Stopping to eat on a road trip when you’re, say, just 200 miles away from home, is spiritually different from a road trip that requires 500 miles of driving. When you reach hour six of a road trip, you are a different person and, if you do it right, there are different rules. Different expectations. Different foods.
The question I’m asking today is not your favorite road trip food or the best rest stop. This isn’t Whataburger v. Sonic v. In-n-Out. This is about the food your soul and body require when you’ve exited the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to. This is about chasing waterfalls.
My waterfall is a cod sandwich from Culver’s. I grew up in Texas, and the cheerful and butter-based Midwestern cuisine has always been a little foreign to me. Fried cheese curds instead of stuffed jalapenos. A frozen custard instead of the hand-dipped cone. Wisconsin cheddar on a fish sandwich instead of American.
There’s a specific Culver’s in Sandusky, Ohio that calls to me even now. Perhaps I shall return there soon…
Until then, what’s the Culver’s in your mind?
top photo: Culver’s
“Until then, what’s the Culver’s in your mind?”
Celery.
I honestly can’t think of anything like that. I don’t generally stop for real food on road trips, just liquids, trail mix, and jerky. I did an 1800 mile road trip two months ago and only ate two real meals the whole trip. The only thing my soul really craves on a road trip is lime cucumber Gatorade, and lots of it.
Since we never had them here I seek out a Waffle house for brekkers
On every multi-day roadtrip, I treat myself to one steak dinner along the way. Sometimes that’s just the basic sirloin at Outback, but even that is so satisfying after fast food and gas station fare
There’s not really anything that I particularly crave, but Bandit, the blue heeler, knows he’s getting some McNuggets if we’re in the car for more than 3 hours.
When driving across Germany I’m all about a Bifi Roll. I’m equal parts impressed and horrified by the shelf life on such an item.
Whenever we drive the diagonal across PA form Erie to Philadelphia to visit family, we always stop in the small town of Milton to a coffee shop named Tastecraft for lunch. They make the best grilled chicken sandwich, period. The atmosphere is cozy and slow, absolutely wonderful for a good stop on a long trip.
If they have a local cuisine at the destination, I’m usually all over that. But I will say ice cream as a treat is very, very welcome.
A brisket sandwich from a local barbecue joint
Find the independent places and go there. I love to find the old independent truck stops that still exist here and there; places like the Belle Grove Grocery out west of Hancock, MD on I-68. The restaurant is a handful of booths and some barstools in the back of the grocery store. The flat tops are behind the bar. The old waitresses flirt with the old truck drivers and call you hon. Get a cheeseburger, home fries, and a slice of pie. Like medicine for the soul.
A good Mexican restaurant. Immediate gratification (chips and salsa) followed by goodly amounts of warm carbohydrates.
Hallelujah! The near instant gratification of a basket of chips and bowl of salsa at a good Tex-Mex restaurant is a perfect recharging after hours of driving. However, it has to be at the end of the driving day for me. I don’t want to be behind the wheel when the inevitable Tex-Mex coma hits an hour or two after the meal.
…or an unanticipated bout of Montezuma’s revenge!
This is an easy one and works as well while road tripping or afterwards:
Bag of nacho cheese Doritos
Share size bag of Peanut M&M’s
16oz bottle of coke
My go-to (there’s a pun there) is Strawberry Twizzlers. It became a craving during my thousand mile road trips back in college, even before a buddy of mine refered to it as “candy lax”.
Maybe I should have said “to-go”. All I can say is, it works.
When I’m driving to the Outer Banks, we plan our drive to be at Kings BBQ in Kinston, NC at lunch time. I love the Pig in a Puppy (BBQ and coleslaw in a giant hush puppy). Usually, we can make it to the ferry in time for a nap in the car.
Having done an 800mi trip in October, the only thing I craved afterwards was sleep.
Honestly I go with safe foods most of the time. I don’t want or need anyone having tummy troubles and or getting food poisoning on a road trip. Starbucks is usually my go to.
Preach! My brother wants to be a wanna be Guy Fieri when he travels. He will pass by a major city and stop for food to eat at an Indian take out place attached to an independent gas station in the middle of nowhere in new Mexico? Sorry little bro i’m not eating here i’m not trying to die of dysentery on the Oregon trail!
Jerky, Cheddar Cheese Pretzel Combos, Little Debbie Swiss Rolls and some sort of unsweetened Iced Tea
I LOVE a good burger, cheap is great as long as it doesn’t taste defrosted. Pastrami is nice on top, but not necessary. Maybe a decent beer to go with it.
The fried cheese curds at DQ are fantastic if you don’t have a Culvers.
Mushroom & Swiss double burger from Hardee’s or Five Guys burgers & Fries if I’m on an expense account.
Food tastes better when your boss is paying for it. 🙂
As one who travels all the time for work – that is the God’s Honest Truth! Though I rarely eat fast food when I am on a work trip – my expense report is *generous*, and I rarely am in a hurry to eat. Unfortunately, I have the waistline to prove it.
It’s usually whatever restaurant is in the truck stop I’m refueling at, but the one thing I always get to snack on in the car is those slim-jim + cheese stick packets. If I want to take a break, I’ve somehow gotten into the habit of searching out if there’s a cheesecake factory on the way. No matter what mood I’m in they’ll have something I like.
I don’t have a particular place but my road trip craving is and always will be country fried steak. The bigger, the better. If anyone has a a favorite country fried steak place, let me know and I will add to my list.
If in Orgeon, my wife always craves the chicken fried steak burrito at this cafe near Astoria: Menu | The Uptown Cafe
Hell yeah
Mug-N-Bun the night before the Indy 500. There used to be a couple great holes in the wall we’d visit to get a pork tenderloin sandwich on the country back roads on the way between Chicago and Indy, but those have both closed down. One several years ago, and the other within the last year.
The older I get, the more I just want water and trail mix on road trips. I can’t go anywhere near a Culvers without blasting a hole in the toilet in short order. My body just can’t handle it anymore.
I haven’t done a 500 mile drive in quite awhile. The last time was driving an ambulance I bought on the East Coast to the West Coast about 4 years ago.
However, I have done plenty of all day drives / road trips and I search towns ahead on my route on google maps for the best rated local restaurant or food truck. We don’t do chains or fast food. Well except for on Thanksgiving when everyone is closed and then it is Dennys for their turkey platter.
(Thanksgiving is a great time to travel as most travels are heading home or to relatives not hiking the trails in National Parks.)
Usually bring my own on longer trips, but something flame grilled from BK seems appropriate after a long day of driving
An alcoholic beverage of some kind is my mental “off” switch after a marathon drive.
My brain is like “You’ve made it, the driving is done. Now consume a beverage to prove the driving HAS to be done.”
Username checks out 😉
Hey! I resemble that remark!
Same. I feel like a nighttime version of Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, when he’s sitting on his porch admiring the car after having washed it.