Fill ‘er up
By Jon Busdeker on Jun. 07, 2007
Sherry Burford dumped a sizzling batch of hot chicken wings, breasts, thighs and legs into the display case.
The pile already underneath the hot lamps expanded from a chicken hill into a mountain of poultry parts — all cooked to a browned perfection.
During lunchtime, chicken mountains don’t last long, according to Sylvia Knox, the manager of the Zip Pizza and Deli, located on Fifth Street. Starting at 11 a.m., chicken is quickly hauled out — piece-by-piece — in grease-stained paper bags.
The deli doesn’t have a wait staff, silverware or even a place to sit down and eat. The food stop is inside a gas station.
To some people, getting food at the gas station means a bag of chips, a candy bar and a bottle of soda. But to others, gas station food is fried chicken, biscuits, hamburgers and potato wedges. When you’re in a hurry, filling your stomach at the same place you fill tank can be convenient, inexpensive and delicious.
At the Zip Pizza and Deli, Knox and Burford, who call everyone either “sugar” or “baby,” serve steaming side dishes of string beans, mac-and-cheese, potato wedges, baked beans, cherry cobbler, broccoli-and-cheese casserole and, of course, fried chicken.
“It’s just like home-cooked, good food,” Burford said.
One customer called the chicken “banging.” Another customer said it was “the best in town.”
Rhonda Braxton stops at the gas station four or five times a day, she said, either for gas or food.
“My mom loves it,” Braxton said.
Braxton doesn’t eat the gas station food, she said, she only gets it for her mom.
On a recent Thursday, Braxton walked in and headed straight for the deli counter. She ordered chicken, mac-and-cheese and broccoli-and-cheese casserole.
Burford gave Braxton a piece of freshly fried chicken, scooped the side dishes into a Styrofoam box and, with a black marker, wrote $4.99 on top of the box.
After paying for the meal, Braxton left.
Thirty minutes later, she returned. Braxton’s mom tried to call the deli and thank Burford and Knox for the chicken.
“My mom said the chicken was the bomb,” Braxton said.
People from as far as Appomattox and Amherst come to Zip Pizza and Deli for the fried chicken, Knox said. The two women running the deli claim the chicken is made with a special recipe.
Neither would give up the secret ingredients, but Burford offered a hint.
“It’s prepared with love,” Burford said.
Eat food. Get gas.
Take one whiff, at Mitchell’s Self Service Inc., a Chevron located on Boonsboro Road, and you’ll notice the smell of fried chicken is more overpowering than the smell of gasoline.
Credit that smell to owner Pat Mitchell’s daughter Susan Brown. The 32-year-old Brown, who runs the deli and fries the chicken, has worked at the family-owned gas station for most of her life.
At Brown’s side is Lauren Hawkins, a teenager with blond hair from Coleman Falls.
At 11 a.m. on a recent Saturday, customers were lined up at the deli. According to Brown “it’s never too early for fried chicken.”
Sometimes the line was five deep, but it moved fast because both Hawkins and Brown took orders. The two have worked at the deli long enough to know their customers by name and what they order.
“We have our usuals,” Hawkins said, “They’re like family,”
Hawkins said one man asks for “two boobs” when ordering chicken breasts. Hawkins laughed when she told the story.
Hawkins suggested people who eat at Mitchell’s like stopping by the deli, instead of Kentucky Fried Chicken or other fast food restaurants, because of the relaxed atmosphere at the gas station.
“Some people don’t like to be out among the crowds,” Hawkins said. “They like the peace.”
Mitchell’s, which opened in 1949, started the food side of business by selling barbeque sandwiches and hot dogs. In the late 1980s, owners Pat Mitchell and his brother Mike Mitchell saw a trend in gas stations installing delis. They bought two deep fryers and started selling chicken and potatoes wedges.
Now, almost 20 years later, Pat Mitchell, who usually sits at the register wearing suspenders, said the deli has become a big part of the gas station’s business.
“It’s one of the strongest links in the chain,” Mitchell said.
Julie Daniel, of Boonsboro, and Kim Carlson, of Goode, said they eat at Mitchell’s because they like “country-type stores.”
The two girls walked to the deli to get lunch for Daniel’s family. They returned home with a red and white container holding eight pieces of chicken and 16 potatoes wedges.
If Daniel wanted to get chicken from a fast food restaurant, like KFC, she said would have to drive all the way across town. The closest KFC to the Daniel’s home is on Wards Road by Kmart.
“It’s a whole lot quicker to come here,” Daniel said.
A fast breakfast
At the Thomas Terrace Market, the individually wrapped, freshly made buttery biscuits — topped with and egg and your favorite meat — are a dieter’s nightmare.
But that doesn’t stop more than 150 of the breakfast sandwiches from leaving the market almost every morning, and later making their way into hungry stomachs around the Lynchburg area.
The market, connected to a Shell station located on U.S. 460, offers biscuits in a variety of flavors: bacon biscuits, bacon and egg biscuits, country ham biscuits, steak biscuits, pork chop biscuits, chicken biscuits or chicken, bacon and Swiss biscuits.
“We give them something to eat on the biscuits, not just a little something,” said cook Rebecca Lewis, who starts making biscuits at 3:45 a.m. “We see that they get a good meal and a smile before they go to work.”
The market, owned by David and Jennifer Moore, is a popular stop for people looking to get a quick bite before punching in at work.
Terry Robertson, of Appomattox, eats breakfast at the Thomas Terrace Market almost everyday. Robertson is a truck driver and he passes the gas station on his way to work.
At 6:50 a.m. on a recent weekday, Robertson walked in, wearing a pin-striped work shirt complete with a sewn-in nametag. He went straight for the coffee pot.
From behind the open kitchen, Lewis said hello.
“Your usual?” she asked Robertson.
Robertson didn’t answer.
She made the usual: a bologna biscuit with egg, mayo, tomato, salt and pepper.
“They got good coffee and they got good biscuits,” Robertson said.
Other customers cite the friendly cooks as the reason for repeat business.
John Ferguson, of Lynchburg, is a cattle farmer by trade. He wore his blue overalls, striped shirt and fishnet hat to breakfast. As soon as he walked in, he went behind the counter, grabbed a wooden chair and pulled up a wire cart.
Ferguson uses the cart as a makeshift table because there are no tables inside the market. For years, more than Ferguson can remember, he’s been eating breakfast at the local gas station.
“I just love the people,” Ferguson said.
As he ate his breakfast, which consisted of an egg sandwich, a cup of water and a pinch of tobacco, Ferguson chatted with Lewis, cook Rita Buckham and Moore.
“I love all y’all,” he said to the ladies.
Within 10 minutes, Ferguson was off to face the workday.
“Just think of all the hungry people that eat because of us,” Lewis said.
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