applejack's pretty stiff, but I wouldn't stoop to calling it gasoline...

Growing up, I would have understood "gas" to mean gasoline. But having lived in many places where the word is used differently, I was really unsure what they were talking about for most of the story. A note to the author: the story would have been much clearer if you said "sold gasoline" and not "served gas".

Yeah, I think about ordering sparkling water in South America “agua con gas” when I think of served gas. Not offering gasoline for purchase

Portugal as well, água com gás. Probably Brazil too.

The purpose of prose isn't to strive for maximum clarity.

Clarity usually improves communication and makes it easier for the intended message to get through to the audience. Clarity serves a purpose.

The story was perfectly clear to me, but then again I live in the south. And most gas stations around here sell food and often are the best food destinations around for certain things.

Waller County Line BBQ - attached to a Shell and amazing.

Prasek’s Smokehouse - attached to a Shell and amazing.

Rudy’s is okay. Buy a six pack in the gas station and put it under your table. Much cheaper than their bottles of the same stuff. Their smoked turkey is good, tho.

Up in parts of Canada the restaurant that also served gas was Husky. If you needed gas, you'd say you're going to get gas, or go gas up. If you said let's go to the Husky, you meant let's go eat! No one ever went "to the Husky" for gas, but that was the gas station.

It's somewhat disconcerting to read how many readers didn't get the title, took halfway through the article to understand the title, and even once getting it, still complained about the title! If you get it, you got it; if you didn't, then once you did, just get it already... Demanding/requesting a title change to suit your perspective? How about expand your perspective, gratefully?

That's usually asking too much of the Hacker News crowd, I find.

Chef Point Cafe [0] in Fort Worth, Texas was one I used to frequent.

The owner couldn't get a loan for a restaurant but could for a gas station, so he put his restaurant in the gas station. It got featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives which was amazing for him but made it much harder to get a seat!

They've closed down the original gas station restaurant last I saw, and now have a full restaurant. If the food hasn't changed I can say it was excellent. My go to was the Maple Leaf Duck, but the Cioppino was excellent as well.

0: https://chefpointcafe.org

Love these sorts of places, the Redneck BBQ Lab by us is attached to a gas station and serves some pretty good BBQ. Always a nice thing to find a restaurant like that.

Benson NC? That is some good BBQ.

Yes indeed, it's roughly a 20 minute drive from us so we'll go there if we're heading to/from somewhere on I-40.

In the Midwest we have Casey's. It's a gas station chain known for their pizza. It's not uncommon to see cafes attached to gas stations in small towns. And of course truck stops that sometimes have multiple restaurants. It seems more weird to not have restaurants attached to gas stations, especially if it's near an interstate.

Add charging stations and you have a additional business model: Fuel up the driver while you charge up the vehicle.

If anyone is ever headed from Yosemite to Bodie, stop at the Whoa Nellie Deli in Lee Vining. It's inside the Mobil gas station just before you hit Mono lake.

It has some out of this world fish tacos.

https://www.whoanelliedeli.com/menu-1

Confirmed!

You also have a view of Mono Lake if you sit there on the benches.

You would also pass there if you are going from the SF Bay Area to Mammoth or Bishop.

Took me getting to the first photo to trigger what gas meant in this context. Then made me think of Stuckey’s. But that was more from road trips in the 80’s. Maybe going forward there will be new brands pop up for EV charging and locally interesting foods.

Driving around the US I'd sometimes find restaurants attached to gas stations, and they kind of creeped me out, but unlike the one in the article they were always chain restaurants and seemed like tiny inferior versions of already inferior food only now in cramped/dirtier locations.

I'm also not brave enough to try the rotating hotdogs sold at gas stations and convenience stores. When I'm on the road, expected to be somewhere, and with occasionally long stretches of time between exits I really don't want to risk digestive issues.

As road food goes there's not much better in my view - they taste amazing. But you're not wrong about the risk you'd be taking.

Oklahoma Joe's (as it was called when I went there, it might just be Joe's now) had a location at a gas station in Kansas City and it was some of the best dry rub ribs I've ever had.

Anthony Bourdain said it was one of the best.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/this-bbq-joint-is-on-anthony-...

They have now all renamed them to Joe's KC. It is still good, but the BBQ competition here in KC is crazy. There are always newcomers vying for top spot.

I was actually expecting this to be some sort of complaint about the ersatz truffle oils on the market nowadays (https://www.tastingtable.com/693090/truffle-oil-fake-no-truf...).

One of my favored local places serves wonderful BBQ and deli sandwiches, has the area's best butcher counter by far, and has a large gas station out front.

https://www.facebook.com/trolingers/

Nearly expected it to be a Buc-ee's [0].

0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buc-ee%27s

Or a Rudy's! "Worst bbq in Texas"!

Idk, I've been to a Rudy's, and it was pretty decent. I don't know if I'd clamor to go back to one, but I don't remember disliking it.

Edit: Lol--I didn't know that was their slogan, that's pretty hilarious.

I know that’s their slogan, but I think Bill Miller deserves that legitimate title. Which is funny, because the rest of their food, while not great, is actually significantly better than the BBQ. They should just drop BBQ from the name and menu and they would do just fine

The Chevron at the entrance of the Causeway in Metairie (New Orleans) is widely known to have some of the best Boudin in the area.

Bay area people, is the taqueria in the gas station in pescadero still around? That place is/was great.

Still there, still great!

Good grief, peach Nehi. Just the thought takes me back. I wonder if they still make that stuff?

Sheetz and Wawa say hello. Best convenience store restaurant gas stations ever.

It's not the traditional definition of convenience store, but CostCo is pretty damned convenient for stocking up for a month, and some of them have gas stations.

I had to laugh at the mundanity of the author's revelation as a nearly lifelong Pennsylvania resident.

Sure, either'll do if there's no Royal Farms handy.

Certainly good, but you are not going to get a deviled crab and a colada at a Wawa.

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