I was thinking of starting a restaurant in a small one horse town, but doing gourmet in a rest stop is a novel idea, table side Ceaser salad, Steak dianne, halibut naches and bananas foster for dessert? Sure I did those, but was thinking great breakfast only, Lacey eggs fried table side, or omelette, great hash browns, sausage links or patties, crispy or soggy bacon, biscuits and gravy, hungry now, flank steak on the grill.
I remember when gas stations only sold gas, oil, fan belts and sometimes ammo with sodas and cigarettes in the vending machines. Some had candy bars and bags of peanuts.
Also, the air and water was free and there was usually a washtub with a hand cranked chamois wringer on it.
I used to hate it when people ordered hash browns. I thought whatâs wrong with french fries or tater tots and theyâre easier to make. I wouldnât last in your gourmet road side cafe, Barky. Sounds good though. Eggs Benedict or waffles? Thatâs one thing the south has got over the north-Waffle House. Itâs getting hard to get a plain ole waffle. Not the Belgian with all the junk on but just a regular waffle. I went into one of the local chains and ordered a waffle and she said the machine was broken and it would be about $800 so they werenât going to fix it. We rarely go there now. Whatâs it take to go down to Walmart and get a couple waffle irons for $30 if nothing else.
Back in the late '50s, the father of one of my friends owned a small gas station, and my friend & I would walk there on hot summer days to buy sodas. I recall that the âvendingâ machine was actually a cooler chest with an intricate metal gate mechanism. You would find the bottle of soda that you wanted, maneuver it through the maze of the metal gate to the end of the mechanism, and then insert your nickel in order to unlock the mechanism and get your soda.
The soda was of an âoffâ brand, so the cost was only 5 cents, instead of the 10 cents that the corner confectionary store charged for their cokes. However, this off-brand soda was decent and it came in a pretty wide variety of flavors.
I donât seem to recall too many cars stopping at that station for gas, but the soda dispenser saw a fair amount of action.
From the article
âIt has engineers in New Jersey working on a turbocharger fuel that can give fuel-efficient engines the same acceleration as a gas-guzzling SUV.â
This is what passes for modern journalism.
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Weâd ride our bikes to a station just like that with the same pop (soda in your neighborhood) machine.
Attached to this station was a little grocery store (convenience store) run by Hazel, the gas guy Lenâs wife. We bought penny (literally) candy by the bag full. A deposit on the reusable bottles we collected would pay for it.
Same deal with brands, Faygo or Fanta�
I think Nu-Grape was one I liked. Also, RC Cola.
CSA
Gas stations have evolved over the past 40+ years Iâve been driving.
Use to be you drive up and someone comes out and pumps the gas and checks the oil for you. Most stations back then were individually owned. When the first gas crisis of the 70âs hit - right after that I started to see the self-serve stations with a little grocery store. This model drove most of the mom and pop stores out of business. Many people said that the reason the mom and pop stores went out of business was because their prices were so highâŠbut these gas station convenient stores prices are as high or higher. Large corporations like Cumberland Farms started opening gas stations with convenient stores. This drove many independents out of business. The individual owned gas stations are extremely hard to find. The gas station that has mechanical service is even harder to find. I know of only one gas station that also services cars thatâs within a 20 mile radius of where I live.
Now gas stations have other things like a Subway, or Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds - much like the old truck stops were where you could fill up and get a meal.
Personally I only go to the gas station to buy gas. Everything else is way too expensive. I donât drink coffee or smoke (which is probably 50% or more of the convenient store business).
I donât go inside. I pay at the pump unless the stupid pump wonât give me a receipt!
Mike, thatâs too bad about the coffee. I drink mine at home. I canât imagine a morning without the joy of freshly brewed black coffee 
as my reward for working out. 
CSA
Those grate vending machines is what we had in grade school for milk. Put in your penny to get your sour milk out. If I knew then what I know now about the Ag Dept and the school food program, I would have just gotten a glass of water instead. You were kind of forced to drink the milk though with everyone lined up in front of the machine. Like getting vaccinated in Army-pretty hard not to although Iâm glad for the yellow fever shots.
Sorry, back to cars.
That was back in the day when the owner could make money just selling gasoline. Today, itâs almost impossible to make a living on fuel alone.
@common_sense_answer, I have a confession to make. I drink alone and I drink and drive. Before I leave for work at 5AM, I grind and brew 20 ounces of coffee, put it in my Tervis, and head out the door. I swill about 5 ounces on my hour drive, then finish the rest at the office. I like to sip it because itâs soooo good freshly ground and brewed. Black only, of course.
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My father-in-law worked in Marketing for ESSO (now Exxon) years ago and traveled a lot visiting service stations. The first place he went in a station was the rest room. If it wasnât spotless, he told the attendant that it wasnât acceptable and then stayed there until it was cleaned up. If this happened twice, the station got a severe write up and was in danger of losing their ESSO affiliation. After a couple of visits, most of the stations got the message. Need some of this today.
I agree, but one of the only benefits of the modern combined convenience store/gas stations is that they tend to pay much closer attention to restroom cleanliness than Clemâs Filling Station did. Although I buy things from convenience stores only on very rare occasions, I have found that their restrooms are really clean, and that is why I stop at those places when I am on a long drive.
On a relatedâŠbut not relatedâŠnote my first job (aside from a paper route) was as a clerk at a small A&P âsupermarketâ (Trust meâthere was NOTHING super about that store!) On my first day on the job, the manager told me to clean the menâs restroom. As I gazed upon the truly appaling state of that lavatory, it was obvious that nobody had cleaned it since the Coolidge Administration.
The manager told me that I could take whatever I wanted from the shelves in order to clean it, so first I hosed down the walls, floors, and porcelain fixtures with a garden hose. Then, I took a few cans of Ajax (or Comet Cleanser??) from the shelves, and literally tossed that powder at the wet walls, floors, and fixtures. I waited about 20 minutes, and went back to hose everything down, with the slurry falling into the floor drain.
The result?
The manager declared that the menâs room had never been so clean, and he was then able to return to his usual activitiesâbehind closed doorsâwith the woman who was our bookkeeper.
In any event, just so that we can keep this on an automotive footing, I drove my fatherâs '63 Plymouth back and forth to that job. That was a really good car!
I got some of my car repair experience in the âgood old daysâ, working at a corner Sohio gas station pumping gas (premium was âBoronâ) and doing tune ups, brake jobs, selling/repairing tires. One thing I did very little? Clean the bathrooms! They were ok, I guess, but nothing like those in the convenience stores today. Our nearby QT station is spotless.
Happened to see a dean martin quote this weekend âIf you drink and drive, donât putt!â
Know a few people that regularly lunch at convenience gas stations, I am not talking subway but the hot dogs on rollers. Been a chef and though I love a good Chicago dog never been tempted by gas station weeneis.
I am too well trained in food Poisoning to take many chances, Wifey got one of the pre-cooked chickens under the heat lamps at the grocery store, Had some and lived but requested never again.
I think I have broken her of the habit of pulling out leftovers from the fridge, and leaving them set on the counter, of course one can go overboard I think, could not believe potatoe salad had to be tossed after 24 hours when assistant manager of an Air Force Officers Club, my thought it takes that long to let the flavors meld, oh well, and I changed the practice of leaving leftover coffee in the 5 gallon urn to be used as the next days starter batch with new coffee dumped on top of the old.
Remember the "If our coffee is old it is free? I asked a few times for old free coffee, but they never had any. Did not really want any as we do starbucks home brew. 
Part of my job as dishwasher at the restaurant was cleaning the restrooms. They were spotless. Yeah I drove my Morris Minor there when I got my license.
It kills me to see the restrooms with the notices on the door to let management know if anything is wrong and theyâll correct it. Iâve had this discussion with people before but Iâm not being paid by them. Itâs not my job to point out their problems. Thatâs their job. So check your own dang restrooms. Thatâs what you get paid for. So if I donât like a place, their food, their restrooms, their staff, their products, I just walk and donât return. Itâs up to them to figure out why they lost customers. Some people like to assert themselves and complain so it really is about them feeling big and strong. I like people to figure out problems for themselves, so good bye. If you donât know there is mold on your bread, or dirty restrooms, or your JIT inventory system is all screwed up, youâre fired and they can get someone who can figure it out. No? Thatâs my business 101 lecture for the day.
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+1
The restroom at my neighborhood supermarket has a push button on the wall, and a sign stating, âIf this facility is not clean, please push this button to inform usâ.
Do they really think that people will hang around until they send someone to clean that room?
There is one Panera location in my neck of the woods where I observed the following:
An employee was in the menâs roomâat the urinal-- wearing his food-prep apron, despite the signs (and hooks) outside that room informing employees to remove their aprons before entering that restroom.
That same employee exited from the restroom without washing his hands.
I reported all of this to the corporate folks, and they replied by stating that their cameras had confirmed exactly what I had stated. They offered me a free meal, and I decided instead to simply avoid that location.
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Freshly ground and brewed coffee is to be enjoyed black, of course. Put anything in it and thatâs not coffee. If anything must be added to change the taste then it must not be very good.
My 22 year-old daughter would put cream and sugar in her coffee. I kept working on her trying it black. She eats healthful foods, so I worked that angle, too.
Now she drinks her coffee black and loves it! Itâs so much better (and better for you) and quicker, too.
America, what a country! 
CSA
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Iâd sooner put catsup on my steak than cream or sugar in my coffee.
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I get my coffee from Trader Joeâs. I buy whole beans for my drip coffee maker, which I use for my 20 ounce ration for work. I also coarse grind a can for my weekend toot of 30 ounces, which I brew in my French press. I store both in the freezer, hoping to keep them fresh.
I think Deano and I were talking about entirely different drinks. I remember seeing him on TV as a child, and it seemed like he was playing drunk, or making jokes about his drinking habits. He always sang superbly, and I figured the drinking jokes were all in fun. He could not have sung that well if he was drunk. I certainly wasnât old enough to know anything about his escapades with Sinatra and the other members of their clique.
Speaking of black coffee and the gas stations of tomorrow (where one could probably buy coffee)âŠ
I donât have one of those Star Bucks around here and if I did I wouldnât go there (I read about some silly drinks they try and pass off as coffee, I think) because I save my bucks.
Reminds me since I see a new craze at coffee joints advertisedâŠ
Any of you ever make your own cold brewed coffee? About fifteen or twenty years ago, my wife and I got a Toddy Cold Brew Coffee system (a plastic vessel with a hole in the bottom, a filter, and a stopper, along with a glass decanter), not rocket science technology.
It brews a concentrate that can be kept in the refrigerator. Hot water is added to a small amount in a cup to prepare it.
It really is fantastic coffee. Think of it as the worldâs best instant coffee!
CSA