The Legacy of Food at Southern Gas Stations Is Rooted in Black Survival - Eater
"Roy’s Grille, off of Main Street in the small town of Lexington just outside of the state’s capital of Columbia, serves up Southern food and convenient meals like barbecue and burgers at an Exxon station. Owner Chris Williams carries some of the foods you’d find at many Southern gas stations, but when he opened in 2014, he also wanted to bring other less typical dishes to the proverbial table, like ribeye steaks. However, he quickly found out that his gas station patrons were looking for familiar foods that were inexpensive and fairly easy to eat. 'People are reluctant to come into a gas station and buy upscale food,' says Williams. 'They were used to things such as gizzards, bologna sandwiches, and chicken that has been sitting out for two hours.' Still, Williams added twists on those familiar dishes to his menu: He makes his food from scratch, and added shrimp and grits, barbeque, and bacon made right outside — items that aren’t as suited to eating on the road, but are welcome comfort if a traveler has time to spare to sit and eat. 'A lot of people who hear about us say, ‘A gas station, get outta here. I’m not going to eat out of there,’' says Williams. 'I knew that would be people’s response going into it, but I wasn’t worried because I knew we had a good product.' Roy’s Grille is also part of a longer history. Esso stations (the predecessor to ExxonMobil) were once known to be one of the only national gas stations that employed Black people in addition to allowing them to stop, shop, and dine during the Jim Crow era. That continues with Williams’s business, a testament to the long-standing tradition across Southern gas stations of offering food and respite to their communities and hungry travelers alike." - Amethyst Ganaway
