Pick up some grilled tilapia at the fuel station

Restaurants at such venues are capitalising on a rising demand for fresh, road food

Last summer, when two women were looking for a restaurant space in Leesburg, the northern Virginia town of 48,000 people, one of the options held multiple enticements: It was affordable, it had a good location, the kitchen was fit for Asian cooking and it was in a gas station.

They signed on the dotted line and retained the name of the previous business, Thai Pan. Now, while the brick exterior is connected to a Liberty gas station and resembles a well-fortified bunker, the authentic Thai fare served in a charming dining room is drawing locals and adventuresome foodies from throughout the region.

“People come in here and say, ‘Wow, I never expected something like this,’” said Wilaivan Kammoongkun, one of the women behind the new Thai Pan.

The restaurant is part of a wave of gas stations and convenience stores capitalising on a growing demand for fresh, healthful and convenient road food. Encouraged by the changing tastes of consumers and the potential for profit, a metamorphosis has taken place in at least 1,500 locations nationwide: At independent gas stations as well as those owned by oil giants like Shell and Exxon and convenience store chains like 7-Eleven.

As a result, roller-grilled hot dogs and little packaged cakes of indefinite shelf life are, in many places, giving way to fresh produce, elaborate sandwiches and even grilled tilapia and Korean bibimbap. Popular food trucks and food carts are adding to the variety, many setting up shop just feet from gas pumps to take advantage of a steady stream of customers.

The locations “are now cool to discover and tell others about”, said Jeff Lenard, vice-president for strategic initiatives at the National Association of Convenience Stores.

It certainly hasn’t always been this way. In fact, convenience store food regularly stood in as a joke. In the 1983 film National Lampoon’s Vacation, a hapless dad behind the wheel of a station wagon, played by Chevy Chase, laments, “I’m so hungry I could eat a sandwich from a gas station.”

Major oil companies still tend to shy away from the complicated and risky food business. But in the early 2000s, when a long-term decline in revenue from food, gas, cigarettes and other products approached troublesome levels, many gas station and convenience store owners started to rethink their business models.

Now, an estimated 10 per cent of the 154,000 convenience stores across the country — a $31-billion industry — could be described as food-forward, the National Association of Convenience Stores says.

The largest chain, 7-Eleven, with 10,900 stores in North America, has been polishing its game for more than a decade. Nearly all of its fresh food, heavy on fruits and vegetables, is prepared in regional commissaries.

The service station strategy appears to be working: In 2015, about 34 per cent of in-store profits at convenience markets came from food and beverage service, up from 22 per cent in 2010, according to the trade organisation. Food industry analysts now consider convenience markets competition for some of the most powerful names in the restaurant industry.

© 2017 New York Times News Service