Copyright National Geographic
Stop at just about any gas station in Mississippi, and you’ll be greeted with a full tank and an even fuller belly. While most would associate gas station food with rows of chips and candy bars, a wall of sodas, and the questionable hot dog rotisserie, in Mississippi, you’ll be met with jars of homemade jams, pickled veg, and a fully stocked kitchen with a chef slinging out fresh, delicious, hot food to a line of customers. “I have long felt that you can learn a lot about a place by going into the gas station,” says Kate Medley, photojournalist and author of Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South, a visual documentation of the state’s rich “filling stations” and currently on exhibition at the Center for the Study of the American South. “Seeing what’s for lunch, what’s on the menu, who’s doing the cooking, and who’s sitting around and what they’re talking about. In a place like Mississippi, it can also be the only commercial enterprise for 20 miles.” From Delta tamales to the legendary “chicken on a stick” in Oxford and the spicy seafood boils along the Gulf, Mississippi’s roadside stations serve up a taste of the state’s culture and history. (Where to find the best Delta tamales, from Arkansas to Mississippi) The origins of the full service station Gas station dining as we know it today truly came into being during Jim Crow. At the time, many Black travelers couldn’t safely dine at restaurants, and guides like The Negro Motorist Green Book listed friendly stops—notably gas stations—where Black motorists could refuel and buy food or supplies across Mississippi and the South. The prepared foods at these stations like fried chicken livers and gizzards, hot coffee, and jars of pickled vegetables and preserves would lay the cultural foundation for gas station dining in the Magnolia State. After the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the rising popularity of modern convenience stores, Mississippi stations continued to increasingly combine fuel with home-cooked foods, and the dishes served took on accents like those spoken across the state. “The cuisine in Mississippi is a lot much more regional than one may expect,” says Stafford Shurden, an author, former judge, chef, and farmer. Shurden's popular “Tailgate Review” videos about service stations across the state have garnered millions of views. He reckons he’s visited well over 100 gas stations across the state. “You’ve got the Delta where you’ll find soul food. In northeast Mississippi, the food’s more aligned with Appalachia. As you drive down the 1-10 along the Gulf, you’ve got incredible seafood,” says Shurden. “To add to this, Vietnamese fisherman, Italians, Mexicans, so many people have brought their own flair to these service stations, which, really, are full-blown restaurants.” Nowadays, at gas stations across the state, you can sit down and sample everything from homemade pies and desserts to whole hog barbecue, po'boys, fresh sushi, crispy baleadas, and even five-pound crawfish boils. “The best food in Mississippi might be at a gas station,” says Shurden. An unexpected fusion “This is what they call redneck Vietnamese,” says John Barnes, a regular at Canal Country Store in Gulfport. Every day for the last 21 years, chef and owner Ai Trinh opens up shop at 5 a.m. and begins prepping her rotating menu of Vietnamese favorites. She rolls out her famous chả giò (fried spring rolls), tosses pork fried rice, fries bok choy, and perfects the sauce for her daily specials like a sweet and spicy honey chicken. She does this all alone and like clockwork, sells out at lunch. “I wish I could do more,” says Ai, who says she’s probably introduced a fair few people in the region to Vietnamese food. “People fell in love with the taste and seasoning, and they’ve kept coming back.” It’s a similar story at Seafood Express in Meridian, where the owners serve out a constant menu of fresh and spicy Vietnamese-inspired seafood boils to a constant stream of customers. Not too far away at a truck stop off highway I-20, Punjab Palace dishes out spicy curries and tangy chaats to hungry truckers. And up in Oxford, La Cocinita de Jackie at the Oxford Spot station prepares delectable Honduran classics like pollo con tajadas (fried chickens with fried plantains, vegetables, red salsa, and a creamy sauce). “I’ve known people that opened a gas station because they wanted a restaurant, but they couldn’t get a loan for a restaurant. So it’s a pretty easy entry point into doing business,” says Shurden. “You had a lot of immigrants come here and do the kind of work nobody wanted to do. And then they wanted a standalone business to operate, and gas stations were one of the first things they got into.” (Your favorite Fourth of July foods were invented by immigrants) Arguably one of the best kept culinary secrets in Mississippi, though, is Fratesi’s Grocery in Leland. Founded by Italian immigrants in 1941, Fratesi’s combines the convenience of a gas station with the conviviality of an old-school Italian deli. There’s the counter with prosciutto, salami, ground-in-house Italian sausages, even some coppa di testa (head cheese). Each morning, you’ll find a sea of regulars (mostly farmers) sipping coffee and shooting the breeze with each other and second-generation owner Mark Fratesi. By lunch, seemingly everyone within a 20-square-mile radius is passing through on most days for a muffuletta, some gumbo or fried-olive po’boy. Come the day’s end, beers are opened, and the same crew is sitting in the same chairs, telling the same tall tales their fathers did. The community pillar Ultimately, at the heart of the Mississippi service station is more than providing a safe, delicious place to eat—it’s a story about community and togetherness. “The gas station is where the people are,” says Medley. “That’s where they’re talking, where they’re gathering. That’s where the community is centered in many towns.” You have Fratesi’s in the Delta. Algoma Country Store in Pontotoc is crowded every day with regulars queuing for daily specials like fried pork chops and to catch up with the neighbors. In Tupelo, Vickey Hester at Thomas Street Grocery is cooking up pies and casseroles so good she’s booked out for Thanksgiving. In Oxford, the student crowds line up late at night at the 4 Corners Chevron for the famous “chicken on a stick.” And Vine Brothers in Centreville is popular with afterschool crowds, high school football teams, and is so full of regulars owner Benny Vine is busy hopping from conversation to conversation. At Granny’s Corner in McCall Creek, there’s hardly anything except forest for miles. Sally Maddox, Genette Ratcliff, and Sandra Cupit have been running this part-restaurant, part-grocery store, part-post office, and part-gas station for the past 27 years. There are mason jars of homemade apple jelly, preserved figs, and salsa. Their expansive menu lists everything from their famous patty melts to fried catfish, club sandwiches, and even full-blown ribeyes. “What we do is real home cooking, and our food is hearty,” says Ratcliff. “When we make a lunch special, it may be homemade chicken spaghetti, but we’re also frying corn on the job. We’ll have purple whole peas, homemade Mexican cornbread, homemade bread pudding, and iced tea. Get all that for $13.50. You’re not gonna find a deal like that, nowhere.” And stepping into Granny’s Corner is like waltzing into any grandma's kitchen. There will be chatter, maybe a bit of gossip. You’ll be overfed, goodbye will last 30 minutes, and then you'll be sent home with some sweets, just in case you get hungry on the drive. “It’s made this town into a community,” says one regular. “I don’t want to think about what’ll happen when it’s gone.” It’s all about soul Circle the state of Mississippi and, from the Gulf up to the Tennessee border, west to Oxford, into Delta and through Jackson, you’ll notice a theme on most menus: soul food. Just like what you’d find nearly a century ago. Betty’s Place in Indianola may have only opened in 2008, but owner Betty Campbell has been cooking soul food comforts for a lot longer. Before opening up her restaurant in an abandoned gas station, she was a personal chef of blues legend B.B. King for 18 years. These days, she’s smoking ribs and frying pork chops to such pedigree that the pumps are turned off, and customers from around the world stop in for a meal and to sign her walls. (Take a mouthwatering trip down Alabama’s Barbecue Trail) Further north, outside of Tupelo, the ho-hum King Chicken Fillin’ Station may honor Elvis Presley, with a mural to the crooner, but it’s the smoke pit that’s really enticing passersby. Inside, owner Patricia Wax is chatting with customers, stirring grits, and plating up a mountain of fried chicken that’s considered among the best in the state. “I like cooking good food that comforts you. That makes you relax and say, ‘I really enjoyed that,'" says Wax. This sentiment is echoed by chef Kevin Bullock at L & A Food Mart, a Chevron in the town of Brandon, a suburb of Jackson. Kevin starts each morning at 3 a.m. by making 60 biscuits for his breakfast sandwiches. From there, he starts slow-cooking barbecue ribs and pork shops in a makeshift smoker next to a car wash behind the Chevron. By 10 a.m., the first chops are ready to be served. Each recipe is passed down from family. “When you cook soul food like my momma did, it’s all about love,” says Bullock. “Now, try this sauce.” It’s spicy, sweet, and addictive. “The secret ingredient here is great-grandma’s love," says Bullock. To Bullock, his job is about more than cooking delicious grub. “I don’t just stay here and barbecue. I pump gas for people. I run cash for people. When I see someone struggling, I help ‘em out,” says Bullock. “It’s not just about barbecue and gas, man. It’s about helping. That’s what a service station should be.”
