Important restaurants with ambition, heart, and seven-cheese mac and cheese, are hiding in plain sight.

I have fond memories of my childhood road trips to the South. When I was a kid, we would take our annual summer trip from St. Louis, Missouri, “down south” to visit family. I would always look forward to the gas stations where I would be able to get my hands on regional snacks like the iconic Uncle Al’s Old Fashioned Stage Planks, a package of ginger cookies with pink icing, as well as salty and chewy boiled peanuts and a fried chicken plate washed down with a sweet Nehi Peach soda. I would also think about my parents, who had to travel around the South during Jim Crow, and how these gas stations were a haven for them to eat when they were denied entrance to restaurants.

The “great American road trip” has often been romanticized in popular culture. For Black travelers, however, navigating the highways around the United States has never been easy, as they tend to encounter racism just for driving while Black. In the Jim Crow era of segregation, when there was no safe place for them to eat, Black travelers would pack premade meals and nonperishable food items in shoeboxes for lunch. The Negro Motorist Green Book, also known simply as the Green Book, was published in 1936 by postal employee and travel writer Victor Hugo Green to address this issue. This book was born out of the idea of helping Black travelers to find safe places to eat and sleep while traveling across the United States, especially in the South, where Jim Crow was the law of the land.

The legacy of these hospitable gas stations is rooted in Black resilience and resourcefulness, highlighting the determination of Black travelers to enjoy their journeys despite the discrimination they face. Over time, some communities and businesses have made efforts to support Black travelers, like the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, now known as ExxonMobil. Not only were stops at Standard Oil throughout the South featured in the Green Book; the company also encouraged Black people to open franchise gas stations starting in the 1950s.

Horatio Thompson became the first black man to own an Esso franchise in the South after he opened Horatio’s Esso Service Station #2 in the 1940s in Scotlandville, Louisiana. According to food writer and historian Deb Freeman, Southern gas station food and Black culture intersect thanks in part to the Green Book and to Black gas station owners serving traditional Southern meals that one might cook at home, like fried chicken, corn bread, okra, and collard greens.

“We have a culture around eating, and it doesn’t matter if you have to drive 20 minutes,” said Freeman. “I think that there’s just a really special relationship where we want to make sure that we can have proximity to good food at all times. The gas station restaurant serves as a source for feeding the community.”

Today Southern gas stations are a food mecca that reflect the diverse culinary traditions of the region. When I was traveling from New Orleans to Houston on a Greyhound bus in 2017, I was able to get my hands on the tastiest boudin ball, a regional snack of fried boudin sausage mixed with cooked pork, rice, onions, and seasonings at Rascal’s Cajun Express in Rayne, Louisiana. The I-10 highway between Baton Rouge and Texas is where you’ll be able to find some of the best boudin balls and sausage at most gas stations.

Not all gas stations are the same. Some double as a grocery store with hot meals, especially in areas where grocery stores might not be easily accessible. One place might sell crispy fried chicken or catfish, cheesy and creamy mac and cheese, and homemade biscuits. Another might be serving savory barbecue or another regional food loved by the community. These amazing restaurants hiding in plain sight often use fresh ingredients and family recipes that were taught at home, like at Czech Stop and Little Czech Bakery at the Shell gas station in West, Texas. This deli/bakery and convenience store all rolled into one is famous for its kolache, a Czech pastry traditionally made with a yeasted dough filled with fruit or sweet cheese that’s been a staple of Texas food culture since the late 1800s.

Then there’s Buc-ee’s, a beloved Southern gas station and convenience store chain that can now be found in Missouri and Colorado as well. The food offerings include fresh salads, brisket sandwiches, and the famous Beaver Nuggets, a sweet and crunchy corn puff. When Austin-based writer Gabrielle Pharms-Barr heads out on a road trip with her husband, Buc-ee’s is her first stop before she begins her trip—accompanied by a “mandatory” photo op with its iconic oversize beaver mascot. “Buc-ee’s isn’t a mere gas station. It’s a way of life and a Texan’s rite of passage,” says Pharms-Barr. “No road trip is complete without visiting this iconic Texas cathedral of convenience and charisma. From Beaver Nuggets to jerky walls, kolaches, warm glazed pecans, and BBQ brisket sandwiches chopped fresh in front of you, Buc-ee’s is a culinary hot spot in its own right.”

The Southern gas station scene is evolving alongside immigration to the region. In Hammond, Louisiana, customers buy Indian foods like onion bhaji and chicken tikka masala to-go after filling up their tank at Punjabi Dhaba. Kwik Chek in Memphis, Tennessee, offers a fusion of Korean and Mediterranean dishes like kimchi fried rice, bibimbap, and gyros. Some gas station restaurants have even decided to leave the gas station behind as their business grows.

This is what happened to Chris Williams of Roy’s Grille. For eight years, Williams carved out his niche selling barbecue out of an Exxon gas station in Lexington, South Carolina. In 2022, he opened his brick-and-mortar restaurant just a 16-minute drive away in Irmo, where he continues to serve his barbecue with his homemade sauces, like the sweet and zesty “Bold & Beautiful” and the mustard-based “Ole Gold,” along with sides like coleslaw and seven-cheese mac and cheese that people have grown to love. Williams’s gas station origins were spurred by financial constraints.

“I didn’t have any money,” said Williams. “I was 30 years old and had been working in the food industry since I was 15. I did a catering job at my mother’s job, and one of her coworkers was like, ‘There’s a gas station in Lexington that had a restaurant in it, and it’s vacant.’ I talked to the store owner, and we worked out a deal. I moved into this location [in Lexington] because that’s all I could afford.”

It’s not lost on Williams that he’s connected to a gas station tradition that culturally serves Black Southern food. “Some of the best hidden food is in a gas station,” said Williams. “I never looked at it as if I were carrying on a legacy. I just looked at it as, ‘Hey, this is what I need to do now.’ But now that I am where I am, I take a step back and look at it as kind of continuing that legacy of the homegrown hustle.”

Whenever I make it back stateside from Berlin, where I’m based, I still make my trip to the South to see friends and family. But I get excited because the closer I get to those Southern states, the snacks and foods get better. Why have a hot dog and greasy pizza when I’m welcomed back to my roots with a buttery biscuit, cracklins, and a fried chicken platter? I can’t think of a better homecoming.