When you think about a tasty, filling lunch or dinner, you probably immediately think of gas stations, right?
No?
Well, you should.
At the Insider, we’re no strangers to gas station food – in fact, we’re borderline connoisseurs of it. That’s why we felt it was necessary to hit up a few of them for the sake of this pizza-themed issue.
While the mere thought of eating hot food from a place whose primary business is selling gasoline and cigarettes might make most people cringe, we’re not afraid of anything, and came away from the whole ordeal pleasantly surprised.
Here are the findings:
Mobil/Xtra Mart
The Mobil right off Interstate 93’s Exit 17 near the Boscawen line has a Dunkin’ Donuts and a little deli/ pizza place inside, so it should be no slouch when it comes to ready-to-eat hot food. While you can order something from the deli, those in a hurry would probably rather opt for the ready-to-go slices available on a counter in the middle of the store.
We got there just in time last week – there was only one slice left, cheese, so we grabbed it.
This one had clearly been sitting for some time, as the cheese had kind of hardened. We added a good amount of crushed red pepper to add some flavor.
While the slice was technically edible, it wasn’t the best pizza. There seemed to be more sauce than cheese, and with the whole slice a little stale, it just wasn’t ideal.
We’re willing to give a slight pass due to the fact that we got the last remaining slice, but it still wasn’t really worth writing home about.
7-Eleven
Having tried plenty of 7-Eleven’s roller food before, we wanted to try a slice of pizza from the Loudon Road convenience store/gas station.
There were two options to choose from last week – pepperoni and cheese – so we went with the ’roni. Unlike at Mobil, at 7-Eleven you tell the cashier which pizza you want and he gets it and serves it in a little triangular box.
This slice was surprisingly tasty. It tasted like “real” pizza, with nice melty cheese and not-stale pepperonis. The crust was a bit denser than we would have liked, but it was fine. It was even pretty hot, so it really felt like an honest-to-goodness, fresh slice of pizza.
We’d recommend 7-Eleven pizza to anyone who’s hungry and in a rush.
Cumberland Farms
The Cumby’s on North Main Street has all kinds of hot food now, and that includes plenty of pizza.
At this gas station/convenience store, you can get slices of assorted flavors or even a whole pie – you can also place an order and have them make you a full pizza with whatever you want on it (for less than $7, too).
For slices, they have regular ones and Super Slices, which are twice as big.
Guess which one we got.
Our Super Slice had pepperoni, sausage and bacon on it, and it was pretty heavy and very hot. The flavor was bold and meaty, and just a little bit salty (probably from all that salty meat). It was filling and satisfying, but definitely greasier than any of the other gas station slices we tried.
All in all, Cumby’s is a serious player in the Concord pizza game now, and all should take notice.
