Jeff B.
Yelp
(Snacked 8/25/12 SA @ 5pm): They're no longer on every street corner back when I was younger, but they still have the sweet icey treat I love!
My friend and I had just finished a dim sum lunch, when I had to check on something at my friend's place in nearby Echo Park while she was out of town. Suddenly, my said, "Man, I can go for a Slurpee," and of course I replied, "Where's a close 7-Eleven?" Before I knew it, we headed down Sunset Blvd., turned onto Silver Lake Blvd., and voila, the unmistakeable logo on our left-hand side caught us like the tracker beam on the Death Star when it pulled in the Milennium Falcon! Props to our Yelp app.
Neither of us had been to this location before, but it didn't matter. One thing we knew was that all 7-Elevens had Slurpees; it's just a matter of which flavors they had! We bolted from the brave little toaster and made a beeline to the back of the store where the Slurpee machine was located. Before us were six flavors: Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper, Fanta Orange Xplosion, Fanta Sugar Free Limeade, Fanta Blue Raspberry, and Fanta Grape. I decided to create a four-flavor colorful concoction (excluded Coca Cola and Fanta Grape), while my friend went for a suicide (all available flavors). Armed with a large size cup and dome lid in hand ($1.69 ea.), we were like artists as we carefully mixed our palate of colorful ice. A slide of the white ball knob for each flavor produced the "sheesh" sound, and before we knew it, our drinkable masterpieces were complete! We admired them for a brief second before we had to allow the gentleman behind us his turn at the Slurpees. FYI...the store also had all the usual snack and drink items, along with travel size toiletries, and you can't forget the hot dogs as they rotated on the steel grill. Oh thank heaven...
It wasn't until we got back to my toaster when we finally tried our creation. With a couple hard and fast slurps, we got the mandatory "brain freeze" (a must experience with this drink). At this point, with the amount of flavors mixed in, the taste was pointless. Sure, I liked to keep mine clean and didn't swirl it around, so I would taste each flavor independently until the melt began. But the pure pleasure was in the brain freeze, the shot of suger into your system, and the refreshed coldness of it all. Mission accomplished!
Since we served ourselves, the only service to speak of was the cashier, and it was good. Nothing really more to say.
Parking was sparse as there were only six or seven actual spots. Otherwise, you kind of made your own spot or tried parking on Silver Lake Blvd. (good luck with that!). The store is located on a very small cross street (Effie).
Overall, 7-Eleven was a wonderful memory from my childhood, but adulthood has taken me away from this experience, except for such spur-of-the-moment instances like this was...and that was more than enough at this point in my life. Based solely on the Slurpee, I found completely value (although probably not nutritional) as noted by the prices I quoted above (total bill was around $3.50; no tip required). The atmosphere was your standard convenient store with all of the drinks along the walls, food snack and such on the various aisles, magazines at the pay counter; you get the idea; maximized space in order to make a sale. The attire was completely casual, so I was in a t-shirt, boardshorts, and flip-flops. Come on, it's a convenient store! And, although my friend paid for the Slurpees, they accepted my credit card of choice...AMEX!
