[Eater] To be able to stop at almost any Southern gas station and have a good, inexpensive meal is an American tradition rooted in Black survival and entrepreneurship
Scanning the aisles of small, locally owned gas stations in the South is like taking a step back in time. Few other places stock old-school Necco Wafers, Mary Janes, Bit-O-Honeys, and Chick-O-Sticks alongside foods like pickled eggs, pickled sausages, gizzards, barbeque, and pound cake. At Dodge’s Southern Style, a gas station between Ravenel and Johns Island, South Carolina, you’ll find fried chicken, biscuits, fried hand pies, and country ham on the menu next to a variety of nabs (crackers with peanut butter or cheese) and all the chips you can imagine. At Spinx, a gas station chain with locations across the South, there’s rice and beans, mac and cheese conveniently contained in an easy to carry bowl, or loaded biscuit sandwiches with all the fixins to pick up and take on the road.
In the South, you can have a full-on Sunday meal while you fill up your tank. But as much as the gas station seems unchanging, this convenience — specifically, the accessibility of this kind of convenience — has evolved. What seems so conventional to us now, to be able to stop at almost any gas station and have a good, inexpensive meal, is rooted in Black survival and entrepreneurship. And, of course, the standout foods you’ll find at Southern gas stations have their roots in African American culture. |